Bug in B660 bios cpu voltage offset

[trihy]

Hi. I made several tickets on Asus support but there is no way to make them understand the problem.

There is a bug on b660 bios, on all b660 boards. And all 600 series. On z690 is less visible cause there is adaptive voltage, which most people use. On b660 there is only offset.

Problem is, setting a CPU voltage offset of -0.005 will cause ramdon freeze at idle. As you increase the offset, the random freeze ratio will increase.

Also setting + offset will do the same.

This is because applying any offset will cause more than -0.200mv drop at idle.

This was happening on msi boards too and was fixed with a bios update.

Thread on msi forums https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threads/msi-b660-tomahawk-ddr4-cpu-core-voltage-offset.372022/



Please someone from Asus explain why cpu voltage drops to 0.300 or less when using default bios settings. Lowest per spec value is 0.700 for alder lake.

Thanks.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi MonstyB,
Sorry the CPU performance issue is still under investigation.
May I double confirm there is no freezing and crashing issue when adjust -0.100v on ROG STRIX B660-G GAMING WIFI(other settings are default)+ i3 12100f (bios 1620)?
Thank you.

[MonstyB]

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Hi MonstyB,
Sorry the CPU performance issue is still under investigation.
May I double confirm there is no freezing and crashing issue when adjust -0.100v on ROG STRIX B660-G GAMING WIFI(other settings are default)+ i3 12100f (bios 1620)?
Thank you.

Hello. I confirm that I have had no issue with this negative offset with B660-G + 12100f, latest bios. I may try to test this even further later in the week.
Suggestion: would it be of any help if I could provide you with some testing results of my 12500 runing on the B660-G with a negative offset ? I have not tried this combination yet, but this could help us determine whether the issue is really related to how the offset is managed by the B660-I or not...

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi MonstyB,
I would appreciate it if you could provide some testing results of your CPU 12500 running on the B660-G.
Not sure if the results are different from those with 12100f.
Thank you.

[MonstyB]

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Hi MonstyB,
I would appreciate it if you could provide some testing results of your CPU 12500 running on the B660-G.
Not sure if the results are different from those with 12100f.
Thank you.

I'm sorry I decided to return my B660-I, I may purchase it again if I can see a fix of the core voltage offset.

I will do the 12500 + B660-G testing next week.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi MonstyB,
After checked with our tech team, the APE option is default enabled in ROG STRIX B660-I GAMING WIFI BIOS, and it can make CPU to operate under the best balance. If you lower vcore with APE enabled, it probably lowers CPU performance.
Compare to default settings, the multi-thread CPU-Z score is also getting lower on MSI MAG B660M MORTAR DDR4 motherboard with -50mV and CPU i5-12500.
If you would like to tuning performance and power on ROG STRIX B660-I GAMING WIFI by yourself, please disable APE first.
The multi-thread CPU-Z score is about 4081 with APE disable and vcore -50mV.
Thank you.

[Shosiu]

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Hi MonstyB,
After checked with our tech team, the APE option is default enabled in ROG STRIX B660-I GAMING WIFI BIOS, and it can make CPU to operate under the best balance. If you lower vcore with APE enabled, it probably lowers CPU performance.
Compare to default settings, the multi-thread CPU-Z score is also getting lower on MSI MAG B660M MORTAR DDR4 motherboard with -50mV and CPU i5-12500.
If you would like to tuning performance and power on ROG STRIX B660-I GAMING WIFI by yourself, please disable APE first.
The multi-thread CPU-Z score is about 4081 with APE disable and vcore -50mV.
Thank you.

Hi,
I have the same issue but I can't agree with above: undervolting means, that I can keep stock performance but just lower power consumption and heat.
This is how it was working so far.
Up to intel 11th gen, it was possible, but now with 12gh gen it looks different, that's why we all are raising this as the issue.
If lowering voltage sacrifices performance automatically, then undervolting is useless as we could achieve the same with power limit probably.

I'm still waiting for this issue to be fixed as B660-I is great board still.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi all,
For freezing issue, the fixes will be added to formal bios in the future.
Please stay tuned to our official support site for bios update.
Thank you.

[trihy]

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Hi all,
For freezing issue, the fixes will be added to formal bios in the future.
Please stay tuned to our official support site for bios update.
Thank you.

Hi. Sent you a PM

Upgraded to bios 2014 on B660M plus wifi D4 that was released yesterday and doesn't have the idle freeze fix.

Please send me a fixed 2014 bios since this bios cannot be downgraded.

Thanks.

[STARRAIN_ROG]

Hi trihy,
Do you mean idle freeze issue occurs again on bios 2014 with bios all default settings except CPU voltage offset of -0.005? Did you adjust any settings or just update to bios 2014?
Thank you.

[trihy]

STARRAIN@ROG wrote:
Hi trihy,
Do you mean idle freeze issue occurs again on bios 2014 with bios all default settings except CPU voltage offset of -0.005? Did you adjust any settings or just update to bios 2014?
Thank you.

Hi. Yes same as all the other bios except the beta one you sent me some months ago.

With every at stock I see weird cpu core voltages of 0.300, 0.200 etc. With beta lowest was 0.700.

As soon as I do minimum voltage offset freeze at idle will occur. As I increase the offset, freeze will happen sooner.


Beta 1603 you sent me was working perfect, but now can't downgrade to that bios since is not supported.

Thanks