9700k overvolting and high temps - How do I stop it?

SmashBrown · 8 Jul 2019 at 19:42

Evening all,

My 9700k has started overvolting lately,
Despite having adaptive voltage set at 0.060, it is overvolting way too much on occasion.

it has only started doing it lately, notably when I play total war three kingdoms, and only on the load in screen for battles for a couple of seconds once the laoding bar reaches around 90%.

I have also noticed the fans ramping up quite a bit on boot up, but there is no way to get a temp reading that I know of on boot up, as it is again only for a brief period.

OC is 5.1ghz, cooled on a new alphacool eisabear 360,
c states enabled.
Intel speed shift enabled.
Adaptive voltage at 0.060
Bios f9a
Gigabyte pro wifi z390 mobo
32gb 4000 mhz teamgroup ram.
Zotac amp 1070 gpu.
WD Black 1tb NVME.

What is going on here?

CPUID HWMonitor is what I am getting my readings from.
CPUVcore is getting up to 1.4- 1.5V and temps can peak at 90c sometimes.
Doesnt seem healthy to me hence why I am asking here.

Thanks in advance folks.

Danny75 · 8 Jul 2019 at 19:53

Which motherboard? Latest Bios?

Does it still overvolt with Fixed/Override voltage instead of Adaptive? What Vcore did you set before adding 0.06v offset?

Download HWiNFO64 to double-check/confirm the readings HWMonitor is giving you.

SmashBrown · 8 Jul 2019 at 21:13

OP updated with mobo and BIOS,
I havent actually thought about using a fixed voltage as I'd rather have an adaptive setting to lower power draw when idling etc...

Vcore is it 1.200 v normal

Danny75 · 8 Jul 2019 at 21:27

Alright saw your edit including the mobo now.

So it's 1.2v +0.06v?

Change to Fixed voltage temporarily and report back. Stick it on 1.26v or thereabouts. Just to troubleshoot.

PieEater · 9 Jul 2019 at 07:00

If your voltage is OK at idle but over target under load then try reducing LLC as this is designed to add more volts under load to maintain stability so may be set too high.

LeMson · 9 Jul 2019 at 09:09

on a new alphacool eisabear 360

How new? Remount the cooler

doyll · 9 Jul 2019 at 12:48

Are hoses same temp on both sides of CPU? If there is much difference in temp it may be poor coolant flow possibly caused by low coolant level / air in pump. Where is radiator mounted and if rad is in front are hose in / out at top or bottom of rad? Best place for rad is top of case .. so air is trapped up top and not in pump.

SmashBrown · 10 Jul 2019 at 17:17

I have put load line calibration on power saving and cpu vcore calibration on low, set adaptive voltage at 0.100 over 1.200 normal, tjmax at 81c.
Still getting voltage readings at around 1.350v on loading into battles in tw3k.
So LLC in power saving seems to have dropped a bit of voltage.

Will be ordering some crynaught thermal paste this weekend and see if that helps at all as well.
Thanks for the help, sorry for the late reply but, real life and all that ****.

Danny75 · 10 Jul 2019 at 17:19

It could be AVX instructions in certain games/apps which boost voltage when Adaptive mode is enabled, which is why I suggested testing Fixed voltage to determine if it's that.

SmashBrown · 10 Jul 2019 at 17:28

Danny75 said:
It could be AVX instructions in certain games/apps which boost voltage when Adaptive mode is enabled, which is why I suggested testing Fixed voltage to determine if it's that.

Thank you, will test and report back.

EDIT:..... Won't even boot on manual with 1.4v.... I may need to go back to the drawing board here...

SmashBrown · 10 Jul 2019 at 21:16

Back to adaptive voltage:

5.1 ghz
Intel speed shift - enabled
C states - enabled
AC/DC LLC - power saving
CPU vcore LLC - Low
AVX offset 2
Adaptive voltage 1.200 normal + 0.040 adaptive

Boots fine, a quick benchmark in tw 3k fine, HOWEVER:
Prime95 stress test... the workers started stopping saying 1 error no warnings.

Max voltage hit 1.308 volts / Max temp on package 85.c, core 3,4,5,7 hit 100c!!!
but due to the avx being on 2 now I'm not sure how this affected the benchmarks.

Sorry everyone I'm not the best at overclocking as I only understand the basics...
and gigabyte BIOS is... difficult to understand sometimes.
Why the hell it wouldnt boot at manual voltage I dont know, was I missing something?

Danny75 · 10 Jul 2019 at 21:47

Think 1.4v is excessive. Could have some protection feature enabled preventing boot with that Vcore, not sure.

With -2 AVX offset enabled all cores would be at 4.9GHz during AVX instruction usage. The error is usually due to not quite enough voltage. With Fixed voltage limiting the Vcore more than Adaptive, there's not quite enough. But you have to consider those voltages and the heat...

Why don't you try Adaptive again, starting from 1.2v but don't use an offset. I don't mean the AVX offset, I mean the offset voltage you're adding (0.04v last time). This might end up in 1.3v or slightly over in Prime, just enough for no errors perhaps. If you do get errors, try a -3 AVX offset. Most 9700Ks reach 5.0GHz all core but not all have the voltage legroom for AVX at that frequency.

SmashBrown · 10 Jul 2019 at 22:03

Will try in the next couple of days and if not will try on sunday, should i reset everything to default and just use adaptive with no modifier first then?
Also to note, I installed new BIOS as I noticed F10 is out now, and simply put in an overclock of 5.1 with everything else on auto and it booted fine, forgot to test anything then though because it was just a test after installing the new bios.

Danny75 · 10 Jul 2019 at 22:13

Sounds good but I'd set 1.2v Vcore after resetting to make sure the motherboard doesn't do its auto thing and go nuts. Just have to keep in mind that Adaptive will boost voltage more than Fixed, with AVX, and account for it when setting voltages. At least that's what seems to be the case going by the fact the Vcore did not shoot up as much last time on Fixed. I'd keep things slightly over 1.3v max (not in BIOS but what you see after running Prime with AVX or Cinebench R20 that has AVX). If you can keep temps 80C or under with Cinebench R20 that's a better indicator than Prime of what'll be good for 24/7 usage.

SmashBrown · 10 Jul 2019 at 22:34

Danny75 said:
Sounds good. Just have to keep in mind that Adaptive will boost voltage more than Fixed, with AVX, and account for it when setting voltages. At least that's what seems to be the case going by the fact the Vcore did not shoot up as much last time on Fixed. I'd keep things slightly over 1.3v max (not in BIOS but what you see after running Prime with AVX or Cinebench R20 that has AVX). If you can keep temps 80C or under with Cinebench R20 that's a better indicator than Prime of what'll be good for 24/7 usage.

So would you reccomend using avx with adaptive?

Danny75 · 10 Jul 2019 at 22:44

SmashBrown said:
So would you reccomend using avx with adaptive?

If you prefer Adaptive, and just account for the extra voltage it adds, might be fine. Just tweak the AVX offset as required as that's very handy and other than for benchmarks you won't notice the difference. Play with the LLC as well, try keep that low but use it to help find stability without having to increase Vcore much (while bearing in mind too much LLC will increase Vcore).

However, you can also choose to go with Fixed with C-States enabled, and it will also save some elec. It will also scale down frequency when idling if you use Windows Balanced power plan. It'll just have the 1.2v (or whatever number) ready to go at all times. There's no real "better" or "worse" option though some swear by having the Vcore fixed. Whatever works best.

SmashBrown · 11 Jul 2019 at 20:42

Ok new settings seem to be a success:

5.1 ghz
Intel speed shift - enabled
C states - enabled
AC/DC LLC - power saving
CPU vcore LLC - Low
AVX offset 3
Adaptive voltage 1.200 normal / -0.005 adaptive

Thoughts @Danny75 ?
AVX seems to be very heavy handed though as I am not seeing 5.1ghz very often, even in tw 3k, haven't had time to test any other games though.
Are there any other AVX settings in the gigabyte bios I may have missed?

Danny75 · 11 Jul 2019 at 21:04

Try MCE (Multi Core Enhancement) or whatever the setting is to set "all cores" to 5.1 (other than when AVX running lowers them to 4.8). I think the lack of MCE right now could be the explanation for not seeing 5.1 more often.

Also, you're still hitting 100C on a 360 AIO, with 1.2 Vcore... that's weird and I got much better results on a 9700K at 1.224 Vcore with an air cooler (Dark Rock Pro 4). Recommend using HWiNFO64 to double check the readings, and also try out Cinebench R20 to see max temps with that.

SmashBrown · 11 Jul 2019 at 21:13

Danny75 said:
Try MCE (Multi Core Enhancement) or whatever the setting is to set "all cores" to 5.1 (other than when AVX running lowers them to 4.8). I think the lack of MCE right now could be the explanation for not seeing 5.1 more often.

Also, you're still hitting 100C on a 360 AIO, with 1.2 Vcore... that's weird and I got much better results on a 9700K at 1.224 Vcore with an air cooler (Dark Rock Pro 4). Recommend using HWiNFO64 to double check the readings, and also try out Cinebench R20 to see max temps with that.

Thanks, I have tried Hwinfo but never liked it before, will give it a go on sunday as I am away for a few days from tomorrow, also will be ordering some new thermal paste.

SmashBrown · 14 Jul 2019 at 16:07

@Danny75

Fresh Bios, no adaptive, everything on auto except 5.1ghz overclock and 32gb memory at 18 18 18 38 4000mhz... still high temps and almost instant themral throttling even after re-applying themral grizzly.

I am at a loss...