Bumping down the voltage on i7-7700k?

[fqrizzo]

Hello All,

So, I built a new computer last week. So far it has been working out pretty well.

i7-7700k @stock
AsRock Extreme4
16BG Corsair RAM (3000)
650W EVGA PSU
Coolermaster Hyper Evo 212

Idle temperatures are below 30C, while CPU intensive games like BF1 get me temperatures in the low 70s (mid 60s with Hyperthreading off)

So this is just with everything at stock. I was wondering if I should tweak some of the settings in the BIOS to help the temperatures a bit. I know the limitations of my air cooling setup, but I don't really want to OC yet as I am happy with the performance.
Here is some data I got from a Prime95 blend test.

This was after 8 minutes. Yeah, the temps are high. I found I can help the temps by turning off HT, but that seems like a waste.

I know a bit about Overclocking (enough to be dangerous) but I usually follow specific guides. How should I go about lowering the voltage and will that improve my temps?

Any help/insight would be appreciated!

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. Those temps are too high.... you won't cause immediate damage till ya get up past 95C but deterioration over time should be expected with significant exposure above 85C. At 45 multiplier, I expect temps in low 60s with water (but not CLCs) ... mid 60s - low 70s) w/ good air

2. Yes, you can lower temps by turning off hyperthreading, but then why not just buy a 7600k ?

3. What version of P95 is that ? P95 has long ago outlived its usefulness:

a) If you don't want to risk damage to the CPU, you are going to use the "safe" version (26.6 as i recall). Newer versions use modern CPU instruction sets (i.e. AVX) and your system will provide a significant voltage bump when these are present and this can result in damage to CPU.

b) So your system is 24 hour p95 stable .... as long as modern instruction sets are not used by anything you have on ya PC . Did you build this system to run applications from back in 2010 or 2017 ? So all you have proved is that ya system is stable when modern instruction sets are not present. Kinda like testing out the 4WD capability of your SUV by driving down Florida highways.

c) You can be 24 hour P95 stable and then fail on a simple multi tasking application based benchmarks in minutes.

d) P95 places an unrealistic load on your PC that it will never see again. So if you are limiting your OC by temps, my thought is . why have it limited by something that will never be exposed to ? An application base dbenchmark / stress test like RoG Real bench will supply a mulitasking load, with modern instruction sets equal to any combination o real programs that you can throw at it.

I would suggest testing your CPU w/ RoG Real Bench .... with HWiNFO as the monitoring tool... set it it up w/ RoG RB on left side of screen and HWiNFO (sensors only) on right ... run the 8 minute benchmark and record max voltages and temps after each of the 4 tests

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?43233-Realbench-v2-Discussion-Thread-Download-Links
http://www.hwinfo.com/download.php

And yes, your MoBo has presets which will adjust numerus settings when you change CPU multiplier. These are designed to work on 99% of MoBos / CPUS so in all likelihood are higher than you need for your board. So yes, chances are high that you can use lower voltages.


Average OC 4.68
Median OC 4.70
Average Vcore 1.38
Median Vcore 1.38http://www.overclock.net/t/1570313/skylake-overclocking-guide-with-statistics

 

[jaslion]

Hello All,

So, I built a new computer last week. So far it has been working out pretty well.

i7-7700k @stock
AsRock Extreme4
16BG Corsair RAM (3000)
650W EVGA PSU
Coolermaster Hyper Evo 212

Idle temperatures are below 30C, while CPU intensive games like BF1 get me temperatures in the low 70s (mid 60s with Hyperthreading off)

So this is just with everything at stock. I was wondering if I should tweak some of the settings in the BIOS to help the temperatures a bit. I know the limitations of my air cooling setup, but I don't really want to OC yet as I am happy with the performance.
Here is some data I got from a Prime95 blend test.

This was after 8 minutes. Yeah, the temps are high. I found I can help the temps by turning off HT, but that seems like a waste.

I know a bit about Overclocking (enough to be dangerous) but I usually follow specific guides. How should I go about lowering the voltage and will that improve my temps?

Any help/insight would be appreciated!

Don't worry about those temps. Thats actually rather cold for a 7700k. Their max temp is 105c and you are nowhere close to it.

 

[fqrizzo]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I've heard the case about Prime95. I figured that people would want some data before I posted. I should start this as a thread as I have some questions about how to lower the voltage.

 

[Solandri]

As stated above, Prime95 is kind of a worst-case test. People use it to test because if your OC can survive it, it can survive anything you'd normally do with your computer. So I wouldn't worry about the temps approaching 90C in Prime 95. If your normal load temps are in the 70s, you are fine (unless it's winter and your room temp is around 10C - that would add another 10-15 C during summer).

Undervolting is usually accomplished with the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU).

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/processors/processor-utilities-and-programs/000006022.html
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24075/Intel-Extreme-Tuning-Utility-Intel-XTU-

Please note however that technically there is no singular undervolt. You can undervolt the CPU by different amounts at different speedstep clock speeds. This creates a lot more scenarios to test for stability, and you can end up wasting a lot of time testing. I'd only resort to this if you have a lot of time on your hands, or if its very important for you to reduce heat and power consumption (e.g. on a laptop).

 

[fqrizzo]

Passed the 15 min RealBench stress test. Topped out at 83C. Yay?

 

[jaslion]

Passed the 15 min RealBench stress test. Topped out at 83C. Yay?

More than 20c under max temp more than fine.