ASRock 960GM / U3S3 VID droop

[kuroiryu]

While playing Final Fantasy XIV, about every 15 seconds, my CPU VID drops to a consistent 0.9375 which plummets my FPS. This only happens when I'm in graphically intensive areas.

I was previously able to fix this by changing the voltage from Auto to 1.3v in the bios so I don't understand what is overriding that setting. I didn't make any changes to the bios or game settings between it being fixed for a while and it starting to drop again.

Here's a screenshot of normal and drops.

Photo Album - Imgur

[parsec]

Re: ASRock 960GM / U3S3 VID droop

IMO, a drop in the VID from 1.300V to 0.9375V is quite a bit more than a typical Vcore droop, which would normally be ~0.10V. If that is a true Vcore droop of over 0.35V, something is wrong somewhere.

Your pictures show the CPU multiplier dropping from 21 to 7, or from 4208MHz to 1402MHz. That is even at a higher CPU load than when the CPU is at 4208MHz.

Usually a drop like that is due to thermal throttling, but the temps in your pictures are certainly not high, and IMO surprisingly low.

All I can think of is perhaps the VRMs are overheating?

[kuroiryu]

Re: ASRock 960GM / U3S3 VID droop

I only said vdroop because it was a term I encountered when trying to research the problem. I don't know anything about it.

I haven't noticed any temps going into the danger zone but I may not be looking in the right place. Where would I check for such a thing?

[parsec]

Re: ASRock 960GM / U3S3 VID droop

The exact terminology is not important, I got your point, sorry to nitpick.

You're using CoreTemp now, so that should show you correct CPU temperatures, which look Ok given what I've read about your processor.

We really need to know what other hardware you are using, like mother board, video card, and power supply at least.