CPU Keeps Thermal Throttling, HELP

[DGibster]

CPU: i9 12900k

Cooler: NH-D15 Black

Other specs: Z690 Aorus Ultra, RTX 3080, RMX1000 PSU, 16GB DDR5 5600 MT/s RAM, 4000D Airflow

 

Context: I built this PC just over a week ago and it is my first PC build (my prior PC was a prebuild).

 

I kept getting random crashes on several of my games, despite my computer being more than enough to handle them. Ran a couple of benchmarks, my GPU was fine (ran Heaven at for over a half hour at more than 100 fps), Mem84 didn't come up with any issues. I was thinking it couldn't be my CPU, what I got was overkill for what I needed anyways and the cooler should be more than enough for it, and Noctua is the best when it comes to coolers (at least I've been told). A week later I finally caved and ran the basic XTU benchmark, only to find my CPU hitting 100C and thermal throttling almost immediately.

 

Here's where I need your help, I need to find out where I went wrong in the installation of my cooler and why my CPU keeps throttling, as the cooler should be more than enough to cool it properly according to my research. After finding out about the throttling, I removed the cooler and checked the thermal paste coverage. I've posted photos below but it looks like it is making proper contact. I added just a bit of extra paste to the bottom portion of the CPU just to be safe. The fans are all pointing in the right direction. The initial installation of the cooler did have a couple of hiccups which I chalked down to first time mistakes. The bottom bolt had issues threading but I got it on and made sure the cooler was firm. The other issue was with the middle fan, it rattled on initial startup and I found out the motor cable was interfering with the blades. I made sure to properly reseat the cable. Afterwards the fan seemed to work without issue, at least it was running properly in the BIOS. When I reinstalled the fan today after checking the thermal past, it did the same thing, but again, I reseated the cable and it stopped with the noise.

 

Update: I just checked the problem fan mentioned while writing this and found it not to be running. Has this been the source of my issues? One fan seated in the middle of cooler stifling airflow? I find it hard to believe that one fan is the cause of all the issues but that's all I can think of right now. Any tips on preventing insuring the cable doesn't interfere with the fan blades? I'm thinking a piece of tape over the cord to keep it properly seated. I'll see about posting photos of the problem fan in a bit. 

[DGibster]

Second Update: Added tape to keep the cable seated and the Fan is running as it should. Just ran XTU, still thermal throttling. Now what?

[SavageNeo]

12900k is very hot chip and hard to cool

 

Have you consider adding negative voltage offset? that you can find in bios. you can try -0.1 at first, if not stable try -0.8750, -0.75 and so on

[Mister Woof]

What's your load voltage? Are you using any type of BIOS-level enhancements e.g. automatic overclocking?

[KnoT]

NH-D15 might be just not enough for 12900k and it also might depend fan configuration in your case, 12900K easily uses over 200 wats in all core workload and for that you would want at minimum 240/280 AIO with 360 being the recommended one.

[DGibster]

 

3 hours ago, SavageNeo said:

12900k is very hot chip and hard to cool

 

Have you consider adding negative voltage offset? that you can find in bios. you can try -0.1 at first, if not stable try -0.8750, -0.75 and so on

I’ll try that as soon as I get home from work

 

2 hours ago, KnoT said:

NH-D15 might be just not enough for 12900k and it also might depend fan configuration in your case, 12900K easily uses over 200 wats in all core workload and for that you would want at minimum 240/280 AIO with 360 being the recommended one.

All the prior research that I’ve done points to the NH-D15 being able to handle it. I’ve read of plenty of other people having success cooling their 12900Ks with D15s. We’ll see though, I have no issue undervolting the CPU if need be, it’s already way more powerful than what I need.

[DGibster]

So I went into the BIOS, found and disabled “Intel Turbo Boost” That seems to have fixed it, I was then able to run XTU without going about 65 degrees C. We’ll see what that does to the stability of the games I play.

[freeagent]

You might need one of these:

 

Contact Frame