Software Tuning, Performance Optimization & Platform Monitoring
Discussion regarding monitoring and software tuning methodologies, Performance Monitoring Unit (PMU) of Intel microprocessors, and platform updating.

Power Gadget details

Elliott_B_
Beginner
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I'm trying to understand the numbers in Intel Power Gadget.  I run a 6950x on a Gigabyte X99 Designare board.  Under Windows 10, the Power Gadget shows Max Temp0 as 96C.  What does that mean?  According to the datasheet for this chip, the maximum safe operating temperature is 127C.  That sounds high, but I confirmed it with an Intel tech support agent via live chat.  So what happens when 96C is exceeded?  When I run Prime95 stress test, the temp reaches 90C, then drops to 61C for a few minutes, then increases again.  It seems like it's throttling its speed to avoid overheating, but the Pacakge frequency remains constant at 4.00GHz.  I'm confused, because I thought throttling would show as a lower frequency here.

Also, it says PkgPwrLimit0 is 3408.3W.  This seems ludicrously high, since this is way more than any PSU can handle.  I thought the max TDP was 140W for this chip.  My system often runs around 230W under heavy load.  Is this bad?

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Elliott_B_
Beginner
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Another thing I'm curious about:  When I overclock to 4.2GHz in the bios, the power consumption in the Power Gadget app drops significantly, never rising above 80W. That doesn't make sense to me, since it draws over 200W at 4.0GHz.

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