How low have you undervolted an Ivy Bridge?

tikiman2012

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 16, 2009
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I have gotten my i3 3225 down to .848 @ 2.6 Ghz. It uses less power now than my i3 2120T did.
 
Well yeah. To remain absolutely functional for my purposes & use as little power as possible.

Being [H] isn't just about getting it up. It also covers how low you can go. :D
 
Unfortunately there are no voltage adjustments for the core on this itx board, only for the ram. (knew this going in, it's a temporary board) The voltage is stock, but I have all the power saving functions enabled. It idles around 75 watts, which is a far cry from where it was at with my 1090T. The lowest that I've seen my HTPC idle down to is 58 watts in its current configuration, which is pretty good considering all the hardware in it.
 
that is good, my current build idles at 60 watts with 1 fan running, 3570K, Asrock z77 extreme 4, 7850, 2x 830 ssd's and a 3TB wd green. Which is a nice jump for me from my Q9650 and 4850 which was ~100 watts idle
 
On my old MSI board I had my 3570k down to 1.006v at 4.0ghz which would droop to .996v under load. My current Gigabyte board has no provisions for voltage adjustment (Z77N-wifi) so I am swapping it out with a different ITX board to try to achieve a similar undervolt. Keeps it incredibly cool, max load was 58*C with a CM V8 and a single silent fan.
 
I think I've got my 3570k at around 1.12v under load at 4.3Ghz, dips to 0.888v or so at idle (as low as 1.6Ghz at idle of course).

I'm not even sure I've used the best method to achieve this overclock:

AsRock z77 extreme4

-0.090 [edited to add a zero] or so offset, LLC 2, PLL at around 1.67 perhaps, DDR3-1866 8-9-8-2T @ 1.495v (4x2gb g.skill eco); Thermalright Archon @ 60-71C under load (11C spread, more at higher loads).

I got to this setting rather easily so I have not messed with it. My IHS probably isn't making good contact: temps rise too much at 4.5Ghz. 4.3Ghz is the sweet-spot until I de-lid.
 
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I think I've got my 3570k at around 1.12v under load at 4.3Ghz, dips to 0.888v or so at idle (as low as 1.6Ghz at idle of course).

I'm not even sure I've used the best method to achieve this overclock:

AsRock z77 extreme4

-0.90 or so offset, LLC 2, PLL at around 1.67 perhaps, DDR3-1866 8-9-8-2T @ 1.495v (4x2gb g.skill eco); Thermalright Archon @ 60-71C under load (11C spread, more at higher loads).

I got to this setting rather easily so I have not messed with it. My IHS probably isn't making good contact: temps rise too much at 4.5Ghz. 4.3Ghz is the sweet-spot until I de-lid.


You could probably get away with dropping the PLL to around 1.600v and it might lower your temps a little. 70*C isn't hot at all for IB, I don't worry until mine gets into the low 90's, more concerned about it being quiet than the lowest temps I can achieve.
 
I think I've got my 3570k at around 1.12v under load at 4.3Ghz, dips to 0.888v or so at idle (as low as 1.6Ghz at idle of course).

I'm not even sure I've used the best method to achieve this overclock:

AsRock z77 extreme4

-0.090 [edited to add a zero] or so offset, LLC 2, PLL at around 1.67 perhaps, DDR3-1866 8-9-8-2T @ 1.495v (4x2gb g.skill eco); Thermalright Archon @ 60-71C under load (11C spread, more at higher loads).

I got to this setting rather easily so I have not messed with it. My IHS probably isn't making good contact: temps rise too much at 4.5Ghz. 4.3Ghz is the sweet-spot until I de-lid.

Hey man, take the de-lidding plunge and enjoy the massive temperature savings, along with the extra OC headroom (since you will reduce the chances of throttling GREATLY)!

While I, and many many others have used the simple razor blade trick with great success, there are others that have messed up right away, or gotten 95% done and then damaged their cpu..This usually happens when the last little bit of silicon paste that holds the IHS to the PCB gives way unexpectedly, and it's VERY,VERY hard to predict when that will happen and control the amount of force on the razor blade..

I would recommend using this EXCELLENT guide from IDontCare over @ Anandtech..It is wonderfully written and has tons of pictures..
 
I think I've got my 3570k at around 1.12v under load at 4.3Ghz, dips to 0.888v or so at idle (as low as 1.6Ghz at idle of course).

I'm not even sure I've used the best method to achieve this overclock:

AsRock z77 extreme4

-0.090 [edited to add a zero] or so offset, LLC 2, PLL at around 1.67 perhaps, DDR3-1866 8-9-8-2T @ 1.495v (4x2gb g.skill eco); Thermalright Archon @ 60-71C under load (11C spread, more at higher loads).

I got to this setting rather easily so I have not messed with it. My IHS probably isn't making good contact: temps rise too much at 4.5Ghz. 4.3Ghz is the sweet-spot until I de-lid.


I have the same setup @4.2Ghz and I'm down to -.140v on cpu in offset mode and I get 1.15v with load level 3, then at idle cpuz shows .76v. I also tried an get no boot at 4.3 with LLC 2 on current offset so it will need more juice.


Wondering how you get down 1.12v maybe the vids on the chips are diff, but mine seems to start at 1.25v using offset mode which is high, since I'm using more offset and less LLC and have a higher voltage

This is at 4.2Ghz with all power saving settings enabled, I also get temps around 70C on the hottest core with a 7C spread. I also thought about deliding the IHS, which I did on my old Opty 165 and its was not worth it IMO, which is why I didnt do it on my Q9650. Mainly b/c the extra 1-200Mhz is not worth it for what I use it for daily

Oh and my PLL is just over 1.6v

Had to bump my VCCSA up to 1.1v for the 4 sticks of 4gb Samsung ram which runs 1866@ 9-9-9-28-1T @1.35v
 
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