XMP causes idle cpu voltage to stay at 1.2v rather than 0.8v
XMP causes idle cpu voltage to stay at 1.2v rather than 0.8v
CPU: i7 6700 non K
MOBO: ASUS Z270F
RAM: RIPJAW DDR4 3000MHZ
GFX: ZOTAC 3070 AMP HOLO
OS: WINDOWS 10 LATEST
I only needed my RAM to operate at 3000mhz, so I chose the xmp profile and the voltage stayed stable at idle.
Even in power-saving mode, it kept around 1.248v, but the clock dropped to 818mhz.
In balanced mode, the CPU ran at full speed constantly. So I had to keep my PC in power-saving mode.
Any advice?
I just want RAM to stay at 3000mhz and the CPU to lower its voltage during idle. Plus a bit of overclock without high idle voltage.
When XMP is activated, it also applies a low-level OC to the CPU, which means a slightly higher vcore voltage for the processor. The 3000 Mhz RAM isn't just a minor adjustment—it's considered high-level OC because Skylake chips typically default to 2133 Mhz. From there, the speeds progress to 2400, 2666, 2800, and finally 3000 Mhz. For example, my Skylake i5-6600K supports 3000 Mhz RAM during idle (300Mhz to 500Mhz), with vcore changes between 0.776V and 0.836V. However, this varies by chip and build, making direct comparisons difficult. It's better to use HWinfo64 to track voltages and frequencies if you haven't already.
Disable XMP, adjust RAM voltage to 1.35V, then manually configure RAM clock at 3000 MHz with timings 16-18-18-38. The balanced mode problem relates to the minimum usage setting in Control Panel Power Options; set it to 0% and ensure C-States are active in your BIOS.