Too low voltage on idle

dasX91

Honorable
Jan 23, 2013
25
0
10,530
Hello,
Well i'm new on the overclocking world and i just oc my processor i5 3570K to 4.2GHz using two method, seting a fixed volt to 1.10v. it worked stable during 24 hours prime64 stress test.
I wanted to go a step ahead and use the offset method on the bios to save some power when is not needed, but when i checked volts i was a little surprised, at full load at 4.2Ghz i got 1.096v and i think is fine becouse is near the fixed volt i set before as fixed. The problem is the IDLE volt, it was as low as 0.768v.
I ran prime64 stress test too and was stable for 6 hours and no error or BSOD.
Could someone tell me if this voltage(0.768v) is normal and safe?
idle1.jpg


MB: Asus maximus V Gene
Thanks
 
Solution
Your processor has energy saving feature so when its not doing anything @ idle it reduces the voltage and speed to 1600 and 0.768v Its normal.

C1E is power saving (Speedstep) handled directly by the CPU itself.
EIST is the same as C1E, except it's handled by the operating system instead of the CPU.

If you enable C1E and set windows 7 to max performance, it will still downclock to 1600 mhz, because the cpu/motherboard is handling the power saving.

If you enable EIST and set windows to max performance, it will act the same as if EIST was disabled (not downclock).

If you donot want this then disable the energy saving features of the CPU from bios.

Normaly its not recommended but wont do any damage either.

Thanks
I get 0.80 out of my i5 750 at idle(negative offset). I did not of testing to ensure it was stable that way.

You will only know by using the system.

The problem with a voltage that gets too low at idle is you can get blue screens or crashes when doing light tasks(while being prime stable).

You can try to drop the multiplier to 16 in the bios and see if the voltage stays that low, if it does, you can prime test it at that voltage/speed to see for sure.
 

imomun

Honorable
Feb 17, 2013
914
0
11,660
Your processor has energy saving feature so when its not doing anything @ idle it reduces the voltage and speed to 1600 and 0.768v Its normal.

C1E is power saving (Speedstep) handled directly by the CPU itself.
EIST is the same as C1E, except it's handled by the operating system instead of the CPU.

If you enable C1E and set windows 7 to max performance, it will still downclock to 1600 mhz, because the cpu/motherboard is handling the power saving.

If you enable EIST and set windows to max performance, it will act the same as if EIST was disabled (not downclock).

If you donot want this then disable the energy saving features of the CPU from bios.

Normaly its not recommended but wont do any damage either.

Thanks
 
Solution