Did I just break the CPU? (GIGABYTE motherboard)

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KublaiKhan

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May 24, 2015
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CPU
i7-6700

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 BIOS version F5

RAM
G.SKILL TRIDENT Z
F4-3200C16D-16GTZB
DDR4-3200 CL16-18-18-38 1.35V
PC4-25600 8Gx2 Intel XMP 2.0 Ready
1546A5004308344

After building the machine, and loading optimized values, I wanted to enable XMP to get the full speed of the RAM.

According to the main BIOS page, the CPU had been running at 3.4GHz and 25°C.

After enabling XMP, the CPU began running at 4.0GHz and 33°C, all the time, according to the main BIOS page.

I thought that odd. When I enabled XMP on another machine (EVGA motherboard), nothing happened to the CPU. Not as far as I could tell. I thought that perhaps I had done something wrong.

If I disabled XMP ad restarted, the CPU would run at 3.4GHz and 25°C. Enable XMP, and the CPU jumped back to 4GHz and 33°C. Again, according to the first page in BIOS.

So I looked around and followed this guy's advice:

Code: 
mindless's explanation of XMP is right. However, the motherboard does consider this an overclock so there are some other adjustments you may want to make. I built a system with the same chip and motherboard. In my experience, turning XMP on causes gigabyte to translate a lot of settings that are Auto by default as Disabled, whereas with XMP off it treats these Auto settings as Enabled. In particular, the features that I found I 'lost' were related to Turbo and energy savings/sleep step. One of the big selling points of the i7 860 was the turbo mode so I definitely wanted this back!

After some easy changes to a few default settings in the BIOS, I was able to get XMP and Turbo working together. The changes I had to make in the BIOS were on the Advanced CPU Core Features page: 
Intel Turbo Boost Tech. - changed from Auto to Enabled 
CPU Cores Enabled - left as All 
CPU Multi-Threading - left as Enabled 
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) - changed from Auto to Enabled 
C3/C6/C7 State Support - changed from Auto to Enabled 
CPU Thermal Monitor - changed from Auto to Enabled 
CPU EIST Function - changed from Auto to Enabled 
Bi-Directional PROCHOT - changed from Auto to Enabled 

My board now idles with a multiplier of x9 (about 1.2GHz). And when I run a single thread of Prime95 it hits a multiplier of x26 and the max speed of 3.46GHz. Turbo now appears to be working with RAM set to XMP. Prior to making these changes with XMP on my CPU basically ran at a constant x20 or x21 (around 2.66GHz).

Note: These readings are as reported by CPU-Z. CoreTemp approximately matched the idle numbers, but it never reported a multiplier and speed higher than x22 and ~2.93GHz. I believe CPU-Z is correct and CoreTemp has a bug keeping it from reading this processor correctly.

The CPU continued running at 4.0GHz. I thought I made a mistake and would ask around, so I reloaded the optimized values, which had before brought the CPU frequency down to 3.4GHz and temp to 25° C. But this time it didn't. The CPU is running at 4.0GHz all the time. I reset the CMOS by shorting the pins, and the CPU is still running at 4.0GHz.

I don't know if this is a flaw in the BIOS, reporting the turbo speed as the normal speed, or actually causing the CPU to run in turbo mode all the time. Now, I'm worried I did something that can't be undone.

So, did I break something by following this advice? Will the CPU be burning up in short order?
 
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KublaiKhan

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Oh, come on. If I didn't experiment, I'd never learn anything. I'd still be in bed, afraid to climb out from under the covers!

And I want to learn. The ONLY decent resource I have available to me is this forum. I have to be able to ask questions!

Since I'm in the habit of honoring the opinions of anonymous strangers online, here's another thing I found at Tom's:

Code: 
since i have a mobo also from gigabyte and also a 4790K, my experience is:
-Like you stated before, the max freq of the RAM only "comes alive" with XMP turned on. so that is out of the way.
-In almost all cases i've read around on forums, the default voltage that the BIOS comes with for the CPU, is simply too damn high. i have my CPU overclocked at 4.7 on ALL cores (default is core 1+2 at 4.4, core 3 at 4.3 and core 4 at 4.2 max if i recall correctly) and with 1.25 Vcore. so with your voltage, you should be on 4.6GHz or something like that ^^
-I created many profiles on the BIOS for my CPU. one of them was all cores on 4.4 @1.13 (if i recall). so your voltage is too high. start by bringing them all cores to same clock, and start lowering the voltage.
-Leave the Vrin alone on auto for now. only mess with it when you start doing some high ground overclock.
- what you can mess with, is the cache ratio. put it manualy on 4.0, and bring the voltage down (should be the voltage ring/cache/uncore or some of these names). 
EDIT: i forgot to mention that when you enter the BIOS, the CPU is clocked at max available (in our case the default max is 4.4GHZ) in order to detect if it can maintain that speed without errors. That is why you see the CPU is on max clock when you go to the BIOS. It's normal don't worry
Post your temps after    dont forget to activate the C-states and energy saving options on BIOS after messing with all that.
Edit2: i forgot to tell you, after you put all cores on 44 multiplier, put vcore on 1.5V. Boot and stress test. If all is ok, go back to BIOS and lower to 1.4V -> stress test -> 1.3V................. When you crash go up (if crash on 1.3, go to 1.35, etc etc).
This way, you get the optimal temperature and power consumption, for that clock speed    Don't worry with system restarting/crashing too many times, or having blue screen. The worst thing that can happen are some corrupt files on windows, but system will be fine

If I'm reading it correctly, this is telling me that BIOS cranks up the CPU to see if cranking up the CPU works, but it will not run that high later, as when in Windows. The speed and temperature I'm seeing on the first page in BIOS is not reflective of what happens outside of BIOS.

If I'm reading this correctly.

If not, then what the heck can I do?
 
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KublaiKhan

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May 24, 2015
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Well, that's the thing. Did I muck it up, or is this how GIGABYTE motherboards behave?

If you were to Google "xmp cpu turbo" or "gigabyte xmp cpu turbo," you see scores of similar situations. GIGABYTE boards treat XMP as an overclock and adjust additional settings—not only those directly affecting DRAM. This confuses many people not already familiar with GIGABYTE motherboards.

Simply resetting CMOS by shorting the jumpers didn't change a thing. I've not tried removing the CMOS battery. How would that be different?

But it all goes back to the this: Is this a problem, or is it normal behavior?

I may need a GIGABYTE pro to guide me through these BIOS settings.

And I need to find out what's happening in Windows, not just BIOS. I've read that Prime95 has problems with Windows 10 systems. What about CPU-Z?
 
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KublaiKhan

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That's cool. Thanks for everything, though. The more I read (a lot of people get freaked out by this), the more I believe this is the normal behavior of these boards.

We will get this all figured out, eventually.
 
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