i7 6700K high stock core voltage?

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2017 at 10:23

Hello!

I'll get straight to the point - what is the recommended stock core voltage for an i7 6700K? I've been using CPU-Z to check voltage under load and I've noticed spikes of 1.440v, which I find scary.

I've been looking online and some people say that's too high, is it? I'm not overclocking at all I just want to make sure this chip lasts as long as possible.

I've been into the BIOS for my motherboard (Asus Z170 E, latest BIOS) and turned on 'EPU Power Saving' and changed 'CPU Core/Cache Voltage' from 'Auto' to 'Adaptive' but games started crashing. Is there any way to bring voltage down if it is too high?

If anyone can help that'd be great, cheers.

NegatronBear · 16 Mar 2017 at 10:33

Are your temperatures / performance ok?

It's not really going to overvolt at 1.44 and if you're not overclocking at all leaving everything at stock won't be an issue in my experience

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2017 at 10:44

NegatronBear said:
Are your temperatures / performance ok?

It's not really going to overvolt at 1.44 and if you're not overclocking at all leaving everything at stock won't be an issue in my experience

Thanks for the quick reply!

Performance is good, I haven't checked CPU temps but the cooler is a Hyper 212 with a Corsair SP120 fan on it - it's pretty quiet during gaming and I've had no heat issues so far.

I would prefer to leave voltages at stock levels it's just whether those stock voltages are too high - I'm just concerned it may shorten the life of the CPU.

Nichrome · 16 Mar 2017 at 11:37

1.44V for stock is pretty high. That's what I set for 4.8GHz or so..
You can try lowering the voltage manually to 1.35V.

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2017 at 12:33

Nichrome said:
1.44V for stock is pretty high. That's what I set for 4.8GHz or so..
You can try lowering the voltage manually to 1.35V.

Manually set to 1.35v, though it took me about 15 minutes to work out how to set the ruddy thing! I'll be a bit happier if I can keep it there just hope it's stable.

NegatronBear · 16 Mar 2017 at 12:50

1.35 manual is more than enough for stock in most cases, mine is stable at 4.8 on 1.31

Test it, drop it a little, test it again until you hit a stable minimum

Smffy · 16 Mar 2017 at 13:04

Asus board on auto, mines the same. It's high but pretty rare and won't do it much harm, set it manually if you wish though

I wouldn't turn on power saving personally.

Zhuni · 16 Mar 2017 at 13:20

for stock I'd stick at 1.2 and see if it likes it. I had bang on 1.2 with mild overclock on my 6700k

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2017 at 15:06

It's tricky to decide whether to leave it full auto or whether to find a happy minimum and leave it there...

Smffy said:
Asus board on auto, mines the same. It's high but pretty rare and won't do it much harm, set it manually if you wish though

I wouldn't turn on power saving personally.

Have you got the exact same motherboard?

iBSOD · 16 Mar 2017 at 15:18

Pretty sure volts should be 1.25 or less for stock. Set them manually in bios, see where lowest stable vcore is

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2017 at 16:49

iBSOD said:
Pretty sure volts should be 1.25 or less for stock. Set them manually in bios, see where lowest stable vcore is

What makes you think that is the maximum at stock?

What I've done is I've set it back to auto and I'll monitor temps and voltages tonight to see how high they go during gaming.

If 1.25v is where it should be then what is the middle ground here? i.e. what is better; leaving it at stock voltages so that it draws less when idling, or set it to a manual 1.25v so that it doesn't go over this under load?

It seems like I'm obsessing over this but I just want to make sure that I choose whatever increases the longevity of the chip. I'm not sure I want to run it at a set voltage when it's just idling.

NegatronBear · 16 Mar 2017 at 17:12

I don't think iBSOD meant that 1.25 is the maximum, it just seems to be the standard stock voltage that the bios displays at stock speeds before you touch any overclocking settings

Smffy · 16 Mar 2017 at 18:21

riskyfrisky said:
It's tricky to decide whether to leave it full auto or whether to find a happy minimum and leave it there...

Have you got the exact same motherboard?

If you leave it on auto you will have no problem what so ever on stock, mines a Z170 deluxe so same same really - the BIOS is a little over ambitious on auto is all but it's never sustained.

You could probably run it at 4.5 with 1.32v so perspective really, if you want it to run cooler then manually down volt stock. If temps are ok and a bit more performance would be nice then 4.5 with 1.3-1.35v as low as you can get away with.

Short version: it's fine so don't worry
Long version: you can mess with it if you want and get a bit more umph

Danny75 · 16 Mar 2017 at 18:27

On Asus boards you also want to check (and likely lower) the LLC setting. Lowering it can bring voltage/temps down substantially, as long as it remains stable.

riskyfrisky · 16 Mar 2017 at 19:03

Just had an hour's game session and highest recorded temp from HWMonitor was 79 degrees, which is actually a lot higher than I thought it would be, even with air cooling. Highest voltage recorded was 1.406v, that's with auto voltage settings. I was playing Just Cause 3 and had one crash but then it is JC3 lol.

If temps become an issue I may look to lower the core voltage or LLC until I find a sweet spot, 79 degrees is a bit rich for my blood.

NegatronBear · 16 Mar 2017 at 20:27

Under load even just in gaming, not 100%, my temps were about the same.

I delidded and popped some liquid metal on the die and the IHS and I'm running at 55c max 100% load on a 240mm AIO.

A lot of the temp issues come from Intel's terribad compound on the die, but lowering the volts will help a little.

When I took my lid off the other week, the die was only actually (barely) half covered with TIM, half of it was bald and shiny

TheMorningStar · 16 Mar 2017 at 21:03

I can get 4.5ghz at 1.3v, maybe a tiny bit lower. 1.2 seems okay for stock, haven't done much testing, need to do some resurch on the chips and bios options etc. You're going to be in a similar ballpark, though. I find the 6700k opperates really well at lower frequencies so I run agressive powersaving schemes, personally.

TheMorningStar · 16 Mar 2017 at 21:37

NegatronBear said:
Under load even just in gaming, not 100%, my temps were about the same.

I delidded and popped some liquid metal on the die and the IHS and I'm running at 55c max 100% load on a 240mm AIO.

A lot of the temp issues come from Intel's terribad compound on the die, but lowering the volts will help a little.

When I took my lid off the other week, the die was only actually (barely) half covered with TIM, half of it was bald and shiny

Is that at 4.8? Because I may try that. Is it worth doing with TG Kryonaut?

RichUK · 16 Mar 2017 at 22:03

Your board is playing silly buggers if it's on auto. Is it flashed with the latest BIOS?

Only option is to play with offsets or manually fix the voltage.

Spiking to 1.44v under load is not ideal!

NegatronBear · 16 Mar 2017 at 22:14

TheMorningStar said:
Is that at 4.8? Because I may try that. Is it worth doing with TG Kryonaut?

Yep solid at 4.8, the max I've seen it go after delidding is 66c at 5.05 100%

I tried Kryonaut on a delidded 4790k and I saw honestly no difference in temperatures, if anything <5c drop under load, I may have had a bad chip though but couldn't ever get any lower, that ramped up to the mid 80s under load.

Conductonaut is great just need to be really careful that it only goes on the die and not trickle over onto the pcb. Putting it on the IHS under my AIO waterblock wasn't really necessary, Kryonaut would have been fine but it was all I had to hand and I'm incredibly happy with the results.

Though I do get itchy feet when I hit the absolute max with things I always want to get something else to push. But low voltage 4.8 can't complain at all