# CPU Intel i7 6700k voltage and stock speeds configuration.



## StanMen (Sep 8, 2016)

Hey guys,

So my question is related to cpu stock speeds and voltage, as you already read at topics name I have i7 6700k and cpu by default its should run at 4.0 and turbo go up to 4.2 Ghz, now in my case If I want my ram witch is ddr4 Corsair Dominator Platinum 3000Mhz to run at stock speed of 3000Mhz I must run XMP profile then set up speed up to 3000Mhz and  set voltage to 1.35, then cpu I set up sync all cores and rest I leave auto.

With this settings that I did refereed above my cpu-z show me my cpu with 1.248v then cpu speed is constant 4.2Ghz it's running looks like in constant turbo mod as is always 4.2Ghz.

Now to avoid this I have to disable XMP profile then set cpu from sync all core to auto, for memory set manually timings 15,17,35 then speed 3000Mhz and voltage to 1.35v and for cpu I have to set up voltage from auto to 1.245 and when I restart boot up and go to cpu-z it show me cpu voltage 1.248 and drops to 1.232 when running at 4.015ghz, then cpu speed is around 4.015Ghz and when needs it boost up to 4.242Ghz something like that but is close to stock speeds!

Now if I seet cpu's voltage to auto this crap goes up to 1.35v and I saw people getting oc with 1.35v up to 4.6Ghz!! 

Now I don't want to OC it for now and this auto crazy voltage  and not right speeds are killing me as I want it to be right 4.0Ghz and boost up to 4.2Ghz and have all stock.


Now my question is how I can get it stock and is it good having my voltage around 1.248v  constant instead of stock in auto 1.35v ?

Thank you guys.


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## EarthDog (Sep 8, 2016)

Where to start... 

1. There isn't any harm in running turbo clocks all the time....many motherboards do this.
2. When you set XMP profile, you are not NOT touching the voltage foe the CPU (vcore). That 1.35V is for the RAM bud. Your CPU voltage should still be stock.


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## StanMen (Sep 8, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> Where to start...
> 
> 1. There isn't any harm in running turbo clocks all the time....many motherboards do this.
> 2. When you set XMP profile, you are not NOT touching the voltage foe the CPU (vcore). That 1.35V is for the RAM bud. Your CPU voltage should still be stock.




No mate I know that 1.35v is for ram I set that in ram voltage as I want it to run with 3000Mhz stock and with stock timings and voltage, now my cpu by default if I leave all in auto set voltage at 4.0Ghz at 1.32v or 1.35v, to avoid this I set it like this check my image of CPU-Z:








So now you see I set up all auto then I did set up voltage for 4.0Ghz about 1.245v and the rest I set up for auto! No XMP profile running as if I set it up it will OC automatically.

Oh my mobo is Asus RoG Maximus VIII Hero all bios and drivers are up the date!

Cheers mate!
Thank you for fast replay


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## EarthDog (Sep 8, 2016)

Looks like you answered your own question... setting it manually. 





StanMen said:


> Now my question is how I can get it stock and is it good having my voltage around 1.248v constant instead of stock in auto 1.35v ?


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## Vayra86 (Sep 8, 2016)

StanMen said:


> No mate I know that 1.35v is for ram I set that in ram voltage as I want it to run with 3000Mhz stock and with stock timings and voltage, now my cpu by default if I leave all in auto set voltage at 4.0Ghz at 1.32v or 1.35v, to avoid this I set it like this check my image of CPU-Z:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Holy moly. You need 1.248v for a measly 4.0 Ghz? That is one inefficient chip, or one bad OC.

My 'lazy' OC on the i5 3570k (larger process node 22nm vs 14nm, so less efficient overall) at 4.2 Ghz requires 1.22v. And mind you, I know my i5 is not a very good chip (I've seen lots of OC results below 1.2v for this chip at 4.2 Ghz, or even 4.4)

For comparison - you can definitely shave off some volts, or clock higher on that vCore. You can do this by lowering vCore in small increments and keep checking if it's stable. I think you can easily try out 1.21v for starters. You can see in your screenshot that the CPU starts off at 1.168v for 4 Ghz. I think you can get pretty close to that if you invest some more time in it.


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## EarthDog (Sep 8, 2016)

Depends on the CPU. That is within their range for VID (= stock voltage).

He may be able to lower it, there is usually some headroom built in regardless. But its possible its just a leaky chip........... or that software is reading it wrong. What does CPUz say?


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## Vayra86 (Sep 8, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> Depends on the CPU. That is within their range for VID (= stock voltage).
> 
> He may be able to lower it, there is usually some headroom built in regardless. But its possible its just a leaky chip........... or that software is reading it wrong. What does CPUz say?



From what I can read, OP has determined that pushing down vCore from the 'auto OC' setting is a good way to go, but of course it is not. There is no way we can say its leaky (yet)

Some more info:

- you can keep your CPU C-states active while having an overclock. Set a fixed voltage and enable speedstep / C states and the CPU will clock down when idle. There is no need to run 4.0 or 4.2 all the time.
- if you want higher efficiency on a given vCore (or if your voltage 'just' doesn't cut it for 4.0 or 4.2 ghz) you can consider pushing down the turbo clock multiplier by 1 for 3-cores active and by 2 for 4-cores active. This will allow you a more efficient OC overall, with minimum performance hit
- Your motherboard's power phases determine how accurate the vCore voltages will be. The increments you see are related to that - jumps from 1.248 > 1.232 etc.


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## Grings (Sep 8, 2016)

4223 as speed looks a bit odd, has setting an XMP profile (even if you disabled it again) enabled spread spectrum?

mine never seems to go more than  2mhz out (4001,4602,4802 etc)


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## EarthDog (Sep 8, 2016)

I didn't catch that was auto OC. It appears it's his stock voltage to me. I only caught he enabled XMP but left everything else on auto...which should leave his vcore alone and therefore stock.

...is that what you are calling an 'auto OC', leaving voltages on auto? I define that as hitting a button on the board or Windows software to overclock...lol!

Assuming that is stock voltage, again, it's in the VID range so it can just be a leaky and therefore not great on ambient, overclocking chip.


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## StanMen (Sep 8, 2016)

So guys for what I have seen and read the at stock speeds for i7 6700k it have voltage over 1.2v now wile turbo boost go up to 1.3v, now my voltage is set up for 1.245v and its waves between that voltage and 1.232v, I do know more voltage is more heat and decrees life time of chip so I want it to live longer and as soon I finish build my EK water cooling kit. Then I can go with OC and play around voltage.

Just want it to be safe and live longer, I want it for now as much stock as I can. I had test it so much and did all type of tests and stress test all fine, I managed to push on my air cooler now to push for 4.7Ghz at stunning 1.3v stable and no problems plus I did leave it for 24h doing stress test 

Now this new chip i7 6700k is by far best chip ever done by Intel and it can take a lot of oc and be efficient. I just for now don't know if I sould set it all default and auto, but when in auto my cpu-z reports at stock speeds 4.0, 1.3v  and for me is very close to 1.4v I know on this new chip i7 we never should go that high.

Now at tomshardware.com there is this statment from one guy ;
Says
Gamer1985
abàCPUs
25 January 2016 15:22:41


Stock voltage is 1.2, but under load it can go to 1.3. If its set to auto the voltage will fluctuate depending on the workstream.

Now I presume that stock voltage on i7 6700k is 1.2v and my voltage now is very close to it.


Or should I change this to auto and see once more what voltage is going to give me?


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## Vayra86 (Sep 8, 2016)

StanMen said:


> So guys for what I have seen and read the at stock speeds for i7 6700k it have voltage over 1.2v now wile turbo boost go up to 1.3v, now my voltage is set up for 1.245v and its waves between that voltage and 1.232v, I do know more voltage is more heat and decrees life time of chip so I want it to live longer and as soon I finish build my EK water cooling kit. Then I can go with OC and play around voltage.
> 
> Just want it to be safe and live longer, I want it for now as much stock as I can. I had test it so much and did all type of tests and stress test all fine, I managed to push on my air cooler now to push for 4.7Ghz at stunning 1.3v stable and no problems plus I did leave it for 24h doing stress test
> 
> ...



Most motherboards give you the 'base stock voltage' next to the CPU vCore header. When you go to stock settings on the mobo (or perhaps something like 'optimized default settings') it should say what vCore the base voltage is for this mobo/CPU combo. That is a great starting point, at that voltage it *should* be stable.

You already know that 1.248v is a safe voltage and also a stable one. So go from there, work your way down in small voltage steps. This also gives you a great starting point for a further OC later with watercooling. Small steps are 0.005v - 0.010v, not sure if you can give it finer adjustments, depends on your board.

Also, note that stress testing for 24 hrs on a high vCore is pretty useless and really just costs a lot of power. Stress testing should have a few 'layers'. First you do a brief 15 minute stress test (IntelBurnTest is great for this, because it can also show you when the CPU 'locks up' through a very simple moving image, an indicator your OC is on the edge of stable) to do quick checks on whether an OC setting is 'stable at first'. When stable, you push the Ghz a bit, or lower the vCore abit, whatever way you want to go, and then do quick testing again. 

When you get closer to the limit and start doing finer and finer adjustments (homing in on the best OC you can get) you can finally do that longer stress test to really test stability for 24/7.


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## EarthDog (Sep 8, 2016)

You(Stan) are also paranoid as hell about voltages and overclocking/chip life expectancy. You can run that bad boy at 1.35V and 4.5GHz (example clockspeed) for the next 5 years and it will be fine (have cooling keep it at 90C or lower during stress testing). You will require a CPU upgrade before a modest overclock takes the life of the CPU. 

Why buy the fancy board, the K CPU, and the Premium ram (domi's are a waste of cash..) to run stock? 

Grow a pair!


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## StanMen (Sep 8, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> You(Stan) are also paranoid as hell about voltages and overclocking/chip life expectancy. You can run that bad boy at 1.35V and 4.5GHz (example clockspeed) for the next 5 years and it will be fine (have cooling keep it at 90C or lower during stress testing). You will require a CPU upgrade before a modest overclock takes the life of the CPU.
> 
> Why buy the fancy board, the K CPU, and the Premium ram (domi's are a waste of cash..) to run stock?
> 
> Grow a pair!




Well I know mate, just for now there is no reason to OCd now as I'm running on air cooling and as soon I get all done at EK water kit then I will oc this bad boy up. As the kit i have is an EK Extreme and I know it will give me amazing temps and would be able to push it hard 

Now I set my voltage to 1.2v and it runs good no problem and temps are below 20c idle at 4.0Ghz. And I set up XMP back on and cpu I set up all auto and set voltage to 1.2v 

Now my ram Dominator's Premium's I will sell it as it's just to much for my rig due the led thing and colour just don't match my rig, as I'm building all red and black, now I want to buy an kit of DDR4 Trident Z Extreme 3200Mhz 16gb as it's just perfect colour theme and looking nice, in my previous rig with i5 3570k I had g.Skill 2400Mhz 16Gb kit and I loved them g.Skill makes good memory kits.


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## Grings (Sep 8, 2016)

Watercooling wont make as big a difference as you might think unless you are willing to delid the chip and replace the tim on it, skylakes just run warm (but not as bad as haswells) and past a certain point of cooling (that decent air coolers can reach) you dont see much benefit

I built a fairly strong water cooling system (3 2x120 rads, 2500rpm fans on all) and while it could keep the water outright cold, the chip would still hit 65c, 2c less than it did with a cm212evo i put on while waiting for a new waterblock


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## StanMen (Sep 8, 2016)

Oh guys I see one thing in CPU-z it's showing me 4.0Ghz but from time to time it drops to 3.999Ghz and Bus Speed do drop from 100 to 99.98 is it normal ?

oh and this drops only occur when I set up XMP profile when I turn it off the speeds and all just stay still like 4.0Ghz and turbo go up to 4.2Ghz and Bus Speed always stay stable 100Mhz


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## RejZoR (Sep 8, 2016)

Grings said:


> 4223 as speed looks a bit odd, has setting an XMP profile (even if you disabled it again) enabled spread spectrum?
> 
> mine never seems to go more than  2mhz out (4001,4602,4802 etc)



Depends on CLK. It's usually 100MHz, but can deviate by 1MHz up or down. Multiply that with a multiplier and you can get quite big deviations. 101x40 means 4040MHz. or 99x40 is 3960 MHz. If it's around half a MHz you'll get around 4020-4025 MHz...


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## Grings (Sep 8, 2016)

an amount of fluctuation that small is normal, the amount it is over in the screenshot you posted is a little higher than normal, which is why i wondered if you had spread spectrum enabled

edit: was replying to op before i saw rejzor reply to me lol


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## RejZoR (Sep 8, 2016)

100.39 MHz is hardly "high". Mine usually goes on the lower spectrum of 100, but I'm using Spread Spectrum to mitigate interferences slightly. Never really checked how that actually reflects in the BCLK...


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## StanMen (Sep 8, 2016)

Grings said:


> an amount of fluctuation that small is normal, the amount it is over in the screenshot you posted is a little higher than normal, which is why i wondered if you had spread spectrum enabled
> 
> edit: was replying to op before i saw rejzor reply to me lol




So I will have a look at this setting spread spectrum I don't think I mess up with that.

PS: Oh no mate I don't mess with that my is set at auto, is all stock I only set voltage and XMP and ram timings and voltage, that's all I do as I don't want to cause any damage to my system that is pity expensive


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## Ruyki (Sep 8, 2016)

Not running your CPU flat out from the moment you get it is also an option as long as the performance is enough for you. Current high end intel cpus actually have lots of performance even at stock speed and without turbo boost. You can always overclock when you actually need it.

I'm not familiar with skylake but does the 6700k really need 1.2V for 4Ghz? I know hasswell can do much better. I would expect skylake to be just as good or better than hasswell.

And is there really such thing as one stock voltage value for current intel CPUs? As far as I know they run a different voltage at every multiplier. And on top of that, the motherboard can adjust the voltages as it sees fit. This is why sometimes people come to the forum and report their CPU is running a high voltage straight our of the box. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.


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## Vayra86 (Sep 9, 2016)

Ruyki said:


> Not running your CPU flat out from the moment you get it is also an option as long as the performance is enough for you. Current high end intel cpus actually have lots of performance even at stock speed and without turbo boost. You can always overclock when you actually need it.
> 
> I'm not familiar with skylake but does the 6700k really need 1.2V for 4Ghz? I know hasswell can do much better. I would expect skylake to be just as good or better than hasswell.
> 
> And is there really such thing as one stock voltage value for current intel CPUs? As far as I know they run a different voltage at every multiplier. And on top of that, the motherboard can adjust the voltages as it sees fit. This is why sometimes people come to the forum and report their CPU is running a high voltage straight our of the box. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.



Correct. Stock voltage differs per motherboard/cpu combo. But most motherboards dó give you the stock voltage they apply as a base setting. There's usually some headroom in there as well, you can give it 2x or 3x more multiplier with no trouble in most cases.


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## EarthDog (Sep 9, 2016)

Stock voltage differs per CPU. That is what VID is. This is not the definition of VID, but you can think of it from the processor's perspective of *V*oltage *I* *D*emand. This tells the motherboard what voltage it needs to operate at stock speeds. The only reason it may differ on different motherboards is simply because of the VRM...and that is normal fluctuation and typically very little.

There is NOT "one stock voltage value" for Skylake CPUs. Each CPU has its own VID and will vary from CPU to CPU depending on the quality of the silicon. 

AFAIK, there is not a 'different voltage' for each multiplier. When you raise the multi, its the motherboard that does the changing, not the CPU telling it what it needs.


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## Komshija (Sep 9, 2016)

I wouldn't bother too much. Even prior I enabled XMP, my CPU sometimes pushed turbo mode on all cores under the full load, with stock settings. 

By enabling XMP, my CPU voltages increased to 1,26-1.31V. I set "adaptive" mode and VCore to 1.200V, since "override" or "auto" mode had zero effects. Now it doesn't exceed 1.225V, even under full load. I had to adjust VCCIO and VCCSA as well, whose values both plunged into ~1.28V range.


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## FR@NK (Sep 9, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> AFAIK, there is not a 'different voltage' for each multiplier. When you raise the multi, its the motherboard that does the changing, not the CPU telling it what it needs.



Incorrect. The voltage increases as the frequency increases. The CPU is doing this....not the mainboard. This is why we use offset mode when overclocking; otherwise the CPU would be requesting high voltages when running at higher speeds.


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## EarthDog (Sep 9, 2016)

I'll find out for sure and report back. 

If it was the cpu doing it, why would it be unstable on auto at times (thinking overclocking well past turbo but nothing extreme)? On the other side of that coin, if left on auto some 'motherboards' tend to overvolt in favor of stability. If the cpu was giving the information out, why would the voltages for the same cpu vary in different motherboards (and we aren't talking a negligible vrm difference here)? It doesn't make sense to me that the cpu knows what it needs for a given clock but yet always tends to overvolt...we always tell people not to overclock on auto because of this. One would think if the cpu knew, it wouldn't overvolt as much as they all tend to when using auto voltage.

If anything would know what it needs for a given clock, it's the cpu, no? If that is true why do the result vary by board with the same cpu (again, we aren't talking minor differences because of the vrm?

PS - I don't use offset or adaptive modes when overclocking... I hate basic math (find stock voltage and add/subtract. Lol! I let windows power management do that work. 

Edit: one last thing ( i swear, lol). Intel doesn't support overclocking. Why would the cpu have any voltages tables above its boosts in the first place?

EDIT2: I think you may be right: 





> Serial Voltage Identification "SVID": A few generations back, Intel introduced serial voltage identification (SVID) which is a protocol the CPU uses to communicate with the voltage regulator. The power control unit inside the CPU uses SVID to communicate with the PWM controller that controls the voltage regulator. This allows the CPU to pick its optimum voltage depending on current conditions (temperature, frequency, load, etc.). You can actually use a combination of SVID and LLC to get an optimal VCore instead of manually setting it. If you start your system without making any changes, your VID (which some refer to as the stock voltage) might be 1.25v, but if you lower your CPU multiplier and restart, you will find your VID has dropped automatically. The reverse happens if you increase your clock and do not set any VCore. Intel's latest CPUs are able to pick their own voltage, and this comes into play if you want to utilize "offset" / "adaptive" voltage. The good news is that if you come from Haswell, you should look forward to a CPU that has the same or better durability.



Read more: http://www.tweaktown.com/guides/748...-intel-skylake-overclocking-guide/index5.html


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## Vayra86 (Sep 10, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> Stock voltage differs per CPU. That is what VID is. This is not the definition of VID, but you can think of it from the processor's perspective of *V*oltage *I* *D*emand. This tells the motherboard what voltage it needs to operate at stock speeds. The only reason it may differ on different motherboards is simply because of the VRM...and that is normal fluctuation and typically very little.
> 
> There is NOT "one stock voltage value" for Skylake CPUs. Each CPU has its own VID and will vary from CPU to CPU depending on the quality of the silicon.
> 
> AFAIK, there is not a 'different voltage' for each multiplier. When you raise the multi, its the motherboard that does the changing, not the CPU telling it what it needs.



An important point about VID - it is not the same as vCore. VID will be higher than the vCore you run at.


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## EarthDog (Sep 10, 2016)

Well, likely yes. Vdrop and Vdroop... thing is, we would never know what the CPU is asking for (VID) so whatever we see in CPUz or on the MM, is our VID. So while that is true Vayra, considering we only know what we have, it is one in the same. Though one move OFF of that and it isn't VID anymore as it is not 'stock' voltage.


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## FR@NK (Sep 10, 2016)

The whole process is dynamically changing based on load. We even have different voltages for individual cores.







It looks like there is a different voltage profile used for each core thats mapped to voltage vs frequency. I think if we could customize these profiles, we would get abit more overclocking headroom.


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## EarthDog (Sep 10, 2016)

For overclocking with your voltage on auto? Perhaps! Though, not for manual. You really shouldn't be overclocking on auto voltage for vcore anyway. 

This still perplexes me on why, if the cpu is in control on auto, that the same cpu in a different board can yield such different voltages at the same multiplier. I'm talking read with a multimeter accuracy with differences between .05-.1 (so not a vrm quality/variability issue).


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## Vayra86 (Sep 11, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> For overclocking with your voltage on auto? Perhaps! Though, not for manual. You really shouldn't be overclocking on auto voltage for vcore anyway.
> 
> This still perplexes me on why, if the cpu is in control on auto, that the same cpu in a different board can yield such different voltages at the same multiplier. I'm talking read with a multimeter accuracy with differences between .05-.1 (so not a vrm quality/variability issue).



Doesn't that variance depend on the amount of power phases and the quality of the VRM? Less phases result in less granularity with voltage changes.


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## EarthDog (Sep 11, 2016)

Not that much.. not at the level of boards I have compared anyway.


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## biffzinker (Sep 11, 2016)

You guys that are comparing Haswell to Skylake haven't forgotten Haswell had the iVRM on die. Intel removed the iVRM from Skylake so the motherboard is again responsible for stepping down the 12 volt feed from the 8 pin plug to the required CPU VID. On a motherboard with Haswell the motherboards VRM steps down the 12 volt feed to say 1.8 then the on die iVRM steps that down to the required Core VID.

So on a Skylake motherboard depending on the VRM topology, phases, and quality of the components ASUS/Gigabyte/Asrock/MSI use can cause some variation in the Core VID, although they have to follow strict specifications set by Intel.

Edit: Fitting analogy being power supply's.

Also avoid Core Enhancement when turning on XMP in the motherboard UEFI, otherwise your overclocking your 6700K.


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## EarthDog (Sep 11, 2016)

Received a response from my buddy. He seems to believe as I do the board is what takes over after stock.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us...ktop-6th-gen-core-family-datasheet-vol-1.html



> The VID codes will change due to temperature and/or current load changes in order to minimize the power of the part.
> ...
> Each processor is programmed with a maximum valid voltage identification value (VID) that is set at manufacturing and cannot be altered. Individual maximum VID values are calibrated during manufacturing such that two processors at the same frequency may have different settings within the VID range. Note that this differs from the VID employed by the processor during a power management event (Adaptive Thermal Monitor, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology, or low-power states).



Please note in the intel white papers it does not mention vid and overclocking. All information out there talks about stock speeds and LOWERING voltage in specific situations. This is why you see things like in post 28.


@Biff - didn't forget that...it's just a terribly relevant part of this discussion. Also note, you see plenty of fluctuation in broadwell with its FIVR (you are calling it iVRM) as well.


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