Adaptive Voltage Overclocking and C States

[VeerK]

Hello ROGers,

I am trying yet failing to understand how Adaptive Voltage should work with my board. I currently use an Asus Hero on Bios 1203. I have used manual to overclock my 4770k to 4800MHz @1.248 Volts stable. However, I have noticed that I have to put 1.224 Volts in the Bios to get a reading of 1.248 Volts in CPU-Z under 100% load, otherwise I idle at 1.232 Volts. These settings under Manual. LC PLL, Low BCLK, CPU Strap 100, Min/Max Cache 4700MHz, PLL Auto, DRAM 2133 MHZ, EPU Disabled, iGPU Disabled, Eventual Input/Output at 1.8V, DRAM Voltage 1.65V, anything not mentioned is set to auto default settings, such as LLC, etc.

When I change the manual to adaptive and then enter the appropriate voltages, save, then boot into Windows, the voltage remains static just like it did under Manual. Someone mentioned that C states need to be enabled from auto, and when I did that the voltages do drop. However, why does Adaptive only work when C states are enabled? I get the same voltage drop if I enabled C states with Manual, so how is Adaptive advantageous at all?

Furthermore, with Adaptive and C states enabled, I notice that my idle/light load voltages jump all over the place, which I think is a problem caused by enabling C states. Raja's guide doesn't cover it and Google is surprisingly mum on the difference. It would be very, very helpful if someone could explain how to set Adaptive up properly on Maximus VI Hero and what the CPU Settings should be.

Thank you ROG Community for your patience and knowledge!

[HiVizMan]

Not sure where adaptive became the best way, it is a way. Personally I prefer offset for 24/7. That uses the voltage registers and you as a user set the upper limit. The CPU migrates up and down the voltage range as and when needed.

Very simply to set up and still allows the full C state functionality.

[VeerK]

I am loosely quoting JJ from Asus where Adaptive is a new feature of Haswell and is the optimal way to set our CPU after overclocking. Offset supposedly exposes your CPU to voltages too low to maintain the base clock and you could crash. Again loosely quoting multiple sources.

[HiVizMan]

Nope that is not how offset works nor what offset does.

But please be assured adaptive is a good method to use.

[Matt_G]

Being new to this, I know where VeerK got this info.
I have watched several Haswell overclocking videos on YouTube and JJ from Asus always states the following:
1. Dial in your overclock using manual Vcore.
2. Once you have a stable overclock, set it to adaptive as that is the way to take advantage of the power saving features of Haswell.
3. While there isnt anything wrong with using offset, just remember that whatever offset you choose is applied to the entire range of voltages used by the processor. For example, say your processor would normally idle at 800MHz using 0.720 Vcore. If you apply a +0.20 offset, it would idle at 800MHz and use 0.920 Vcore. Convesely, if you set a -0.2 offset, it would try to idle at 800 MHz and 0.520 Vcore causing it to crash.

HTH,
Matt

[HiVizMan]

Yeah I know where it comes from hence why I said it is not 100% correct.

[VeerK]

MattG is 100% right, that is exactly how I have understood those videos. While it may not be correct HiVizMan, I think I will stick to Adaptive. Thus far it has been working quite well, but if something does happen, I will switch to Offset. In the past, using offset to dial in the OC has been quite difficult for me, but I do not have your level of experience. Thanks for chiming in.

[HiVizMan]

No worries guys, I am not advocating one method over the other. All I am interested in is having ASUS and ROG users have working systems. 🙂