Adaptive Voltage - Never works for me + other random stuff

[azumi123]

I have a feeling I'm doing something wrong here, and I probably don't understand adaptive mode so I hope you guys can help. My working settings are as follows:

Vcore - Manual 1.335
CPU Current Capability - 130%
Phase Control - Ultra Fast
Switching Frequency - Auto
Power Duty Control - Extreme
C-States - Disabled
All CPU power saving settings disabled
VCCIO - 1.1250
SA - 1.1250
Core Idle - 1.1750

This would be fine but the CPU is hitting 1.45v or higher under stability test conditions. The tests all pass, including realbench for an hour but I'm not really comfortable with voltages being that high. I monitored the voltage while running CPU, FPU and Cache tests all at the same time on AIDA64 and saw that it topped out at 1.392. So I figured I would set adaptive to 1.40v. To try and achieve this, I changed no other setting than the vcore, from manual to the following:

Adaptive
1.40
Auto

Save and reset. This is followed by the routine of it failing to post / display the start up screen then turning it off manually and getting the "overclock failed" message. This happens every time. It can't be the board as this is my 3rd VIII Hero board (this time it's a Hero Alpha though) after two mosfets blew on the previous two boards due to my damn phone doing something to the USB ports. (the first time around I thought I had shorted the board by breaking the USB 3 connector after bending a pin. But the 2nd time around I checked the mosfets as my galaxy s6 being plugged in caused a blue screen then a total board failure and sure enough, the mosfet located near the 24pin had died, exactly the same as my first board and with exactly the same circumstances).

Next question:
In "tweakers paradise", there is a setting at the top of the list which I forgot the name of. I read a few articles and it's about 50/50 on whether setting this to 1ghz rather than "Auto" will improve performance or cause instability. Should I leave this where it is (auto)?

Today I upgraded to a H115i from my previous, 120 radiator setup. So I would like to push the CPU a little harder. My next question falls on clocks speeds. Would it be better for me to stick to 4.7 as I know for sure that it's stable and set the cache to 47 instead of 43 or should I leave the cache at 43? I understand that each CPU is different but what sort of core voltage would be average for 47 core 47 cache? also what is average for 4.8 core 43 cache?

Lastly, I discovered a trick with the IHS on the 6700k. It is actually made from copper. I use liquid pro for everything so scrubbing the CPU to intentionally leave scratches is normal practice. I was intent on getting rid of every last bit of the previous application so I scrubbed for a good 15 mins, occasionally wiping it off with alcohol. Finally I discovered the copper layer of the IHS. The cooling block on my AIO is also copper so my thoughts went straight to cooling potential. And sure enough, my system is now idling at 15c - 17c with the fans set to maximum 50% @ 70c. GTA V never took it over 29c and AIDA64 stress tests at 38c average (CPU, Cache, FPU at the same time). My next plan is to remove the IHS and apply liquid pro to the die. I picked up some heat resistant double sided tape from a custom water cooling specialist in Akihabara (the electronics town of Tokyo) so on my next day off, this coming sunday, I'll try and take pics of the process and get some before and after screenshots of the temps to post here.

[Mr_Wolf]

Don't change all those settings, leave them at auto for now and maybe for ever.

The settings you need to change in BIOS to OC the cpu are:

- load bios defaults
- Ai overclock tunner = AUTO or MANUAL (for now you don't want to OC ram and cpu at same time, after cpu is stable you can select ram XMP here)

- CPU core ratio = sync all cores
- Core ratio limit = 43 (for 4.3GHz, it's a starting value, later try to increase this)
- CPU core/cache voltage = adaptive
- Turbo mode CPU core voltage = 1.30V (lower is better, you'll need to adjust this for stability).

External digi+:
- CPU load line calibration = 5 (this will make the cpu Vcore higher than the Vcore you input at bios. It also decreases Vdroop)

-Exit and save bios

Test for stability and monitor cpu temperature.

EDIT:
You should find your default cpu Vcore.
It's not the same for all cpus (same model), it depends on cpu quality.
Asus "multicore enhacement" increases Vcore above cpu default.

I've read that adaptive isn't designed to undervoltage.

You should also set the Load Line Calibration, if you OC, the default value is high and increases your Vcore above the value you set in bios.

[azumi123]

Hi and thank you for your response. I'll get to work finding my max stable clock using your guidance. I'll let you know how things go.

Thanks again!

[azumi123]

I gave the adaptive method a try as suggested. I ended up at 1.41v for 4700 stable for an hour on realbench. I applied XMP for 3200 on the RAM and then added what I know to be stable : 3466 @ 1.365v 16-17-17-28-2. This caused realbench to continuously lock up, so I figured I had the SA and VCCIO at auto and it wasn't enough. Setting them to 1.150 resolved the problem with the lockups but added the problem of my CPU core hitting 1.55v+ and temps of nearly 70c. I wasn't at all comfortable with 1.5v on the CPU so I went back to "manual" voltage @ 1.365 with LLC @ 8, VCCIO @ 1.150 and SA @ 1.150. Running realbench with these settings kept my CPU at a max of 1.44v and temps up to 50c. Back to normal. I decided I had a little more headroom on the RAM seeing as I moved to 1.150 SA/VCCIO so I also upped the clock speed of the RAM to 3600 @ 1.41 16-18-18-28-2. Realbench passes 1 hour without a problem, as does AIDA64 with all tests apart from local disks for over an hour.
One thing I did notice with the lockups on realbench during the XMP+OC tests was that if I set my fans to full speed, it didn't lock up. However, the temps were still the same (70c) and the vcore still hit 1.5v+. The fans I'm using on the radiator include 2 pressure fan which run at 2200rpm full speed, VERY loud and out of sync with the airflow fans running at 1400rpm max on the pull side. 1400 / 1400 is far more effective but lowering the pressure fans to 1400 seemed to cause the system to lock up during realbench. My wife watches TV in the room just next to me so I can't have the system sounding like a jet engine while I play tomb raider.

The final result of all the testing seems to be giving me an average score of 175000 (give or take 5% or so) on realbench and a 3DMark11 score of 26,470 for the one time I did test it. I don't bother with firestrike as it makes me want to buy gtx 1080s 😞

Current stable overclock
6700k @ 4700 core , 4700 cache
g.skill DDR4 3200 @ 3600 16-18-18-28-2
GTX 980 ti @ 1.3v core - 1594 core / 4000 memory (custom water cooled MSI GTX 980 ti Gaming 6g)

[Nate152]

Hi azumi123

That looks pretty good !

If your cpu is stable at 1.41v but is drawing 1.50v use a negative offset of - 0.090v, this should keep your cpu at or very close to 1.41v when under load.

[Mr_Wolf]

Only the bios Vcore and LLC values will increase the cpu Vcore.
SA and VCCIO don't change the Vcore, at least I'm not aware of this and it doesn't make sense to me.
When you use LLC>1, the real Vcore will always be higher than the bios value, so it doesn't matter what Vcore you put in bios, it only matters the real Vcore that you measure with mb sensors.
The higher the LLC value, the higher the real Vcore under load will be.

In M8H, any LLC value different from 5, will makes the Vcore oscillate more under different loads.
LLC=5 is the best value, because under load Vcore(max) - Vcore(min) = ~0

You need to monitor max and min Vcore at full load, because it's the min value that will make the cpu unstable.
Use HWinfo, look at current, max and min Vcore value, the Vcore you want is under motherboard sensors, it's not the cpu VID.

You should have the same stable cpu, with manual or adaptive, exactly with the same Vcore (the one you measure in mb sensors under load is the only thing that matters, not what you put in the bios).

[elmor]

For accurate resulting voltage in Adaptive mode I suggest you try the below options

Extreme Tweaker\Internal CPU Power Management
IA AC Load Line [0.01]
IA DC Load Line [0.01]

CPU Load-line Calibration [Level 4] will give you slight voltage droop, [Level 5] should keep it at the same or slightly above your target voltage.