Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

[ThatDude]

Hello there, I recently built a new computer and I have a few questions.

I have not touched anything in the BIOS, other then just looking at how things are going on there. I found that my 4790K is running at Turbo Boost, constantly, at least in the BIOS, it shows 4.390 Mhz, whenever I enter the BIOS, which is basically 4.4ghz, which is the max of Turbo Boost on this CPU, from what I gather.

This is what appears on the BIOS:

CPU Core Frequency

4390.85Mhz

CPU Vcore
1.236V

CPU VRIN
1.776V

CPU VAXG
0.012

CPU Temperature
31.0 C

CPU Fan Speed
766 RPM

Are these settings good or is the voltage to high? Will the CPU be fine running this at all times?

Is it possible to manually set better settings here or should I leave it alone? Also, I installed CPU-Z and I dont get the same stats there as in the BIOS, they do change sometimes though when running games but quickly change after alt tabbing or closing the application in question. I suppose idle stats on Windows is different then idle time on BIOS?

Another thing that is bothering me, is that I have 2 sticks of RAM modules, each 8GB, so 16GB of ram, Corsair Vengeance Pro. They are set on dual channel mode, at least if all it takes is putting them on their corresponding RAM slots, which the MOBO manual said was slot 3 and slot 4.

However, their speed frequency is advertised as 2400mhz, but from what I understand, I need to use XMP to bring them up to 2400mhz.

At the moment, the RAM modules are running at 1330.52Mhz, with the voltage of the RAM being 1.500V.

I tried to enable XMP Profile 1 (Profile 2 did not appear at all under the options). After enabling XMP and restarting, the voltage of the ram went up to 1.65V. Would that voltage be fine? What was bothering me and made me disable XMP, was that the color of the text on the RAM voltage in the BIOS, changed from white to yellow. Is that normal when you enable XMP?

Also, coming back to the CPU, which was already running at max Turbo Boost, 4.4ghz, on the BIOS. After enabling XMP, it went up to 4.5ghz. Is this normal?

From what I had read before on the net, when you enable XMP, Turbo Boost gets enabled, and I thought well, sure that seems fine to me, as long as it doesnt exceed 4.4ghz, as I did not want to overclock the CPU.

But the situation I find myself in is that Turbo Boost is already activated, BEFORE enabling XMP, at which point I basically would be overclocking the CPU, going over the 4.4ghz limit of the CPU, passing into overclocking territory.

Any recomendations on how to procced so that the CPU is not constantly running with Turbo Boost enabled, prior to enabling XMP, and that later with XMP enabled, it does not exceed the 4.4ghz limit?

[Chike]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

Did you load optimized default, or even better clear BIOS before loading optimized defaults?

Can you post a screen capture of CPU-Z at idle, or even better would be screen capture of HWiNFO (press "<- ->" to fit all sensors in one window)
And also attach TXT report of CPU-Z (About tab)


Voltages not too high, but I'd expect lower with no load.

[ThatDude]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

Did you load optimized default, or even better clear BIOS before loading optimized defaults?

Can you post a screen capture of CPU-Z at idle, or even better would be screen capture of HWiNFO (press "<- ->" to fit all sensors in one window)
And also attach TXT report of CPU-Z (About tab)


Voltages not too high, but I'd expect lower with no load.

Thank you for the response, Chike.

Last night I left the pc on and I took screen capture from both CPU-Z and HWiNFO just now and also restarted the pc and did it again. Not sure if it matters, but thought perhaps it would be useful. Also did the same for the TXT report of CPU-Z. The forum did not let me upload more then one file/photo, so I linked the screenshots to imgur.com

CPU-Z-Night ON:

http://i.imgur.com/lKdSU8w.png

CPU-Z-Startup

http://i.imgur.com/4DIuiWN.png

HWiNFO-Night ON

http://i.imgur.com/l1MyVw1.png

HWiNFO-Startup

http://i.imgur.com/ugOxmWC.png

Here is the TXT file from CPU-Z, it is only the TXT of when the pc was on all night, if you need one from startup I will upload that too:

EDIT: I did not enable anything on the BIOS and the CPU was already performing as mentioned when I turned the pc on for the first time. I suppose the motherboard activated the optimized default/AUTO settings on its own. The only thing I did at one point was enable XMP but quickly desactivated it after 1 restart and looking at the BIOS. But the performance of the CPU was already on 4.390mhz before enabling XMP. After enabling XMP it went up to 4.5ghz, so I disabled it.

[Chike]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

I don't understand what your CPU is doing all night any programs running?

It's clear that it is not on Turbo Boost all the time, this can be seen in the w HWiNOF screens and the first CPU-Z screen.
At startup the system is at high performance mode for one or two minutes than it switches to whatever power profile is selected, that is normal.

The data from CPU-Z shows only one enabled XMP profile, with memory voltage 1.65v and IMC(integrated memory controller) voltage 1.2v.
Verified with Thaiphoon Burner

I canot see a reason for the CPU speed to change as result of enabling XMP, maybe a screen capture of CPU-Z with XMP enabled?

[ThatDude]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

I don't understand what your CPU is doing all night any programs running?

It's clear that it is not on Turbo Boost all the time, this can be seen in the w HWiNOF screens and the first CPU-Z screen.
At startup the system is at high performance mode for one or two minutes than it switches to whatever power profile is selected, that is normal.

The data from CPU-Z shows only one enabled XMP profile, with memory voltage 1.65v and IMC(integrated memory controller) voltage 1.2v.
Verified with Thaiphoon Burner

I canot see a reason for the CPU speed to change as result of enabling XMP, maybe a screen capture of CPU-Z with XMP enabled?

Hello Chike, thanks again for the response! I have not been able to use the computer the last few days so havent been able to check and update on things.

This is the first build I do and I am learning as I go. I have read abit around and it seems that the BIOS of this board (Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK, BIOS V.F6) not only uses more voltage then necessary on the 4790k, but in addition to that, on the BIOS, it runs the CPU at max Turbo Boost to apparently make sure that it runs well without any problems at max settings.

So I have been a bit confused, it seems that when running windows it does seem to downclock the cpu and lower the voltage while idle, so yes, it is not on Turbo Boost all the time.

However, I have read around that some people have been able to run the 4790k with all cores running at 4.4ghz while having a lot less voltage. To recap, my mobo is running the 4790k at 1.236v, with most cores on 4.4ghz. But, some people have said that they have managed to bring the 4790k to 4.7ghz with 1.25v, basically what my mobo is using for merely 4.4ghz!

Also, some people have managed to use 1.13v (allegedly :S) to run 4.4ghz!

What would you recommend me do? I tried to lower the voltage, and brought it down to 1.20v and all cores on 4.4ghz, but then the adaptive voltage got desactivated. The mobos BIOS does not have an adaptive option for me to use, although that was somehow activated under optimized defaults, it worked fine before. The downclocking worked fine though, as long as I chose power saver mode under windows. Sometimes Balanced worked, sometimes not. The voltage stayed the same though, I suppose once I choose a voltage setting for the vCore it gets set to static.

Also, while using CPU-Z, it showed 1.20v but under the BIOS, it said the vCore voltage was at 1.28 and under the BIOS it seemed that I could not pull it any lower. Yet on windows it did detect the 1.20v that I had selected..

My question now I suppose, is should I use the optimized defaults of the mobo or keep the manual, static voltage that I set? And if keeping the manual vCore voltage, is there any danger with only changing that setting or should I change more settings along with that?

To recap, the mobos optimized defaults for the vCore is at 1.236V and the CPU VRIN is at 1.776V.

I decided to go back to optimized defaults until someone with more knowledge can advise me on what is better.

I would rather lower the voltage as much as possible while maintaning all cores at 4.4ghz and if possible to enable adaptive voltage as well. I read something about vCore Offset and that it might be the way for enabling adaptive voltage but would like to know if I should mess with that or not and if so, how should I proceed?

P.S: That seems weird about the XMP, as far as I know, I had not activated XMP at all and the RAM modules have kept running at 1333mhz....when their factory speed is 2400mhz.

P.S.S: While gaming (Arma 3) the temperature went up to around 55c and maxed out at 58c. Is that normal with the voltage the 4790k is running at, CPU Core 1.236v and with the CPU cooler Noctua NH-DH15s?

[Chike]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

Try running OCCT, click the left icon on the graphs window until you get ta plain white list of the sensors, set test to infinite and click "ON", let it run for a minute and take a screen capture (camera icon on top),, stop the test and post the picture.

Depends what you want, undervolt or overclock, likely you can run it with much lower voltage at 4.4, or you can overclock, this is up to you.
How far can you overclock depends on the chip, some clock higher some don't, keep in mind it is already overclocked %10 oe more compared to the non-K model.

[ThatDude]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

Try running OCCT, click the left icon on the graphs window until you get ta plain white list of the sensors, set test to infinite and click "ON", let it run for a minute and take a screen capture (camera icon on top),, stop the test and post the picture.

Allright, I have now run OCCT with optimized defaults of the mobo, I hope this is the sensor list you meant, here is the screenshot:



I just noticed that VIN0 is not showing correctly there, so I uploaded to imgur the individual screenshot OCCT produces at the end of the test.

Here:

Imgur

Also the ambient temperature here is pretty optimal at the time of the test, feels pretty cool and if the temperature thingy in the room is not broken, the ambient temperature is 20c.

EDIT: Well, I just noticed that the CPU vCORE was somehow missing from that list, so I redid the test and uploaded the screenshot to imgur:

Imgur

How does that look, overall?

Btw, while gaming, the voltage according to CPU-Z adapts to max 1.236v. However the OOCT maxed that out all the way to 1.28v. I just read around a bit and found out that while running stress test software, under adaptive voltage, that the voltage usually goes further then what is set at max on the BIOS.

Depends what you want, undervolt or overclock, likely you can run it with much lower voltage at 4.4, or you can overclock, this is up to you.
How far can you overclock depends on the chip, some clock higher some don't, keep in mind it is already overclocked %10 oe more compared to the non-K model.

I would rather keep the machine with as low a temperature as possible, so would rather undervolt it while keeping the Turbo Boost at 4.4ghz, however, if the difference is not that much then I would be interested in overclocking it to 4.7ghz, if the temperature is still somewhat cool. But perhaps I should leave the overclocking for the future, kinda got mixed feelings on that.

But if all I go for is lowering the voltage, how far should I go? Any other settings I should lower along with the CPU vCORE or is that only it? And if Iwent for overclocking it to 4.7ghz, how should I proceed on that?

[Chike]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

OK so we see vcore get as high as 1.28v(perhaps it is rounded up) with VID 1.27v.
So try setting it manually to 1.15v and run the test for an hour, if it fails immediately increase vcore by +0.01v if it take long time to fail try just +.005v.

BTW it is pretty cool as it is so maybe you want consider overclocking with 1.2-1.25v.

A much more demanding tests would be LinX and Prime 95 inplace small FFT.
Those two create much more heat but OCCT or Prime95 with FMA3 disabled are sufficient for stability test.

[ThatDude]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

OK so we see vcore get as high as 1.28v(perhaps it is rounded up) with VID 1.27v.
So try setting it manually to 1.15v and run the test for an hour, if it fails immediately increase vcore by +0.01v if it take long time to fail try just +.005v.


BTW it is pretty cool as it is so maybe you want consider overclocking with 1.2-1.25v.


A much more demanding tests would be LinX and Prime 95 inplace small FFT.
Those two create much more heat but OCCT or Prime95 with FMA3 disabled are sufficient for stability test.

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond and help me out with this, appreciate a lot, Chike.


I just tried 1.15v and the BIOS somehow changed that to 1.16v, however, CPU-Z did detect it as 1.115v. I played Arma3 for abit and it ran great there, although one of the times that I alt tabbed I got a windows prompt to change the Windows explorer thingy to basic because appererantly the pc was running slow, then the game closed at one point.


After abit, I tried the OCCT test and it seemed to run fine for like 20-30 seconds and then the PC BlueScreened.


After that, it restarted and on the Gigabyte logo it stayed there for abit, I thought it had frozen and my f12 button didnt seem to do anything, so I got abit scared, but then after a little bit, it worked and I was in the BIOS again.


Is that somewhat freezing then fine again thing normal when a PC BlueScreens?


Anyhow, I then changed it to 1.16v and the setting didnt change in the BIOS, it just kept at the "fake" 1.16v which in CPU-Z showed as 1.15v which was what I had actually set.


Then I restarted and CPU-Z showed the same 1.15v from last time. Then I went to the BIOS and changed it to 1.17v, then 1.18v, and it still showed 1.16V on the BIOS, but by 1.19v the BIOS CPU vCore finally changed...but it was to 1.28v..i went to CPU-Z and it showed 1.20v, then I went to the BIOs, changed it to 1.20v and the BIOS still showed it as 1.28v.


Then I went to Windows and CPU-Z shows 1.120v. I just did an OCCT for 1 minute and these are the results so far:





I suppose I need to run it for the full hour, but this might be fine. However, that whole weird voltage setting on the BIOS has got me abit alarmed, should I be worried?

EDIT: Nope, it doesnt work at 1.120v either, it BlueScreened after a while. I set it to 1.30v and the BIOS saved it instead as 1.140v. Why does it keep doing this? CPU-Z does register it as 1.130v though.

[Chike]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

There differences between BIOS settings VID and vcore in my board too.
e.g. I am underclockinh it a bit now (vey hot here) so I set BIOS to 1.10v VID shows, 1.101(sometimes difference is 0.05v, I think it is due to sensor accuracy/granularity) ad vcore goes up as 1.12v.

Exact numbers don't really matter as long it works.

Yes at least one hour test, mre would be better.

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond and help me out with this, appreciate a lot, Chike.
EDIT: Nope, it doesnt work at 1.120v either, it BlueScreened after a while. I set it to 1.30v and the BIOS saved it instead as 1.140v. Why does it keep doing this? CPU-Z does register it as 1.130v though.

IDK, what BIOS version you have?

[ThatDude]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

There differences between BIOS settings VID and vcore in my board too.
e.g. I am underclockinh it a bit now (vey hot here) so I set BIOS to 1.10v VID shows, 1.101(sometimes difference is 0.05v, I think it is due to sensor accuracy/granularity) ad vcore goes up as 1.12v.

Exact numbers don't really matter as long it works.

Yes at least one hour test, mre would be better.



IDK, what BIOS version you have?

Hmm, allright. The BIOS version is F6, I read it is supposed to be optimized for the K chips.. :S

I just did another test with 1.30v for five minutes but stopped it after that because I have to work on the PC, thats the longest it has run so far without crashing. I will have to do a longer test at another time but hopefully this is it.

[Chike]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

I just did another test with 1.30v

1.13v you mean?
Pay no attention to what you see in BIOS. not to CPU-Z without load.
With no load at all vcore should drop to even under 0.1v the main thing is how much is it under full load.
LinX and Prime95 with FMA3 enabled may even take it up some more.

[ThatDude]

Re: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H-BK and 4790K; Always on Turbo Boost/ 4.4ghz+Question of XMP

1.13v you mean?
Pay no attention to what you see in BIOS. not to CPU-Z without load.
With no load at all vcore should drop to even under 0.1v the main thing is how much is it under full load.
LinX and Prime95 with FMA3 enabled may even take it up some more.

Right, well 1.130v, I guess I somehow got lazy there without noticing, heh. I will do those when I got abit more time then, hopefully it goes well!