vCores please [1700x/TaiChi]

VUMeter wrote: Still in the 'side off / testing' phase. I installed the latest Ryzen drivers 17.30, with the "Ryzen Balanced Power Plan" for Windows 10. Whilst I haven't started getting all of the content software installed, the system doesn't feel sluggish - why would it 32GB RAM and 8x cores at 3.4GHz? Anyway, I put the 'tweaked' plan on and HWinfo, Ryzen Master and anything that I could see all indicated maxed out cores. Sure, OK, a screw up in the reporting perhaps.  It's not really going that quick, the temps aren't climbing, the fans are going nuts. But importantly the voltages looked like they bouncing u to 1.45v on vCore.   Under the regular stock balanced plan, vCore is reported in the 0.87v region - this is idle, browsers open, monitoring tools, nothing taxing. Playing with the Power Saver plan, things look even nicer in terms of vCore bouncing to 0.84 but dropping to ~0.7. Just what is going on here? If anyone has a guide to keeping things stock and dropping voltages, I'd like to hunt for longevity and low temps as much as possible here.  I guess it's mostly follow the OC guides, omitting the chip-thrashing.

You're using the default UEFI/BIOS VCore settings, right? They are always set very high by design, on purpose.

Why? Simple, the VCore must be high enough to guarantee that any and all processors used with the board will complete POST, allow the user to get into the UEFI/BIOS interface, and run Windows without failing. Even if that VCore is much more than will really be needed by most if not all processors.

Again, why? Imagine a UEFI/BIOS whose default VCore was set too low for a processor to POST, and get into the UEFI interface. Meaning no way to adjust the VCore to a higher value. How could you work around that if the default VCore was to low to allow a processor to POST and run the UEFI? You can't, and the board would be worthless, unusable. To avoid that situation completely, the default VCore is set to a value high enough that it will never happen. It's a compromise biased towards guaranteed operation, rather than a refined operation.

Yes, the default VCore when one or more cores Turbo up to their maximum speed is ~1.45V, I see the same thing my different ASRock X370 board and a 1700X. At idle and with different Power Plan Processor State settings, the VCore is much lower. My VCore with C6 enabled will go down to 0.384V. My OC to 3.9GHz is stable with a VCore that slightly exceeds 1.350V occasionally. I have the VCore set to 1.350V for that speed.

Reduce your VCore by setting OC Mode to Manual. Don't change the base processor speed, and you won't be over clocking. Set your Vcore in a now revealed VCore option to ~1.3V for a start. You can also change the VCore mode now, using Offset Mode for example. Also the LLC option will be available. As long as the don't change the base processor/core speed, you'll stay with the stock clock.

Your board's UEFI layout will be different than mine, so other X370 Taichi users can provide more exact details, but you should be able to figure it out if you have any experience with configuring the VCore in a UEFI/BIOS.

The different Power Plans have different Minimum Processor State settings, that only allow the processor to reduce its clock speed by different amounts, or not at all. That is in the Advanced settings of a Power Plan.

parsec wrote: So what VCore mode did you use when the VCore did not drop? Fixed or Offset? Sounds like Fixed, or using the Ryzen power plan. Both the VCore and power plan determine the VCore in Windows. A VCore of 1.2V is too low for stress testing, as you know. If you're using you C2D CPU as a reference, don't, your Ryzen CPU is different. I suggested 1.35V for the VCore, but you didn't apparently didn't like that value. I suggested it because I have a 1700X. As you have seen, the power plan used affects the VCore in Windows. The Ryzen so called Balanced plan sets the Minimum processor state to 90%, and will keep the VCore high at idle. The reason the VCore is 1.475V is because the "UEFI is set to AUTO everything", as you said, while stress testing. Use the "Vcore" reading in HWiNFO64 at the very bottom of your picture. The max is 1.424V, and the minimum is 0.432V. That is clearly with VCore on Auto, right? It seems you tried a manual VCore of 1.2V, which failed running Prime95. Then you want back to Auto, resulting in over 1.4V. Set the VCore to 1.35V, using Offset mode. Set the Offset voltage below Offset Mode to one step above Auto, by pressing the + key. Then run the stress test and see what you get. You may be able to reduce the VCore from 1.35V without an OC.

After some fiddling around and numerous reboots (using the ASRock to UEFI tool), I've gotten somewhere.

@datonyb,