The Goal: getting a 24/7 OC that gives you both your OC when you need it, and kicks in all the power saving features when it’s not.
The following guide shows you how to OC voltage tune an Intel 10th and 9th gen processor when using Adaptive Mode. This is not an full up OC guide; it assumes that a stable Manual Mode OC has been established. I hope it helps others dealing with getting a 24/7 Adaptive Mode OC dialed in for their cpus quickly and effectively.
Use the below at your own risk, I take no responsibility for what may happen. I welcome comments and criticism that will enhance, or possibly destroy, this guide's usefulness or accuracy.
Background: You have dialed in a stable OC using Manual Mode voltage, along with LLC and other settings that insure stability while keeping temps in check. Then you decide to use Adaptive Mode to enable lower voltages when the processor has light or no loads. But when you do, you find that the voltage value you’ve entered for using Adaptive Mode seems to be ignored; the load voltages are now higher than they were when using Manual Mode. The following discusses how to get around this increased load voltage behavior when using Adaptive Mode.
Technical background: The Adaptive Mode OC voltage tuning methodology is based on information Shamino posted on the ROG forum about using Adaptive Mode for a 9900ks. It is applicable to the 10th gen as well. For a more detailed description of what is at work here with the following tuning, this post by Shamino is highly recommended reading. Update: this post by RobertoSampaio has an in depth discussion on load lines; in light of this information this guide's use of IA DC LL = IA AC LL can (should?) be replaced with IA DC LL = LLC impedance, though his post pertains to overclocking a 12900k.
Adaptive Mode OC voltage tuning methodology:
1. OC your computer using Manual Mode to find an optimal voltage and CPU ratio, LLC value, and all other setting (e.g. ram, cache ratio, SA, IO) that yields a stable OC (this is where an OC guide fits in). It is advised to use moderate values for LLC (Asus 4, 5).
2. Record the load voltages for the stress tests you used, this info will be used later. Using more than one stress test is best. If you’ve found your OC surpasses the CPU's max single turbo frequency, congratulations on getting an exceptional chip though you most likely won't be able to use IA AC LL to tune your load voltages; you will find out if this is so in step 5, which also give alternatives to use.
3. Go into the bios and enable Adaptive Mode and leave all Adaptive Mode settings at default, i.e. auto. Alternatively, leaving the voltage setting on Auto also enables Adaptive Mode.
4. Set “SVID Behavior” to “Best Case Scenario”. For non-Asus users, you’ll have to figure out what your mobo’s equivalent is. If anything, you could directly set IA AC LL and IA DC LL to 0.01.
5. Boot up and run your OC stress tests and observe the load voltages they produce. If they exceed the Manual mode load voltages, you can try any or all of these to lower the voltage: enabling TVB, using a negative voltage offset value for the OC frequency's applicable V/F point or lowering your LLC value; beware that from here you are on your own (see * below). If the load voltages are “as expected” for your recorded voltages, congrats you are done, go enjoy using your OC! If they are less (the usual case OCs within the turbo freqs), your computer will soon blue screen or lock up if it hasn’t already.
6. Go into the bios and set both IA AC/DC LL to 0.1, boot, run your OC stress tests and observe the load voltages they produce. If the load voltages are at “as expected”, you are done tuning. If the load voltages are less than “as expected”, go into the bios and add 0.1 to both IA AC/DC LL, boot, run your OC stress tests and observe the load voltages they produce. If the load voltages exceed the Manual Mode load voltages, go into the bios and subtract 0.01 or 0.02 from both IA AC/DC LL, boot, run your OC stress tests and observe the load voltages they produce. Repeat this iterative tuning process until you reach your “as expected” load voltages. Once you've completed the tuning, congratulations: your CPU is now running a 24/7 OC as efficiently as it can (just as is my 10700K)!
Optional: instead of always setting IA DC LL = IA AC LL, when starting this tuning process set IA DC LL to the LLC impedance in use and leave it set to that. For my ROG Maximus XII Hero mobo, the impedance for LLC 3 is 1.28 mohm, LLC 4 is 1.10 mohm and LLC 5 is 0.81 mohm. When IA DC LL is set to the LLC impedance, the VID voltages closely follow the Vcore. It's best IMO to set IA DC LL to the LLC impedance, but having it set to IA AC LL does not seem to cause problems, plus curiously that's what the bios does automatically in most cases.
Obviously, rerunning your OC stability tests suite is recommended after completing this tuning. Enjoy!
* Looks that Intel gave my 10700k a V/F curve that targets it working on the weakest of mobos. I found there's V/F point tuning leeway available when using a good quality 10th gen mobo. Each V/F point has its own voltage offset that can be used to lower the point's VID by setting it to a negative value. Also, at least for a 10700k, enabling TVB significantly lowers the VID without having to change V/F point offsets (thanks to GeneO for pointing out this BIOS setting's effect). On 9th gen, or it these features are absent, the Adaptive Mode offset can be used in the same manner though it may cause stability side effects when idling.
Update: If your OC exceeds the max turbo frequency, Adaptive Mode uses the voltage of the highest frequency V/F point while applying all the rules given above. In this situation, if IA AC LL is at its min of .01, to get lower load voltages use either or both enabling TVB and lower the load voltage of the highest frequency V/F point by using a negative voltage for its offset. This is what I did to get a 5.2Ghz no HT Adaptive Mode OC for my i7 10700k.
Update for 9th gen CPUs: This guide was developed using my 10700k in a Z490 mobo. Though this guide will work for 9th gen CPUs, later in this topic and linked here, ThinbinJim posted these specifics for using IA AC/DC LL tuning on a Z390 mobo which you'll find helpful.
Update 12/5/2021: For all those trying to figure out overclocking for the 10 series, attached here is a very in-depth, all inclusive guide for understanding key settings and overclocking the i9 10900k. BTW, its author, NickN is a legend of sorts in the flight simulation community. Though this guide has lots of useful info I don't agree with this guide's OC approach which uses an Adaptive Mode Voltage Offset coupled with nulled out IA AC LL and IA DC LL settings. Why: the Adaptive offset voltage is always applied to the vcore regardless of the processor's power state, whereas IA AC LL voltage lowering effect is applied in proportion to the processor's power state (more power use lowers the voltage).
The following guide shows you how to OC voltage tune an Intel 10th and 9th gen processor when using Adaptive Mode. This is not an full up OC guide; it assumes that a stable Manual Mode OC has been established. I hope it helps others dealing with getting a 24/7 Adaptive Mode OC dialed in for their cpus quickly and effectively.
Use the below at your own risk, I take no responsibility for what may happen. I welcome comments and criticism that will enhance, or possibly destroy, this guide's usefulness or accuracy.
Background: You have dialed in a stable OC using Manual Mode voltage, along with LLC and other settings that insure stability while keeping temps in check. Then you decide to use Adaptive Mode to enable lower voltages when the processor has light or no loads. But when you do, you find that the voltage value you’ve entered for using Adaptive Mode seems to be ignored; the load voltages are now higher than they were when using Manual Mode. The following discusses how to get around this increased load voltage behavior when using Adaptive Mode.
Technical background: The Adaptive Mode OC voltage tuning methodology is based on information Shamino posted on the ROG forum about using Adaptive Mode for a 9900ks. It is applicable to the 10th gen as well. For a more detailed description of what is at work here with the following tuning, this post by Shamino is highly recommended reading. Update: this post by RobertoSampaio has an in depth discussion on load lines; in light of this information this guide's use of IA DC LL = IA AC LL can (should?) be replaced with IA DC LL = LLC impedance, though his post pertains to overclocking a 12900k.
This is saying that if you got a CPU which you target an all core OC that does not exceed its max single core turbo boost frequency, Adaptive Mode uses the VID voltage rather than your Adaptive Mode voltage setting. This explains the behavior of Adaptive Mode mentioned above. Shamino then gives a workaround: the IA AC loadline value can be used to lower (undervolt) this VID voltage, at least when IA AC LL is not at its minimum, which is 0.01. I’ve seen OC guides that recommend setting IA AC LL to this value to lower the load voltages but don’t explain why it works. A big clue is that the IA AC loadline value is indirectly set by the Asus bios setting “SVID Behavior”. Its “Best Case Scenario” setting sets IA AC LL to 0.01. On my ROG Maximus XII Hero mobo, other “SVID Behavior” settings set IA AC LL to much higher values, such as 0.6 and 0.8. If I use “Best Case Scenario” in Adaptive mode (IA AC LL set at .01), my 5.0Ghz OC fails due to insufficient load voltages. All the other “SVID Behavior” setting yields load voltages in excess of my Manual mode setting’s load voltages. From this I’ve surmised that their associated AI AC LL values are too high, thus producing the excessive load voltages for my OC. So I tried directly setting the IA AC LL value. After a few trials setting IA AC LL, I found that a value 0.35 yielded the load voltages which my Manual voltage produced…success! Note that the SVID Behavior setting only takes effect if IA AC LL is set to Auto, and AFAIK IA DC LL should always be set to the IA AC LL value or the LLC impedance. A slightly unrelated gotcha: a processor may not drop to its low level/idle frequencies if both cache ratios values are set the same (other than auto). I only set its max value, min is set to auto and this works as expected.Shamino said:
Adaptive Mode OC voltage tuning methodology:
1. OC your computer using Manual Mode to find an optimal voltage and CPU ratio, LLC value, and all other setting (e.g. ram, cache ratio, SA, IO) that yields a stable OC (this is where an OC guide fits in). It is advised to use moderate values for LLC (Asus 4, 5).
2. Record the load voltages for the stress tests you used, this info will be used later. Using more than one stress test is best. If you’ve found your OC surpasses the CPU's max single turbo frequency, congratulations on getting an exceptional chip though you most likely won't be able to use IA AC LL to tune your load voltages; you will find out if this is so in step 5, which also give alternatives to use.
3. Go into the bios and enable Adaptive Mode and leave all Adaptive Mode settings at default, i.e. auto. Alternatively, leaving the voltage setting on Auto also enables Adaptive Mode.
4. Set “SVID Behavior” to “Best Case Scenario”. For non-Asus users, you’ll have to figure out what your mobo’s equivalent is. If anything, you could directly set IA AC LL and IA DC LL to 0.01.
5. Boot up and run your OC stress tests and observe the load voltages they produce. If they exceed the Manual mode load voltages, you can try any or all of these to lower the voltage: enabling TVB, using a negative voltage offset value for the OC frequency's applicable V/F point or lowering your LLC value; beware that from here you are on your own (see * below). If the load voltages are “as expected” for your recorded voltages, congrats you are done, go enjoy using your OC! If they are less (the usual case OCs within the turbo freqs), your computer will soon blue screen or lock up if it hasn’t already.
6. Go into the bios and set both IA AC/DC LL to 0.1, boot, run your OC stress tests and observe the load voltages they produce. If the load voltages are at “as expected”, you are done tuning. If the load voltages are less than “as expected”, go into the bios and add 0.1 to both IA AC/DC LL, boot, run your OC stress tests and observe the load voltages they produce. If the load voltages exceed the Manual Mode load voltages, go into the bios and subtract 0.01 or 0.02 from both IA AC/DC LL, boot, run your OC stress tests and observe the load voltages they produce. Repeat this iterative tuning process until you reach your “as expected” load voltages. Once you've completed the tuning, congratulations: your CPU is now running a 24/7 OC as efficiently as it can (just as is my 10700K)!
Optional: instead of always setting IA DC LL = IA AC LL, when starting this tuning process set IA DC LL to the LLC impedance in use and leave it set to that. For my ROG Maximus XII Hero mobo, the impedance for LLC 3 is 1.28 mohm, LLC 4 is 1.10 mohm and LLC 5 is 0.81 mohm. When IA DC LL is set to the LLC impedance, the VID voltages closely follow the Vcore. It's best IMO to set IA DC LL to the LLC impedance, but having it set to IA AC LL does not seem to cause problems, plus curiously that's what the bios does automatically in most cases.
Obviously, rerunning your OC stability tests suite is recommended after completing this tuning. Enjoy!
* Looks that Intel gave my 10700k a V/F curve that targets it working on the weakest of mobos. I found there's V/F point tuning leeway available when using a good quality 10th gen mobo. Each V/F point has its own voltage offset that can be used to lower the point's VID by setting it to a negative value. Also, at least for a 10700k, enabling TVB significantly lowers the VID without having to change V/F point offsets (thanks to GeneO for pointing out this BIOS setting's effect). On 9th gen, or it these features are absent, the Adaptive Mode offset can be used in the same manner though it may cause stability side effects when idling.
Update: If your OC exceeds the max turbo frequency, Adaptive Mode uses the voltage of the highest frequency V/F point while applying all the rules given above. In this situation, if IA AC LL is at its min of .01, to get lower load voltages use either or both enabling TVB and lower the load voltage of the highest frequency V/F point by using a negative voltage for its offset. This is what I did to get a 5.2Ghz no HT Adaptive Mode OC for my i7 10700k.
Update for 9th gen CPUs: This guide was developed using my 10700k in a Z490 mobo. Though this guide will work for 9th gen CPUs, later in this topic and linked here, ThinbinJim posted these specifics for using IA AC/DC LL tuning on a Z390 mobo which you'll find helpful.
Update 12/5/2021: For all those trying to figure out overclocking for the 10 series, attached here is a very in-depth, all inclusive guide for understanding key settings and overclocking the i9 10900k. BTW, its author, NickN is a legend of sorts in the flight simulation community. Though this guide has lots of useful info I don't agree with this guide's OC approach which uses an Adaptive Mode Voltage Offset coupled with nulled out IA AC LL and IA DC LL settings. Why: the Adaptive offset voltage is always applied to the vcore regardless of the processor's power state, whereas IA AC LL voltage lowering effect is applied in proportion to the processor's power state (more power use lowers the voltage).
