i5-6600k Stress Test Temperatures

[_danielpwils01]

Just a quick question here. I ran the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility CPU stress test on my 6600k with a Hyper 212 EVO. My max temperature was 71 degrees Celsius for a few short seconds. Is that an acceptable temperature or should I be worried?

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's "probably" ok, but it's not even remotely an accurate assessment of your thermal compliance.



Prime95 v26.6 is THE primarily accepted way to do the majority of baseline stability and thermal limit testing running the Small FFT option. ONLY run the Small FFT option and run it for 15 minutes. If your core or package temps do not exceed 80°C, whether at stock or overclocked configuration, then you are within the specified thermal envelope. A stock 4 core Intel CPU such as yours, with no overclock, should probably not exceed 70-73°C at any time while running Prime. Lower would be better. My overclocked 6700k@4.6Ghz does not exceed 68°C running Prime and I'm "only" using a single finstack air cooler (Noctua NH-U14S) that does not currently have a terribly aggressive fan profile configured, so it's almost silent unless I'm actually running a stress test or very demanding video encode.

Prime95 version 26.6: http://windows-downloads-center.blogspot.com/2011/04/prime95-266.html


Further, as explained to me and many others on this forum by Computronix, who has far more experience with CPU architectures and testing procedures than 95% of the people you will ever meet, speak to or read about. He is also the author of the Intel temperature guide, found here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1800828/intel-temperature-guide.html



This pretty well sums things up and is equally relevant whether working with an Intel or an AMD system.

I can think of several reasons why x264 encoding or AVX / AVX2 / FMA3 apps won't work as a unilateral metric for thermal testing.

(1) A steady-state workload gives steady-state temperatures; encoding does not.

(2) Simplicity in methodology; most users would find encoding apps unfamiliar and cumbersome to accomplish a simple task.

(3) Most users such as gamers never run any apps which use AVX / FMA, so adaptive or manual voltage aside, it makes no sense to downgrade your overclock to accommodate those loads and temps.

(4) Standardization; Prime95 has been around since 1996; many users are familiar with it.

For the minority of users who routinely run AVX / FMA apps, then P95 v28.5 can be useful tweaking BIOS for thermal and stability testing.


regardless of architecture. P95 v26.6 works equally well across all platforms. Steady-state is the key. How can anyone extrapolate accurate Core temperatures from workloads that fluctuate like a bad day on the Stock Market?

I'm aware of 5 utilities with steady-state workloads. In order of load level they are:

(1) P95 v26.6 - Small FFT's
(2) HeavyLoad - Stress CPU
(3) FurMark - CPU Burner
(4) Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool - CPU Load
(5) AIDA64 - Tools - System Stability Test - Stress CPU

AIDA64's Stress CPU fails to load any overclocked / overvolted CPU to get anywhere TDP, and is therefore useless, except for giving naive users a sense of false security because their temps are so low.

HeavyLoad is the closest alternative. Temps and watts are within 3% of Small FFT's.

I'd watch my thermal sensor readings using CoreTemp or HWinfo (Sensors only). HWmonitor, Open hardware monitor and most motherboard utilities are not terribly accurate.

 

[Tensai30]

A few short seconds isn't nearly enough. Also want to add OCCT isn't bad either. Suggest running it for about 30 minutes if you just want to see temperatures.