Updated: i7-9700K High temps with bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 4

[deoxir]

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Hey guys, just got my hands on a 9700K and a Dark Rock Pro 4 and thought this gigantic cooler could more than keep the of the i7 down at stock speed even though many say it runs hotter than previous i7s. However I noticed that at idle the CPU sits at ~40 degrees Celsius and while under load, it gets pretty toasty and it even throttled in BFV. I'm attaching the log file from HWiNFO64 to this post (see columns AW-BD for temps in Celsius, and BO-BV for thermal throttling indicator) and I don't think this is supposed to happen under stock speeds. I dunno about voltage and multipliers and all that stuff but I think the CPU voltage sometimes strays away from 1.2V which I think is the base voltage for Intel CPUs? I opened up the case and checked the fan setup and cooler orientation and they seemed fine. Though during gaming, I did not notice any drops or hiccups. Is this common for 9700Ks? 

 

Here's my rig:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/deoxir/saved/#view=T2v7WZ

The tower is brand new apart from the case, case fans and storage. I did flash the BIOS to a newer version so that I can use the 9700K at all, and I enabled XMP profile for RAM overclocking. Everything else is untouched and left at their default settings. The RTX isn't here yet so I'm using a 1080 for now. Ambient temp is around 22 degrees Celsius.

 

Thanks a lot - really hoping RMA is not necessary. 

 

 

I think I'm on to something. An Amazon review for DRP4 reveals that nuts on the cooler would come loose and cause DRP4 to offshift and not have direct contact with the IHS. I think it's a good explanation to why the temps would be good immediately after mounting and then goes all the way up to 90 degrees Celsius and beyond after a short while, and also how almost all of the thermal paste would stick to the cooler and not the IHS as the cooler could have just pulled the compound off the IHS with its sheer weight.

I'll try to tighten all the screws and nuts later when I get home. The damn fan mounting brackets already scratched the paint on the side of the heatsink to hell, so I probably won't be able to return it.

Should have just gone with water cooling in the first place. Damn.

 

Update 2: Undid the cooler, found that one of the nuts is one revolution full, fixed that, got some MX-4 instead of Mastergel Maker, now I'm seeing ~70 degrees in games @4.7GHz, 1.248V. Also, I just realized that the fans are running really slowly cus they're 'silent' fans. Replacing the bequiet Silent Wings with something faster probably would help?

[Spotty]

What temperatures do you get with the glass side panel removed?

[PopsicleHustler]

I would check thermal paste application. Also, have you removed plastic cover from the cooler's base before installation? 

[corrado33]

I made a graph because your csv is useless.

 

 

I would reapply thermal paste because something went wrong. Def. should not be hitting 100. Did you remove the plastic on the bottom of the cooler?

[deoxir]

37 minutes ago, corrado33 said:

I made a graph because your csv is useless.

 

 

I would reapply thermal paste because something went wrong. Def. should not be hitting 100. Did you remove the plastic on the bottom of the cooler?

 

41 minutes ago, PopsicleHustler said:

I would check thermal paste application. Also, have you removed plastic cover from the cooler's base before installation? 

 

37 minutes ago, corrado33 said:

I made a graph because your csv is useless.

 

 

I would reapply thermal paste because something went wrong. Def. should not be hitting 100. Did you remove the plastic on the bottom of the cooler?

Thanks for the replies. I did remove the plastic film. I'm gonna redo the cooling tomorrow as the new card comes in.

 

For thermal compound I use Cooler Master Mastergel Maker. I apply just about the size of a pea as I did in the past. I didn't use the spreader and just let the cooler sit on top of the compound and the CPU, gave it a wiggle, and that's it. 

[NelizMastr]

3 minutes ago, deoxir said:

For thermal compound I use Cooler Master Mastergel Maker. I apply just about the size of a pea as I did in the past. I didn't use the spreader and just let the cooler sit on top of the compound and the CPU, gave it a wiggle, and that's it. 

Once you remove the cooler, you'll see if it spread properly at all. You'll want an even spread as close to the edges of the IHS as possible. The chip has more cores, thus needing more cooling surface in the process. Also make sure all screws are torqued down properly.

[deoxir]

1 hour ago, NelizMastr said:

Once you remove the cooler, you'll see if it spread properly at all. You'll want an even spread as close to the edges of the IHS as possible. The chip has more cores, thus needing more cooling surface in the process. Also make sure all screws are torqued down properly.

Just found time to do that, thermal compound looked a little thin and it got a corner of the heat spreader uncovered. I undid the cooling and made sure the fan orientations are correct and applied a generous amount of thermal compound. This time around it thermal throttled a lot less and temps averaged at 70 degrees after half an hour of BFV action. However it still did throttle but apparently less frequently.

[deoxir]

2 hours ago, Spotty said:

What temperatures do you get with the glass side panel removed?

I'll test that later, but I doubt it is the reason - I have three fans on the front that keeps fresh air going into the case. Though, coming to think of it, I don't feel much air movement when I reach behind the rear fan. 

[NelizMastr]

24 minutes ago, deoxir said:

Just found time to do that, thermal compound looked a little thin and it got a corner of the heat spreader uncovered. I undid the cooling and made sure the fan orientations are correct and applied a generous amount of thermal compound. This time around it thermal throttled a lot less and temps averaged at 70 degrees after half an hour of BFV action. However it still did throttle but apparently less frequently.

It's not throttling if it doesn't go below the base clock. If turbo doesn't go as high as you might want that's not throttling according to Intel.

[deoxir]

Just now, NelizMastr said:

It's not throttling if it doesn't go below the base clock. If turbo doesn't go as high as you might want that's not throttling according to Intel.

I see, thank you for the clarification. The core clocks don't go below 4.6GHz somehow. While it sometimes go up to 4.8GHz, it looks like there's a frequency floor there and the CPU doesn't run at base clock at all. Are the temps alright at that frequency? I'm quite confused.

[NelizMastr]

Looks like you're seeing what's known as MCE. Multi core enhancement. Basically, your motherboard overclocks the CPU to an all core 4.7GHz. Seeing 4.8 is possible for 1 and 2 core loads.

[deoxir]

Just now, NelizMastr said:

Looks like you're seeing what's known as MCE. Multi core enhancement. Basically, your motherboard overclocks the CPU to an all core 4.7GHz. Seeing 4.8 is possible for 1 and 2 core loads.

Interesting. I've been running the Assassin's Creed Odyssey benchmark and it results in, again, all core 4.7GHz with max temps at around 90 degrees but averaging at 53. Could this be MCE at work that it's trying to push the CPU as much as it can until it gets too hot and then settling down back at the average temp? It looks like these crazy temps I've been seeing are spikes instead of being consistent

[deoxir]

44 minutes ago, deoxir said:

Interesting. I've been running the Assassin's Creed Odyssey benchmark and it results in, again, all core 4.7GHz with max temps at around 90 degrees but averaging at 53. Could this be MCE at work that it's trying to push the CPU as much as it can until it gets too hot and then settling down back at the average temp? It looks like these crazy temps I've been seeing are spikes instead of being consistent

Forget what I said, I just monitored the temps using afterburner in BFV and it was around 70-85 degrees Celsius. Why is it so HOT!??

[deoxir]

Okay, an update (I guess you could call it that):

I did a lot of tweaking in BIOS in relation to OC, cleaned out the filters (even though they're quite clean), re-seated the cooling tower several times (and tried different thermal compounds and application methods), and performed a windows update while I was at it. I don't know what did what, but now in BFV(DXR enabled) I no longer get 100 degrees Celsius. Temps in game averaged out at 70C but it did spike up to anywhere between 80-87 degrees depending on the cores. This is with MCE on, running at 4.7GHz all cores with maximum Vcore at 1.4V.

Could use some guidance on how to go about this: manually OC the CPU and try to undervolt/get better performance with perhaps 1.3V, or just leave it at that? I only learned how to OC this morning and I feel like I should just be grateful it doesn't overheat anymore.

[b3lce]

hey sup, i got the 9700k with a dark rock pro 4 and a auorus pro z390. Im getting this temps running Prime95 at stock speed, no overclocks.. i think its pretty high.. Im using mx-4 paste, 2 intake fans and one extract in the back...

[deoxir]

On 12/25/2018 at 9:27 AM, b3lce said:

hey sup, i got the 9700k with a dark rock pro 4 and a auorus pro z390. Im getting this temps running Prime95 at stock speed, no overclocks.. i think its pretty high.. Im using mx-4 paste, 2 intake fans and one extract in the back...

Hey, I think I got it solved and in my case it had something to do with the mounting thumbscrews. One of them was just 1 revolution off and it probably lifted the cooler enough that the ihs did not have good contact with the heatsink. Another thing is that you gotta make sure the case has got good airflow and case fan profiles. Dunno about your mobo in specific, somehow Smart Fan 5 for my Gigabyte board used a non-existent system temp for my fans and it caused all of my fans to run at 30% speed. Change that option so that the fans react to CPU temps..I've also switched back to using MX-4 and now temps averages out at ~65 degree Celsius at 4.7GHz@1.248V. Prime 95 still runs at around 80 though I think that still makes sense - it's designed to push the CPU to the max.

[PCFireStarter]

Hi I just want to tell my short Story.

 

I just got my I7-9700K too and after a few days I noticed that my case is geting quite warm, so I fired up the Hardware Monitor and was surprised to see that the CPU was at 90°C +  sometimes even higher and ran into thermal throtteling.

My Rig was put together by a store (internet) so sending my rig back wasn't an option really. So I ordered some MX-4.

After unplugging the CPU cooler I saw that there was not engoug paste onm the CPU. I renewd it and it was so much better. Got around 80 °C when gaming and only Thermal thorteling wen doing stress testing.

I ordered a Corsair Hydro SeriesH100i PRO RGB and just installed it.. WoW so much better now. When Gaming I usualy had 80°C + now I'm on 45-50°C !

 

Love my rig now !

[Lichsynthetiq]

@deoxir Myself i run a i7-9700 (Not K) and with dark rock pro 4. And whatever game i play was it then Battlefield 5 or just anything, my CPU temps dosen't hit over 55c, it stays within 48-53c. And i use Fractal design define R6 with the stock fans that come with it