Why does increasing cache ratio/frequency result in lower Intel XTU benchmark?

Yanif

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May 31, 2014
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My cpu is i7-4790k and MoBo is Asus Z97-Pro Gamer. I ran cpu ratio at 47x multiplier with a static core voltage of 1.252v, and core ratio at 40x with a static cache voltage of 1.15v.

Everything is fine until I read somewhere on the internet that cache frequency should be within 300MHz of cpu frequency. So I increased cache ratio to 44x (both min. and max. in BIOS) with a static voltage of 1.25v.

After that the intel XTU benchmark score dropped from 1049 to 1024. I am really puzzled. Does the lower score indicate the system became less efficient? Somehow the performance dropped because of increased cache ratio?

Thanks for any input.
 
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Yea, I don't know what they are doing with adaptive voltages either, I have had to set static voltages for stability in stress testing. You mentioned that cpu cache matching or close to core ratio could increase stability but not performance but I've been most stable with a lower cpu cache. I watched quite a few guides and our boards are very similar in bios settings, Asus hasn't changed much, if you look around adaptives, autos, and offsets are tough for people to figure out with these boards for some reason they have verying effects and never stick with an offset/adaptive they always WAY overvolt or undervolt.

As far as stress on VRM with core freq jumping all over I have not thought of it, my cpu only ever idles when it is re4ally...

chrisafp07

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Nov 27, 2012
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This is a common misconception and although there may be a possible benefit from having your cpu cache within 300mhz after my extensive testing having literally the SAME issue as you with my cpu and a lot of research I found it didn't make a difference for my use.

I run currently at only 4.4ghz but very low voltage but was running at 4600mhz 1.225 static and adaptive spiked too higher, especially with my cpu cache matching or within 200mhz of cpu speed. I now let my ROG board set settings for cpu cache speed and voltage, I have benched it, played games for months now, Cinebench, Unigine (all benchmarks), and stress tested using Aida64 and I notice the same or better performance for WAY less heat and voltage letting cpu cache run AUTO, which for me defaults to 3900mhz with my cpu at 4400mhz, but I never see voltage above 1.180. With my cpu cache matching cpu speed I was having to jack up cpu cache voltage to very high levels, with the voltage dropping way down using AUTO cpu cahce voltage and cache speed.

Once you browse 100's of threads about this very issue with our cpus you find many to have the same or similar conclusions to me with many also saying cpu cache matching core speed is irrelevant and others saying it does matter. Those are my thoughts after a lot of time on this same issue, I suggest doing what I did and test you cpu chace matching and not matching core speed to see what you think.

Sorry for long response, wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything. :D
 

Yanif

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May 31, 2014
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Hi Chris,

Thank you for your quick and detailed response.

It is said that increasing cache ratio does not increase performance, only improves stability. In my case I did not experience too much stability issues with a 700 MHz gap. Your findings seem to confirm my experience. However I did not see temperature increase with increased cache voltage and ratio when benchmarking.

Pro Gamer board should be very similar to your ROG board. What I experienced is that manual values found through trial and error tend to be lower than that from Auto settings in the BIOS. This is especially true in the case of Vcore. The stock voltage curve on my board is 0.88v for 800 MHz, 1.088v for 4.0 GHz, 1.18v for 4.2, and 1.28v for 4.4. I found 1.282v manual static can actually run 4.8 GHz instead of stock turbo 4.4 GHz. If I want to OC with auto settings, the adaptive Vcore will go up to 1.373v to get 4.8 GHz.

So right now I am experimenting to get some "free performance" out of 4790k. In the end I found inputing 0.001v in both "offset" and "turbo voltage" under "adaptive" will duplicate the non OC'd native Vcore curve, meaning the highest Vcore is now 1.282v with turbo speed of 4.8 GHz. However, seeing cpu frequecies always fluctuating between 800 and 4800 MHz is a bit unsettling to me, e.g. does it stress VRM too much? plus the stability issues which I am still struggling with. So I settle with a manual static Vcore value to run 47x multiplier for now.
 

chrisafp07

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Nov 27, 2012
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Yea, I don't know what they are doing with adaptive voltages either, I have had to set static voltages for stability in stress testing. You mentioned that cpu cache matching or close to core ratio could increase stability but not performance but I've been most stable with a lower cpu cache. I watched quite a few guides and our boards are very similar in bios settings, Asus hasn't changed much, if you look around adaptives, autos, and offsets are tough for people to figure out with these boards for some reason they have verying effects and never stick with an offset/adaptive they always WAY overvolt or undervolt.

As far as stress on VRM with core freq jumping all over I have not thought of it, my cpu only ever idles when it is re4ally doing nothing at all.

I'd suggest setting your cpu cache to auto, auto voltage too, then get stable, it was easier for me to get stable that way and then work from there. Once you know what your vcore needs to be at to work with I'm assuming 3900-4000mhz cpu cache for your cpu. Goodluck, not much more I can help you with seems you are where I was a couple months ago with newer hardware, lol, so complicated I love the challenge of overclocking and not being able to use my system for days ;p

 
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