evga EVGA Z690 DARK K|NGP|N

[CENS]

 

I'd like to share a quick overview on the EVGA Z690 DARK KP and it's key features tailored for the XOC crowd - both veterans and rookies. Me personally I appreciate the pragmatic approach of the bios that maximises the ease of use by offering the options that really matter. It goes without saying that with the introduction of DDR5 this gen the team focused a lot on memory tuning which is going to be reflected in many areas within the bios.

Disclaimer: Consider everything given below as “educational material” and provided AS IS. Proceed with caution and at your own risk as only you are responsible for the possible outcome of out of spec stress.

To kick things off I'd suggest to start by picking one of the pre-compiled memory profiles in the collection for a wide range of DDR5 performance points under "Extras" in the top left drop-down menu.

The naming scheme gives you an idea what the profiles are best suited for. Daily - for 24/7, GB3 for benching with "geekbench stability" and LN2 in the naming hints at this profile is meant for liquid nitrogen use on the memory (so don't expect those to work out of the box in a daily config). The LN2 profiles specifically are the exact same memory settings used for our records on hwbot, too. Simply select whatever fits your use case and pretty much all profiles can act as a base line for you to explore and dial up and down depending on your individual components.

In the memory tab I want to highlight the PMIC Turbo Mode that can help you to boot higher frequency dividers on hynix modules. Tipp: In my personal testing Mode 4 and 5 have worked the best for my kits based on hynix. For Samsung you can generally leave it on Auto.

 

Now since cool things are cool this board is optimized for LN2, both memory and CPU. I've been able to take every 12900K to full pot with two simple options that combine multiple tweaks behind the scenes. First and formost you would go ahead and enable LN2 mode in the OC tab while cooling down your CPU. All other secondary (i.e.) PLL voltages can be left on Auto.

 

Obviously not all CPUs and IMCs are the same so approaching full pot temperatures -196c on maxed out DDR5 can introduce issues that you didn't encounter on warmer temperatures. Where is the magic button when you need it right? Well again under the "Extras" drop-down menu you'll find "XOC Calibration". Onward we go!

When overclocking your ADL CPU using BCLK seeking these last few mhz you'll eventually find a wall. Then I'd suggest you to take "FLL Override" up a notch. Tipp: I use Mode 2 all day.

Misc:

- Note on CPU VCCIN Aux, the input rail: This one is really strong on this board. I essentially ran all my LN2 scores on 50% VRM capacity for this rail, because one inductor got knocked off during shipping, yet 1.9v was sufficient for all XOC endeavours. 

- CPU VDDQ requires attention tuning for 1T vs. 2T, so if you see it being set rather low in a profile on the one hand and set rather high in another profile, then this is intentional. Might require adjustment on ambient vs. cold, too.

 

Software:

Latest Bios 1.14 that I can highly recommend. For instance it adds uCode selection to re-enable AVX512 support on supported CPUs: link

EleetX 1.0.13.0 for OC within the OS: link

 

Enjoy!

Edited December 26, 2022 by CENS

[CENS]

With the present ICs available you'd want to go ahead with Hynix based modules regardless. Relatively speaking they can usually

• reach higher frequencies
• tighter timings at the same frequency point
• also scale a lot with cold.

Samsung:

 

Hynix (ambient):

 

Hynix (cold)

 

Hynix Aida64:

Edited March 9, 2022 by CENS

[CornerJack]

Need to see now this motherboard in Europe... and thanks for guide !

[Luumi]

My experience has been that it is best to train memories as close to cold boot bug temperature or even as close to full pot as possible if you face any kind of IMC related issues on cold. On my 12600K I needed 1.7-1.75v Ring PLL to be able to run full pot which is very high.

[seranidy]

Just wanted to add a few things.

In some of the ambient testing that i've done PMIC Mode 4 definitely helps with training and stability, I've seen maybe a few handpicked boards that can actually scale above 1.6vdd/vddq on ambient (every dark i have seen does it flawlessly).

With a not so good imc and a decent kit I was able to bench 7100c31 with no issues

I'll definitely be throwing the cpu and ram under LN2 when my pot comes back ?

 

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by seranidy

[Luumi]

29 minutes ago, seranidy said:

Just wanted to add a few things.

In some of the ambient testing that i've done PMIC Mode 4 definitely helps with training and stability, I've seen maybe a few handpicked boards that can actually scale above 1.6vdd/vddq on ambient (every dark i have seen does it flawlessly).

With a not so good imc and a decent kit I was able to bench 7100c31 with no issues

I'll definitely be throwing the cpu and ram under LN2 when my pot comes back ?

 

 

VDDQ is the hardest voltage on Z690. On the latest bioses with cpu on cold usually 1.23-1.3 is most stable and easiest to boot at the same time.

[seranidy]

15 minutes ago, Luumi said:

VDDQ is the hardest voltage on Z690. On the latest bioses with cpu on cold usually 1.23-1.3 is most stable and easiest to boot at the same time.

Yeah i haven’t been able to test this CPU on cold yet but from ambient 1.6 definitely shows an improvement 

[thewebsiteisdown]

Board looks solid. Can't find one available to purchase unfortunately.

[CENS]

Next batch is around the corner. I guess it’s best to camp evga‘s own website. 
 

plus checking out @EVGA_JacobF on twitter can help as he usually gives a heads-up when stock becomes available ??

[Luumi]

My own guide video for xoc on this board.
 

 

[thewebsiteisdown]

4 hours ago, Luumi said:

My own guide video for xoc on this board.
 

 

Great can I have one please ? I'll pay.

[tresnugget]

Can someone confirm that VSA reporting in hwinfo is bugged? It's steady reporting 1.76v no matter what I set in the bios. VSA VID changes but not VSA. I'm running a 12900KS and want to make sure there's no weird bios bug that's degrading my chip on ambient.

[seranidy]

8 hours ago, tresnugget said:

Can someone confirm that VSA reporting in hwinfo is bugged? It's steady reporting 1.76v no matter what I set in the bios. VSA VID changes but not VSA. I'm running a 12900KS and want to make sure there's no weird bios bug that's degrading my chip on ambient.

VCCSA is part of FIVR spec. Read your SA VID under your Core VID's in hwinfo 

[tresnugget]

37 minutes ago, seranidy said:

VCCSA is part of FIVR spec. Read your SA VID under your Core VID's in hwinfo 

Thanks for the info. This is my first EVGA board in 13 years since the X58 Classified. I've been conditioned to ROG voltage reporting. 

[seranidy]

3 minutes ago, tresnugget said:

Thanks for the info. This is my first EVGA board in 13 years since the X58 Classified. I've been conditioned to ROG voltage reporting. 

Understandable lol, you enjoying the board?

[tresnugget]

2 minutes ago, seranidy said:

Understandable lol, you enjoying the board?

Absolutely love it so far. Memory OC has been better than the Apex and I'm really digging the no non sense bios.

[seranidy]

1 minute ago, tresnugget said:

Absolutely love it so far. Memory OC has been better than the Apex and I'm really digging the no non sense bios.

Yep, honestly the best z690 board on the market. PMIC support is nuts and the no memory slot issues is all i had to see to convince me to buy it.

[Luumi]

I recommend to use the latest retail BIOS especially for memory overclocking. Try PMIC Turbo Mode of 4 or 5. I generally use 4.

 

Can find it on evga website:

 

https://www.evga.com/support/download/

[thewebsiteisdown]

Can I has one yet please ?. I'll never get one of these because they're impossible to get without being vip or whatever EVGA calls it. I Want One Please!

[seranidy]

14 hours ago, Luumi said:

I recommend to use the latest retail BIOS especially for memory overclocking. Try PMIC Turbo Mode of 4 or 5. I generally use 4.

 

Can find it on evga website:

 

https://www.evga.com/support/download/

Personally 4 has worked the best for me on ambient, 5 seems to scale better when cold

[bl4ckdot]

Any tips / things I should know about training 6000CL28 ? Post code doesn't go paste 31, 2T or 1T, same thing. Didn't had issue on my UX for that ram profile.

6800c30 1T / 6800c30 2T / 6800c29 1T all have no issue and train in one try. 

I'm using a KS on BIOS 1.09.

[CENS]

Hard to tell from a distance. It’s not a frequency and timing combo I usually run. Is this Samsung or Hynix? Are you sure all other timings are correct? If you run it off of a profile make sure to select the correct IC suffix. Did you change the CPU? (Maybe IMC plays a role). Select a different PMIC turbo mode. For Samsung IC you can leave auto btw.

[bl4ckdot]

On 5/3/2022 at 7:31 PM, CENS said:

Hard to tell from a distance. It’s not a frequency and timing combo I usually run. Is this Samsung or Hynix? Are you sure all other timings are correct? If you run it off of a profile make sure to select the correct IC suffix. Did you change the CPU? (Maybe IMC plays a role). Select a different PMIC turbo mode. For Samsung IC you can leave auto btw.

Hynix (Oloy ES kit). I have found that training 6666c28 or 6666c26 works without issue, so I have to bclk my way up. I think its just a weird training issue at 6800+. I use turbo mode 4 (tried others too) and tried with 2 differents CPU. It's probably something really "tiny" in the bios since I can do 7400c30 easily.

[Jomama22]

Is there no way to change trfcPB and trfc2? Doing it within windows may work but would rather be able to retrain when changing those.

[Vertex_FR]

From my exp :

Adata ANPEC : turbo pmic mode 3 is the best mode.

VDD2 : 1.27V for 7000C32 on bios to have 1.25v on load under OS (with ELEET i need to set 1.26V to have 1.25V)

VDDQ 1.35V for 7000C32

7200C32 need higher VDD2 and VDDQ to boot.

test on 1.10 bios.

 

I have to test with XOC bios but there is nothing here for 12900KS , can I have the last version ?