Help! CPU is real hot, what could the problem be?

[WinkWright]

Hey LTT forum, perhaps you can help me out with my predicament!

 

Long and short, I've gotten a friend to overclock my CPU, and that sh!t seems a little toasty under load!
My processor is a i5 4690k, base clock of 3.5GHz OC'd to 4.4GHz. Under load (specific example, when I play The Witcher 3), it heats up to about 69-76°C, which seems way too hot to me. Idle temps are at the 40-45°C range.

Is this too hot?

 

I've got an aftermarket cooler in there, big honkin` thing that takes up a good chunk above the CPU, can't remember the actual model of it (I think it was made by Cooler Master?). I figured that'd be able to cool it, but apparently my guns aren't big enough!

 

Quite a bit of fans in there, Two take up the front of the case, one pulls out the back

 

Does anyone have any ideas or insight into my problem? Is there a problem? Could I need to reapply thermal paste, or rearrange fans in my case? Please help!

[synnapt]

when ur friend oc ur cpu did he stress test after to se that it stayed stable and at safe temps?

[Creativend]

Can you tell me what type of CPU cooler you are using is it air cooled or water cooled.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Creativend
Missing word

[I am an SSD]

5 minutes ago, WinkWright said:

 

 

Long and short, I've gotten a friend to overclock my CPU, and that sh!t seems a little toasty under load!
My processor is a i5 4690k, base clock of 3.5GHz OC'd to 4.4GHz. Under load (specific example, when I play The Witcher 3), it heats up to about 69-76°C, which seems way too hot to me. Idle temps are at the 40-45°C range.

Is this too hot?

 

 

That isnt too hot.  But kinda close to the limit of 82 which everyone recommends.  The case fans wont help as much for the cooling problem. Neither will reapplying the thermal paste.

 

If it really bothers you , consider water cooling. Seems like the only solution other than dialing down the overclock. But seriously it isnt anything to worry about.

[Kickflapper]

You are fine under 82 degrees and your CPU has a built in safe guard when it reaches its thermal limit. It will thottle its self to avoid damage.

[SaladFingers]

Actually that doesn't sound too hot depending on the CPU cooler you are using. Care to tell us what it is?

 

edit: Ehh, if it's getting those temps while in-game it is a bit high. I first thought you meant stress testing. Have you made sure the cooler is properly seated and firmly bolted down? If there isn't tight enough contact your cooling becomes inefficient. What voltage did your friend use for the overclock? Voltage is the main thing that gets your cpu hot. Maybe try the same clock with lower voltage to see if it's stable?

[WinkWright]

Thanks everyone, the replies are reassuring.

 

I might look into a water-cooling loop or something, but I'm using a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO for my cooling (had to find the case), so I figured I'd be good.

 

No particular stress-tests were done, but I binge-game when I've got the time, so running games for 4-5 hours straight without a meltdown/case fire is good enough for me I suppose.

 

 

edit: Out of sheer curiosity, I've checked the fans, and for the record they're all pointing in the right direction.

[SaladFingers]

3 minutes ago, WinkWright said:

Thanks everyone, the replies are reassuring.

 

I might look into a water-cooling loop or something, but I'm using a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO for my cooling (had to find the case), so I figured I'd be good.

 

No particular stress-tests were done, but I binge-game when I've got the time, so running games for 4-5 hours straight without a meltdown/case fire is good enough for me I suppose.

You have a good cooler. The temperatures are definitely not dangerous, but I think you could get them in the 50-60 range. Try lowering the voltage a little.

 

When overclocking, stress testing is essential to make sure the machine runs stable enough. You might think the OC is stable but it could crash after an hour of stress testing for example. Stress testing will also give you your actual max temps since the CPU is going to be at 100% usage.

[WinkWright]

Everything seems to be set to auto in the BIOS bar the "CPU Ring voltage" setting, which is set to 1.104V from 1.050V at what I assume to be the base setting. Is this important/dangerous?

 

I could try tightening the cooler, I vaguely recall some amounts of difficulty with it during the building process way back went, it may not in fact be secured properly (not that I've noticed any wobbling or the like).

 

Also, any good software for stress testing? I've been tossed a ton from searches online

[SaladFingers]

40 minutes ago, WinkWright said:

Everything seems to be set to auto in the BIOS bar the "CPU Ring voltage" setting, which is set to 1.104V from 1.050V at what I assume to be the base setting. Is this important/dangerous?

 

I could try tightening the cooler, I vaguely recall some amounts of difficulty with it during the building process way back went, it may not in fact be secured properly (not that I've noticed any wobbling or the like).

 

Also, any good software for stress testing? I've been tossed a ton from searches online

No, that voltage sounds pretty low. If it's at default you don't have to worry about it. "Dangerous" mostly starts after 1.3-1.4v. Edit: I'm not sure you're looking at the correct voltage though, the key voltage is the core ("Vcore") voltage.

 

Definitely try tightening it up, if I'm not mistaken your cooler's bolts will only go to a certain point before they won't let you tighten further so it's pretty safe.

 

AIDA64 is good and is also what Linus prefers. Another one I really like is Realbench. There are many more, but I find most of them to be too synthetic to test realistic stability with. You could also try Handbreak, it's not stress testing software but it's meant to encode video (like ripping movies from discs etc) and will get your CPUs fully used plus it's a real life scenario so a good indication of a stable/unstable overclock.

[Kickflapper]

CPUZ is a good program, Cinebench will give you a score. Just Remember the stress tests are artificial and it sounds like you really are not likely to ever use your CPU to the degree it will be tested. If you have been playing the witcher 3 for  4-5 hours at a time and are not experiencing crashes you probably are good.  I have seen video with people runs stress test without a cooler all together and the CPU will take care of its self and throttle down. Not recommended but it proves a point that some people get ultra fixated on temps and coolers.  Really in this era I have not seen anyone report a CPU melting down unless they completely disable the safe guards put in place and try too overclock to ridiculously. Some may argue that  it might reduce the longevity of the CPU, but how long do you plan on having your CPU? I would argue it will be obsolete by the time it dies anyway. CPU seem to be one of the stronger components in PC's when it comes to reliability .  

[SaladFingers]

1 minute ago, Kickflapper said:

CPUZ is a good program, Cinebench will give you a score. Just Remember the stress tests are artificial and it sounds like you really are not likely to ever use your CPU to the degree it will be tested. If you have been playing the witcher 3 for  4-5 hours at a time and are not experiencing crashes you probably are good.  I have seen video with people runs stress test without a cooler all together and the CPU will take care of its self and throttle down. Not recommended but it proves a point that some people get ultra fixated on temps and coolers.  Really in this era I have not seen anyone report a CPU melting down unless they completely disable the safe guards put in place and try to overclock to ridiculously. Some may argue that  it might reduce the longevity of the CPU, but how long do you plan on having your CPU? I would argue it will be obsolete by the time it dies anyway. CPU seem to be one of the stronger components in PC's when it comes to reliability .  

The point of stress testing isn't just to find the max temps or when it throttles but mainly to figure if it's stable. You could be gaming for hours just fine but then get a BSOD every couple days. That is not a stable OC for example.

 

Running anything at temps near the TJmax though means the hardware will degrade fairly faster, and just because it has a safety feature and throttles it doesn't mean that people want that behavior when they overclock. They want performance without caps. So it's not about being fixated, it's about getting the functionality you're after.

 

Also, Cinebench is a benchmark and not really meant for stress testing, same as CPU-Z which is mostly for monitoring and packs a benchmark.

[Kickflapper]

9 minutes ago, SaladFingers said:

TJmax though means the hardware will degrade fairly faster

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but do you really know this or is that what you have read? Future more those that tend to publish this sort of data are the ones selling the products. I just question the standards, and like to engage in a healthy debate. also define "fairly"

[SaladFingers]

12 minutes ago, Kickflapper said:

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but do you really know this or is that what you have read? Future more those that tend to publish this sort of data are the ones selling the products. I just question the standards, and like to engage in a healthy debate. also define "fairly"

Well, I didn't just read an article about it, I have quite a few years of experience. But if your question is if I ever ran comparison tests that lasted for years in a controlled environment with several samples then no, I haven't. But it's common knowledge that hardware degrades faster the more it's heated. Certain parts are designed to run hotter than others, but approaching their limit stresses the solder joints considerably more than keeping the temps lower. Would that make a difference to a consumer that will probably change their chip before any considerable degradation happens? Not really. But why not treat your hardware the best you can? If your cooler/cpu combo appears to get lower temps in average than what you're getting, why not bother to get the most out of your purchase anyway? By "fairly" I mean that while there is degradation bound to happen, today's electronics are much more resistant and to the average user it won't matter too much. The main problem with approaching TJmax is throttling, which completely defeats the purpose of overclocking since a throttled overclocked chip will perform worse than a stock chip running at full speed and you still have to deal with higher temps, power draw and a potentially unstable environment.

 

PS: It's good to question things and debate

[Cyracus]

hyper 212 evo isn't stellar but is decent, what are ambient temps as that's a major factor to consider

[LogicalDrm]

Idle is on the hotter side. I would recommend doing remount just in case.