Asrock Z490M-ITX current-limit throttling 10600k, stock settings

jkarran · 12 Nov 2020 at 22:11

Hi, new to the forum.

I recently bought an Asrock Z490M-ITX with the intention of building a very small desktop with excellent single thread performance (for CAD drafting). I was hoping also for a mild all core overclock but being realistic about the heat (NH1-L12S) and PSU (350W Flex Silverstone) constraints. However even with stock settings it's throttling my 10600k (checked using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and IntelBurnTest) and there doesn't seem to be an option to adjust the current limit.

From: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z490M-ITXac/index.asp
Featuring sturdy components and completely smooth power delivery to the CPU. Plus, it offers unmatched overclocking capabilities and enhanced performance with the lowest temperature for advanced gamers as well.

I was realistic about not being able to turn everything up to 11 but as is I'm not even getting full stock performance from a supported processor. I'm pretty disappointed in this to be honest. Would it be returnable, is it faulty or just miss-sold?

Cheers, James

jkarran · 12 Nov 2020 at 22:49

Yeah, latest BIOS 1.3 installed fresh from the website

Asrock Z490M-ITX/ac
i5 10600k
NH-L12S
2x8GB Ballistix 3600 C16, stock settings (though XMP tests fine)
WD Black 500GB NVME boot drive
Silverstone Flex350W Gold PSU
WD Green 250GB SATA M.2 (for back-ups)
Genuine Win10 OEM Home, drivers and updates all current
80mm fan moving air over the VRM region of the board
No GPU fitted (1650LP eventually)

Currently all running on the bench, no case made yet.
Need anything else?

jkarran · 12 Nov 2020 at 23:08

Thinking about it the only non stock setting I do have is 'Thermal Velocity Boost' enabled so I'm hitting 4.2GHz all cores until it throttles (does the same without but at 4.1GHz)

It's running the Win10 'high performance' power plan

In normal use it will very briefly turbo and I can turn the turbo up to 5.0GHz on at least a couple of cores but it still throttles at 4.2GHz under test so I have no way of knowing how much turbo it will reliably stand since I can't test it for stability.

jkarran · 12 Nov 2020 at 23:21

All cores hit high 60s, low 70s after a few minutes of test load, not a great starting point but not the present problem.

It keeps flashing 'Current/EDP Limit Throttling' in red within a minute or so of starting a test.

jkarran · 13 Nov 2020 at 00:07

Thanks for the link, working through the list from that page:

1. IccMax (140A) is greyed out in Intel XTU and I can't find anything like it in the BIOS.
2. I can't find anything like VR_Imax in the BIOS
3. It's explicitly sold as suitable for overclocking but doesn't even properly power a stock i5 :mad:

I'm really disappointed, if I'd suspected this would happen I'd have probably built quite a different system.

Is that sufficient cause to return it or am I being unreasonable to expect it to work as advertised?

jkarran · 13 Nov 2020 at 09:26

It's a Z490. Same problem?

I'll have a go, there are so many voltage option though it's hard to follow how they interact, which AUTO options need turning off in order that changes make a real change.

jkarran · 13 Nov 2020 at 11:17

Cheers, I'll give that a go.

1.28V seems high though I'm presumably misunderstanding how the auto LLC works, it's currently reporting somewhere between 1.12V and 1.30V depending on load. If I set 1.28 fixed presumably the LLC function will add quite a bit to that under load. Or is 'CPU Vcore' a maximum?

Is it worth setting the AVX offset at this point? I understand IntelBurnTest is pretty harsh. The AVX offset BIOS option is currently AUTO but only accepts positive numbers, everything I read suggests -1 or -2 to reduce heating (linked to current which is my problem). I guess try a +1 or +2 in there, assume it'll treat them as negatives, the MOBO/BIOS manual is a bit ambiguous?

Lots to learn! Thanks everyone for the time, if I can make it work for my modest overclock ambitions I'll be satisfied enough.

jkarran · 13 Nov 2020 at 23:22

To get it to run standard clock settings without hitting the MOBO current limit I had to turn it right down to the point where it was a lottery if it'd boot, about 1.15V.

Turning 2 of the cores up to 5.0 and the rest down to 4.1 to save current just results in all running at 4.1 under test so I can't check it's stable (any ideas why?)

This really isn't what was advertised, there's no room for overclocking at all, it barely works out of the box. I've paid a premium for a k chip, a Z490 motherboard and now have an OEM OS tied to it. I could have got basically the same stock performance for half the price. I'm really not impressed.

jkarran · 14 Nov 2020 at 12:17

Thanks, I'll experiment with that.

My frustration is that it's clearly marketed as suitable for overclocking and frankly it wasn't cheap. My overclocking expectations were only ever modest (cooling and PSU limited if nothing else) but I didn't expect a fight just to get stock performance from it.

What happens if you drop an i7 or i9 into it, presumably the locked current limit bumps up since it's only just powering my i5.