Intel 13th gen undervolt stability

[dazzlaa]

Recently upgraded to a 13600k system and I’ll just start by saying how amazing the CPU is. No complaints at all.
However, the new architecture is different when it comes to overclocking and tuning with the P and E cores. I’ve spent time trying to understand the various settings and had a very stable 5.5 P core value with a negative voltage offset of -0.05. Incredible to say this would sit smashing Cinebench multi core tests at this frequency and only pulling 130 watts!
The problems start with gaming though, when gaming, this is not stable. My PC won’t crash or lock up but games freeze and quit to desktop, something I’m not really used to with CPU tuning and historically I’d expect more BSOD.
Anyone had similar experiences or would like to share some knowledge?

I’m also using a Strix motherboard if anyone has any particular settings for ASUS bios.

Merry Christmas! (Back on default settings for now with manual memory timings and negative offset voltage and stable)

 

[dazzlaa]

Thanks guys, without being at my computer and checking factually I believe I was set to offset mode and not adaptive.

Haven’t tried realbench either so that is something else I’ll include next time.

The 5.5Ghz overclock was something the ASUS Ai software set and in all honesty I was just blown away that it seemed to be somewhat stable at that frequency!

More investigation required but will def check that the ‘adaptive’ setting is applied

 

[dazzlaa]

Being able to get 5.5 is great and all but dropping it down to even 5.2 would get you much better temps, and you won’t notice the difference performance wise.

It took me a few days of testing to get my 13900k where I wanted it to be temp wise, and 5.5 was what I settled on because I wasn’t happy with temps pushing any higher, even though it was all well within limits etc. 6GHz sounds impressive but I’d much prefer better temps at 5.5.

Good luck.

Thanks! To be honest, the temps were superb when combined with the offset. I’m on a custom loop and the cpu was never exceeding 70c, obviously unstable though. Part of me is thinking it could be stable but I’m missing something with my unfamiliarity with the architecture. Obviously this is being very optimistic!

 

[dazzlaa]

The best way to undervolt the 13th gen on an Asus MB is based on the guide I've used below.
The basic gist is to Set Disable MCE, Set LLC4 DC_LL 1.02 and AC_LL 0.2, run CBR23 and continue to drop AC_LL 0.19 , 0.18 etc until your PC is no longer stable.

Guide here:

Asus Maximus Z790 and Intel i9-13900k/14900k - An...

www.overclock.net

At stock I ended up with AC_LL 0.03 which reduced my full load voltage from 1.28V to 1.138V which reduced temps by 20C. You can then use adaptive voltage for low load voltages.

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Got a relatively lazy day tomorrow so I’ll be trying to get the system dialled in and stable.

 

[dazzlaa]

how you testing for stability?

To be fair, stability to me is if it doesn’t crash during a few cinebench runs and heavy gaming sessions. Lol

 

[dazzlaa]

The best way to undervolt the 13th gen on an Asus MB is based on the guide I've used below.
The basic gist is to Set Disable MCE, Set LLC4 DC_LL 1.02 and AC_LL 0.2, run CBR23 and continue to drop AC_LL 0.19 , 0.18 etc until your PC is no longer stable.

Guide here:

Asus Maximus Z790 and Intel i9-13900k/14900k - An...

www.overclock.net

At stock I ended up with AC_LL 0.03 which reduced my full load voltage from 1.28V to 1.138V which reduced temps by 20C. You can then use adaptive voltage for low load voltages.

Found a decent set up using that guide. AC LL 0.17, DCLL 0.2, LLC 4, offset -0.04 all core synced at 5.3.

Very happy with temps, power and performance right now so thanks again for sharing

 

[dazzlaa]

lol indeed.
plenty of tools out there to do some proper testing. otherwise your gonna get crashes and will end up blaming stuff like the app/game, drivers, etc.

Nahhh, as long as I can get through 10 x games of warzone, it’s stable!