SFF.Network Many 200-Series Motherboards Leaked ahead of CES

With Intel's Kaby Lake soon to be released, many motherboard manufacturers are gearing up for their Intel chipset 200-series lineup. Although new features over the 100-series are limited, this did not keep board manufacturers from innovating and trying to bring something unique to the table.

Read more here.
 

fishyswaz

Chassis Packer
Feb 3, 2017
14
14
Eagerly awaiting the Strix mitx myself.

EDIT: A foreign (idk what language sorry) review of the motherboard is up! http://pctuning.tyden.cz/hardware/z...i-gaming-nejmensi-deska-pro-kaby-lake?start=2

That's in Czech - one thing that has worried me slightly though, is in the bios screenshots the ability to apply a negative AVX offset appears to be missing (in the other Asus Z270 boards it should be present just below the core ratio).

It'd be dissapointing if it's not there as one of the appealing functions of Z270 is the ability to apply the neg offset - some 5ghz clocks won't be stable/too hot without it, and seems daft on a board with 8+2 power phases to not include it as an option. I've asked Asus support anyhow if it does.
 
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fishyswaz

Chassis Packer
Feb 3, 2017
14
14
And got a reply from Asus CS - no AVX negative offset on the Z270I sadly, so looks like I'll have to settle for a different motherboard with less power phases:

 
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3lfk1ng

King of Cable Management
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The AVX negative offset would be nice for an extremely cramped build where underclocking may be a requirement but since the Strix board is built with enthusiast overclocking in mind, it makes perfect sense why they would opt not to use AVX.

AVX and overclocking just don't mix.

Hopefully that feature will exist on the non-Strix series boards like it did for the "non-enthusiast" x99 series motherboards.
 

EdZ

Virtual Realist
May 11, 2015
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AVX and overclocking just don't mix.
The point of the AVX offset is to mitigate the overclocking issues by allowing the AVX units to be clocked less aggressively compared to the rest of the core (hence it being a 'negative' offset).
 
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fishyswaz

Chassis Packer
Feb 3, 2017
14
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The point of the AVX offset is to mitigate the overclocking issues by allowing the AVX units to be clocked less aggressively compared to the rest of the core (hence it being a 'negative' offset).

Yeah, that's my point. The bulk of say 7700K chips that can do 5ghz do so realistically with a negative AVX offset (in the -1-3 area)- if you look at some retailers selling binned 7700k CPU's, they come with a caveat that basically says they'll run at 5ghz with a -2 AVX offset. IMHO, the offset should be part of an enthusiast mobo - it's on most of Asus's other Z270 offerings (I believe).

I've had 3 7700k's, one of which would run 5.1ghz 'stable' but only with a -2 offset. Just seems a shame that the Asus Z270I offers up the most robust amount of power phases (8+2) but doesn't support AVX offset. Would be handy for my m-itx build, less heat n'all.

Looks like I'll plump for the Fatal1ty and get out the spray paint.
 

3lfk1ng

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The point of the AVX offset is to mitigate the overclocking issues by allowing the AVX units to be clocked less aggressively compared to the rest of the core (hence it being a 'negative' offset).

Sure, it all sounds good in theory but from experience, AVX can actually cause unnecessary spikes in voltage which can cause instability at higher clocks/voltages.

It might be fine for those only pushing for slight bumps in performance where +.10V won't trigger a BSOD/Crash but I'm the kind of addict that pushes all my processors as close to 5.0GHz as possible and any amount of undesired voltage spikes just aren't acceptable. I don't always use manual voltages to do this because sometimes I will find an issue where a certain core needs to run 100MHz slower than the other cores in order the computer to find stability and I prefer not to feed that core the same voltage where possible.

To be fair, I've not overclocked with the new i7-7700k's but if I am not mistaken (please feel free to correct me if I am), the implementation/ instruction set hasn't changed.

Here is a quote from Raja on the issue in an overclocking guide:
Raja said:
There is one issue with Offset and Adaptive Mode that needs to be taken into account. The processor contains a power control unit which requests voltage based upon software load. When the PCU detects AVX instructions, it will ramp Vcore automatically beyond normal load voltage. There is no way to lock Vcore to prevent this if using Offset or Adapative Mode. This is pre-programmed by Intel into the PCU.

As an example, a CPU is perfectly stable at 1.25V using a manual voltage (static), if Adaptive or Offset Mode is used instead, it is impossible to lock the core voltage when running software that contains AVX instruction sets – stress tests such as AIDA and Prime contain AVX instruction sets. When the AVX instructions are detected by the PCU, the core voltage will be ramped an additional ~0.1V over your target voltage – so 1.25V will become ~1.35V under AVX load. If you intend to run heavy load AVX software, we recommend using Manual Vcore, NOT Adaptive or Offset Mode.
 

CubanLegend

Steely-Eyed NVFlash Man
Dec 23, 2016
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And got a reply from Asus CS - no AVX negative offset on the Z270I sadly, so looks like I'll have to settle for a different motherboard with less power phases:


The AVX negative offset would be nice for an extremely cramped build where underclocking may be a requirement but since the Strix board is built with enthusiast overclocking in mind, it makes perfect sense why they would opt not to use AVX.

AVX and overclocking just don't mix.

Hopefully that feature will exist on the non-Strix series boards like it did for the "non-enthusiast" x99 series motherboards.
I feel this is not good news. Most high OC's of a Kaby Lake 7700/7600K required an AVX offset, as per the overclockers.net forums Kaby Lake thread.
 
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fishyswaz

Chassis Packer
Feb 3, 2017
14
14
Sure, it all sounds good in theory but from experience, AVX can actually cause unnecessary spikes in voltage which can cause instability at higher clocks/voltages.

It might be fine for those only pushing for slight bumps in performance where +.10V won't trigger a BSOD/Crash but I'm the kind of addict that pushes all my processors as close to 5.0GHz as possible and any amount of undesired voltage spikes just aren't acceptable. I don't always use manual voltages to do this because sometimes I will find an issue where a certain core needs to run 100MHz slower than the other cores in order the computer to find stability and I prefer not to feed that core the same voltage where possible.

To be fair, I've not overclocked with the new i7-7700k's but if I am not mistaken (please feel free to correct me if I am), the implementation/ instruction set hasn't changed.

Here is a quote from Raja on the issue in an overclocking guide:

The thing is, AVX negative offset effectively downclocks the CPU when an AVX instrustion comes in, so it's ideal for the enthusiast platform as having the negative offset function allows stability at a higher CPU clock than you would normally with no option to downclock when one comes in. Hence why a load (looking at binned chips about 50%) of Kaby Lake chips @5ghz aren't stable using Prime 'CPU Toaster' 28.9 (with AVX instructions) but are using a stress test program without AVX (such as Prime 26.6, Cinebench etc). It can change a 5ghz 7700k to a 4.8ghz 7700k without the option (if you're worried about stress test stability).

AVX negative offset allows more headroom with less volts in a nutshell, although I believe when an AVX instruction comes in, there's still a minor voltage spike as the request sparks one? Still a slight volt spike, but no blue screen.

Not sure if my waffling makes sense haha.

Anyhow, was slightly miffed they didn't think on a board which would be near on the best spec'd m-itx offering, with a fair amount of entusiast features available on its big brother boards, to pop in the AVX neg offset. Still a great feature packed board though, just the Asrock now ticks boxes for me (with the addition of green spray paint).
 

CubanLegend

Steely-Eyed NVFlash Man
Dec 23, 2016
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Got my z270i Yesterday and did some tests... but along the way I came across a:

COOL DISCOVERY: In the BIOS, I discovered that the Negative AVX offset option was in fact in the BIOS, whoever reported that it was missing seemed to be wrong? This will allow for a higher final Overclock by applying a 1 or 2, etc negative AVX offset.

My board's BIOS is the stock release BIOS, there are currently no other BIOS updates, so it did have this feature! :)
 

fishyswaz

Chassis Packer
Feb 3, 2017
14
14
Got my z270i Yesterday and did some tests... but along the way I came across a:

COOL DISCOVERY: In the BIOS, I discovered that the Negative AVX offset option was in fact in the BIOS, whoever reported that it was missing seemed to be wrong? This will allow for a higher final Overclock by applying a 1 or 2, etc negative AVX offset.

My board's BIOS is the stock release BIOS, there are currently no other BIOS updates, so it did have this feature! :)

It was me - for the love of ****. I even asked them again at Asus (Raja ignored me) further clarifying using an AVX neg offset enabled K chip, and got this response:


I'm somewhat miffed now - I REALLY wanted the Asus board, but have an Asrock Fatal1ty winging it's way to me as we speak. Don't know what the hell Asus CS was going on about then.
 
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