Z77 Extreme4 AXTU issue

[muc1123]

Just finishing building my i5 3570K on Z77 Extreme4 board. With AXTU v 1.181 that came with the board, I set the clock multiply to 40. It seems running stable with idle CPU temperature at 40c and M/B at 36c. Downloaded and installed v1.257 (Windows 7 x64). The CPU Ratio shown in AXTU Hardware Monitor page toggles between x40 and x16. I did not change any other parameter, only the x40 in the Overclocking page. I checked the Windows power control setting, the min CPU speed setting is at 100%. Anyone else has the similar issue? What's a good bench mark test the CPU loading?

Thanks.

[CRRacer]

You could download passmark 64 bit, then compare your CPU score to a base line CPU score, your's should be higher.

BTW, I would set your multiplier in the BIOS and just use the tuner software as a hardware monitor, you'll thank yourself for doing this in the long run.

Other than that, what you are experiencing is normal, it idles the CPU down to 16x when not needing any extra horse power. It'll throttle up right away. You can have ATXU open and run the passmark test and see what I mean.

[muc1123]

Thanks for the tips. I wish they have better documentation to go with the software.

I did some experiment as you suggested. AXTU v 0.1.181 that came with the MB distribution disk does not report changes in CPU ratio under "Hardware Monitor." Whatever you set in the BIOS (or under "Overclocking") it reports that multiplier value. However under "IES" it does show different CPU Power Phase from 2 to 8 while running Passmark.

Interesting to note that when I was comparing systems from Passmark, someone overclocked an i5 3570k to 6 GHz which Asrock MB won't let you do, at least for the pre-set optimized BIOS section.

Thanks.

Corrections of above:

It turned out that I had to re-install Windows. After re-install, I followed CRRacer's suggestion to set the CPU multiplier in the BIOS and use AXTU only as a monitoring tool. (Otherwise AXTU will take over Windows Power Options control.) I left the Windows Power Options to control the CPU. AXTU does report changes in the CPU multiplier ratio now.

[CRRacer]

I'm using version 0.1.257 and when I launched it just now, it opened at 16x, then went to 44x. Also, regarding IES, that is only to be used when you are NOT overclocking. At least with the newer version of AXTU, it gives this message right below the big green button. I don't recall this message being present in the previous version.

As far as that 6Ghz goes, all motherboards are different. this extreme 4 is quite a great and feature rich board for the price, but if you spend more money on the board, then you usually get a better power phase which in return allows for higher overclocking speeds, providing you've got cooling to handle it. I'd imagine that 6 GHz was done on a new liquid cooling system I've seen in gaming systems that'll actually cool the CPU down to below 0Celcius if you want. I don't know if they are using liquid nitrogen or what it was. I just know the cases and system were way cool, and WAY expensive!