adaptive voltage i7 6700k
adaptive voltage i7 6700k
Hello
I don’t know how adaptive voltage actually works, but I’ve tried it with my setup. I have an i7 6700k, ASUS Z170 pro gaming rig with DDR4 3000Mhz. At 4.4 GHz I set the BIOS voltage to 1,245 V manually. The results were stable: around 1.248V at idle and 1.264–1.280V during stress tests in Realbench and AIDA64. Everything seems solid. How did I manage to get these numbers without changing the settings?
You shouldn't be overly concerned about the difference between 1.296V and 1.280V. I use Adaptive and observe a very minor overvoltage, but it's negligible enough not to be a problem. It remains well under the safest voltage threshold for Skylake. I also wanted to mention that although 1.42V was considered high, 1.4V is the daily safe limit for Skylake, so you didn't risk any damage. In fact, 1.52V is the maximum allowed by Intel for Skylake.
There are three voltage types:
1) Auto – It adapts but tends to pick a very large offset based on your OC settings. Avoid using it during OC.
2) Offset – It also adapts, but you adjust the voltage curve up or down (for example, reducing 1,245 at 4.4GHz by 0.1V gives 1,145V). Adaptive can cause instability, but it’s the most effective for OC since your processor uses much less power when idle and more when under load compared to Manual mode.
3) Manual – A fixed voltage set by you.
To test adaptive voltage, choose Auto or Adaptive at stock speed and monitor the voltage during benchmarks. Then switch to Offset and calculate (for instance, aiming for 1.325V stability, 1.245 plus x equals 1,345 means x is 0.1V plus Offset).
Apparently, your voltage may fluctuate when using different processor parts, even with Manual mode, because those components consume more energy.
But i don’t want to use offset because I tried it before. With an offset voltage of +0.005, it gives me 1.42V in windows, which almost burns my CPU. I hope the CPU will be okay—it was running at that voltage for a minute.
When I switch to adaptive voltage at 1.245 and +0.003, the system stays stable, but under load it can spike to 1.296V. That’s unnecessary when I already know 1.280 is enough for full stress.
I’m unsure which setting is better. If I manually set it at 1.245, the peak will be 1.280, but without the chance to undervolt during idle or adaptive mode, the peak could jump to 1.296V. Knowing that a little extra voltage (0.016V) is safe would help avoid unnecessary stress.
You shouldn't be overly concerned about the difference between 1.296V and 1.280V. I use Adaptive and observe a very minor overvoltage, but it's negligible enough not to be a problem. It remains well under the safest voltage threshold for Skylake. I also wanted to mention that although 1.42V was considered high, 1.4V is the daily safe limit for Skylake, so you didn't risk any damage. In fact, 1.52V is the maximum allowed by Intel for Skylake.