# I7 6700k Temps and Voltages



## temjam99 (Jul 25, 2016)

Hi all, 

I recently acquired a pre-built new rig from a popular and reputable computer parts vendor and wanted to check with everyone here about some small findings I have made after the first few days use.

Firstly, I have built my own rigs in the past but this time purely because I've been moving around alot, decided to skip the hassle and simply buy a good pre-built one and have it pre-tested and delivered ready to go. I was very happy with the service. 

I wanted to ask about temperatures and stock voltages on my system. I have noticed temperatures under heavy load which seem abit out of the ordinary and the voltage levels seem abit high (though admittedly I don't yet know what 'standard expected' voltages are for my cpu).

The Rig is...
Mboard  Asus Z170 Pro Gaming 
Cpu        I7 6700k Skylake @ 4.0ghz (4.2 Turbo) [Stock speeds I believe?]
Cooler    Corsair h100i extreme watercooler
Ram       16gb corsair vengeance lpx @3000mhz [xmp profile set by vendor]
gpu        Asus Strix gtx 1080 rgb oc [overclock mode]
sdd         Samsung 850 pro nvme m.2 512gb
hdd        Seagate 1tb backup drive

The rig appears to have come pre-set to all default xmp values with the processor running at (i think) its stock speeds and the ram set to 3000mhz which is what its advertised at. 

Voltages however seem to fluctuate hugely. 
I performed a brief stress test just to make sure cpu load was heavy and took a screenshot of the results using a mulitude of platforms to ascertain voltage and temperature averages.

Here is the screen.



 

Admittedly I have found online that super high temps are to be expected when using Intels Burn In software, but I'm curious about the voltages, which bounce from 0.8 to 1.45 every couple of seconds even during normal use, e.g opening applications and playing games or watching films. Things like unzipping large files always resort in the cpu voltage hovering around 1.45. Is that normal for Skylake because its seems a little high to me. And the vendor during testing must surely have come across the same temps and voltages I assume.

Finally, I had previously had a h100i cooler on a 4790k in a previous self-build and if I remember correctly I struggled to get temps over 75 degrees no matter what I did or no matter what stress test I ran it under. I may be jumping to conclusions with all this though and so wanted to put the question to you guys on here before I go demanding an explanation from my supplier.

Regards
James


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## little cat (Jul 25, 2016)

Intel measured 64C at their labs , so say Tcase = 64C thus Tj=Tcase +5= 69C  along with the stock cooler at 100% load . Tj max = 100C .

1.45V is way high
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9533/intel-i7-6700k-overclocking-4-8-ghz


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## FireFox (Jul 25, 2016)

temjam99 said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I recently acquired a pre-built new rig from a popular and reputable computer parts vendor and wanted to check with everyone here about some small findings I have made after the first few days use.
> 
> ...


Have a nice reading.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1579319/intel-core-i7-6700k-voltage


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## temjam99 (Jul 26, 2016)

Thankyou. I've gone in and manually set the voltage to 1.3 and ran an overnight battery of tests and all seems fine. Its annoying that the board auto-clocks so high though.


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## EarthDog (Jul 26, 2016)

4.2 GHz should be done on STOCK voltage. THat is the boost clock for 4Ghz gents... 

Set speed back to stock, then set voltage to stock. Reboot to windows and see what the stock voltage is. Set that voltage manually.


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## Tatty_One (Jul 26, 2016)

and Loadline calibration set?


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## EarthDog (Jul 26, 2016)

That's optional... if you have vdroop problems.


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## JATownes (Jul 26, 2016)

temjam99 said:


> Thankyou. I've gone in and manually set the voltage to 1.3 and ran an overnight battery of tests and all seems fine. Its annoying that the board auto-clocks so high though.



I had this same problem with my new Asus Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1.  Stay away from the manual voltage.  Use the adaptive voltage with an offset, and it will stay relatively stable where you set it.  Took me forever to figure it out, but eventually got it to stay @1.335v with spikes up to 1.355v.

Give that a shot and see if it works for you.

JAT


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## temjam99 (Jul 26, 2016)

Can I ask why you recommend staying away from manual voltage? It seems fine so far, its set at a static 1.328v. Should I do something else? All i changed was that setting.


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## ASOT (Jul 26, 2016)

Default the bios F5,save and exit,after apply XMP profile and that will OC CPU by little.

For XMP u need better cooling/airflow in case,as it mention on it bios.

Let anything else default,no need to change..just set fans to max.speed.


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## temjam99 (Jul 26, 2016)

Ive got some pretty good cooling in the case in the form of two 120mm fans and plenty of airflow. I've set all to XMP and the processor is running at its stock speed of 4.0ghz (4.2ghz turbo) and the RAM @3000mhz (xmp profile). I have simply changed the voltage setting from 'auto/adaptive' to 'manual' and set it at 1.35v. 

Thing is, i've never had to manually do it before which is why I'm so unsure of everything, I've been spoiled for the last few years with boards that overclock so well and so easily that its usually just the click of one auto-tune button and a glance to make sure everything looks ok and its done.


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## cadaveca (Jul 26, 2016)

I run 1.325V for 4.7 GHz on one of my 6700K chips. 1.35V seems quite excessive.


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## JATownes (Jul 26, 2016)

temjam99 said:


> Can I ask why you recommend staying away from manual voltage? It seems fine so far, its set at a static 1.328v. Should I do something else? All i changed was that setting.


This is my first Intel board, so I'm not a wealth of info, but I can tell you that with manual voltage set at 1.325v it would jump constantly up to 1.45v and everywhere in between, with the voltage never staying real stable (though a stress test wouldn't fail, but temps were also high).
I switched to adaptive and set it to 1.325v with a +0.01v offset and it now stays constant at 1.335v with spikes up to 1.355v.  I am rock solid at 4.6Ghz and flirting with 4.7, but AIDA64 stress test errors after about 15 minutes.

Still working out the kinks, but spent a few hours fighting with the voltage to get it stable and not jumping all over the place, so I could get a baseline to start clocking from.  Using the adaptive voltage was the only way I accomplished this.  Maybe others will have better info, but you are using an Asus Z170 board and 6700k, just like me, and you are describing the exact same problem I was having.

@cadaveca What voltage scheme are you using on that Asus Deluxe, adaptive or manual?

My 2 cents.

JAT


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## cadaveca (Jul 26, 2016)

JATownes said:


> @cadaveca What voltage scheme are you using on that Asus Deluxe, adaptive or manual?


I run both adaptive and manual, depending on what memory kit is installed. I also force all other voltages to stock settings in BIOS, and leave nothing on "auto".

Loadline level 6, VRM set to extreme in all areas (I got an 140mm Noctua fan laying down over the H90 pump head). I actually run 1.275V with manual and low memory speeds, and 1.325V and adaptive for mem speeds over 3200 MHz.


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## Arctucas (Jul 26, 2016)

JATownes said:


> This is my first Intel board, so I'm not a wealth of info, but I can tell you that with manual voltage set at 1.325v it would jump constantly up to 1.45v and everywhere in between, with the voltage never staying real stable (though a stress test wouldn't fail, but temps were also high).
> I switched to adaptive and set it to 1.325v with a +0.01v offset and it now stays constant at 1.335v with spikes up to 1.355v.  I am rock solid at 4.6Ghz and flirting with 4.7, but AIDA64 stress test errors after about 15 minutes.
> 
> Still working out the kinks, but spent a few hours fighting with the voltage to get it stable and not jumping all over the place, so I could get a baseline to start clocking from.  Using the adaptive voltage was the only way I accomplished this.  Maybe others will have better info, but you are using an Asus Z170 board and 6700k, just like me, and you are describing the exact same problem I was having.
> ...



If AIDA64 errors, you are nowhere near stable.

Personally, my go-to stability test is minimum 3 hours of Intel Burn Test 2.54 at Maximum. Once you can do that with no errors, I believe you could consider it stable. Currently, I have my 6700k @ 4830 MHz with 1.390 VCore (Override) in BIOS, peaking at 1.403 under load. BTW, I am using eVGA Classified K mobo.

This is my personal experience, yours may be different.


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## JATownes (Jul 27, 2016)

Arctucas said:


> If AIDA64 errors, you are nowhere near stable.
> 
> Personally, my go-to stability test is minimum 3 hours of Intel Burn Test 2.54 at Maximum. Once you can do that with no errors, I believe you could consider it stable. Currently, I have my 6700k @ 4830 MHz with 1.390 VCore (Override) in BIOS, peaking at 1.403 under load. BTW, I am using eVGA Classified K mobo.
> 
> This is my personal experience, yours may be different.


In over 20 years this is my first experience with Intel, so I am functioning on a pretty steep learning curve (which is a whole hell of a lot of fun).  For clarity the CPU Stress test doesn't fail.  It is the FPU stress test that gives an error after about 15 minutes or so.  I will run IBT and see where I land.  Thanks for the heads up!  

JAT


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## Arctucas (Jul 27, 2016)

Share your results, I am interested to see what you achieve.


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## JATownes (Jul 28, 2016)

I got a little time to play last night. Chip is a little weird..Using @cadaveca 's suggestion above (Thanks Dave!) I tested with IBT (just 20 iterations though) and was stable at 4.4Ghz @ 1.22v...then 4.5 took 1.25v. I was pretty stoked, but then 4.6Ghz took 1.35v, so I dialed it back.

I've got to try adjusting some other voltages, and try using the base clock, to try and get it stable with lower core voltage.  Being under water, temps are fine, but I'd like to keep the voltage as low as possible.

@temjam99 Sorry I got a little off topic in your thread. 

JAT


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## temjam99 (Jul 28, 2016)

Thats OK, I'm still experimenting myself and will report  back in a few days after testing. Still find it a little absurd that the Mboard auto-sets the voltages so high even at stock speeds.


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