Underclock 4770k for small server use.

[Phixsator]

Let me set the background first. Im on the z87 platform powered by a 4770k for my main rig, i also got a z97 mobo and everything else except the CPU for that motherboard. Now i managed to get my hands on a 4790k and 16gigs of 1866mhz ram for around 110 pounds, dirt cheap if you ask me, and i did this due to the price as it allows me to upgrade my server with some proper hardware. Now ill be swapping the 4790k into my main rig instead of the 4770k and hopefully i can have my 4,4ghz without hitting 90c on AIO water, just a small bonus on the side.

Now my current server is doing better than i would expect from a pathetic AMD Athlon 5150 and it takes no power what so ever, we are talking less that 25 watts, but it is still weak and game servers on it is not a good experience when playing more than 2 . Now the 4770k is of course a huge upgrade but i don't need it to run full speed 3,9ghz as i'm not interested in 150+ watt of power draw. To the main topic then. Im of course going to underclock the 4770k, seems backwards no? . I was thinking 2,0ghz for starters if i can even get it to go that low. Was wondering if anyone have experimented with a similar idea and what your results were? what volts was needed? did you measure power draw?

I know as you scale up an overclock power has to been increased exponentially. I was sort of hoping for the same thing but in backwards order for an underclock. That once i hit 2,5-2,0ghz that the power required is so low that its is next to none, at least compared to full tilt 3,9ghz. I would be very happy if i got get it to hit around the 60-75 watt mark. Am i being unrealistic?

TL;DR: Have you underclocked a 4770k(or similar) before and what where your power draw results from it? Was it for server use?

 

[Phixsator]

Uhhh, that looks very promising. Didn't think about using windows power options to control it so thanks for that. A hell of a lot easier to control on the fly incase there is this one application that needs a bit of a boost.

If those reading are correct then its going to be extremely efficient at lower clock speeds. I might even be able to cool with with a heatsink without a fan if i keep the clocks low enough.

Well the TDP of 4770k is 84w anyway, so not sure where the other 65w would come from. And obviously it doesn't use that all the time anyway, it depends on the load, even when it is running at maximum boost.

Eg my 8700k uses 73w in realbench with all cores at 4.3 and fully loaded (stock). With a mild o/c to 4.7 on all cores this rises to 105w. But in eg Destiny 2, with all cores at 4.7 it only uses 23w because the machine is not fully loaded. I have all the power management options enabled in the bios so it's probably down-clocking quite aggressively.

There is no way on earth your 8700k only drains 73watts at the wall full tilt, no way. If you are looking at coretemp's readings or something similar you are doing it wrong. A reader on the powerplug will tell you different very fast.

 

[Phixsator]

Agreed. Very handy for laptops when unplugged too, if only browsing etc.

Its a 4770k? what volts are you using for that 4,3ghz?

 

[Phixsator]

Yes. 1.296v. It's not a great chip. Need around 1.345v for 4.4 stable, and 1.395 to pass a few benchmarks at 4.5 but isn't totally stable.

your 4770k seems to be a better sample than mine when running both full tilt and underclocked power draw wise. HWINFO is reporting an idle watt draw for package alone of around 17watts @800 core clock with a peak of around 27 watts full tilt in cinebench. This is with factory defaults in bios loaded and then every c state enabled. My ram however is apparently only draining less than 5 watts @ 1866mhz 9-10-9-27. Only difference is likely our boards and i can see you are using HWINFO 5.60 where im on 5.59. So gonna update and see if readings are different.

 

[Phixsator]

MSI Z87 MPower Max. Four sticks mem @ 2133MHz 9-11-10-27 1.65v. Balanced power plan. Adaptive voltages in BIOS. C states enabled (the default ones).

Again, thanks for sharing, ill have a look in the bios of my sabertooth z87. Wouldnt surprise me if Asus is boosting something behind the curtains. Wouldn't be the first time.

 

[Phixsator]

The IA Cores Power is a sub-part of the CPU Package Power, you're not meant to add them together: https://www.hwinfo.com/forum/Thread-CPU-power-IA-vs-package-and-package-power-can-t-show-graph

good to know.. ty. In the end i'll measure from the power plug but for now a rough estimate through software is fine.

 

[Phixsator]

post your results, i'd be curious to know anyway! i think these are very power-efficient when idle or only low load.

I shall as soon as the 4790k arrives in the mail and i can rebuild both the main rig and the server as the server right now is using a micro atx board in a tiny tiny case powered by a laptop brick and that is going to a full fledge atx in a midi tower.

sidenote: any know of a good thin client/server solution for use with windows and an android tablet? My better half is complaining a little about the performance on certain 3d tasks on her tablet and i'd have more than enough power to spare once i'm done with the server setup.

 

[Phixsator]

Bah the royal post service here in Denmark is a joke.. still haven't received my package.

 

[Phixsator]

A quick update, my package came today with my cpu and ram sticks and the server has been rebuild with my old 4770k. Im loving it already. Idle/near idle power consumption is pretty darn good even within messing with core clock speeds.