Why is my System Agent voltage already higher than 1.1V?

steffeeh

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Feb 12, 2016
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You see my build in my sig if that's helpful.

I'm currently preparing to do a bigger overclock on my RAM sticks, and by that I've had to do lots of reading and investigation on what affects the stability of the overclock, including things as VCCSA (System Agent) and VCCIO.

What's bugging me out is that I haven't enabled XMP inside BIOS (though it's flipped ON on the mobo), and I haven't changed the BLCK frequency, yet it says in my BIOS that my System Agent voltage is 1.176V - already higher than 1.1V, around the same voltage as the stock core voltage on the CPU.
Does this mean that I should just leave it there, or perhaps increase it for stability, or maybe even cut it down in case it's too much?

Also, I've noticed I have VCCIO options for both the CPU and PCH (labeled VCCIO CPU and VCCIO PCH), should I only adjust the VCCIO CPU and leave the other one, or adjust them both?
 

steffeeh

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Feb 12, 2016
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UPDATE: Turns out I've misunderstood the VCCSA / System Agent voltage number in my BIOS. It's actually set to an automatic adaptive mode, where I can only change the offset.
Previously I said it was at 1.176V when I was in BIOS, but this time it was at around 1.032V, so it's hovering below and above the 1.1V theshold.
Flipping the XMP switch on the mobo on/off made no difference.
I'll run a stresstest and see how this voltage reacts, then figure out wether it needs to be adjusted or not.
 

steffeeh

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Feb 12, 2016
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Doing some stress testing and gaming, the System Agent voltage seem to be hovering around 1.024V and 1.032V, which is well below 1.1V. Though I still can't explain why I once saw the voltage at 1.176V - if I were to bump it up to 1.1V instead of the low numbers, who knows where it could end up at momentarily?