How best proceed with overheating i7-4790K?

[REnso1]

I have an i7-4790K in a GA-Z97MX Gaming 5 mobo latest F4 BIOS.

I used a Noctua NH-L12 cooler rated at 95W for cooling the processor rated at 88W in a Lian Li PC V354 with 4 fans, 2 in 2 out, case closed and case open, ambient is 27-30°C.

Temperatures in BIOS and memtest86+ were high so I decided to try stress testing and in Prime95 small FFT cores 1&2 overheated to 100°C using Core Temp.

I tried reseating the heatsink and renewing the NT-H1 TIM and opening the case but it made no difference. I have a photo of the contact pattern here.

When I tested using the OCCT benchmark I was unable to complete a test due to the processor overheating so I underclocked the processor to 3.6 GHz, disabled turbo and manually set vCore to 1.1v.

With an underclocked processor I was able to get a heating and cooling curve using the OCCT auto capture, to enable me to study the problem.

Even when underclocked the processor was reaching high temperatures, rapid fluctuations in temperature with work load suggest a bottleneck in the thermal pathway. When I tested with the intel retail cooler which came with the CPU the cooling was much less effective than the NH-L12 (even when underclocked taking just over a minute of OCCT to reach the 85°C cut off point see below) indicating the NH-L12 was doing a good job of removing heat, which meant the processor was making the heat or the source of the bottleneck.

I have discussed it http://forums.hexus.net/cpus/327593-4790k-overheating-nh-l12.html elsewhere. Advice was to contact Intel due to an absence of information relating to my retailer's testing procedures. I have asked about these but am still waiting for a reply.

So my question is how should I proceed from here? Does this qualify for an RMA? If so is it possible to negotiate this with Intel direct or do I have to go through my retailer?

I have done my best to make sure I am not doing anything wrong and I would be grateful for any pointers to any mistakes I may be making.

[REnso1]

I just wanted to add that the behaviour with the Amp limiter requiring a value >=256 to raise clocks beyond 3.6GHz is not limited to iXTU on my mobo, it works the same way when setting the Amps limiter manually in BIOS and testing with AIDAx64 stress test using the built in AIDAx64 CPU clock monitor in the overclocking monitors section. A limit of 255A will cause a clock of 3.6GHz and 256A will allow 4.1 GHz. So it is not related to interacting with iXTU specifically and is a characteristic of the F4 BIOS for the GA Z97MX Gaming 5.

[cgeor]

what to modify here?

i dont have same settings like u

[cgeor]

I use coolmaster v8 gts to high temperature

[KenF_Intel]

Juanvaldino,

It looks like XTU has access to the settings for Turbo Boost Power Max, Turbo Boost Short Power Max, and Processor Current Limits. Try setting them to values in the screenshot.

You may need assistance from your motherboard manufacturer when it comes to correcting the Core Voltage, and Core Voltage Offset values.

[cgeor]

this is new test ..

[cgeor]

I change settings for Turbo Boost Power Max, Turbo Boost Short Power Max, and Processor Current Limit , so i did test 35 minutes , and cpu total tdp was maximum 73, vcore cpu was maximum 1.1300v and cpu temperature was maximum 68c , so ? it is ok to have this settings? i will have problem if i have this settings? i have coolermaster v8 gts . thank u

[RKimb]

Where does one get the XTU program? The link on the Intel website that I found lead to a page that said "There are currently no downloads available for ""extreme tuning utility"""

[SBuck1]

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24075&lang=eng https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24075&lang=eng

For some reason their link is broken.

[RKimb]

Many thanks for the link.

[SPark48]

I have had the same overheating problems with 4790k and was on another thread, but was directed to this one.

Ken, I used XTU settings you proposed above and although this does fix the overheating/instability issues, as stated previously by OP, it also limits your processor speeds to 3.6GHz. This cannot be the answer you guys are hoping us to be satisfied with. Luckily Intel (begrudgingly) granted me an RMA so hopefully the new processor that arrives will not have the same issues. However, even if it does have the same problems, with your suggestions, I am hopeful that it is an issue that can be addressed with wattage adjustments rather than it being a processor hardware malfunction.

I'm also concerned that so many 4790k processors are having this problem at stock (4.0GHz/4.4GHz) speeds. The main reason most (if not all) of us paid the extra $30-$50 for an unlocked processor is in hopes of being able to overclock the processor. However, due to these temperatures, I haven't even been able to test the upper limits of this processor which Intel has publicly boasted could reach 5.0GHz on air cooling.

The XTU setting changes are a start, but please continue looking into the issue and give us an update on how to (safely) run this processor the way your engineers meant for it to run. Because obviously, this isn't it.

[SPark48]

*EDITED IN BOLD*

After doing some testing while adjusting the Processor Current Limit, I was able to get max speeds of 4.4GHz without throttling at 161.5A. Any less than that and the processor would throttle down 0.01GHz during the stress test in XTU. Temperatures are in mid to high 70's. I am getting more hopeful with these results, but again, not the answer I'm looking for.:

Here are my settings and results of the stress test through XTU:

Just in case you're curious, my system info:

[SElwa]

I replaced my CPU finally and the first thing I have noticed was idle temp was between 29c-33c, the old CPU's idle temp was between 37-41c, then I used the settings suggested by ken-Intel in Intel® XTU but the 'core voltage' is not exposed to Intel® XTU (my board is GA-Z97-UD3H, latest bios F7) so I modified it in bios to 1.109v, now using Intel® XTU stress test my CPU's temp (and also core(s) temp) is between 72c-79c using stock cooler @4.2GHz.

[BSant8]

Hello Ken and thank your for your time!

I set the values exactly as you posted and indeed my temps never go above 60deg. The CPU Total TDP never went higher than 50W.

But then i decided to run a Small FFT stress test on Prime95 (ver. 28.5) and keep the Intel XTU opened for monitoring. During the test the temps never went higer than 65deg BUT the CPU was 100% of the time throttled by the current limit and never went to 4.2Ghz, insted was working at 4.01 Ghz. The only way to make the CPU run at 4.2ghz was to increase the CPU Current Limit to 300A, but then the temps jumped to 78deg while running the Small FFT Test.

I have no idea what it means. Either Prime95 is doing something really wrong with the CPU or the Intel XTU is not really stressing the CPU. Which one is it?

For the rest of you guys, please check all the values while monitoring and please use more than one program to stress test.

[aanwa1]

Not all the options are available for me with my Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 5 (F5 Bios).

So i edited what is available with ETU and i used Gigabyte's EasyTune software to edit the rest of the options.

The results were better but the CPU doesn't go past 4 GHz .

[jband2]

ShadiElwan que lote tiene tu micro??? L4???

[SPark48]

He's asking what your CPU's lot number is. L4?

[SElwa]

bahianus

My new CPU Batch# : L434C341 and S/N: 3E433036A2639

My old CPU Batch# : L4****** (can't remember) and S/N: 2L422235A4539

sampark1980

Thanks for the translation.

[SElwa]

I stressed the CPU again with a game (NFS Rivals), using ken-intel suggested settings after 10 min the system crashed, then what? What do I do? Increase Vcore a little bit or what?

[SPark48]

Does anyone know if Intel's lot numbers are sequential? Meaning is L42XXXXX older than L43XXXXX? So far, most of you guys have been having problems with L42XXXXX, yet my lot number was L435B918 and I was having overheating issues. However, the RMA CPU I received today is L42XXXXX. I haven't had a chance to put it in and test it yet, but can anyone predict if I will have overheating problems with the "new" CPU as well?

[LM_]

First of all I want to thank everyone here, especially ken-Intel, since I had a problem with the overheating too. I just wanted to write my experience after a few weeks of working on it and maybe someone can tell me if everything is okay now. Some of the parts are newer than others since I upgraded most parts in this year.

First of all my equipment (without the SSD):

Thermaltake Chaser MK-I

be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10, 650 W

i7-4790k

MSI Z97 Gaming 7

G.Skill DIMM 16 GB DDR3-2666 Kit

MSI GeForce GTX 970 Gaming 4G

Corsair Hydro Series H110

Now to my experience:

The first time I haven't changed anything at all and reached 95° (temp measuring with Core Temp) with Prime95 v28. Then I changed the heat paste (first I used the one from the Corsair H110) and I reached 81° with Prime95 v28 and with IntelBurnTest.

Then I read ken-Intel's post about chaging the values in XTU to the following: Turbo Boost Power Max 88 W (which was at 512 W before ... I have to say that I haven't changed anything in the BIOS or so), Turbo Boost Short Power Max 88 W (which was 200 W before), Core Voltage 1.100 (which was at around 1.300 before), Processor Current Limit 115.000 (which was at 400.000 before), Multipliers to 44, 44, 44, 44 (the same as before), Dynamic CPU Voltage Offset 0.000 ... XMP was activated too.

So, after the change I tried a few new tests with the settings above and the outcomes make me a little bit curious.

The outcomes are as following (everything was measured with the XTU)

Idle temp around 22-25°, without the H110 (and also without the stock cooler I had around 32-38° (so I think the H110 works fine)

XTU: Processor Frequency of 4,4 GHz, Cache Frequency of 4,0 GHz, 10h stress test, max temp of 55°, start temp of 45-51°

AIDA64 Extreme (I choose to stress the CPU, FPU, Cache and System Memory): Processor Frequency of 4,4 GHz, Cache Frequency of 4,0 GHz, temps after 5min of 47-52° (after 5min I stopped since I was the opinion that it would be the same like with XTU.)

HeavyLoad: Processor Frequency of 4,4 GHz, Cache Frequency of 4,0 GHz, temps after 5min around 48-51°

IntelBurnTest 2.4: Processor Frequency of 4,4 GHz, Cache Frequency of 4,0 GHz, temps after 5min around 49-51° (I also stressed various amounts of the RAM with it, but the temp just climbed for 4° for 15600 MB)

IntelBurnTest 2.54: Processor Frequency of 4,3 GHz, Cache Frequency of 3,6 GHz, temps after 5min around 55-61° (stressed with 4096 MB of RAM)

Prime95 v26: Processor Frequency of 4,4 GHz, Cache Frequency of 4,0 GHz, temps after 5min of 47-55°

OCCT: Processor Frequency of 4,1 GHz, Cache Frequency of 3,9 GHz, temps after 5min around 52-56°

Prime95 v27: Processor Frequency of 4,03 GHz, Cache Frequency of 4,0 GHz, temps after 5min of 52-55°

Prime95 v28: Processor Frequency of 4,0 GHz, Cache Frequency of 3,6 GHz, temps after 5min of 58-61°

Active Core Count was 4 for each test.

I was a little bit curious why Prime95 v28 just had a Processor Frequency of 4,0 GHz so I changed Turbo Boost (Short) Power Max to 150 W ... Then I had a Processor Frequency of 4,4 GHz. I tried to find out how high the settings must be for v28 to reach 4,4 GHz, but I need at least 130 W (everything below is around 4,1 to 4,3 GHz). In the end I reached around 81° again.

Which value do you guys think I should consider as nearly correct for reference to overlocking? I mean, if the 81° for 4,4 GHz of v28 are correct, then I'm really afraid that I won't overclock it at all. I mean, I heard that the newest versions of Prime and IntelBurnTest also makes use of the AVX2, which is the reason why it get's so hot. Is it really possible that this function makes out 20°?

On a side note: I'm playing Dragon Age: Inquisition on Ultra settings and I'm reaching max 48°, which should be a very good temp if I'm not wrong?

Thx in advance for all answers

Edit: I noticed I used an older version of IntelBurnTest (2.4). Now I tried 2.54 (the newer version), but the measurements are as with Prime95 v28. With a Turbo Boost of 88 W I reached a variable Processor Frequency of 4,0 to 4,3 GHz and Cache Frequency of 3,6 GHz to 4,0 GHz. The temps were around 55-61°. I also tried to change the Turbo Boost to 130 W (the same as in Prime v28), but I never reached a frequency of 4,4 GHz.

I also made sure that I used the newest version of all the other programms.

[AOnIT]

Hi all, I've been following along too, thanks as well to all the testing people have done in this thread.

I'm using the Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H with a 4790K, and tried various options to prevent "instant voltage death". Resetting the BIOS and "loading optimised defaults" (as suggested back in the thread) worked very well.

Running on the stock cooler I got temps between 80-90 degrees C with Prime 26.6 and 28.8 Blend and Small FFT tests. Switching to an aftermarket cooler helped reduce these dramatically to the 55-60 range with occasional peaks at 75 degrees C. Cooler is a Silverstone AR01, so not a high-end cooler, but the improvement indicates to me that the stock cooler isn't really appropriate for heavy load.

I'm logging my results here for anyone who's interested: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2328454 http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2328454

Cheers.