# Why does my BIOS have CPU VID control and CPU vcore control?



## Widjaja (Mar 21, 2008)

What is the difference between them?
Just need some clarification between them and the pupose of each.

I need a fair bit of juice to overclock this CPU.
It's a OCing POS.
But noticed this motherboard vcore fluctuates alot compared to my old motherboard.
The core will fluctuate from 1.45v-1.49v atm with the settings I have it at.

This is how I have the settings at the moment to keep the 2.6Ghz OC stable.

1.45v VID control

+40mV vcore.


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## DanishDevil (Mar 21, 2008)

They essentially do the same thing I believe, except your vcore setting is in addition to the VID.  My MSI's BIOS has vCore and an additional which I can add %'s to it.


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## Widjaja (Mar 21, 2008)

DanishDevil said:


> They essentially do the same thing I believe, except your vcore setting is in addition to the VID.  My MSI's BIOS has vCore and an additional which I can add %'s to it.



I thnk I have the idea now.

So say if I had the vcore at default and the CPU VID at 1.45 the voltage will fluctuate above and below 1.45v.

So if I set the vcore to +20mV the vcore will fluctuate just above 1.45v?

Ran the CPU through Orthos for a little bit and core 0 gets to a max of 63deg and a average of 58-60 while core 1 gets to a max of 54degC.
Always has.

Temperatures have always been this way in Orthos and Prime95 but never in any games whether or not ith ultilizes multi cores or not.

This is annoyingly normal for my CPU even if CPU-Z says the TCase Max says 59degC.


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## DanishDevil (Mar 21, 2008)

Yeah.  Your CPU VID is measured in Volts (by your BIOS), and your vcore in MilliVolts, so, if you have your CPU VID at 1.45, and your vcore at 20mV, your effective processor voltage is 1.47V.  Divide mV by 1000 to get it in Volts.


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## Widjaja (Mar 21, 2008)

DanishDevil said:


> Yeah.  Your CPU VID is measured in Volts (by your BIOS), and your vcore in MilliVolts, so, if you have your CPU VID at 1.45, and your vcore at 20mV, your effective processor voltage is 1.47V.  Divide mV by 1000 to get it in Volts.



Yeah that all makes sense to me.
Just my motherboard seems to think otherwise.
My CPU is hovering around 1.46v and occassionally jumping to 1.48-9v at +40mV?

Rubbish vregs?

Edit:-
Dropped the vcore voltage to +20mV and the vcore fluctuated mainly below 1.45v.


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## Nitro-Max (Mar 21, 2008)

the vid on my q6600 is 1.275v this is the lowest vcore my quad needs to run at stock although i dont have the vid voltage control on my mobo unless its a amd thing?
core temp also shows my default vid.


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## DanishDevil (Mar 21, 2008)

Widjaja said:


> Yeah that all makes sense to me.
> Just my motherboard seems to think otherwise.
> My CPU is hovering around 1.46v and occassionally jumping to 1.48-9v at +40mV?
> 
> Rubbish vregs?



My proc's voltage fluctuated a bit more on my MSI mobo on my old Enermax PSU than it does on this Gigabyte DS5 board and Antec TPQ 1KW.  It's a combination of PSU and Mobo I think.  The way I set mine is to whatever's stable, and then I watch it fluctuate, and call the lowest that it fluctuates to my voltage.



Nitro-Max said:


> the vid on my q6600 is 1.275v this is the lowest vcore my quad needs to run at stock although i dont have the vid voltage control on my mobo unless its a amd thing?
> core temp also shows my default vid.



Might be an AMD thing.  I can't confirm.  My MSI board's CPU VID only went up to 1.35, and the rest was +??%.  My Gigabyte goes up to 1.75V I think?


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## JrRacinFan (Mar 21, 2008)

I am pretty sure it's related to your whatever AMD's equivalent to Intel's C1E setting, thinking CnQ right? Meaning you set the lowest it can go when throttling.


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## Widjaja (Mar 21, 2008)

Nitro-Max said:


> the vid on my q6600 is 1.275v this is the lowest vcore my quad needs to run at stock although i dont have the vid voltage control on my mobo unless its a amd thing?
> core temp also shows my default vid.



It can't be a AMD thing as my old motherboard only had a vcore voltage and they were in Volts not mV.
No VID control on it either.

Since putting the VID control up to 1.45v coretemp reads it as 1.40v while CPU-Z and HWmonitor show the CPU at 1.45v+.

When I first oveclocked the CPU to 2.6Ghz all I did was up the vcore votage to +40mV but since the voltage hovered all over the place it took forever for the CPU to show instability.

I just don't see the point in having VID control and vcore voltage when you can just up the vcore voltage to do the same thing.

Unless it's there for more precise increments as the vregs is not very stable.
I know the CPU vreg is all done by the motherboard so I'm pretty certain the fluctuation issue lies with the vregs.


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## DanishDevil (Mar 21, 2008)

Well a fluctuation of the PSU would make the mobo work harder, so the less a PSU fluctuates, the easier it is for the mobo to keep voltages stable, and the better chance that the mobo can handle the subtle variations.


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## Widjaja (Mar 21, 2008)

Hmm.
Could be the PSU, I noticed the PSU is warmer as I'm now using 24pins and the PCI-E cable.

Before I was using 20pins and two molex for the X1950pro.

The PSU is probably working harder.

Unfortunately I don't have another PSU to test this theory of the PSU being the culprit for the vcore fluctuations.

I'm getting an avg of 51degC in CPU intensive games so I'm safe there.


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## Mussels (Mar 21, 2008)

you have two options on some boards, because they actually have two things raising the voltage. Some boards they go through the effort and tie them together (so that if the first one capped out at 1.40v, anything above that adds the second method as well to raise it higher)

Other boards they cant be stuffed or want the user to have more control, and let you do it that way. DFI Nforce4 boards had this, they had the normal voltage control and a % boost. (104%, 127$ etc) to increase it further,


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## eidairaman1 (Mar 21, 2008)

Course there always the Modified Bios.


Mussels said:


> you have two options on some boards, because they actually have two things raising the voltage. Some boards they go through the effort and tie them together (so that if the first one capped out at 1.40v, anything above that adds the second method as well to raise it higher)
> 
> Other boards they cant be stuffed or want the user to have more control, and let you do it that way. DFI Nforce4 boards had this, they had the normal voltage control and a % boost. (104%, 127$ etc) to increase it further,


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## Nitro-Max (Mar 21, 2008)

my q6600 had vcore fluctuations under stress testing with prime95 otherwise it stuck at 1.360v when it did test it dropped to 1.324v at times after taking vdroop into account i found if it dropped below 1.312v during stress it would reboot the pc been unstable.
I just raised the vcore one step so it didnt fall below 1.312v under stress i dont think it is always down to the psu i think its vdroop during stress.

My current system Q6600 3.6ghz oc {done 4.3ghz} 3870x2 the main power hogs

older configs

Q6600 3.6ghz oc plus 2 x 2900xts 240-watts each very juicy but still the psu never let me down

Q6600 3.6ghz oc BFG 8800 gtx oc fine.

psu still going strong doesnt even get warm never mind hot. 85% efficiency rated 880watt Hiper Type-M handles what ever i throw at it.

Hiper is a british company so i dont know how available it would be in the states but its strong durable and made from quality parts probably the best we have.If you look through the product ranges you'll nothing but quality they even make aluminium keyboards now thats a bit of class right there lol pricey but good. 
[website]    http://www.hipergroup.com/English/


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## Widjaja (Mar 21, 2008)

Yeah just as I thought.
Two things had to be done to OC the CPU.
I think I have the CPU stable at 1.45v VID w/+40mV vcore voltage.

Argh stuck with a barely overclockable system again but this time even more so.

Nevermind it performas better than the previous setup.


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