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Intel i7 7700K overheating and i dont know why

DHore
Beginner
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So I recently bought a i7 7700k and i have a hyper 212 EVO with one fan mounted to it and in idle my cpu stays around to 45C and sometimes spikes to 70C. in load it tends to stay aorund 75-85C and rarely spikes to 90c which makes me worry. I don't know if i need a better cpu cooler because my cpu before this was a i5 4690 never got this hot and in load stayed around 65C. I checked the thermal paste and everything seems fine i really don't know what the issue is can someone please help me thanks.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
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Danny,

If, under load, your temperatures are in the low 80s and there is only the odd very brief spike to 90, then this is ok. If, on the other hand, it is spending a significant amount of time in the 90 range, then you should be concerned.

If you are spending a considerable amount of time at 90 or higher, then you need to do something about this. There are two things to look at:

  1. The installation of your cooling solution. You may have too little or too much TIM (Thermal Interface Material, slang: paste, goop, grease, etc.), it may not cover the surface uniformly or it has separated or dried out. Alternatively, the method for ratcheting down the heatsink may be nonuniform (for example, one corner not attached or not as tight as others corners) or is too tight (causing, for example, board torque, which can also keep attachment to processor from being uniform).
  2. The fan speed control programming (typically managed in BIOS Setup but some board vendors provide runtime application) may be incorrect. For Desktop processors, the upper end of the processor fan speed control curve should be anchored at the processor's Control Temperature (Tcontrol), so that, at all temperatures above Tcontrol, the fan is at 100% duty cycle (full speed). Your processor's Tcontrol can be determined by reading the IA32 Temperature Target Model-Specific Register (MSR), which is at address 0x1A2. This register provides the processor's Maximum Junction Temperature (Tjmax) in bits 16-24 and a Tcontrol Offset in bits 8-15 (subtract this Tcontrol Offset from Tjmax to get your processor's Tcontrol value).

Note: Support for Tcontrol is limited to Desktop and (I believe) Server processors; in Mobile and Embedded processors, the Tcontrol Offset field will typically contain 0 (zero)).

Hope this helps,

...S

DHore
Beginner
642 Views

Thanks this does help it does stay around the low 80s. i was just worried because my previous processor didnt get this hot, and i know its a i7 and they get hot but i didnt thing this hot.

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
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Your previous processor had solder between the die and the heat spreader. This processor uses TIM instead - and, IMHO, it cannot dissipate its heat as fast. As a result, temperatures are higher on average and spikes can be even more so. Still, if highs stay at or below Tcontrol and there is only the odd, very short duration spikes going above that point, you will be ok.

To put this in perspective, your processor can run continuously at its Tcontrol temperature for literally years without suffering any thermals-related damage. Of course, the power circuitry on the board would fry in a few weeks if you tried to do this, so we'll never know for sure.

If you want to be absolutely positive, tell me the contents of your IA32 Temperature Target MSR (0x1A2). There are all sorts of freeware tools that can display MSR values. I use one called RWEverything, but be warned that it requires some extra configuration steps to read this particular MSR.

...S

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