Question 10900K to 100°C on optimized defaults

[0Artur0]

For the past three years, I had my CPU overclocked to 5GHz, and it ran flawlessly. When idle, temperatures hovered around 45°C, and under maximum load, they typically peaked at 80°C, occasionally spiking to 90°C but only briefly. Under normal load, the temps were around 60°C. However, this summer, I began experiencing rare BSODs while using Adobe Lightroom Classic under heavy load (which is the most intensive task my system handles, even more than gaming). These crashes seemed to occur when the CPU temperatures hit 90°C, and I initially suspected the unusually hot summer temperatures were to blame.

Concerned, I decided to reset the BIOS to its optimized defaults. Now, the idle temps have dropped slightly to around 42°C, but under the same heavy Lightroom Classic workload, temperatures on some cores are hitting 95°C, with one or two cores even briefly touching 100°C. For example, if the operation lasts for 1 minute, the average temp stays around 85°C, occasionally dropping to 65-70°C, but still spiking to dangerous levels (95°C to 100°C). This is particularly alarming because it's happening on the so-called "optimized defaults."

Shouldn’t there be safeguards in place to throttle the CPU when it hits these temperatures? Oddly, while my old overclock was set to 5GHz across all cores, the optimized defaults are now pushing most cores to 5.3GHz! I’m more concerned about the high temperatures than the clock speeds at this point.

Could this be an issue with cooling or thermal paste? I’m not an expert in BIOS settings or overclocking, but I’d like to know if there’s something I can adjust in the BIOS to address the temperature issue?

System Specifications:

• Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX Z490-G GAMING
• CPU: Intel Core i9-10900K
• RAM: ADATA XPG SPECTRIX D50 RGB 32GB DDR4-3600 CL18
• Cooling: SILVERSTONE Permafrost 240mm ARGB AIO
• GPU: Nvidia RTX 2080Ti
• Case: Fractal Design Define 7 - Black Solid
• PSU: SilverStone 850W 80+ Gold Full Modular

What could be causing these issues, and is there anything I can do to keep my CPU temps in check?

HWmonitor file

 

[Lutfij]

Did you try reapplying your thermal paste with something higher in quality(after removing the one that's already on the CPU's IHS)? Something tells me your overclock had the voltages tweaked. If so then BIOS defaults tend to set the voltages to auto, which often times and on Asus's platform pump a lot of power through the chip/VRM area.

CPU: Intel Core i9-10900K
+
Cooling: SILVERSTONE Permafrost 240mm ARGB AIO
You should've gotten a 360mm AIO for that i9.

 

[0Artur0]

Did you try reapplying your thermal paste with something higher in quality(after removing the one that's already on the CPU's IHS)? Something tells me your overclock had the voltages tweaked. If so then BIOS defaults tend to set the voltages to auto, which often times and on Asus's platform pump a lot of power through the chip/VRM area.

CPU: Intel Core i9-10900K
+
Cooling: SILVERSTONE Permafrost 240mm ARGB AIO
You should've gotten a 360mm AIO for that i9.

Yes, the OC had voltages tweaked. Shouldn't "optimized defaults" be less aggressive with voltages? Can I limit them or something? I did the OC three years ago and followed a guide, I'm really no expert and I have forgotten most of it by now.
If there's nothing I can do in BIOS then I'll take the computer to computer service and let them reapply thermal past and I'll get the 360mm AIO.

 

[Randi Poling]

Go with the 360mm AIO and also make sure its properly installed, could be that one of the screws may have came loose over time if not tightened which could lead to an issue with the cooler not making contact with the cpu, causing it to run hot.

 

[uWebb429]

Shouldn't "optimized defaults" be less aggressive with voltages?

The default voltage tends to be too high with all Intel CPUs. The extra and unnecessary voltage creates excess heat.

Try running Cinebench R23.
https://www.techspot.com/downloads/7579-cinebench-r23.html

Use HWiNFO to monitor the VCore voltage which is the actual voltage going to the CPU. Ignore the VID voltage.

I have a 10 core 10850K which is identical to a 10900K except at default settings, the 10850K runs 100 MHz slower than a 10900K. For a fair comparison, I overclocked my 10850K so it runs at a steady 5000 MHz. While Cinebench is in progress, the VCore voltage is 1.252 V. Your 10900K is likely at 1.300 V or maybe even closer to 1.350 V. The Corsair H100i 240mm RGB Pro XT AIO that I am using is more than enough cooling for this CPU after the voltage has been tweaked.

I recommend setting your CPU to a fixed speed of 5000 MHz like you were probably doing before. This will sacrifice a small amount of light load performance compared to allowing your CPU to boost up to 5300 MHz when it is lightly loaded. Using a fixed CPU speed requires less voltage while still being 100% stable.

Try setting a negative offset voltage in the BIOS of between -50 mV and -100 mV. This should help get your Cinebench full load VCore voltage down where it should be. Somewhere near 1.25 V.

When idle I use the same 5000 MHz. As long as the low power C states are enabled in the BIOS, a fast CPU will not cause high power consumption or high idle temperatures.