i7-13700k thermal throttling

[Rusty78]

This system is a recent new build comprising of

 

NZXT H7 Flow Case

5 140mm Noctua NF-A14 fans, run as 3 intake and 2 exhaust

Asus Rog Strix Z790-E Gaming Wifi motherboard

i7-13700k CPU

Noctua NH-D15 CPU cooler running both fans

32gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5600 memory

 

The bios has been updated to the latest version, XMP enabled and clean install of Windows 11 professional, I ran Cinebench R23 with and without Asus multicore enhancement enabled and was getting a score of just under 29k but was getting thermal throttling for 75% of the tests.

 

With Asus multicore enhancement set to enforce all limits, global core svid voltage set as adaptive and a -0.090v offset applied re running Cinebench R23 I am now getting a score of just under 30k with a max temperature of 97c and no thermal throttling and idling at 37c in a 27c room.

 

I have tried lower core voltage offsets but was starting to get thermal throttling at -0.080v so have settled with 0.090v, should I leave things as they are or is there a better way of doing things?

[Agall]

3 minutes ago, Rusty78 said:

This system is a recent new build comprising of

 

NZXT H7 Flow Case

5 140mm Noctua NF-A14 fans, run as 3 intake and 2 exhaust

Asus Rog Strix Z790-E Gaming Wifi motherboard

i7-13700k CPU

Noctua NH-D15 CPU cooler running both fans

32gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 5600 memory

 

The bios has been updated to the latest version, XMP enabled and clean install of Windows 11 professional, I ran Cinebench R23 with and without Asus multicore enhancement enabled and was getting a score of just under 29k but was getting thermal throttling for 75% of the tests.

 

With Asus multicore enhancement set to enforce all limits, global core svid voltage set as adaptive and a -0.090v offset applied re running Cinebench R23 I am now getting a score of just under 30k with a max temperature of 97c and no thermal throttling and idling at 37c in a 27c room.

 

I have tried lower core voltage offsets but was starting to get thermal throttling at -0.080v so have settled with 0.090v, should I leave things as they are or is there a better way of doing things?

Could you take a picture of the NH-D15 configuration? I'm curious how its setup, I've played with several configurations for the NH-D15 personally.

[unclewebb]

3 minutes ago, Rusty78 said:

is there a better way of doing things?

A -100 mV undervolt is the best way to tame Intel's hot running 13th Gen CPUs. As long as your computer is 100% stable during everyday use then your undervolt setting is fine. 

[Rusty78]

7 minutes ago, Agall said:

Could you take a picture of the NH-D15 configuration? I'm curious how its setup, I've played with several configurations for the NH-D15 personally.

Hope this help

[Agall]

3 minutes ago, Rusty78 said:

Hope this help

 

 

I'm assuming that top mounted fan is as far back as it can go, have you tried running the test without the side panel to see if there's any airflow issues? If you haven't dialed in the fans tightly, its possible that top fan is sapping enough airflow off the NH-D15 and/or turbulence in that top rear section.

[Rusty78]

7 minutes ago, unclewebb said:

A -100 mV undervolt is the best way to tame Intel's hot running 13th Gen CPUs. As long as your computer is 100% stable during everyday use then your undervolt setting is fine. 

That was actually where I started, at -0.100v I had a maximum temperature of 96c and my Cinebench R23 score was 150 points higher, good to know it's the best way to do it, I will do a little more testing to see if I can find the point at which it starts to become unstable just because I would rather not be too close to it.

[Rusty78]

4 minutes ago, Agall said:

I'm assuming that top mounted fan is as far back as it can go, have you tried running the test without the side panel to see if there's any airflow issues? If you haven't dialed in the fans tightly, its possible that top fan is sapping enough airflow off the NH-D15 and/or turbulence in that top rear section.

The top fan is directly over the NH-D15, it could go back a little but I liked the fact it was drawing air away from the VRM heatsink, I have been running the same fan and cooler arrangement in my previous build without issue, I have tested with all the panels off and it made no difference

[Agall]

1 minute ago, Rusty78 said:

The top fan is directly over the NH-D15, it could go back a little but I liked the fact it was drawing air away from the VRM heatsink, I have been running the same fan and cooler arrangement in my previous build without issue, I have tested with all the panels off and it made no difference

Internet tells me that the 13700k should get ~31k in R23, so I'd establish a baseline with a default UEFI (maybe even without XMP enabled) with side panels on and such.

 

If you're unable to get close to that, then there's a short list of potential problems that no undervolt in my opinion would solve. Either involving thermodynamics in some capacity, like the heatsink as we've talked about before, UEFI complication, CPU binning (unlikely), motherboard defect, etc. 

[Timme]

Tried re-applying thermal paste and the fan?

[unclewebb]

23 minutes ago, Rusty78 said:

to see if I can find the point at which it starts to become unstable just because I would rather not be too close to it.

That is the correct way to undervolt a CPU. Too many people set the voltage to the bare minimum and then wonder why some games crash. Always use a little bit of extra voltage so your computer is 100% stable. 

 

4 minutes ago, Timme said:

Tried re-applying thermal paste

At default settings with an air cooler, his computer is thermal throttling during Cinebench. This is normal for a 13700K when the room temperature is 27°C. 

[Timme]

Just now, unclewebb said:

That is the correct way to undervolt a CPU. Too many people set the voltage to the bare minimum and then wonder why some games crash. Always use a little bit of extra voltage so your computer is 100% stable.

 

At default settings with an air cooler, his computer is thermal throttling during Cinebench. This is normal for a 13700K.

My mistake

On the way stumbled on a "solution" from Tom's Hardware forums:

 

"ABT will push until the CPU hits 100 degrees, that's what it's made for.
If you mobo has MCE enabled (all core turbo) then turn that off, games usually don't need all cores to run at max.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/xl/es/gaming/resources/how-intel-technologies-boost-cpu-performance.html

Intel® Adaptive Boost Technology

Opportunistically increases all-core turbo frequency when current, power, and thermal headroom exists. Works below a temperature limit of 100°C.

Just use intel XTU to make profiles for blender or anything else that will be running heavy workloads for long times to make those run at lower clocks, blender will not run noticeably slower with a few hundred Mhz less on a few cores."

[Rusty78]

9 minutes ago, Agall said:

Internet tells me that the 13700k should get ~31k in R23, so I'd establish a baseline with a default UEFI (maybe even without XMP enabled) with side panels on and such.

 

If you're unable to get close to that, then there's a short list of potential problems that no undervolt in my opinion would solve. Either involving thermodynamics in some capacity, like the heatsink as we've talked about before, UEFI complication, CPU binning (unlikely), motherboard defect, etc. 

Yes I read that too, I have also seen a lot of people getting the same or lower scores as me, for my first run in R23 I had side panels off and XMP disabled and my multi core score was 28987 and single core score 2033 but I was seeing thermal throttling roughly 75% of the time, with the -0.100v offset I am getting an R23 score just shy of 30k and no thermal throttling, I am not sure how much variation in score is normal but this is only just over 600 points better than what I am seeing https://overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/intel_core_i7-13700k_review/7

[Agall]

1 minute ago, Rusty78 said:

Yes I read that too, I have also seen a lot of people getting the same or lower scores as me, for my first run in R23 I had side panels off and XMP disabled and my multi core score was 28987 and single core score 2033 but I was seeing thermal throttling roughly 75% of the time, with the -0.100v offset I am getting an R23 score just shy of 30k and no thermal throttling, I am not sure how much variation in score is normal but this is only just over 600 points better than what I am seeing https://overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/intel_core_i7-13700k_review/7

is your NH-D15 new or reused from a previous platform? 

[8tg]

I was trying to figure out what was going on here because that sounds way off thermally for just about anything on an NHD15, i run an 11900k on an NHD15 in an ITX case and rarely top 75c under sustained multi core stress tests like cinnebench. 

And then i looked up power consumption figures and the 13700k under multi core loads draws like 100 watts more than the 11900k which is absurd, but i think that might just be your reason outright.

Im not sure if the NHD15 is up to the task of the 13700k without some pretty hefty airflow backing it up. Theres a lot of discussion elsewhere about the same issue.

A lot of people are recommending to turn any bios setting for multicore enhancement off as it supposedly boosts weirdly and can try to sustain a throttled state instead of dropping performance to reduce temperatures.

[Rusty78]

8 minutes ago, Agall said:

is your NH-D15 new or reused from a previous platform? 

New not reused

[Agall]

4 minutes ago, Rusty78 said:

New not reused

I think its worth considering on getting one of the Thermal Grizzly contact frames and giving that a test. 13700k/13900k being the major victims of the uneven pressure Intel's factory ILM that can cause poor thermal behavior.

 

Amazon.com: Thermal Grizzly Intel 12th Gen CPU Contact Frame : Electronics

 

Amazon.com: Thermalright CPU Contact Frame for LGA 1700 Retrofit Kit, 17XX-BCF Bracket Intel 12th 13th Generation Anti-Bending Buckle Black : Everything Else

 

Not sure about the Thermalright one, but I did recently buy one of their $22 budget air coolers that works quite fine, and its a simple part.

[unclewebb]

11 minutes ago, 8tg said:

11900k

The 11900K and 13700K are different animals when it comes to cooling. The 13th Gen consume more power and create more heat at default settings. Dissipating this heat is more difficult because of the smaller die size. His results on air cooling are like everyone else's results. 

 

3 minutes ago, Agall said:

Thermal Grizzly contact frames

That is an excellent idea. The non flat heat spreader is another reason why 13th Gen CPUs are tough to cool. 

 

16 minutes ago, 8tg said:

can try to sustain a throttled state instead of dropping performance to reduce temperatures

All Intel CPUs try to maintain maximum performance up until the point that they reach the thermal throttling temperature. This is usually set to 100°C. When they reach that temperature, they only slow down just enough so they do not exceed 100°C. They can happily run at just a hair under this temperature indefinitely. Intel has never designed their CPUs to suddenly tank performance just because they hit 100°C. Intel has always said that any temperature under 100°C is a "safe operating temperature". They have set the thermal throttling temperature to 100°C for the vast majority of their CPUs released during the last 15 years. If this temperature was not safe, Intel would have easily lowered it years ago.