Step #3 Optimizing the OC/GIGABYTE OC Profiles

DVID Offset:

The GIGABYTE Z77 boards allow a user to set an offset instead of a fixed voltage, so instead of picking 1.4v, I could instead tell the CPU to drop its voltage in scenarios with less load, and increase during load. This is done with DVID offsets, which is an amount of voltage you select which is added to the CPU VID(the CPU’s stock Vcore). However you need to also have C1E, EIST, and C3/C6 states enabled, as well as Turbo Mode enabled to properly drop and raise the CPU frequency.

PWM Optimizations:

Newer boards such as those from GIGABYTE and ASUS, use digital PWM technology, will have a special page where users can mess with and optimize PWM settings. To determine whether or not your motherboard has a digital PWM you should look in the power menu and look for settings such as those below, one the staples of digital PWM technology is a user configurable VRM.



Please note that you do not need to set LLC to Extreme, nor the others to extreme for only 4.8GHz, most of these options I change by habit for extreme overclocking with liquid nitrogen. For 99% of Overclocking there is no need to change any setting other than LLC. However many of you want to know what the other settings do, and I will show be below.

PWM Phase Control: This setting determines how to balance temperature with performance to provide either the best VRM performance or the best temperature for the VRM itself.

Voltage Response: This is a setting which directly correlates with the transient response of the VRM, turning this to fast will increase the temperature of the VRM.

Load Line Calibration: This setting can be increased in intensity which will decrease the standard Vdroop setting for the voltages, the CPU VCore LLC is the most important, and if you are OCing on air you should set Turbo and if on LN2 you should set Extreme.

Z77X-UD5H LLC Level Analysis
Digital Multi Meter = Real			Software = Fake
	Real Idle	Real Load	Fake Idle	Fake Load
Sandard	1.372	1.310	1.368	1.269
Low	1.381	1.337	1.380	1.320
Medium	1.387	1.354	1.380	1.344
High	1.392	1.372	1.392	1.356
Turbo	1.398	1.391	1.392	1.380
Extreme	1.405	1.410	1.404	1.392

Over Voltage Protection: This setting determines the upper limit on how much voltage can be supplied over the maximum setting.

Over Current Protection: This setting determines the upper limit on how much current can be supplied over the standard setting, I set to extreme always, just because the CPU uses as much current as it needs and no more.

Thermal Protection: This setting determines the upper limit on the MOSFET temperature of each phase. Each phases uses a tiny thermsistor to gauge its temperature, and that information as well as current are fed into the PWM to balance out the output across all phases evenly. This setting just allow you to not have VRM OTP shut down. There are upper limit protections which are not visible nor modifiable by the end user, and they should ensure a shutdown if the VRM overheats.

PWM Switch Rate: This is the switching frequency, or more simply put the amount of time each phase can switch, increase this and you increase the amount of ON time of each phase, thus increasing overall heat, and increasing the rate at which the current is supplied to the inductor, however the VRM on this board is already optimized for auto. Even under LN2 with the UD5H I do not change this setting.

Gigabyte Profile Sharing

For Z77 many manufacturers have brought out all the tricks, as Ivy/Z77 is the first time in a year that anything exciting for the extreme LN2 crowd has come out, and manufacturers love the extreme crowd because it gives them a chance to test out certain aspects of their boards to the max. To facilitate a much more interesting and easy user experience GIGABYTE finally recently incorporated named profiles within their UEFI. However they also added in the ability to save your profile to a USB or SSD/HDD, this means that users with the same model board (example= Z77X-UD5H Rev 1.0) can swap profiles and help each other or share their memory settings and so on.



You can save a profile name for a total of 10 user profiles in the BIOS.



Or you can save a file and set its name to a USB stick and send it to a friend or keep it safe.

GIGABYTE's Tweak Launcher:

Known as GTL this program is where it is at for LN2 and even air OCers. It is a simple executable like RealTemp, in that it has all its drivers in its folder and takes no installation. You just have to have Intel ME drivers installed just like for EasyTune6 for BLCK and multiplier change. Make sure to run the program as admin if you want BCLK change, but this program makes EasyTune6 not needed for LN2 OC.

By the way if you like EasyTune6, it is fully functioning for Ivy Bridge



For memory timings you need to use GTL.

Page 1 - Introduction	Page 6 - Step 3: OC-Profiles
Page 2 - Ivy Bridge Basics	Page 7 - Ivy Bridge and LN2
Page 3 - 22 Nanometer and Maths	Page 8 - Ivy Bridge LN2 Memory Overclocking
Page 4 - Step 1: Ivy Bridge CPU Overclocking	Page 9 - Ivy Bridge BCLK Overclocking
Page 5 - Step 2: Ivy Bridge Memory Overclocking

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