Jumpexx

Been tuning my 13600K on a Z690 board (ASRock Steel Legend) with an AK620. Stock was hitting low 90s in Cinebench R23, so I set an adaptive offset of -0.080 V and LLC to mode 4. Load temps dropped to mid 80s and Cinebench 10-minute loop passes. Games are fine too.

Problem: it BSODs at idle. Not under load — I can leave it rendering for an hour, then close everything and 20-30 minutes later it either blue-screens or just reboots. Happened twice today while I was reading a PDF. Event Viewer shows a WHEA error once, otherwise just Kernel-Power 41. XMP is on but memory passed a quick TM5 run at stock CPU settings.

Is this just the classic "adaptive offset too low at idle" thing? Should I go fixed vcore, lower the offset, or mess with AC loadline? I'm not chasing benchmark numbers, just want quieter fans without an unstable desktop.

Idle crashes with a negative adaptive offset are usually exactly what you think: the low-load VID gets pulled down too far for the ring/cache or a preferred core. LLC won't save you there because at idle there's barely any current, so LLC isn't doing much. I'd drop to -0.050 V and see if the idle reboots stop. If they do, bump back in 0.005 V steps until it gets flaky again, then back off one step.

Also check whether your board has a separate "ring/cache offset" or "atom" voltage; sometimes the core is fine but the uncore isn't. But honestly on a 13600K, -0.080 V all-core adaptive is kinda ambitious if you also want idle stability. -0.050 to -0.060 is the sane range for most chips.