High temps from Intel i7-9700K

[wickedgenius]

Hi LTT community! I'm new here and I'm hoping to draw on your expertise to solve a mystery.

 

Problem: I've noticed my CPU's (Intel i7 9700K) core temperatures get very high while gaming (Air cooling: 89-100°C / AIO cooling: ~80-90°C). Idle temps are ~30°. Looking online I got the impression that a CPU should generally hover around 70°C under full load, so I'm concerned that something's wrong.

 

Background:

• This is a new build, about 2 months old, with all-new components. I installed an Arctic Freezer 34 CO air cooler (heatsink + PWM fan). Noticed high temps while running high-end games (e.g Batman: Arkham Knight, Prey).
• Replaced cooler fan with a Noctua NF-F12 PWM. Temps still hitting 100°C.
• Started manually setting fan speed to "Full Speed" in Fan Xpert 4 before launching games. Helped to keep max temps from hitting 100°C
• Reinstalled heatsink; cleaned CPU and reapplied thermal paste. Added second fan to heatsink for push-pull setup. Max temps still >85°C.
• Replaced Arctic Freezer 34 CO with Corsair H115i PRO AIO liquid cooler. Max temps significantly lower but hitting the 75-90°C range.
• SCREENSHOT - OpenHardwareMonitor stats/graph of temps & load for 3hrs including a half hour of gaming (Assassin's Creed 3, Max graphics settings, 144 Hz monitor refresh).

Considerations:

• I'm not overclocking as far as I know.
• I haven't noticed any performance issues in-game.

System Specs:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7 9700K
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO (formerly: Arctic Cooling Freezer 34 CO)
• MB: Asus TUF Z390-Plus Gaming (Wi-Fi)
• PSU: Corsair RM850X
• GPU: EVGA GTX 1070 Ti GAMING SC Hybrid
• RAM: 16 GB DDR4 2400M

Conclusion: Any thoughts on this? Are these normal temperatures to see, and if not, what could be causing them? Please let me know if you have any questions or need further details.

 

[Statik]

Are you sure you're not OCing? It looks like your chip is running at 5.0GHz in the photo? Unless I'm out to lunch.

 

As well what voltage is running through your chip?

 

 

If the two temps shown on the photo are your idle, and "max" temps, you actually look like you're sitting pretty well. Especially if you're running at 5.0GHz

[-rascal-]

24 minutes ago, wickedgenius said:

Hi LTT community! I'm new here and I'm hoping to draw on your expertise to solve a mystery.

 

Problem: I've noticed my CPU's (Intel i7 9700K) core temperatures get very high while gaming (Air cooling: 89-100°C / AIO cooling: ~80-90°C). Idle temps are ~30°. Looking online I got the impression that a CPU should generally hover around 70°C under full load, so I'm concerned that something's wrong.

 

Background:

• This is a new build, about 2 months old, with all-new components. I installed an Arctic Freezer 34 CO air cooler (heatsink + PWM fan). Noticed high temps while running high-end games (e.g Batman: Arkham Knight, Prey).
• Replaced cooler fan with a Noctua NF-F12 PWM. Temps still hitting 100°C.
• Started manually setting fan speed to "Full Speed" in Fan Xpert 4 before launching games. Helped to keep max temps from hitting 100°C
• Reinstalled heatsink; cleaned CPU and reapplied thermal paste. Added second fan to heatsink for push-pull setup. Max temps still >85°C.
• Replaced Arctic Freezer 34 CO with Corsair H115i PRO AIO liquid cooler. Max temps significantly lower but hitting the 75-90°C range.
• SCREENSHOT - OpenHardwareMonitor stats/graph of temps & load for 3hrs including a half hour of gaming (Assassin's Creed 3, Max graphics settings, 144 Hz monitor refresh).

Considerations:

• I'm not overclocking as far as I know.
• I haven't noticed any performance issues in-game.

System Specs:

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit
• CPU: Intel Core i7 9700K
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO (formerly: Arctic Cooling Freezer 34 CO)
• MB: Asus TUF Z390-Plus Gaming (Wi-Fi)
• PSU: Corsair RM850X
• GPU: EVGA GTX 1070 Ti GAMING SC Hybrid
• RAM: 16 GB DDR4 2400M

Conclusion: Any thoughts on this? Are these normal temperatures to see, and if not, what could be causing them? Please let me know if you have any questions or need further details.

 

What CPU Core Voltage are you seeing?

What does Open Hardware Monitor / CPU-Z say?

 

i7-9700K boosts up to 4.9 GHz.

Seeing 5.0 GHz, it looks like the CPU is (auto) overclocked, or Multi-Core Enhancement is enabled in the BIOS

This can cause the CPU to operate out of spec from factory.

[melete]

CPU cooling for a given CPU has a few very basic things to consider:

 

1. The voltage your CPU is using. Motherboard features from manufacturers like Asus may raise voltage above Intel's spec.More voltage will generate more heat.

2. The CPU cooler itself, obviously.

3. Airflow in your case. How is air circulating through your PC? 

 

(ambient temperature slightly matters, but it's usually not very extreme)

 

I think @-rascal- might be right about your motherboard having some auto overclocking features enabled. That tends to use higher voltage than manual overclocking, so it will naturally lead to higher temps.

 

If you're using a case with especially bad airflow, like one with an all-glass front and virtually no air intake, that will also lead to seeing somewhat higher temps.

 

I believe that a 9700k throttles around 100C, so anything below that technically won't impact your PC's performance.

 

 

[-rascal-]

@melete good call on the case / case airflow. OP didn't mention which chassis he is using.

 

If it's something restrictive like the NZXT H500 / H510, or Corsair 460x / 560x / 570x, airflow will be bad.

[wickedgenius]

18 hours ago, Statik said:

Are you sure you're not OCing? It looks like your chip is running at 5.0GHz in the photo? Unless I'm out to lunch.

I should take YOU out to lunch, because you're completely right. I was so focused on the temperatures, I didn't even notice the answer was right there the whole time!

 

I checked my BIOS settings and, unbeknownst to me, it was automatically overclocking my CPU to 5.0 GHz. After a little research, I figured out how to change it to a more modest overclock of 4.2 GHz, and now I'm topping out at a succulent 53°C.

 

Thank you kindly to everyone for your help!