H100i V2 High Temps

Assuming the H100iV2 is connected to the CPU_FAN header you need to disable fan control in the BIOS. Have you done this?

Attach the CL4 [Home] tab screen as a .PNG file so we can see all the fan/pump speeds and temperatures.

What is the room temperature?

Assuming the H100iV2 is connected to the CPU_FAN header you need to disable fan control in the BIOS. Have you done this?

 

Attach the CL4 [Home] tab screen as a .PNG file so we can see all the fan/pump speeds and temperatures.

 

What is the room temperature?

This is the Corsair Link image sir, however, I don't know how to calculate the room temp. And you're right, h100iv2 is connected to CPU_FAN and usb 2.0 on the motherboard. Also, the fan control in the bios is disabled. BTW I'm using pull configuration. My nephew played 1 match of CSGO and I saw the temperature reached 65c

Generally, there are two types of problems with installing the cooler.

1) The first is a problem with the coolant flow within the unit. When this is a problem, your CPU temps will appear normal on cold boot, but slowly and consistently rise while sitting idle at the desktop. This is best observed through the H100i v2 Temp reading in the last box on the Link main page. This is the water temperature. Any kind of load will cause a sudden rise in water temp and it will remain elevated even after the load ceases.

2) The other type of common issue is the physical contact between the cold plate on the pump block and the CPU heat spreader. This can be a bad application of Thermal Interface Material (usually erratic or random CPU temp readings), but more often is the result of less than optimal physical contact between the two. Sometimes the pieces don't quite line up right and the fit has to be perfect. The orientation of the backplate is a common cause. With all of the above, your CPU temps will be consistently high or abnormally spiky when presented with low loads, like opening a browser or other program. However, the H100i v2 Temp (water temp) will remain mostly unchanged, even when presented with actual sustained load, as the heat is not being transferred into the water system.

In your screen shot, the water temp is about 34C. Normally, your water temp will idle about 4-6C over your room temperature, although this is case layout and environmentally dependent. So, if this was a rather warm day in the house or the screen shot was taken after a long period of running, then that may be a valid explanation. If it was 23C in the room and you only had the browser open, that is something to look at further.

I also noticed your fans are only turning at 900 rpm with a 34C water temp. I would expect much faster. Did you change the fan speed dependent variable to CPU package temp? If so, put it back on the H100i group (water temp) for now. Are you using a custom fan curve?

Generally, there are two types of problems with installing the cooler.

 

1) The first is a problem with the coolant flow within the unit. When this is a problem, your CPU temps will appear normal on cold boot, but slowly and consistently rise while sitting idle at the desktop. This is best observed through the H100i v2 Temp reading in the last box on the Link main page. This is the water temperature. Any kind of load will cause a sudden rise in water temp and it will remain elevated even after the load ceases.

 

2) The other type of common issue is the physical contact between the cold plate on the pump block and the CPU heat spreader. This can be a bad application of Thermal Interface Material (usually erratic or random CPU temp readings), but more often is the result of less than optimal physical contact between the two. Sometimes the pieces don't quite line up right and the fit has to be perfect. The orientation of the backplate is a common cause. With all of the above, your CPU temps will be consistently high or abnormally spiky when presented with low loads, like opening a browser or other program. However, the H100i v2 Temp (water temp) will remain mostly unchanged, even when presented with actual sustained load, as the heat is not being transferred into the water system.

 

 

In your screen shot, the water temp is about 34C. Normally, your water temp will idle about 4-6C over your room temperature, although this is case layout and environmentally dependent. So, if this was a rather warm day in the house or the screen shot was taken after a long period of running, then that may be a valid explanation. If it was 23C in the room and you only had the browser open, that is something to look at further.

 

I also noticed your fans are only turning at 900 rpm with a 34C water temp. I would expect much faster. Did you change the fan speed dependent variable to CPU package temp? If so, put it back on the H100i group (water temp) for now. Are you using a custom fan curve?

I can't remember the room temp and the time I took the screenshot. By the way, I currently work as a writer now and I usually have more than 10 tabs open. I tried to restart my computer and I reopened all the closed tabs all at once. The CPU usage shot up to 100% on all threads and cores, my CPU reached 67c or close to 70c. is that normal? and I noticed that my CPU voltage is sometimes reaching above 1.315v

It's is starting to look like a contact issue. It's fairly normal to have a noticeable CPU spike when opening programs, particularly if using Windows 10 and Google Chrome. However, 70C is out of bounds and larger than expected temperature spikes are usually the result of less than ideal contact between the cold plate and CPU. You don't get abnormally high spikes when there is a problem with the cooler, just consistently rising temperatures the longer you are up and running.

I can't help you with the expected voltage range for your CPU, since I skipper over that series. However, the first place to start is with the backplate and the mounting.

It's is starting to look like a contact issue. It's fairly normal to have a noticeable CPU spike when opening programs, particularly if using Windows 10 and Google Chrome. However, 70C is out of bounds and larger than expected temperature spikes are usually the result of less than ideal contact between the cold plate and CPU. You don't get abnormally high spikes when there is a problem with the cooler, just consistently rising temperatures the longer you are up and running.

 

I can't help you with the expected voltage range for your CPU, since I skipper over that series. However, the first place to start is with the backplate and the mounting.

I think I'm having the same problem but I want to confirm it with you :biggrin:

I'm idling at around 40C CPU Package (pc running for 2hrs + after encoding) and like vhelskud was saying, when opening Chrome temps spike to 60C. Is 60C ok? (Water Temp 36.5C)

But my main concern is when I'm encoding, CPU temps go to 85-90C. Is that normal for AIO? The Water temps slowly rise but wouldn't that cool the CPU more then what I'm getting?

For the Backplate and Mounting, will I need to redo the whole thing or can I just tighten the top strews to get better contact?

You have to be careful with package temperature. Sensor placement is often different for specific CPUs, so it is hard to turn that into a universal value. My guess is your core temps are cooler than this at idle, although voltage, power plan, and C-state options will affect this as well. Can you provide some basic frequency/voltage information?

The Chrome spikes were pretty common at the time of the original post. However, mine have long since gone away with Microsoft, Google, or whoever making the necessary adjustments. I still have some games that spike on launch (higher than their actual load temps), but that is about it. If you have a genuine contact problem, every program will spike on launch. It is helpful if you can see your core activity/frequency when this happens to differentiate between a genuine load event and poor thermal contact. I can't be certain at this point, but if you had a definite physical gap between CPU and cold plate, your render jobs would be untenable within seconds.

Absolutely DO NOT take a screwdriver and crank down as hard as you can. Hand tightening should be enough or if you can really reach or get your hands in there, a one-quarter gentle turn with a screwdriver is plenty. If you have a subtle contact problem, it is likely related to a misaligned backplate, irregular motherboard thickness, or something else more elusive. Tightening down will not help.

It is hard to distinguish based on this information alone. What is particularly helpful is the coolant delta or change in H100i v2 Temp from start to peak on things like a render or other load. Run a mild stress test like Intel XTU for 10 minutes. It has a wave pattern of loading that is easy gauge. Before you begin, note the H100i v2 temp. Take it again after the test has finished. Also, before starting the test, click the little wrench on the line graph. Configure the graph to show all 4 cores individually. This can be helpful in detecting a contact problem. The graph should be relatively smooth, but may be overly spiky if there is a gap.

You have to be careful with package temperature. Sensor placement is often different for specific CPUs, so it is hard to turn that into a universal value. My guess is your core temps are cooler than this at idle, although voltage, power plan, and C-state options will affect this as well. Can you provide some basic frequency/voltage information?

 

The Chrome spikes were pretty common at the time of the original post. However, mine have long since gone away with Microsoft, Google, or whoever making the necessary adjustments. I still have some games that spike on launch (higher than their actual load temps), but that is about it. If you have a genuine contact problem, every program will spike on launch. It is helpful if you can see your core activity/frequency when this happens to differentiate between a genuine load event and poor thermal contact. I can't be certain at this point, but if you had a definite physical gap between CPU and cold plate, your render jobs would be untenable within seconds.

 

Absolutely DO NOT take a screwdriver and crank down as hard as you can. Hand tightening should be enough or if you can really reach or get your hands in there, a one-quarter gentle turn with a screwdriver is plenty. If you have a subtle contact problem, it is likely related to a misaligned backplate, irregular motherboard thickness, or something else more elusive. Tightening down will not help.

 

It is hard to distinguish based on this information alone. What is particularly helpful is the coolant delta or change in H100i v2 Temp from start to peak on things like a render or other load. Run a mild stress test like Intel XTU for 10 minutes. It has a wave pattern of loading that is easy gauge. Before you begin, note the H100i v2 temp. Take it again after the test has finished. Also, before starting the test, click the little wrench on the line graph. Configure the graph to show all 4 cores individually. This can be helpful in detecting a contact problem. The graph should be relatively smooth, but may be overly spiky if there is a gap.

Thanks for the replay!

For your first paragraph, I've looked into my C stats on my mobo and noticed it was set to Auto. so my mobo was not using them basically. I've since enabled them and see that my cpu cores have gone from ~38C to to ~29C on idle. Frequencies are Base 4Ghz turbo 4.2Ghz so the stock frequencies and Vcore before the C-stats was I think 1.36V. Now it's between 1v to 1.2v(all idle values)

As for Chrome spikes, I'm getting 50% load and 55C spike temps for the cores. Other programs - iTunes no spike, Spotify did spike the same as chrome, firefox spikes but not as bad as chrome.

For the Intel XTU, Start temp 34.5C Finishing 39.5C.(H100i Temps)

Cores start 30C, at load Lowest 52C highest 70C. The temps were spiking between them values but one core was hotter than the others.

Coolant delta under load is more or less as expected and there are no other signs of malfunctioning cooler. Since not all of your programs are CPU temp spiking, I do not think there is a contact problem at this time. What seems most probable is your Skylake when on Full Auto voltage was/is asking for too much Vcore under certain types of load. This has been a common complain since launch. Like the last several generation of 4 core Intel CPUs, you likely want to set a specific voltage in the BIOS, rather than leave it on default Auto. The default setting is too compliant and is designed to maintain maximum stability by piling on voltage to cover even the worst CPU ever made. Nearly everyone can get by with less.

I am sure we have a lot of other 6700K owners who can contribute to this and there are a lot guides out there. You likely can run your Vcore between 1.175 and 1.25v when at the stock 40 multiplier (or really 42 since Asus will set all 4 cores to the turbo value). You do not have to use fixed/manual voltage. You may want to check where your Vcore tops out before undertaking the steps below. If is is already under control, then there is no real need to do this. The 1.36v is often enough to run 4.7 or 4.8GHz, so that is crux of the issue. Everybody has one hot core (at least), so that is not concerning, nor is it a solvable problem.

For Asus, F7 to Advanced BIOS, then drop down to the Vcore line in Extreme Tweaker column. Replace Auto with "Adaptive" from the drop down list. it will create two more boxes below. Enter 1.20 (or whichever value you choose) into Additional Turbo Mode voltage box. Type 'auto' in the offset box. "+" should be the offset direction. You are going to want to test for stability before doing any rendering.

There is also likely some type of Load Line Calibration (LLC) setting in your BIOS under power management or power settings. You can google up a more thorough description, but this controls how much voltage swing and the levels allowed. The AUTO setting is very loose and would allow large changes in voltage that would be visible as temperature spikes. Possibly too loose so for rendering. A more medium value like 4,5, or 6 might tighten things up. I also wonder if it will calm down some of the program launch spikes.

Coolant delta under load is more or less as expected and there are no other signs of malfunctioning cooler. Since not all of your programs are CPU temp spiking, I do not think there is a contact problem at this time. What seems most probable is your Skylake when on Full Auto voltage was/is asking for too much Vcore under certain types of load. This has been a common complain since launch. Like the last several generation of 4 core Intel CPUs, you likely want to set a specific voltage in the BIOS, rather than leave it on default Auto. The default setting is too compliant and is designed to maintain maximum stability by piling on voltage to cover even the worst CPU ever made. Nearly everyone can get by with less.

 

I am sure we have a lot of other 6700K owners who can contribute to this and there are a lot guides out there. You likely can run your Vcore between 1.175 and 1.25v when at the stock 40 multiplier (or really 42 since Asus will set all 4 cores to the turbo value). You do not have to use fixed/manual voltage. You may want to check where your Vcore tops out before undertaking the steps below. If is is already under control, then there is no real need to do this. The 1.36v is often enough to run 4.7 or 4.8GHz, so that is crux of the issue. Everybody has one hot core (at least), so that is not concerning, nor is it a solvable problem.

 

For Asus, F7 to Advanced BIOS, then drop down to the Vcore line in Extreme Tweaker column. Replace Auto with "Adaptive" from the drop down list. it will create two more boxes below. Enter 1.20 (or whichever value you choose) into Additional Turbo Mode voltage box. Type 'auto' in the offset box. "+" should be the offset direction. You are going to want to test for stability before doing any rendering.

 

There is also likely some type of Load Line Calibration (LLC) setting in your BIOS under power management or power settings. You can google up a more thorough description, but this controls how much voltage swing and the levels allowed. The AUTO setting is very loose and would allow large changes in voltage that would be visible as temperature spikes. Possibly too loose so for rendering. A more medium value like 4,5, or 6 might tighten things up. I also wonder if it will calm down some of the program launch spikes.

Thank you for all the help you're giving me with this! :biggrin:

So I've set the Vcore to adaptive but I couldn't change the Additional Turbo Mode Voltage from Auto. Also changed the LLC to 5.

Now the Vcore is going between 0.9V to 1.2V on idle but still a spike from chrome. Cores to go 50C with a load of 18% and Vcore still goes to 1.36V with that spike. Spotify with load of 45% but levels down the load slower so maybe normal load and not a spike?

I think the temperature spikes are normal for the programs and appreciable for those 1.30+ voltage blips. That is the cause.

Image of Adaptive Setting enabled in BIOS with two drop down boxes.

http://www.tweaktown.com/image.php?image=imagescdn.tweaktown.com/content/7/4/7425_53_asus-rog-maximus-viii-impact-mini-itx-intel-z170-motherboard-review_full.png

If the voltage is still overriding the specified adaptive levels once you have it set right, you might also take a look at the IA load line calibration. In the Kaby lake guide, Asus suggests setting both IA values to 0.01 to prevent the heavy voltage overshoot.

http://www.tweaktown.com/image.php?image=imagescdn.tweaktown.com/content/7/4/7425_48_asus-rog-maximus-viii-impact-mini-itx-intel-z170-motherboard-review_full.png

I think the temperature spikes are normal for the programs and appreciable for those 1.30+ voltage blips. That is the cause.

 

 

Image of Adaptive Setting enabled in BIOS with two drop down boxes.

http://www.tweaktown.com/image.php?image=imagescdn.tweaktown.com/content/7/4/7425_53_asus-rog-maximus-viii-impact-mini-itx-intel-z170-motherboard-review_full.png

 

 

 

If the voltage is still overriding the specified adaptive levels once you have it set right, you might also take a look at the IA load line calibration. In the Kaby lake guide, Asus suggests setting both IA values to 0.01 to prevent the heavy voltage overshoot.

http://www.tweaktown.com/image.php?image=imagescdn.tweaktown.com/content/7/4/7425_48_asus-rog-maximus-viii-impact-mini-itx-intel-z170-motherboard-review_full.png

Still can't change the Additional Turbo Mode.

You can't click in the box to the direct right of "Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage" and type in 1.25? There will be no drop down menu and if you want to return it to Auto, you must type "AUTO" into the box.

"Total Adaptive voltage by CPU" means it is still following the pre-programmed table and that would explain the voltage blips.

You can't click in the box to the direct right of "Additional Turbo Mode CPU Core Voltage" and type in 1.25? There will be no drop down menu and if you want to return it to Auto, you must type "AUTO" into the box.

 

"Total Adaptive voltage by CPU" means it is still following the pre-programmed table and that would explain the voltage blips.

:sigh!: I feel like a right idiot :laughing:

All set and looks like everything is good. Just doing a 30min XTU test and core temps are look good (50-62C and H100i 41.7C) and Vcore staying at 1.22V (idle 0.9-1.1V).

If I wanted to OC, would I have to change the Vcore much? maybe oc to 4.5Ghz?

Yeah, there are no intuitive BIOS versions out there and you need to learn the language of each brand when you get one. Once you learn the tricks, you are usually set.

Based on the averages of the data out there, my best guess is you would need between 1.275-1.30v to run 4.5GHz. However, now that we know the cooler is working properly and there is not a contact issue, you likely want to get a better sense of stability at your current settings before progressing. Intel XTU is nice mild stress test with a predicable load for people with problems, but is not a good indicator if your are render/encoding/x264 stable. For that, Asus Real Bench might be a better option. I think it is up version 2.54 now and they hide it for some stupid reason. Use Google to find a download. There are other applications that can give a good feel for difficult tasks, but the Asus one is likely easier to use and interpret. There is always a chance you will need to pad your voltage by 0.025 or something over what a gamer or casual user needs for sure stability. Going down 40 minutes into a render is not really fun.

Keep an eye on the peak voltage recorded when running Real Bench or a render. A little overshoot (0.01-0.02) is fine and expected. But if it is still jumping +0.05-0.10 up, then we need to tighten up those IA load line settings.

Yeah, there are no intuitive BIOS versions out there and you need to learn the language of each brand when you get one. Once you learn the tricks, you are usually set.

 

Based on the averages of the data out there, my best guess is you would need between 1.275-1.30v to run 4.5GHz. However, now that we know the cooler is working properly and there is not a contact issue, you likely want to get a better sense of stability at your current settings before progressing. Intel XTU is nice mild stress test with a predicable load for people with problems, but is not a good indicator if your are render/encoding/x264 stable. For that, Asus Real Bench might be a better option. I think it is up version 2.54 now and they hide it for some stupid reason. Use Google to find a download. There are other applications that can give a good feel for difficult tasks, but the Asus one is likely easier to use and interpret. There is always a chance you will need to pad your voltage by 0.025 or something over what a gamer or casual user needs for sure stability. Going down 40 minutes into a render is not really fun.

 

Keep an eye on the peak voltage recorded when running Real Bench or a render. A little overshoot (0.01-0.02) is fine and expected. But if it is still jumping +0.05-0.10 up, then we need to tighten up those IA load line settings.

Did a 15min Stress test on RealBench and the Vcore was at a constant 1.216V. Only problem I had was that my mouse was very laggy when the test was running. Did a quick search and found that it was Asus Sonic Studio. Tired it with it closed and that sorted it.

So to changed the Vcore do I just change the Additional Turbo Mode Value?

Oh and I also the Bus frequency was 100.4Mhz and occasionally change to 100.5Mhz. Is this normal?

And another question :biggrin:. Should I change the core frequency to no Sync all cores that Asus uses so it doesn't always go to 4.2Ghz? With the C-states on it sometimes goes to 800Mhz but this is very rare.

Thanks

To use Adaptive mode with a non-default voltage, set the top box to adaptive, then input your desired top voltage into the "Additional Turbo Mode Box". Last, lease the offset box on "Auto" (type it out if needed). Auto will result in a "0" offset when above the voltage curve. Sometimes if you are undercutting the voltage, it might get add in a larger chunk. In those circumstances, you can use a value of 0.001v. You can also make the total voltage of 1.20 by using an additonal Turbo of 1.15 and an offset of 0.05. This would bolster the curve by 0.05 at lower frequencies. Useful sometimes on poor CPUs.

The little extra tick up to 1.216 is normal and expected. There will always be a little overshoot related to LLC settings. Leave it alone and the extra hundredth at this level is meaningless for temperature, but may be helpful for basic functioning.

Bus frequency may not stay locked at 100.00, particularity if you use AI Suite to monitor it. I haven't played with that in long time. It might tighten up if you manually set it to 100 instead of Auto in the BIOS, however you would need to remember you have done so and know when it might need to be changed to 125 for a particular memory frequency. Better still, if you using AI Suite for monitoring, start looking for something else. It polls so slowly (5 sec or more) that the values become useless or misleading.

It should drop to 800Mhz when at rest. I think we calculated enough voltage for the 4.2GHz, so leave the Asus Optimized Turbo Mode on (makes all cores run turbo freq. instead of 1) and use sync all cores to the same multiplier. If you used AI Suite to overclock, it might do one of those half and half overclocks like 43-43-42-42. The way Win 10 works now, it will always run the lower multiplier and at these levels there is no reason to shave off a 100Mhz. I don't see any reason to turn off the turbo mode and go to 3.8 unless you are really trying to save energy. At the lower end of the scale, the temp reductions from dropping voltage are small. Once you get above 1.275-1.30v, they start to get very large.

Hi! I have an i7-6700k on an ASUS Z170 Sabertooth S. I have spikes too. Mine goes up to 40 degrees, sometimes not always, while opening Chrome x64 on Windows 10 Pro. My CPU vcore was 1.264v by default and i enabled the ASUS EPU feature, because i'm not overclocking and i disable turbo boost and my vcore went down to 1.200v~1.216v and at 1.184v while stress testing. I think Chrome doesn't like my i7, haha. I underclocked the CPU to 3.5ghz to test it, and when i opened Chrome it only hit 32 degrees C, i think is a "problem" of clocks and not voltages, because with the same voltage or less, on adaptive or manual it's the same. Cheers from Argentina!

I understand and after Win 10 came out my 5820K did this for 6 months then suddenly stopped one day. Whether it was the Chrome, the OS, the CPU behavior, or all three, I will never know. These little temp spikes when opening programs on Win 10 seem to be part of the deal and presumably it's because the OS has been designed to open things faster with a resource cost.

Be careful using the EPU setting. It has considerable effect on your system. Some things you'll notice quickly, like when it starts turning fans off. Other things you will never detect. I can see why it might be useful when setting up large numbers of computers that stay on 24/7, but or your personal computer trying to get your standby wattage from 14W to 12W doesn't seem like a big deal. It has some other effects as well that cannot be undone without going to the BIOS and turning it off. You can tame some of the core behavior through ordinary means or if power saving is important to you, consider the Windows OS power plan adjustment instead, which can be turned on or off with one click from the desktop.

I understand and after Win 10 came out my 5820K did this for 6 months then suddenly stopped one day. Whether it was the Chrome, the OS, the CPU behavior, or all three, I will never know. These little temp spikes when opening programs on Win 10 seem to be part of the deal and presumably it's because the OS has been designed to open things faster with a resource cost.

 

Be careful using the EPU setting. It has considerable effect on your system. Some things you'll notice quickly, like when it starts turning fans off. Other things you will never detect. I can see why it might be useful when setting up large numbers of computers that stay on 24/7, but or your personal computer trying to get your standby wattage from 14W to 12W doesn't seem like a big deal. It has some other effects as well that cannot be undone without going to the BIOS and turning it off. You can tame some of the core behavior through ordinary means or if power saving is important to you, consider the Windows OS power plan adjustment instead, which can be turned on or off with one click from the desktop.

Hello. I'm using the EPU setting and the fans were and are ok. Nothing else happened. In fact, i ran Prime95 small fft for about 2 hours and everything was fine, no errors, no hangs, etc. EPU setting decrease the voltage from 1.264v to 1.200v (stress test was at 1.184v). I think it's ok for stock clocks and no turbo boost. What else could it happen if i leave it enabled? Can i damage the CPU? Thanks!

No, no.. not damage or risk to your hardware. It can impact stability when overclocking, but it should not at the stock settings. However, it is a very broad and not clearly defined set of rules. The EPU protocols will try to snip back power savings wherever it can. It can be on simple things like transfer speeds, how much power or cores the CPU devotes to a task, etc. If the EPU is lowering the voltage, it must also be lowering the frequency or number or cores in use.You are unlikely to get the full performance of your system (regardless of clock speed) with this setting enabled. For some people this is a non-issue and they don't care how long it takes to open a program, have no interest in gaming, and mostly use the PC for light duty.

Hardware is pretty energy efficient these days and you can still have very low power consumption levels at idle in the normal configuration. Enabling the EPU saves power by limiting your computer as you use it, rather then when you are not. Your PC can spike to 60C and back endless times and the height of the core temp increase is directly tied to the voltage that is suddenly applied. Turning on the EPU addresses that by both reducing the voltage and reducing the responsiveness of the CPU.

No, no.. not damage or risk to your hardware. It can impact stability when overclocking, but it should not at the stock settings. However, it is a very broad and not clearly defined set of rules. The EPU protocols will try to snip back power savings wherever it can. It can be on simple things like transfer speeds, how much power or cores the CPU devotes to a task, etc. If the EPU is lowering the voltage, it must also be lowering the frequency or number or cores in use.You are unlikely to get the full performance of your system (regardless of clock speed) with this setting enabled. For some people this is a non-issue and they don't care how long it takes to open a program, have no interest in gaming, and mostly use the PC for light duty.

 

Hardware is pretty energy efficient these days and you can still have very low power consumption levels at idle in the normal configuration. Enabling the EPU saves power by limiting your computer as you use it, rather then when you are not. Your PC can spike to 60C and back endless times and the height of the core temp increase is directly tied to the voltage that is suddenly applied. Turning on the EPU addresses that by both reducing the voltage and reducing the responsiveness of the CPU.

Hi, again. I did a Geekbench benchmark to determine the difference between EPU enabled and disabled and it gave me near the same result: 5200 on single thread and 16200 total. Is that good and ok? Is 1.264~84v high for stocks clocks and no turbo boost? Can i leave EPU enabled so i have 1.200v? (i read 1.2v is the stock voltage for an i7-6700k at stock clocks)

And the spikes are shomething that i must live with or there is a solution? (i underclock the CPU to 3.6ghz, for tests only, and the spikes where reduced from 41 tops to 32-33 degrees) Thanks!

The spikes are normal behavior and it is something you need to get used to. The only way to directly address it is to reduce voltage, which in turn reduces the magnitude of the spike. More likely these things eventually lessen to the point you no longer notice as programs become more efficient.

There is no official stock voltage for any CPU. I am sure there is a general target, but each CPU is unique. How low you can go on a particular CPU is different for each one. My preference would be to manually set the voltage and keep the clocks the same, but this is a user preference. If you want to use the EPU, that is up to you. I just wanted to make sure you knew what it was doing and if you start to run into problems, it is the first thing you should turn off. The EPU program behavior is going to be somewhat different on each platform and I would need an Asus Z170 to play around with to figure out exactly what it does and when. I can't give you answers to that. Perhaps improvements were made between my X99 and your Z170. I don't like giving up control over my system to an unknown set of rules.

The spikes are normal behavior and it is something you need to get used to. The only way to directly address it is to reduce voltage, which in turn reduces the magnitude of the spike. More likely these things eventually lessen to the point you no longer notice as programs become more efficient.

 

There is no official stock voltage for any CPU. I am sure there is a general target, but each CPU is unique. How low you can go on a particular CPU is different for each one. My preference would be to manually set the voltage and keep the clocks the same, but this is a user preference. If you want to use the EPU, that is up to you. I just wanted to make sure you knew what it was doing and if you start to run into problems, it is the first thing you should turn off. The EPU program behavior is going to be somewhat different on each platform and I would need an Asus Z170 to play around with to figure out exactly what it does and when. I can't give you answers to that. Perhaps improvements were made between my X99 and your Z170. I don't like giving up control over my system to an unknown set of rules.

Well, ok, thanks for your time and answers. Cheers!