Help me understand TCase vs Core Temp

[Zachary Roberts]

Hello, I have an Intel i7 4770 Haswell CPU and I use the stock heatsink/fan (I know it's rubbish but it "should" be "good enough" since I don't overclock or anything like that...but I do like gaming). Now, on idle, my BIOS reports that my temperatures are in the 50s Degrees Celsius. Core Temp, however, reports that my temperatures are in the mid 20s to 30s. When gaming, though, Core Temp reports that my temperatures are in the mid 60s to early 70s (sometimes peaking into the mid-late 70s with 80 Degrees Celsius being the highest I've seen to date...but it only peaks at those high temperatures during, say, explosions and fighting scenes of graphical intensive games on high-max settings for example Assassin's Creed Black Flag). Usually the temperatures are between 65 Degrees Celsius and 75 Degrees Celsius when gaming according to Core Temp. Now, my TCase Max Temperature is 72.72 Degrees Celsius whereas my TJunction Max temperature is 100 Degrees Celsius. Now my understanding is that Core Temp reports temperatures based on TJunction so, technically speaking, 70-80 Degrees is 20-30 Degrees below maximum. I've also read that TCase temperatures are anywhere between 5 and 15 Degrees Celsius COOLER than the TJunction temperatures but I can find no official information to back this. Would anyone be able to help me understand how TCase is calculated? I posted another topic on Toms Hardware yesterday where I was told 75 Degrees was perfectly acceptable for Haswell gaming and that was by someone who had the CPU badge. So if 75 Degrees TJunction is acceptable when TCase Max is 72.72 Degrees then I'm guessing TJunction and TCase are not one and the same. As a n00b in such fields I'm naturally a little confused.

 

[13thmonkey]

one thing to understand is that in BIOS you are not at idle, you aren't doing a lot, but you are doing that at full speed.

 

[Zachary Roberts]

Well that rules out the BIOS bit. I believe my Core Temp idle temps are perfectly acceptable for Haswell too. But I was wondering if my gaming temps are a little high. I was confused about 75 Degrees Core Temp being acceptable when TCase Max is 72.72 Degrees Celsius (but then TJunction Max is 100 Degrees Celsius). Obviously, in the ideal world, one wouldn't want to go anywhere near 100. I try to stay under 80 if I can but sometimes during gaming it can peak as high as 80 on one core (not all four mind you). I tend to find Core0 and Core1 being the hottest cores with Core2 and Core3 being considerably cooler. But then the load on Core0 and Core1 is substantially higher than Core2 and Core3 so that kind of figures really. I'm just trying to get my head around this TCase temperature as I use Core Temp which clearly reports on TJunction temperatures. Here's an example of my Core Temp gaming temperatures: http://i60.tinypic.com/v62dkl.jpg

 

[13thmonkey]

75 in core temp is fine on stock cooler at stock settings. I would not OC on that cooler. If you are not comfortable with the temp then you can change the target temp/profile in bios to increase the fan speed, you might get an extra 5C out of it.

 

[Zachary Roberts]

75 in core temp is fine on stock cooler at stock settings. I would not OC on that cooler. If you are not comfortable with the temp then you can change the target temp/profile in bios to increase the fan speed, you might get an extra 5C out of it.

Thanks, that puts my mind at rest. I'm not planning on overclocking.
But out of curiosity what would 75C Core Temp be in TCase temps?

 

[13thmonkey]

difficult to say, there is no accurate transform between the two.

 

[Zachary Roberts]

difficult to say, there is no accurate transform between the two.

That actually doesn't surprise me on this occasion. I asked here because Google wasn't my friend on this one so it kind of figures really that it's a difficult one to calculate. So, seeing I can't have the answer I was really looking for what would you say would be a "bad" temperature to have, Core Temp wise? As I said above I try to stay under 80 but I have still hit 80 at certain points throughout a game. Usually my temps are between 65 and 75 for gaming though (mid 20s-30s on idle).

 

[13thmonkey]

peaking at 80 is not great, but acceptable, fan proflile/case airflow might help.