i7 4790k starts to Thermal Throttle at 70*C

[BaumiBaumann]

Hi,

My 4 Year old i7 4790k just somehow started to Thermal Throttle as soon as it hits 70*C

I`ve now Achieved this in several games like Assassins´s Creed Origins, Gta 5 and like you can see in attached screenshot also in the intel xtu while running the cpu Stress Test, which indicates me that is indeed thermal throttling

 

However the cpu is not Overclocked and apart from changing the Thermal Paste after this error first occured i did not change anything on the hardware site compared to the last 4 years on which it ran well

 

I am using:

 

i7 4790k, cooled by a single fan 140mm corsair all in one water cooling (Dont know the exact product name anymore)

Some cheap 60€ asus mainboard

Asus Strix gtx 980

Im also using 4 case fans

 

 

[Skiiwee29]

Is your BIOS up to date on your motherboard? What power plan do you have windows set to?

[BaumiBaumann]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Is your BIOS up to date on your motherboard? What power plan do you have windows set to?

My Bios runs the newest version but even this version is from 2016 it just doesnt receive any new updates

 

Windows power plan is set to Max Performance

[Constantin]

1 hour ago, Skiiwee29 said:

What power plan do you have windows set to?

this will never cause a thermal trhottle....

[Skiiwee29]

1 minute ago, Constantin said:

this will never cause a thermal trhottle....

Strangers things have happened and bugs do occur. 

[Hip]

Maybe change thermal paste and reinstall CPU drivers?

[Mister Woof]

What is the temperature reading from other sources? do you have hwinfo64 running?

 

VRM temps?

 

 

[BaumiBaumann]

29 minutes ago, Hip said:

Maybe change thermal paste and reinstall CPU drivers?

So I just reinstalled the cpu drivers and started another Stress test but sadly this did not change anything

 

I already changed the thermal paste like I already described

[BaumiBaumann]

11 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

4 years

AIO

 

That's probably it. They are only to designed to last the length of the warranty

 

 

I dont think so because up until the thermal throttling begins at 70*C the Temperatures are pretty good at around 60*C. The thing is like I read online Thermal Throttle on the 4790k should only begin at around 100*C which can not be changed or turned off

 

Which makes this whole thing pretty weird

[Mister Woof]

Just now, BaumiBaumann said:

I dont think so because up until the thermal throttling begins at 70*C the Temperatures are pretty good at around 60*C. The thing is like I read online Thermal Throttle on the 4790k should only begin at around 100*C which can not be changed or turned off

 

Which makes this whole thing pretty weird

Edited my post after i posted it as it didn't make sense to me LOL

 

See my edits

[BaumiBaumann]

17 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

What is the temperature reading from other sources? do you have hwinfo64 running?

 

VRM temps?

 

 

Let me try this real quick

[BaumiBaumann]

34 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

What is the temperature reading from other sources? do you have hwinfo64 running?

 

VRM temps?

 

 

Is this what you wanted?

 

What i see is some pretty high motherboard temperatures on the 2. image but can this lead to a Thermal Throttle?

[Mister Woof]

So, this is what I see - 

 

In that second image, you aren't CPU thermal throttling, right? You aren't getting higher than 68c, and it says "Thermal Throttling: No", and your average frequency seems pretty even.

 

But I do see some of your motherboard temperatures in the 90s, which if those are VRM readings, is quite high, but IIRC they are rated at 115 or 125 max (depending on the components, i guess, some more some less), so it could be your motherboard VRM throttling your CPU speed because of its temperatures (that saw in your first original post) if it hits close to those temps.

 

If you don't have any type of positive airflow over the VRM, try adding some cooling onto the VRM and see if that improves things. Like open up your case and blow a regular house fan or something directly onto the VRM.

 

See if it still has the same behavior.

[BaumiBaumann]

6 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

So, this is what I see - 

 

In that second image, you aren't CPU thermal throttling, right? You aren't getting higher than 68c, and it says "Thermal Throttling: No", and your average frequency seems pretty even.

 

But I do see some of your motherboard temperatures in the 90s, which if those are VRM readings, is quite high, but IIRC they are rated at 115 or 125 max, so it could be your motherboard VRM throttling your CPU speed because of its temperatures (that saw in your first original post) if it hits close to those temps.

 

If you don't have any type of positive airflow over the VRM, try adding some cooling onto the VRM and see if that improves things. Like open up your case and blow a regular house fan or something directly onto the VRM.

 

See if it still has the same behavior.

Ok so I will try cooling the mainboard and then I will report it to you again

[TomvanWijnen]

13 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

In that second image, you aren't CPU thermal throttling, right? You aren't getting higher than 68c, and it says "Thermal Throttling: No", and your average frequency seems pretty even.

I think that it is being limited somewhere, as it's only turboing to 4.2 GHz instead of 4.4 GHz. I do agree with you that the motherboard temperatures could be causing this. Looking at pictures of your motherboard, it definitely has an almost complete lack of cooling for motherboard components. It's probably not designed to cope with the power draw of the i7 4790k, and therefore doesn't have enough cooling for it. Like Plutosaurus suggested, I'd recommend you to direct some extra airflow over the motherboard, and see if those high temperatures decrease any.

[BaumiBaumann]

So with this little Fan Setup and also GPU Fans pinned at 100% my Motherboard Temperatures are now at around 100-105*C which after 15 minutes of Stress Testing seems to Prevent the System from Thermal Throttling so thanks to everyone who helped me out with this!

 

But i still have no clue why seemingly has started out of nowhere

Do you guys think that maybe my mainboard or the sensors on the mainboard are broken and replacing it will help?

[Mister Woof]

Might want to consider some VRM add on heatsinks and jury-rig a 140mm fan on the inside of your case + drill out some holes

[TomvanWijnen]

8 minutes ago, BaumiBaumann said:

So with this little Fan Setup and also GPU Fans pinned at 100% my Motherboard Temperatures are now at around 100-105*C which after 15 minutes of Stress Testing seems to Prevent the System from Thermal Throttling so thanks to everyone who helped me out with this!

 

But i still have no clue why seemingly has started out of nowhere

Do you guys think that maybe my mainboard or the sensors on the mainboard are broken and replacing it will help?

Ah, I hadn't thought about this yet, but I now understand it even more! The VRM is probably what is so toasty. This is partly because you have a quite power hungry CPU, but also partly because it cannot benefit from air passing by from air coolers, as you are "expected" to have an air cooler with the motherboard you have. You could try experimenting with a fan directed at near the CPU socket and above (google for where the VRM is located on your motherboard) so it has more air to cool itself. Possibly tape (preferably with some rubber stuff or so in between to reduce vibrations) or so a fan ontop of your GPU, pointed towards the VRM and CPU socket.

[Mister Woof]

What orientation is your rear fan? Exhaust? What orientation is your radiator? Intake?

 

A couple of things I personally don't like about AIO's:

 

1) Generally speaking, you're making a compromise one way or another. Usually, you're using up the spot that your case would allot for intake fans. In your case, with only a single 140mm radiator, it's either set up as intake on the radiator, that by the by time air passes through the radiator, the temperature is increased vs. if they were just intake fans, OR its set up as exhaust, where the radiator is cooling the CPU with hot air and also the hot air exhaust is reduced. You can do push-pull to help increase flow, but the restriction is still there.

 

2) Generally speaking, vs. air coolers, you don't get any incidental motherboard cooling that air coolers give. This is more apparent on top-down coolers, but even air tower coolers there is some benefit.

 

3) All the other things that can go wrong with AIOs, like pump failures and rarely leaks.

 

If you had a regular cheap cooler, say a Cooler Master Hyper 212 (and subsequently standard intake fans instead of a radiator in front, i'd wager your CPU cooling performance would be just as good, and your internal case temperature would be better, your system would be quieter, and your VRMs would be a little less toasty.

 

As for why this is happening now? Maybe after years of high temperatures (but not to the point of throttling or failure) the motherboard components are on the way out. That H-series board isn't really designed for a very high power chip, and if you look at the power delivery it is not too robust.

 

If you are concerned with money, i'd just leave the case open + fan blowing on it until you can afford to just upgrade to Ryzen 3000 in a couple months.

[Hip]

1 hour ago, BaumiBaumann said:

So I just reinstalled the cpu drivers and started another Stress test but sadly this did not change anything

 

I already changed the thermal paste like I already described

Can you tell me which drivers you have? (I have the same CPU).

[BaumiBaumann]

22 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

What orientation is your rear fan? Exhaust? What orientation is your radiator? Intake?

 

A couple of things I personally don't like about AIO's:

 

1) Generally speaking, you're making a compromise one way or another. Usually, you're using up the spot that your case would allot for intake fans. In your case, with only a single 140mm radiator, it's either set up as intake on the radiator, that by the by time air passes through the radiator, the temperature is increased vs. if they were just intake fans, OR its set up as exhaust, where the radiator is cooling the CPU with hot air and also the hot air exhaust is reduced. You can do push-pull to help increase flow, but the restriction is still there.

 

2) Generally speaking, vs. air coolers, you don't get any incidental motherboard cooling that air coolers give. This is more apparent on top-down coolers, but even air tower coolers there is some benefit.

 

3) All the other things that can go wrong with AIOs, like pump failures and rarely leaks.

 

If you had a regular cheap cooler, say a Cooler Master Hyper 212 (and subsequently standard intake fans instead of a radiator in front, i'd wager your CPU cooling performance would be just as good, and your internal case temperature would be better, your system would be quieter, and your VRMs would be a little less toasty.

 

As for why this is happening now? Maybe after years of high temperatures (but not to the point of throttling or failure) the motherboard components are on the way out. That H-series board isn't really designed for a very high power chip, and if you look at the power delivery it is not too robust.

 

If you are concerned with money, i'd just leave the case open + fan blowing on it until you can afford to just upgrade to Ryzen 3000 in a couple months.

The thing is I bought the Radiator with the intention to put it at the top but sadly to big, so I improvised and found a way to put it at the Front

 

Now the Radiator is Exhausting while getting air from the from the bottom fan

 

My Rear aswell as the top left fan is blowing air to the motherboard - which I thought were enaugh but but looks like it isnt

And my top right fan is again exhausting

 

 

 

To your other points im currently testing to underclock the cpu combined with my case fans now running at 100% (They were on Silent mode before) to hope that thats enaugh which at the moment looks very high promising

 

To be honest im pretty happy with my water cooling its really silent never had any failures what so ever and 70-80*C is more than enaugh

 

All in all I will probably build a completly new Pc in a view months or so just to not  have to mess around with this and again have a high clocked cpu

 

Again Thanks to all your help!

[BaumiBaumann]

14 minutes ago, Hip said:

Can you tell me which drivers you have? (I have the same CPU).

I already solved the problem but if you really need it I could look it up again if want to