My main question is - does anyone who has an i7 13700k and any Gigabyte motherboard, experiences higher idle power usage?
By higher, i define more than 5Watts on idle, and Windows Power Options on 'Balanced'.
As i swapped the motherboard from Gigabyte B760 to Z790 series, the idle power usage jumped from 3~5W to more than 10W, but depending on BIOS version, it was as high as 15W.
I actually posted a question to Gigabyte eSupport:
| Idle CPU package power usage is too high.Is there any way to achieve a lower CPU package power draw?I use Intel's XTU to check the temperatures as well as the power.The Z790 motherboard came with BIOS ver. F3.I tried BIOS version F11f which is the most recent one, and the idle CPU package power usage is about 15 Watts, exactly teh same as on teh BIOS ver. F3.With BIOS ver. F10 the power usage on idle stays at about 11Watts - which is still too high.I have not tried older BIOS versions as i want to keep some of the upgraded capabilities of the BIOS.My previous motherboard Gigabyte B760 GAMING X DDR4 had the idle CPU package power at 3Watts with the oldest BIOS as well as with F7, F8 and F9.I tried all possible settings, but i can not get the CPU package power to drop below 11Watts on the Z790 motherboard, only the BIOS version seems to affect the power draw, but not the settings. All screens of power usage from the Z790 motherboard has been taken with BIOS loaded with optimized settings. |
with this image:
Gigabyte answer:
Dear customer,
There are many factors would cause TDP idle wattage such as CPU and memory. Did customer try to use another CPU and memory model to check? The Z790 chipset is better than B760. Hardware design need more power wattage to maintain system stability. Please kindly enable C-states control and enable related bios settings such as CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E), C6/C7/C8/C10 State Support. Please disable Intel(R) Turbo Boost Technology and Intel(R) Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0. Please also can try to lower CPU voltage to check. Regards GIGABYTE Team |
....to which, at their odd and unlogic answer somewhere end of May, i replied this:
| "Hardware design need more power wattage to maintain system stability." ....this does not explain why BIOS F10 allows the CPU to go as low as 11Watts on idle, and BIOS F11 (released few days ago) can not go below 15Watts. |
They literally deflected my problem/question, telling me that BIOS is based on intel code (this means, in their opinion, yes, it's just an opinion, Intel may be at fault, and not Gigabyte BIOS):
Dear customer, We’ve only update bios code based on Intel code provided. If there’s no unstable issue, customer doesn’t need to worry about it. Please wait for the next release bios version to check. In addition, please kindly cross check all peripherals such as CPU, RAM, and PSU to find out if the problem cause from it.
|
This here were the two insults that i can't just ignore:
"Did customer try to use another CPU and memory model to check?"
"....If there’s no unstable issue, customer doesn’t need to worry about it."
Today i looked up on the motherboard 'Downloads' page, if there has been some changes.
New BIOS has been indeed released (2days ago), and it again broke some of the XTU functionality, but at least i get now the lowest idle power usage so far with the z790 motherboard, which is 10W and sometimes 9W.
Proving i was correct with my statements.
The ilde power usage is still way too high in my opinion, and YES, BIOS version affects idle power usage.
The faulty beta F12b BIOS has also, finally, Intel defaults, which disables some other options, such as 'PerfDrive':
And when i disable defaults, i get this warning:
In other words, up until now i have been potentially reducing 'life of the processor and other components' without knowing it, bcoz there was no such options before 2 days ago , nor any such warning.
With this last insult, Gigabyte is literally washing the guilt off their hands.
Link Copied
- Has enabling the Intel default settings in the BIOS led to a reduction in the high power consumption observed in your CPU?
- Have you noticed any performance issues with your system since using the i7 13700k processor? Additionally, could you provide the range of power consumption for your CPU when it is under a heavy workload?
1. The screenshot with 3 different BIOS versions, also on two different motherboards.....the Z790 motherboard had BIOS on default settings.
The B760 was not affected regardless what BIOS settings i made, the ilde power would eventually drop to 3~5Watts.
In the screenshot the Vcore Loadline Calibration was set to 'ultra extreme' for the B760 motherboard.
2. No, no performance issues, only that the CPU can not be kept at reasonable temperatures while drawing 250W, at least not for a long period of time.
The power range for the i713700kin my case is as follows:
- Z790 Aorus Elite DDR4; depending on BIOS version, from 10W up to 324W (VRMMOS temperature stays below 60°C)
- B760 Gaming X DDR4; 3W up to 314W (VRMMOS temperature reached as high as 80°C and the PCB of the motherboard itself reached 94°C, which was the reason i switched to Z790)
So far Gigabyte released at least 3 BIOS versions this year alone, BIOS F11f in April, F11 in May and F12b this very month.
After they released F11, the F11f is no longer available for download.
But i have them saved:
Today their support page offers this BIOS version:
The most recent BIOS F12b, has the 'Intel default settings' no BIOS version before that, had such option available.
Still F10 has best idle power usage and all XTU functions work as expected, i have not found any bugs with F10.
Also, despite default TDP at 253W, the B760 Gaming X DDR4 can not handle that power at all.
Thanks for the quick reply.
@Caguicla_Intel wrote:Hi KrissyG,
Thank you for your patience.
While reviewing this request, it would be helpful to check if there are any background processes that might be contributing to this issue when you notice the increased power usage.
Additionally, it's also important to know whether you have made any modifications in the BIOS settings or if you have attempted to overclock your CPU since you mentioned that F10 has the best idle power which is the BIOS default.
Understanding these details will enable us to provide you with more targeted assistance and ensure your system operates optimally.
Best regards,
Caguicla C.
Intel® Customer Support Technician
Nah, i need to thank you! Gigabyte eSupport needed about 4 weeks to reply 3 times, but it took you less than 5 working days for a better customer service, on top of that, you are not making any excuses or blaming someone with no evidence.
Anyway, i was monitoring the CPU usage with Task Manager, and found nothing out of norm?
Just to be specific, when changing BIOS, i deleted all saved XTU tuning Profiles, and i also unchecked the 'Restore tune after restart' in XTU, to make sure that XTU is not the cause.
I also reinstalled Gigabyte control center as well as XTU.
All that, did no change to power draw between BIOS versions, it was either 11W or 15W when idle, depending on version.
Randomly the TDP may drop 1 Watt below the mentioned values.
BIOS F10:
BIOS F11:
As for modifications to BIOS, i can just flash the BIOS, and with no changes at all, i just let the PC boot after BIOS swap, and when the PC is idling, the TDP will be just as in screenshots above, it makes no difference if i enable PerfDrive, Overclocking or anything else.
Enabling OC and disabling all limits makes no difference, limited or unlimited, or default BIOS, TDP will be at some 11W with F10 and 15W with F11.
Thanks for taking your time and actually trying to help solve the issue, wish Gigabyte would do same. Maybe if enough Gigabyte users complain, they will finally resolve that issue on their own.
The more various tests i run, the more i am convinced, that the problem can be solved by Gigabyte only.
Today i discovered some new things.
The 'legend' on top of the XTU log file states that Package TDP is the 4th position....which is not always the case.
I attached the very log file in case anyone would be interested.
This is somewhat making it difficult to parse the logs with for example command line.
The second thing was, on BIOS F11, as i mentioned before, the package TDP would be around 15W,
but by coincidence, i noticed that the higher temperature most likely of VRM MOS, could be related to package TDP.
.....How is that even making any sense?
So i launched stress test to get VRM MOS temperature over 50°C , this Z790 motherboard has an excellent VRM MOS heatsink, it's not easy to reach high temperatures.
And then as i suspected, this happened, the package TDP dropped to 11W for a while:
With the time it continued to rise, 12W:
And when every piece of hardware seemed to be close to temperature idle levels, the TDP went back to 14~15W:
On this image i pulled a white rectangle, that shows exactly that the TDP is rising, it is visible that the yellow line which in my case shows TDP, is getting away from the leveled white line:
In XTU there is no way to visualize the changes or enlarge the graph to some ridiculous level,
but Excel with logged data can:
(in graph below, the Y axis in Watts, according to XTU logs, the data shows about 9 minutes = 540 seconds):
Data right after the stress test is being stopped, looks like this:
The first 90 seconds enlarged with detailed values:
So the TDP immediately drops from 250 to about 15W and keeps on jumping between 11 and 15~16Watts, there are few random spikes, but it definitely drops to 11W quite often. The VRM MOS remains at over 40°C for less than 20 seconds.
For now i have no way to log the VRM MOS temperature, i just took notes while watching TDP on XTU, and this is the result:
And then i thought, why not waste 20Eur for HWMonitor Pro that can actually do what i need, the result (not the same test as above, but same conditions and VRM MOS at max 51°C)
Top graph is VRM MOS temperature / bottom part shows CPU Package TDP:
The graph above, even tho HWMonitor did use some CPU power for recording the data, the Package TDP did drop to about 12W multiple times, and remained mostly under 14.6Watts up until ~90 seconds, that is when VRM MOS temperature dropped below 35°C, from that point on, the CPU Package TDP was close to 14W or above.
The almost non edited graphs:
No visible relation to CPU temperature :
Regarding the thermal solutions, could you please confirm if the same setup is being utilized for both the Z790 and B760?
I am assuming this question is about CPU/thermal paste etc?
All hardware including CPU water cooling remains exactly the same.
With the latest discovery - there is indeed some relation between VRM MOS temperature and the power drawn by the CPU , with this discovery all tests i performed so far, became useless.
As for C-states in BIOS, the F12b behaves exactly as the F11.
F12b has the Intel default setting.
CPU power usage on idle is about 15W regardless which BIOS settings are enabled, and when VRM MOS is at 50°C, the power usage drops to like 11W, but since the VRM MOS cools down - CPU idle power goes slowly back to 15W.
As i posted previously, the CPU uses for some reason less power if VRM MOS is very warm.
The closer VRM MOS gets to 50°C, the lower the CPU power usage:
I will contact Gigabyte about that, as this makes absolutely no sense.
And 5W target may be indeed ridiculous for the Z790, but at least 10W would be better than 15W, and the motherboard can do that.
Again, thanks for taking your time to check on this issue!
I will accept your last reply as a solution, since i am now sure Gigabyte is somehow responsible for this odd power usage.
