[SOLVED] i7-10700K Overclock temperature question

[rileyrestgg]

I recently build a new PC using the i7-10700K and MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Edge WiFi motherboard. I am playing around with the overclock setting and was able to a get a stable 4.9GHz on all 8 cores. However, I got a question on the CPU temperature -- when on idle or low load, there is always one or two cores that are on higher load (around 50%) thus having a temperature around 50°C, other cores stays around 35°C. The core that hits above 50°C will fluctuate pretty quickly -- usually by the seconds. Open Hardware Monitor and Hardware Info actually show different cores hitting above 50°C.

This irks me a lot becuase I want the fans stay silent in normal usage. The single core temperature makes the fans run faster and louder as a result. I am just wondering if this is normal for this CPU or I missed some overclock settings. If this is normal, I probably just need to adjust the fan to run lower speed under 55°C (which sounds odd)? Here are the PC build details:

CPU: i7-10700K (OC to 4.9GHz)
RAM: CORSAIR - VENGEANCE RGB PRO 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3200
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z490 Gaming Edge WiFi (latest bios)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super
Storage: Samsung SSD 980 (1TB)
Cooling: LIAN LI GALAHAD AIO240 RGB and 5 fans with Lian Li Lancool 215 case (see pic)
PSU: CORSAIR RM850x

Thanks for the help!

 

[mdd1963]

If you look at HWmonitor, you will see that cores fluctuate with load and clock speed many times per second, with a few cores feasibly bouncing from as low as 800-1200 MHz to as high as 4.9-5.0 GHz for a second or two, then reduce speed automatically as load is reduced, assuming in balanced power plan. As WIndows starts/stops numerous background tasks a few times every second, wtih one or two cores jumping from 2% to 50-100% load for just a second or two, one could easily see the normal behavior you are observing...

 

[rileyrestgg]

If you look at HWmonitor, you will see that cores fluctuate with load and clock speed many times per second, with a few cores feasibly bouncing from as low as 800-1200 MHz to as high as 4.9-5.0 GHz for a second or two, then reduce speed automatically as load is reduced, assuming in balanced power plan. As WIndows starts/stops numerous background tasks a few times every second, wtih one or two cores jumping from 2% to 50-100% load for just a second or two, one could easily see the normal behavior you are observing...

Thanks a lot man! That's reassuring!

 

[Phaaze88]

If this is normal, I probably just need to adjust the fan to run lower speed under 55°C?

I feel that would have the opposite effect - still have the spikes and revving. The spikes are faster than what the fan software can react to.

Assuming the cooler's pump speed is already maxed out: What needs to be changed is not so much the fan speed, but the corresponding temp limit.
Your MSI board may or may not have similar fan curve settings in Advanced Settings like my Asus board does:
-Minimum fan speed and a temperature limit connected with it.
Say I set a minimum fan rpm of 30% and a temp limit of 40C. The fan will run at 30% the entire time, but if Core0 exceeds 40C, the fan will then revv up towards the middle point of the fan curve until temp drops below 40C again.

-Middle fan speed and temp limit paired with it.
Same deal as before.

-Maximum fan speed and temp limit.
This one is a bit different from the other 2 and actually has a restriction(on my board, at least):
The highest value I can enter is 75C for thermals, and if Core0 exceeds 80C, any fan curve is completely ignored and the fan(s) run full blast; found that out the hard way with some Noctua IPPC 3000s...

That was a bit long, but what I was trying to say was to raise the low and middle temperature limits in your fan curve to values that the spikes aren't likely to exceed.
Probably raise the fan speed some too - your ears will adapt more easily to fans running 1000-1200rpm(softer curve) than 700-1200(sharper curve).
Well, your ears might not adapt to something like the latter at all...


You didn't go big enough on the cooling with that cpu - for overclocking, at least. The 10700K is a 9900K with more conservative power limits enabled, which allow the cpu to sustain more reasonable thermals under load.
Overclocked, both of those cpus can eat 240mm hybrids for lunch.
Under the right loads, you will see 80C+ core temperatures, but if all you do is play lightweight stuff, like CS:GO or Rocket League - IDK what all is popular out there - it won't ever get that bad.
Something like that recent CoD: Cold War though? Nope. The use of AVX Instructions in that game will make the cpu run hotter than what is normally observed in most other titles.
Horizon Zero Dawn and BF V run AVX too... I'm sure there's more titles, but it not easy to follow; no one really keeps a list of such a thing, and we all find out the hard way, when word spreads around of 'cpu running hot in game X, but not A, B, C'...

 

[rileyrestgg]

I feel that would have the opposite effect - still have the spikes and revving. The spikes are faster than what the fan software can react to.

Assuming the cooler's pump speed is already maxed out: What needs to be changed is not so much the fan speed, but the corresponding temp limit.
Your MSI board may or may not have similar fan curve settings in Advanced Settings like my Asus board does:
-Minimum fan speed and a temperature limit connected with it.
Say I set a minimum fan rpm of 30% and a temp limit of 40C. The fan will run at 30% the entire time, but if Core0 exceeds 40C, the fan will then revv up towards the middle point of the fan curve until temp drops below 40C again.

-Middle fan speed and temp limit paired with it.
Same deal as before.

-Maximum fan speed and temp limit.
This one is a bit different from the other 2 and actually has a restriction(on my board, at least):
The highest value I can enter is 75C for thermals, and if Core0 exceeds 80C, any fan curve is completely ignored and the fan(s) run full blast; found that out the hard way with some Noctua IPPC 3000s...

That was a bit long, but what I was trying to say was to raise the low and middle temperature limits in your fan curve to values that the spikes aren't likely to exceed.
Probably raise the fan speed some too - your ears will adapt more easily to fans running 1000-1200rpm(softer curve) than 700-1200(sharper curve).
Well, your ears might not adapt to something like the latter at all...


You didn't go big enough on the cooling with that cpu - for overclocking, at least. The 10700K is a 9900K with more conservative power limits enabled, which allow the cpu to sustain more reasonable thermals under load.
Overclocked, both of those cpus can eat 240mm hybrids for lunch.
Under the right loads, you will see 80C+ core temperatures, but if all you do is play lightweight stuff, like CS:GO or Rocket League - IDK what all is popular out there - it won't ever get that bad.
Something like that recent CoD: Cold War though? Nope. The use of AVX Instructions in that game will make the cpu run hotter than what is normally observed in most other titles.
Horizon Zero Dawn and BF V run AVX too... I'm sure there's more titles, but it not easy to follow; no one really keeps a list of such a thing, and we all find out the hard way, when word spreads around of 'cpu running hot in game X, but not A, B, C'...

Hi Thanks for the detailed reply. I am usually fine if fans rev up during games and create some noise -- there is game music/sound effect to cover the noise anyway. The cooler did well with heavyload benchmark test -- I don't need much overclock so I guess it is not a huge deal. What was bothering me was the idle temperature and thu noise. Anyway, I did actually find the culprit -- Corsair iCue software running a process that links the MSI motherboard in the background (even with iCue closed), which gives the CPU a 9-10% load at idle, creating the heat and noise. I don't actually need the process running with the lighting effects of Corsair RAM set at "Hardware Lighting". I have disabled the software at start-up and make sure I end the process everytime after using iCue. Now the CPU is cool at around 35C idle and I have silent PC! SO Happy to get this resolved.