Overclocking 5960x and CPU Voltage Modes

[Colonel Klink]

I’ve been a long time reader, however 1st time posting.
I have a few questions that have been hard to get answered with Google searches.
I have tried to do as much reading as I could online, and I’ve built a new setup with the specs listed in my signature and decided to try my hand, for the 1st time, at overclocking the CPU. I have been able to get a 4.5ghz OC (CPU multiplier@ 36, CPU cache multiplier@ 24 for now) @ 1.22v manual setting, BCLK @ 125, and XMP enabled to get 3ghz from my memory. XMP set my BCLK to 125. Running Aida64 for an hour or so, HWMonitor report that the individual cores generally stay in the mid 60s - 70sc. However, the Package” temp is usually reporting higher - mid 70s - 80s. I plan to stress test longer in the near future.

1. Should I be looking at the “Package” temp or the individual cores, or some other value?
   
2. I notice that once the system load is gone when I stop stressing, the core speeds drop from 4.5ghz to 1.5ghz (which I believe is due to EIST and which I want it to do), temps come down on the individual cores to around mid to low 30s, but the VID stays at 1.22v since it’s set to manual. My question is, even though clock speeds and heat come down and normalize, is it ok to have the core voltage set 1.22, or anything that’s higher than stock, permanently?
   
3. I thought to use “Adaptive” mode for CPU voltage to bring it down via Speedstep but since my BCLK is set to 125 due to XMP, I have read that I cannot use the “Adaptive” setting. I’ve been reading OC guides that suggest and walk through using “Offset” instead. My understanding is that “Offset” just adds or subtracts a certain manually entered amount of voltage onto, or from your stock idle core voltage and max voltage under load. OC guides say that once you have determined your max stable voltage for your OC using the manual core setting, change the setting to “Offset”, without adding an offset value, reboot, make note of the idle voltage, and make note of the voltage while running a stress test. Then, the difference between my new max voltage in “Offset” mode and my known, stable manual voltage would be my offset value. Most people are saying the “Offset” mode will generally give you a higher, unwanted voltage than your stable, manual voltage so your offset value will typically be negative. By example; 1.22v(stable manual) - 1.29v(offset mode) = -.07(offset value). This make sense how it’s supposed to work, but after changing from manual voltage setting to offset, my PC won’t boot to Windows. Since Windows won’t load, I can’t take note of the new voltage values at idle or under load in order to obtain my offset value. I notice that the reported voltage in the BIOS changed back to a lower voltage as when it was set at “Auto”, which makes sense, but it won’t load to Windows at that voltage. I started playing with +/positive offset values and was finally able to boot with a value over .10. What I found is that for me to achieve my 4.5ghz OC @ 1.22v, I have to use an offset value of +.22. That seems a rather high value and it doesn’t seem like it should work this way. Can anyone shed some light on this?
   
4. Lastly, with Offset mode enabled @ a value of +.22, HWMonitor shows my VID being ~1.22v and core clock speed @ 4.5ghz for 30-45 seconds after initial boot. Then it ramps down to ~.941v and 1.5ghz once Speedstep kicks in. My guess is that was why I couldn’t boot to Windows without applying an offset value to bring the core voltage to over 1.0v. Is this normal?

Sorry for the long, wordy first post and I hope it makes sense. I appreciate any thoughts. Thank you.

 

[Colonel Klink]

I think I figured out answers to most of my questions via many Google searches and trial and error. I believe I have a pretty stable configuration running Aida64 for over 8 hours with the following:
BCLK @ 125
CPU @ 4500mhz @ CPU Core Ratio 36 @ 1.22v
CPU Cache Ratio 34 @ 1.30v
DDR4 @ XMP 3000mhz @ 1.35v