Overclocking the Z590 Motherboards

OldMike65 said:

or

Overclocking the Z590 Motherboards

Hi,
Maybe I got the right chip for z590 lol

Hi,
Might as well drop this read off rog forum should apply to z590 as well
Cleaned up a bit he used some weird symbol that messed it up

Code:

MCE
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?106375-MCE-explanations-and-others

I'm seeing quite a lot of misunderstanding the workings of MCE so Im partly writing this to address it.
It is not the taboo that it has been made up to become. There are 3 options for it, namely Auto,
 enabled and disabled.

Enabled merely maxes out Power and current limits so that users dont have to manually do these themselves.

Disabled sets these limits to intels defaults. Even when you customize ratios, these limits are still in 
place unless manually adjusted.

Auto means that the board has liberty to determine what limits are reasonable, competitive, reliable and 
logical. Factors such as thermal, performance, Segment, competitors out of box perf, stability are taken 
into account. Logical meaning that when you customize a ratio, all limits are raised to the max with the 
logical assumption that you want to run that frequency and not clip from power.
Therefore it is totally redundant to disable MCE and then max out power and current limits, since enabling 
MCE does the exact same thing and no more. Really, just leave MCE at auto if you plan on overclocking, it 
does you no harm.

TVB

Now for the current emphasis on totally stock perf of the is by the review sites, all the attention is on 
TDP but thats just a gnat compared to the camel swallowed. NO site actually talked about and examined the 
latest feature of the i9, Thermal Velocity Boost TVB. By default Intel enables this but I see that only 
Asus boards enable this at defaults. The other boards I tested have this disabled even at defaults.

What this does is it reduces voltage guardbands depending on core temp. Traditionally, the voltage request 
by the proc is always based on worst case scenario TJMAX, meaning the voltage the proc thinks it needs for 
the frequency when temp is 100c. It is well-known that the cooler the chip runs, the lesser the voltage 
needed. Therefore TVB is opportunistically reducing power and temps. The behavior is quite linear and I 
observed the following on several samples.

TVB takes effect from 40~50x on 99k and 40 to 49x on 97k and 40 to 47x on 96k, simply 40x to single core 
boost ratio. The V/temp curve runs from 0c to 100c. For example 150mv delta between 100c and 0c for 50x, 
meaning every 1C drop from 100c VID requested will reduce by 1.5mv. The reduction is smaller as you go down 
to 49x, the smaller the ratio the smaller the reduction, and below 40x you get no reduction. This is good 
for most people running stock. You can try this yourself by noting the VID idle, and then unplug your water 
pump and let the core temp rise slowly, noting down the correlated temp/VID, and see what i'm talking about.


During OC, when you try to run adaptive mode voltage with this mechanism, you will need to change your 
perspective in how you set the after target adaptive voltages since you need to assume thats the 
voltage you get when 100c and do the reduction to your lowest (usually ambient) temp and gauge what voltage 
is needed to be set. So if you set 1.35v for example, when you idle at 30c you will get maybe 1.25v instead. 
This can be confusing for many people, therefore we disable TVB once you customize a ratio. This is not to say 
you cannot exploit this mechanism to work for you during OC but you really need to find out your idle Vmin 
(lowest stable voltage). You can find this option in CPU internal power management in the bios and you can force 
it to enable during OC.
For those who want to check or try this on other boards, simply download r/w everything http://rweverything.
com/ and add CPU MSR 0x150

Access this register and set bit 63 to 1 and [39:32] to 18h:

https://ibb.co/gUyvUf

Bit 3 shows you if TVB is enabled or disabled (0=disabled). If TVB is disabled, simply flip the bit and use 
command 19 to write.

https://ibb.co/jCEDFL

https://ibb.co/muKDFL


Then you can see what the default stock behavior is really like. This will truly affect temperature, 
power consumption, boost frequencies when TDP is default, etc so those who want to dig deeper into Ãt stock 
performance
really needs to get this correct.

The other thing that also affects ‘stock performance is the ACDC loadline programmed into the 
processor. Boards should let CPU know the actual loadline the board is currently set to by writing the 
correct loadline. This doesn’t mean that the board has to be honest about it, and with the 
generous guardband Intel are used to providing (not as generous any more perhaps Ãter well you 
know they need to factor in stability after 10 years of heavy use for example), it is not uncommon for boards
 to lie to the processor so as to get it to undervolt. You cannot really tell how much the board has lied to
 the proc but at the same frequency/load, just by probing the inductor on different boards with a multimeter,
 you can see that at least more than one board is lying to the proc. Obviously TVB setting should be similar 
during the test or else you get very skewed results as explained above.

Finally, VRM temp should not be the only factor when evaluating a VRM, much less a whole board. For OC, my 
opinion is that transient response is very important. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need expensive 
equipment to test transient response. You can use Cache OC or AVX offset to test this.

If you played with Cache OC, you see that it is very intolerant of any undershoots. Straightaway you would 
hardlock or BSOD. You can even test it at default. Since it shares the same rail as core, set core ratio to 
something really low like 40x. Set min and max cache ratio to 43x and set a manual voltage like 1.15v. Run a
 heavy load like prime 95 non AVX. Dynamically slowly reduce the voltage 5mv at a time. You will find the 
VMIN this way. Once you find the VMIN under continuous load, stop prime95. If it doesn't hang, run it again,
 back and forth between running and stopping. Even try booting straight from bios with that VMIN. You will 
see that this VMIN requires a guardband for transient load changes, meaning you will need 5mv+++ more. You 
will observe bigger guardbands needed at higher cache. Obviously the better the transient response, the 
guardband requirement is smaller.

There is also AVX offset, or ratio change mechanism in general that you can observe transient response. 
First, find the VMIN under continuous heavy load like prime95 non AVX 26.6 on say 47x cpu ratio or something
 with a manual mode voltage with AVX offset at 0.
Next set AVX offset to any value, such as 1 or 2. Run the same frequency/load at it's VMIN. It will not last
 too long.

Avx offset or other ratio change mechanisms has always had this issue whereby voltage guardband needed is 
bigger
Heres why, the ratio change takes place by getting the core plls to go to sleep and then waking up to new 
pll frequency.
The transient is very bad and violent when u run high loads cos it will go from really high load to almost 
no load and back to high load very quickly.

Now you may think you did not even run AVX. For AVX offset, a lot of background stuff may run a few AVX 
instructions, such as dot net framework.
Sometimes u can see avx offset occur when u dont deliberately run avx, its usually very 
fast and you only see the small pockets.
Therefore the ratio change occurs quickly and vmin is raised due to the guardband requirement increasing.

The way to mitigate this is to use a steep LLC and higher vid. The transient will be better.

You can trigger this guardband by doing other stuff that changes ratio, such as when running prime 95, 
keep setting down short duration power limit and upping it with XTU continuously.
The ratio will keep changing and finally hang when your guardband is just enough.
Or just keep changing ratio up and down.

Therefore use AVX offset bearing the extra guardband in mind. This is totally the behavior of Intels proc. 
Again, obviously you can gauge the ‘responsiveness’ of a board by measuring 
the GB needed. For example you can logically conclude that a board that requires 150mv GB is less ƒagile 
than a board that requires 80mv guardband.


Adaptive Voltage

Lets start from the basics, how the CPU's Dynamic Freq volt scaling works.
#1 the mobo's bios tells the processor the current loadline characteristics via AC DC loadline values.
#2 the cpu, based on its own native VF curve and the info in #1, requests for a voltage from the controller.

#3 the voltage that eventually reaches the cpu is this voltage minus the droop from loadline

easier to understand from an example:

10900k running at 4.9ghz currently and drawing 150A. bios programmed AC DC LL to 0.50MOhm.
the cpu's native vf point at 4.9ghz is 1.30v.
the cpu anticipates 75mv droop. (V=I*R,,, 150*0.5) the cpu requests for 1.30v + 75mv = 1.375v from 
controller
the current VRM loadline the user sets is level 3 which is about 1.1MOhm.
the actual voltage that the cpu eventually gets after the vdroop from the mobo is 
1.375v- (150*1.1)mv = 1.21v

##Note: The above is an illustration without TVB voltage optimization enabled. if it is enabled, 
then it adds another variable into the equation @ #2 (volt requested for -volt optimization from 
temperature -> we leave this as zero so that it is more understandable in the above example)

After understanding this, we can better explain Adaptive voltage, which is not too complicated but 
requires you to bear in mind the rules it follows.

1) When cpu frequency is smaller than or equal to the highest default boost freq, for eg 5.3 on 10900k 
(lets call this p0 freq):
whatever you set as an adaptive voltage is ignored by the cpu since it only references its own native vf 
curve at freq <=p0freq

2) And even if you are at a freq higher than p0 freq, if you set a value that is smaller than its native 
p0 freq vid, this gets ignored too.

example:
10900k with a native vid of 1.5v at 53x. you run synch all cores 52x and try to set 1.45v adaptive. this is 
futile becos cpu ignores it due to 1)
then you go up to 54x and try to set 1.475v, this is futile as well as the cpu again ignores it due to 2).
then you set voltage to 1.52v, then the cpu finally starts honoring this request because 1) and 2) are false.

=> so in short, adaptive voltage ONLY takes effect if freq >p0freq & value > native p0vid. And even so the 
eventual voltage you get is the result after going thru #1,#2,#3

so what to do for freq <=p0 freq, how to get volt u want in this range? well, short of offsets / vf pt 
offsets, you can manipulate the variables in #1 and #3 to get the v you want, ie manipulate AC DC LL 
values and/OR VRM Loadline values. for my preference, i would stick to a good VRM loadline that is good 
for transient, example Level 4, fix it in this position and trim AC DC LL values.

The svid behavior option just contains static AC DC LL presets, apart from "Trained" which is part of the 
AI algo, that sets a predicted AC DC LL value taking into account freq, cpu/cooler characteristics/vrm ll 
value.



S/w VID readings

S/w vid readings may not always reflect the actual vid requested from the controller, in fact, unless DC 
Loadline is written to 0.01, it wont.
what it reflects is actually the voltage cpu anticipates to get, calculated from DC LL value.
so for example, when you see VID reading of 1.35v and DC Loadline value is 0.5MOhm, what is actually 
requested from the controller is:
(for simplicity im gonna leave out the fixed 200mv offset requested by cpu for >=8cores)
1.35v+0.5*current at the moment:
for example:
1.35v + (0.5*180A) mv= 1.44v

So why dont we set DC LL to 0.01 and AC LL to whatever we need (since the actual vdroop compensation cpu 
requests for boils down to AC LL Value)?
Well you can but when AC and DC LL values differ, the current and power calculations done by the cpu gets 
skewed.



New VF Pt offsets on Z490:

the vf curve refers to the stock vid of the proc at various freq and the vf pt offset allows you to fine 
tune per each point. All these pertain to adaptive voltage mode instead of manual mode, since manual mode 
uses a fixed voltage setting across all freq. Bear in mind the nuance that it has to be monotonic and 
setting a higher freq with a lower resultant volt will only get volt as low as the point before it.
As an example, you see from bios menu or s/w that vf pt 53x is 1.334v vid
vf point 7 , the pt before that is 1.314v
say you target 1.25v VID for 53x, setting negative offset of -0.084 for vf point 8(53x) will only result 
in at actual 1.314v since vf point 7 is 1.314v and u cannot set pt 8 lower than pt 7. at this time, you 
then decide to set vf pt 7 to negative -0.069‬, and this sets vf pt 7 down and also allows vf pt 8 
to come down to 1.25v.
the software tool i posted forces you to adhere to this rule so its useful for runtime testing in os and 
allows you to free yourself from doing the math.

this is to illustrate the rule it adheres to, but an illogical approach because i dont think one should 
target a voltage for a freq but target a freq and get the necessary volt for it.
so in actual use case, you would just be trimming and trimming each point, double checking stability 
throughout the trimming process.


Edit: 11/19

Update of new Feature: Overclocking TVB:

OverClocking TVB is an extension of the TVB feature allowing you to customize frequencies according to 
temperature.
This, in my opinion, is a useful feature that milks the last bit you have got at light loads without 
requiring additional voltage. In a nutshell, it takes that 5~8C extra margin you’ve got, and converts it 
into additional frequency.
It is only supported on 10900K/non K variants atm, and maybe 10850K. IF unsupported, the information will 
display N/A
Everything TVB related is now grouped into the Thermal Velocity Boost menu:

At the top, it reads back the current configuration of the OCTVB.
For this to work properly, CStates must be enabled for proc to be active core aware! If you synch all cores,
 make sure you manually enable Cstates.
Active Cores refer to the row of settings applicable when that number of cores are active. Ratio Setting 
refers to the associated core ratio for that active core count. Temp A refers to Temperature A for that 
active core count above which the ratio would drop by it’s associated Ratio offset. This offset is the 
Negative Ratio Offset A pictured above. Temp B refers to Temperature B for that active core count above 
which the ratio would drop by a further 1x.
Let’s take a simple example below:

Right now Cpu runs at 50C and only core is currently active. Ratio is therefore 55x.
User does something, the active core gets hotter and becomes 72C, and still only 1 core active. Ratio now 
becomes 55-1=54x because 72c is > Temp A 68C and the negative offet is 1. If negative offset is 2 for eg, 
then it will become 55-2=53x.
And then, the user loads it further and now temperature is 82C. Ratio now is 55-1(from TempA) -1(from TempB)
 =53x because temp is > tempB of 78C and a further 1x is deducted. Temp B negative offset cannot be 
configured and is a fixed 1x.
Then the user does something different and now 3 cores are active. The applicable row becomes the third 
row in the picture above. CPU runs at 60C right now and so none of TempA/B has been exceeded, therefore 
ratio is the original 53x. then proc gets to 77C, TempA is breached, it’s associated offset is 3x so proc 
drops to 50X. Again it runs hotter still, gets to 87C. TempB is breached, proc drops a further 1x and ratio 
is now 49x. And the story continues…

Hopefully, this example is enough to explain.

The control is under Overclocking TVB, customize it using “Enabled”
When enabled, you get to customize the params for each row (each active core count) The Ratio, 
you configure it the main menu like you always do, whether you go with synch all cores 
(if you go with synch all cores pls manually enable cstates so that the proc can tell number of active cores)

 or by core usage it doesn’t affect this.

It can be very time consuming to customize it yourself, so we have made 2 predicted presets for you, the 
+1boost profile and +2boost profile

Just use it ON TOP of your current/maximized oc setting.
It will do an additional 1x/2x on top of your current setting and set auto-calculated temperature boundaries
 based on the associated frequency. This does not add voltage because it still uses the voltage before 
adding the boost and merely tries to scrap some performance from moments when there is thermal headroom.
So for example, I would load Ai optimized, then enable to +1boost. I find it stable, feel a bit adventurous,
 then I change it to +2boost and try.
Or my current OC is 54X @ 1.4v, I keep this and I just go into OCTVB to enable +1 boost. (if you go with 
synch all cores pls manually enable cstates so that the proc can tell number of active cores, or just use 
by core usage and set every core count to same value)

Hi,
Yep like to read Steve's take on this custom loop deal @essenbe
He used to water cool and switched back to an aio

OldMike65 said:

He's been watching us chat on Cinebench last few days ...I've seen him.

Hi,
Probably looking at off topic options lol