Quote:

Originally Posted by euphoria4949

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some help please. I've been overclocking my 3770k even further since I added a bigger radiator to my loop.
My OC is stable at full Load, passed 10 hours on AIDA64 Extreme with Zero WHEA errors, but I'm getting software and driver error messages pop up at idle. The issue is, if I increase the Load Vcore even just a little, my OC becomes unstable almost immediately at load, so I need to increase the minimum Vcore at idle without increasing the maximum Vcore under Load. Is this possible???

I'm running Offset Vcore, 1.405v under full load, but when Idling it's dropping my Vcore to less than 1.000v, which is causing the errors.

MoBo is an ASUS Z77 Sabertooth running latest 2104 BIOS.

Any help would be brilliant
Thank you

Disable C3 and C6.

Or, use a Medium Load-Line Calibration setting and use a higher offset value in order to compensate for the higher vDroop that Medium will give you.

Or, just use Manual Mode.

 

I've Disabled C3 and C6 already. Also I have LLC set to Extreme at the moment, so I will give what you said a try.

As for manual, I don't want to be pumping 1.4v into my chip 24/7, or possibly even more voltage if I can increase my OC further.

 

C states will lower your voltage even if you set voltage manually. That's how it works for me any way. Voltage drops to 0.000 across all cores at idle.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by euphoria4949

I've Disabled C3 and C6 already. Also I have LLC set to Extreme at the moment, so I will give what you said a try.

As for manual, I don't want to be pumping 1.4v into my chip 24/7, or possibly even more voltage if I can increase my OC further.

You should really watch your voltage very carefully while you are doing your normal stuff. I have a feeling that you might be a little bit horrified to see just how often it is at 1.405V.

Anyway, yeah, Extreme LLC on Z77 chipset isn't good. The highest I've ever seen any expert recommend is High (at least in the terminology of the ASUS boards). When you switch to Medium, be prepared to make a big adjustment to your Offset voltage.

If this doesn't work, then you will need to complete it by adjusting your power saving options so that the minimum processor state isn't 0%, but maybe 5 or 10%.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by white owl

C states will lower your voltage even if you set voltage manually. That's how it works for me any way. Voltage drops to 0.000 across all cores at idle.

Whoa, don't forget that Ivy Bridge and Haswell are two very different beasts.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoCables

Whoa, don't forget that Ivy Bridge and Haswell are two very different beasts.

Oh? What does C-States do on Ivy if not that? Sorry, I'm still learning

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by white owl

Oh? What does C-States do on Ivy if not that? Sorry, I'm still learning

It doesn't make CPU-Z report 0.000V. What I've personally observed with C3 and C6 enabled is the idle voltage is allowed to go a little bit lower, to about 0.8 or 0.9V. That's why I thought his were enabled, so perhaps his idle voltage would dip down just a tiny bit further than with them enabled (but never "0.000V").

Besides, I thought that CPU-Z is only able to report the VID for Haswell.

 

I use HWiNFO.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Sorry about thread jack...I'll go back in my hole now. I re-read the OP and I can't help. =(

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by white owl

I use HWiNFO.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Sorry about thread jack...I'll go back in my hole now. I re-read the OP and I can't help. =(

I think that if I saw that on my computer, then I'd probably assume that it's just an inaccurate reading. Either that, or your CPU is in in the C7 sleep state.

 

I would too but another Haswell-E guy told me how to do this. Moving the mouse is enough to raise the voltage slightly. And the max voltage I see in hwinfo is reflected in my bios.
My board is broken though and I'm in an RMA battle. We'll see what happens with my next board.

 

Intel uses power gating within their CPUs. When an individual core enters C6, it is equivalent to someone walking over and unplugging a device from the wall. The voltage a core is getting when it is in C6 is effectively zero. It is disconnected from the main voltage rail within the CPU.

For this reason, monitoring software is not reporting the core voltage accurately when a core is rapidly entering and exiting C6. To read the voltage of a core, the core needs to exit the C6 state and go back into the active C0 state to process that request. If monitoring software reports that data, it is not reporting the voltage of the core in C6 because the CPU core is no longer in C6. Individual cores can be spending over 99% of their time idle in C6 getting virtually zero voltage but they can never report their voltage when in C6.

I am not sure what data HWiNFO is reporting. Showing zero volts is accurate but this data might be based on the percentage of time the core is in C6. Intel makes it easy to accurately measure residency time when cores are in various C States. This gives monitoring software an idea of what the core is doing without having to wake it up to ask what it is doing which is going to be meaningless anyhow.

http://i.imgur.com/5T0pUC8.png
Quote:

Originally Posted by euphoria4949

As for manual, I don't want to be pumping 1.4v into my chip 24/7...

And that is the big misconception about using the C States. If a core is in C6 or C7, it is not getting any voltage. If your CPU is mostly idle, why slow a core down and feed it 1.0 volt when you have the option to unplug the core and feed it zero volts? When C States are disabled, your active and inactive cores are all being fed the same voltage. If 1 core is actively working on a task, all cores will be getting the same full voltage. There is only one voltage rail that CPU cores get their voltage from. When cores are not needed and are inactive, I prefer that they are getting zero volts. Using this method, when 1 core is active, the rest of the cores are able to sit idle at zero volts. Enabling the C States reduces the average voltage going to the cores when the CPU is idle and it continues to reduce the average voltage even when the CPU is partially loaded. Less voltage = reduced power consumption = less heat and your CPU should theoretically live longer.

 

Well, I lowered the LLC to High, I had it set to Ultra High not Extreme, my mistake, and upped the Vcore. So we will see if that helps.

As for the C States, I re-enabled them all but found apps were having issues as soon it booted, so I checked Event Viewer and saw I had around 25 WHEA errors within 2 minutes from boot, so I've disabled them again

 

To be honest, I stopped using Offset Mode because I had too many stability problems. I tried disabling C3 and C6, I tried increasing the vcore (by a LOT), etc. I tried everything. The only way that I could get perfect stability is by using Manual Mode.

 

Try enabling the C3 and C6 C States but ditch the offset vCore. Use a fixed vCore when the C States are enabled.
If your CPU shows lower idle temps, that confirms that your CPU is consuming less power and therefore, less voltage is going to your CPU.