i5-14600K

[testcy]

Any ideas if power throttling will be a problem with i5-14600K on GIGABYTE B760M GAMING X (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B760M-GAMING-X-rev-10)?

[Hinjima]

19 minutes ago, testcy said:

Any ideas if power throttling will be a problem with i5-14600K on GIGABYTE B760M GAMING X (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B760M-GAMING-X-DDR4-GEN5)?

That shouldn't be an issue.

[Stagg]

No.

[Pusbucket]

1 hour ago, testcy said:

Any ideas if power throttling will be a problem with i5-14600K on GIGABYTE B760M GAMING X (https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B760M-GAMING-X-DDR4-GEN5)?

I have a Gigabyte board with same chipset and an I5-12600KF.

It defaults to a max of 65 watts for my cpu. It can be overridden via the Gigabyte software, but the BIOS settings are limited.

The B760M chipset doesn't support overclocking and what I've found is that you can "tweak" settings within the limits of a locked processer.

In essence with that board you may have an I5-14600 locked cpu.

 

you want a Z790 board, but they've gotten pricey lately.

[testcy]

58 minutes ago, Hinjima said:

That shouldn't be an issue.

 

35 minutes ago, Stagg said:

No.

 

3 minutes ago, Pusbucket said:

I have a Gigabyte board with same chipset and an I5-12600KF.

It defaults to a max of 65 watts for my cpu. It can be overridden via the Gigabyte software, but the BIOS settings are limited.

The B760M chipset doesn't support overclocking and what I've found is that you can "tweak" settings within the limits of a locked processer.

In essence with that board you may have an I5-14600 locked cpu.

 

you want a Z790 board, but they've gotten pricey lately.

I corrected the link above and there I read "8+1+1 Phases Hybrid Digital VRM Design 60A DrMOS". Another more expensive option is ASROCK Z790M PG LIGHTNING/D4 (https://pg.asrock.com/MB/Intel/Z790M PG LightningD4/index.asp), but is it any better if not overclocking?

[Stagg]

The Z790 board has better I/O options, more PCI lanes, will have better tweaking options for RAM and the CPU, but unless you can find superfast DDR4, it's not exactly a big deal.

 

The form factor limits the Z790 a lot as you can't make use of the Z790 chipset fully, the only boon is CPU / RAM tweaks.

[testcy]

2 minutes ago, Stagg said:

The Z790 board has better I/O options, more PCI lanes, will have better tweaking options for RAM and the CPU, but unless you can find superfast DDR4, it's not exactly a big deal.

 

The form factor limits the Z790 a lot as you can't make use of the Z790 chipset fully, the only boon is CPU / RAM tweaks.

ASROCK Z790M PG LIGHTNING/D4 also has slower LAN and no ability to flash bios without a CPU.

[Stagg]

Just now, testcy said:

ASROCK Z790M PG LIGHTNING/D4 also has slower LAN and no ability to flash bios without a CPU.

Price cuts to make it an affordable board.

[testcy]

2 minutes ago, Stagg said:

Price cuts to make it an affordable board.

What about "8+1+1 Phases Hybrid Digital VRM Design 60A DrMOS" vs "10+1+1 Phase Power Design, Dr.MOS for VCore+GT"?

[Stagg]

8 minutes ago, testcy said:

What about "8+1+1 Phases Hybrid Digital VRM Design 60A DrMOS" vs "10+1+1 Phase Power Design, Dr.MOS for VCore+GT"?

Neither will have any issues.

 

Typically the 14600K is locked down to the bios default Intel safe limits which is well below the threshold of the VRM capability on either ~ 120-130W.

 

As a person with experience with the 14600K on a Z790 board, the max I could pull is 188W and that's at 5.9ghz with 1.52v. 14+1+1 design made for 14900K.

10+1+1 will easily handle 200W with sufficient cooling and the VRM's are of good quality which they seem to be.

 

[testcy]

2 minutes ago, Stagg said:

Neither will have any issues.

 

Typically the 14600K is locked down to the bios default Intel safe limits which is well below the threshold of the VRM capability on either ~ 120-130W.

 

As a person with experience with the 14600K on a Z790 board, the max I could pull is 188W and that's at 5.9ghz with 1.52v.

10+1+1 will easily handle 200W with sufficient cooling and the VRM's are of good quality which they seem to be.

 

8+1+1 will be sufficient too? The Z790 is €65/$65 more expensive than the B760.

[Stagg]

2 minutes ago, testcy said:

8+1+1 will be sufficient too? The Z790 is €65/$65 more expensive than the B760.

The 8+1+1 is a little over spec for any i5 on that platform which you can't OC anyway, it would only become concerning if paired with the i7 or i9's because they have more cores and threads so by default have higher power draw from the get-go.

 

8+1+1 would be a larger worry if paired with a Z790 chipset personally.

 

 

CPU speed is not always a true indicator of power draw as those chips will likely have better binned CPU cores so can do higher frequencies at the same or fewer volts than the i5, it's the cores..

[leclod]

(consider using a contact frame on that 14600K)

[testcy]

8 hours ago, leclod said:

(consider using a contact frame on that 14600K)

Already bought a cooler, what is a contact frame?

[leclod]

The subject is covered plenty on the internet

The 1700 socket bends the cpu which results is suboptimal cooling

A contact frame (which can be found cheap, amazon, aliexpress) solves that issue 

[testcy]

32 minutes ago, leclod said:

The subject is covered plenty on the internet

The 1700 socket bends the cpu which results is suboptimal cooling

A contact frame (which can be found cheap, amazon, aliexpress) solves that issue 

Is this really needed if the cooler has a metal backplate?

[leclod]

3 minutes ago, testcy said:

Is this really needed if the cooler has a metal backplate?

Really needed no,

It depends if you're a nerd, probably

[Pusbucket]

8 hours ago, testcy said:

Is this really needed if the cooler has a metal backplate?

the backplate has nothing to do with it. The spring clamp that holds the cpu can exert too much/uneven pressure causing the IHS (top cover) to bend.

A contact frame replaces the spring bracket and holds the cpu around the entire edge.

 

 

[Pusbucket]

also on my B760 board I am able to boost the power limits using Intels XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility) but upon reboot the mobo bitches and sets things back to default.

[testcy]

On 12/6/2025 at 6:05 PM, Pusbucket said:

also on my B760 board I am able to boost the power limits using Intels XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility) but upon reboot the mobo bitches and sets things back to default.

 

On 12/6/2025 at 9:21 AM, leclod said:

Really needed no,

It depends if you're a nerd, probably

 

On 12/5/2025 at 10:14 PM, Stagg said:

The 8+1+1 is a little over spec for any i5 on that platform which you can't OC anyway, it would only become concerning if paired with the i7 or i9's because they have more cores and threads so by default have higher power draw from the get-go.

 

8+1+1 would be a larger worry if paired with a Z790 chipset personally.

 

 

CPU speed is not always a true indicator of power draw as those chips will likely have better binned CPU cores so can do higher frequencies at the same or fewer volts than the i5, it's the cores..

I got i5-14600K and GIGABYTE B760M GAMING X, but I could not wait for a contact frame. The motherboard came with BIOS F19 and I used Q-Flash Plus to update to F22.

 

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/B760M-GAMING-X-DDR4-rev-10/support#Support-Bios

 

I was surprised that I had to install drivers (HID Event Filter, Management Engine Software, Graphics, INF Update Utility, Serial I/O) from GIGABYTE to have devices recognized and they were not available from Windows Update. Where do I download the latest from as from GIGABYTE do not seem to be recent?

 

Do I need to change anything in BIOS for i5-14600K and the degradation issues? Do I have to and can I under-volt it? So far it seems to be running surprisingly cool.

 

The iGPU supports variable refresh rate up to 200Hz @ 2560x1440.

 

I can hear something like a clicking sound, but I can't figure out if it comes from the cooler, the case or the psu fan. Everything is new.

 

Any advice? 

[leclod]

1 hour ago, testcy said:

I was surprised that I had to install drivers 

at which point are you requested, during windows install ? which would surprise me, I can't remember having experienced such a request

1 hour ago, testcy said:

Do I need to change anything in BIOS for i5-14600K and the degradation issues? Do I have to and can I under-volt it? 

If you're up to date with your bios, as it seems, then you should be fine.

You probably could check your cpu core voltage and notice that it stays close to 1.1V.

If I understood correctly that voltage tended to get past 1.4V before.

I do undervolt slightly my 13600K though, around 0.040V, if I remember correctly. 

 

Did you also update the management engine firmware ?

1 hour ago, testcy said:

I can hear something like a clicking sound, but I can't figure out if it comes from the cooler, the case or the psu fan. Everything is new.

Fans come to mind, you could stop each, one after the other, to find out if it stops the clicking

Edited December 21, 2025 by leclod

[testcy]

2 hours ago, leclod said:

at which point are you requested, during windows install ? which would surprise me, I can't remember having experienced such a request

If you're up to date with your bios, as it seems, then you should be fine.

You probably could check your cpu core voltage and notice that it stays close to 1.1V.

If I understood correctly that voltage tended to get past 1.4V before.

I do undervolt slightly my 13600K though, around 0.040V, if I remember correctly. 

 

Did you also update the management engine firmware ?

Fans come to mind, you could stop each, one after the other, to find out if it stops the clicking

I mean I had to install drivers after windows installation for devices not listed correctly. In HWiNFO I see Core VIDs between 0.8V and 1.4V with average around 1V. There is no management engine firmware available to download from GIGABYTE.  It's the case fan that is causing the clicking sound.

[leclod]

4 minutes ago, testcy said:

There is no management engine firmware available to download from GIGABYTE.

And what's that ?

[testcy]

18 minutes ago, leclod said:

And what's that ?

I installed the drivers from GIGABYTE CONTROL CENTER and I did not notice that. I installed it manually, but it seemed more like a driver than a firmware and did not even ask for a restart.

[leclod]

32 minutes ago, testcy said:

In HWiNFO I see Core VIDs between 0.8V and 1.4V with average around 1V.

My core Vids never go above 1.2V but I forgot I'm quite underclocked because my system can't handle the full heat