I7-920 Best cooler?

[phclyde]

I have an i7-920, and have it currently overclocked to about 3.7-3.8 ghz. I have a Cooler Master 212, and I get temps a little over 70 when in-game, usually in the 60's. When idle, it will go from about 48 to 54, which is fine for me. I was thinking about a different cooler, like the Corsair H60 or {i}Corsair H70[/i], and I wanted to know if these could help push the last little bit of power out of my cpu? Or am I better off just sticking with my CM 212? Im trying to run The Division and I played the beta, and i mainly got about 40-60 on the top ultra settings. I have an Asus Gtx 970 Strix, 12 gbs ddr3 corsair ram, and the i7-920. I am currently overclocking my gpu to about 1400 hz, 7800 hz ram. I really wanna push my pc to get full 60 fps, or at least above 55 at 1080p. Does anyone have any suggestions with overclocking my cpu higher, or getting a new graphics card, or just toning down some unimportant settings in-game that create very little graphical difference in the display? Any help that you guys could give me would be very much appreciated, as I am walking each day in a stupor just thinking about what i can do in my situation.

 

[skit75]

Honestly, you aren't gonna get much more help from a cooler. The CM 212 is nearly just as good as the Noctua I have. You would be better off trying to lower vcore voltage if possible. I've never been able to get mine over 3.8GHz stable and I have put in some effort. Diminishing returns are too costly at this point and 3.6GHz is enough for my GTX 770.

Maybe ingame setting would help more.

 

[SPgamer007]

CPU isn't really good that's the reason why performance in games are not as expect from a gtx 970.
But can you tell us what frames are you getting in other triple a titles?

I'd rather think about upgrading the CPU than GPU , GTX 970 is good enough for 1080p 60.

 

[EpicWarcrafter]

I had an i-7 920 @ 4GHZ with voltage under 1.4v. Im using a Corsair H100i. My idle temps with that cooler where under 30C idle and 45C gaming. The board is a Asus X58 ROG. Now, since then I bought a Xeon 5650 off Ebay for under $100. On the same X58 board with the H100i cooler I get 24C idle and 40-45C gaming. this is a 6/12 core CPU that is breaking 1000 in Cinebench R15, clocked at 4.4 GHZ Card is a GTX 980 and Im typically getting 80-100+ FPS in all my games with max settings 1080p. I just added a 2nd GTX 980 to this rig 2 weeks ago, Im getting 200+ FPS in Tomb Raider and Shadows of Mordor, 170+ FPS in SW Battlefront, Battlefield 4 (Post Processing at 160 for both of these!), GTA V with all settings on ULTRA and moderate AA (usually 4x MSAA or TXAA)

 

[dish_moose]

SPgamer007 - I have to disagree - overclocked i7-920/30 are still good cpus for gaming. Biggest reason I upgraded was the lack of fast sataIII ports. i7-920 with triple channel memory still works very well with modern games. Just look at the benchmark for i7-990x and compare. His clock is over the stock 990x.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8426/the-intel-haswell-e-cpu-review-core-i7-5960x-i7-5930k-i7-5820k-tested/6
"Just sayin"
I have a GTX 970 and do not run games on Ultra - try lowering your graphic setting and if the FPS goes up - your answer is - Your GPU is holding you back.
-Bruce

 

[skit75]

CPU isn't really good that's the reason why performance in games are not as expect from a gtx 970.
But can you tell us what frames are you getting in other triple a titles?

I'd rather think about upgrading the CPU than GPU , GTX 970 is good enough for 1080p 60.

Whaaaa......? This CPU is timeless in a world that re-invents itself every 12-18 months. Sure, it is long in the tooth, granted. "Isn't really good" now that I take issue with. It is best CPU I've ever had to pleasure to abuse. He might get some top-end out of watercooling but is his CPU even capping one core? At 3.7-3.8GHz, I highly doubt it.

 

[SPgamer007]

I'm not saying it's bad,it's a bit old but with OC'ed to 3.7,3.8 there won't be any bottleneck.

The newer CPUs for example an i7 4790k with overclocked perform significantly better with same setup but sure cost money.

As for overclocking the i7 920, i wouldn't push it more than 3.8 tho',it's a non-k CPU got already at enough.
For low FPS issue, i'd assume it's a beta thingy , that's why we'd need to know the GTX 970s performance in certain other triple A titles if possible.

 

[skit75]

Nehalem did not need a "k" to out-class its competition. This CPU was born in 2008 and when overclocked, is still viable for gaming on today's AAA titles.

 

[dish_moose]

I now have an i7-4790K but when I had my i7-930 - I had it going 3.79 with no extra voltage until I gave it to my co-worker - it's still going at 3.79GHz using my original Noctua D14. Was an awesome cpu. It's still a beast for any memory intensive applications as well.
SPGamer007 said "CPU isn't really good that's the reason why performance in games are not as expect from a gtx 970." I say turn down your gpu settings and see if it's your cpu or gpu.
-Bruce

 

[phclyde]

Well when playing, I went down a couple settings, and it was mainly on high, and I was getting 60 fps. I wish I knew which settings to turn down though that make the game only a little bit better graphically, but also take a lot of performance. I hate how the Gtx 970 cant run this thing 60 fps. I mean i play SW Battlefront with upwards of 90 fps, and this game isnt that much more graphically demanding i would think. I really hope they optimize it before release. Thanks for you discussion so far guys, it means a lot.

 

[skit75]

Well when playing, I went down a couple settings, and it was mainly on high, and I was getting 60 fps. I wish I knew which settings to turn down though that make the game only a little bit better graphically, but also take a lot of performance. I hate how the Gtx 970 cant run this thing 60 fps. I mean i play SW Battlefront with upwards of 90 fps, and this game isnt that much more graphically demanding i would think. I really hope they optimize it before release. Thanks for you discussion so far guys, it means a lot.

It is kind of unfair to compare Battlefront to The Division. SW:Battlefront is a released game that went thru heavy optimizations. It is usually the post processing effects that chew into performance.... lighting effects, shadows, anti-aliasing etc...

 

[phclyde]

Well when playing, I went down a couple settings, and it was mainly on high, and I was getting 60 fps. I wish I knew which settings to turn down though that make the game only a little bit better graphically, but also take a lot of performance. I hate how the Gtx 970 cant run this thing 60 fps. I mean i play SW Battlefront with upwards of 90 fps, and this game isnt that much more graphically demanding i would think. I really hope they optimize it before release. Thanks for you discussion so far guys, it means a lot.

It is kind of unfair to compare Battlefront to The Division. SW:Battlefront is a released game that went thru heavy optimizations. It is usually the post processing effects that chew into performance.... lighting effects, shadows, anti-aliasing etc...

Okay yea you're right. I can hope they will put some great optimization in for the division, as I want to play it with sweet fx too and I hope that it doesn't take too much performance. Anyone else here interested in the division btw? And does anyone recommend upgrading to a 980? I expected to be able to run all these AAA games, 60 fps with this card for a while.

 

[SPgamer007]

Hello,
Upgrading to a gtx 980 from an overclocked gtx 970 isn't worth the cost, GTX 970 can't play most of the AAA titles at ultra 60fps, you'll need to turn down the AA quality in order to run it smoothly.

For example,in witcher 3 you'll need to turn off Nvidia's hairwork for smooth experience in 1080p.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Save your money and either go with a 980 TI or wait. The cost of a 980 can't be justified considering the performance gain over your current 970, even if you overclock the 980 as well. Just makes no sense to spend another 480 bucks to get probably a 10-15% performance bump over your current card.

As for the original question, just about anything is an improvement over the 212 EVO in both max TDP and sound levels. Especially sound levels. If noise is a major consideration, water cooling isn't the option you want though. There will be a higher decibel level under advanced loads with most liquid coolers that exceeds what you'll hear from even the largest air cooled HSF if it's a half decent model. And a small AIO liquid cooler gains you nothing, in fact, you might have worse max TDP performance with a single fan radiator than you do even with the EVO or at best something that's close to it.

If you want to move to an AIO for performance gains, go with at least a 240mm and a 280mm would be much better if your case supports them. Otherwise, I'd simply go with a higher end air cooler. Any of the Noctua towers like the U14S, D14 or D15 are good choices. Any of the big Thermalright, Phanteks, Scythe, BeQuiet or Cryorig coolers will far outperform the 212 EVO and will be quieter.

 

[phclyde]

Save your money and either go with a 980 TI or wait. The cost of a 980 can't be justified considering the performance gain over your current 970, even if you overclock the 980 as well. Just makes no sense to spend another 480 bucks to get probably a 10-15% performance bump over your current card.

As for the original question, just about anything is an improvement over the 212 EVO in both max TDP and sound levels. Especially sound levels. If noise is a major consideration, water cooling isn't the option you want though. There will be a higher decibel level under advanced loads with most liquid coolers that exceeds what you'll hear from even the largest air cooled HSF if it's a half decent model. And a small AIO liquid cooler gains you nothing, in fact, you might have worse max TDP performance with a single fan radiator than you do even with the EVO or at best something that's close to it.

If you want to move to an AIO for performance gains, go with at least a 240mm and a 280mm would be much better if your case supports them. Otherwise, I'd simply go with a higher end air cooler. Any of the Noctua towers like the U14S, D14 or D15 are good choices. Any of the big Thermalright, Phanteks, Scythe, BeQuiet or Cryorig coolers will far outperform the 212 EVO and will be quieter.

Okay, I will think on this. Thanks for all your help guys.

 

[Darkbreeze]

One thing I should add, is that any of the larger air coolers that are dual fan models, will be louder than the single fan models. They still won't be audibly as loud as an AIO dual fan configuration since the radiator and it's fans are pretty much open to the outside while the air cooler is somewhat muffled by being deeper inside the case, but they'll still be louder than a single fan tower cooler.

I have a Noctua NH-U14S that has admirably cooled both my previous FX-8320 and my current i7-6700k, both at 4.5Ghz, and it is completely inaudible at low to medium loads (CPU fan profile set to silent or manual .75 PWM) and is still extremely quiet even running Prime95 at full load. My temps never exceed 63°C even under a full Prime95 v26.6 small FFT load which is much higher than the loads you'll see under any normal operating conditions.