Spent some time investigating the impact of LLC on Vcore vs Loading on the Zenith Extreme MB with a 1950X CPU. I am running a mild OC in order manage temps and power usage, so my Vcore setting is 1.2125V @ 3.725GHz. I used a Fluke 87V multimeter and took stable average measurements at the ProbeIT terminal. I adjust loading using the % CPUs used setting in BOINC. Here are my results:

Based on these results, I will continue to use the Auto setting in BIOS. My reasoning is that since this system is continuously 100% loaded and is using a fixed clock frequency, a flat Vcore curve would be ideal. Seems like that is not possible with this BIOS, but auto seems to be the most appropriate curve for this use case. Does this reasoning seem correct?

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GitHub: Ricks-Lab
Instagram: ricks_labs

Most of the OCN Zenith TR thread posts I have read that have something to with recommended LLC settings for the Zenith have said the LLC action has varied somewhat among the various BIOS releases for that motherboard. That said, I see most people have settled on LLC4 or LLC5 for fully loaded systems. Most everyone is running at 4 or 4.1 Ghz.

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Seti@Home classic workunits:20,676 CPU time:74,226 hours

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Most of the OCN Zenith TR thread posts I have read that have something to with recommended LLC settings for the Zenith have said the LLC action has varied somewhat among the various BIOS releases for that motherboard. That said, I see most people have settled on LLC4 or LLC5 for fully loaded systems. Most everyone is running at 4 or 4.1 Ghz.

Even Buildzoid recommends Level 4 or 5 for ROG (specifically for Intel) for best results, but in the same video, he suggest a flat to slight droop curve for V core vs Load, LLC Video. My results show no droop even at lowest levels of LLC. I am wondering if this is part of a marketing strategy of having a "more over-clockable" MB. Most people wont be aware that the actual Vcore will be 50mV higher than what you set and will be satisfied that with the great results they achieve at such "Low Voltages". Since my work was done in Linux, I don't have good access to software voltages for comparison. Also, I am using ProbeIT terminals instead of reading a power pin on the back of the socket, so maybe there is additional voltage drop before the CPU.

I remember watching a video a while ago on LLC curves for various MBs, probably from der8auer, but I can't find it. It would be good to know if my observations are similar to that of others. I am running BIOS 0902 and plan try this again on the next BIOS release.

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GitHub: Ricks-Lab
Instagram: ricks_labs