[SOLVED] i7-9700k stock voltages high during gaming

[senatorsack]

I recently got an i7-9700k and have been plagued with crashes (Power Kernel 41) so I'm trying to figure out what could be the cause of it. I used HWInfo to look at temps/voltages of my CPU and saw that while playing WoW I was hitting voltages of around 1.45V on all cores, but my temps never went over 60C. I don't have any OC besides the default Intel turbo boost and my BIOS is pretty much all stock.

What could be the cause of these high voltages? I know it's unsafe to operate at voltages above a certain threshold so what can I do to get these down? The setting is on auto voltage in my BIOS but I'm a novice when it comes to changing those settings.

https://imgur.com/5IfkCwD

 

[Phaaze88]

Compare the number of active cores with the clock speeds.
https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/core_i7/i7-9700k#Frequencies
If the clock speeds hwinfo is reporting are higher than what is shown in that link, then there's likely some manufacturer 'tweaks' involved.

 

[senatorsack]

Compare the number of active cores with the clock speeds.
https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/core_i7/i7-9700k#Frequencies
If the clock speeds hwinfo is reporting are higher than what is shown in that link, then there's likely some manufacturer 'tweaks' involved.

I see 8 cores active that jump between 4600 MHz and 4700 MHz. Even when I'm idling my voltages are at around 1.25V to 1.3V

 

[Zerk2012]

Did you upgrade the processor? If so you need to reset CMOS for the board to recognize the change. Code 41 is fairly hard to find the problem can be anything from a hardware to software problem.

 

[senatorsack]

Did you upgrade the processor? If so you need to reset CMOS for the board to recognize the change. Code 41 is fairly hard to find the problem can be anything from a hardware to software problem.

I did upgrade the processor, but when you say recognize is that something beyond the BIOS showing the name of the processor with the right clock speed? When I replaced the processor it made me go through the BIOS on first boost saying new CPU detected or something along those lines.

 

[Phaaze88]

If you had hwinfo opened before you ran WoW, that would've allowed a brief period of time for the app to record Turbo Boost 2.0 activity.
During simply desktop or browser activity, that would've meant one core was running at 4.9ghz; then the 1.45v would make sense.

 

[senatorsack]

Would it make sense that multiple cores would be around 1.45V too? I don't want to damage anything just from playing games without OCing my CPU.

 

[Phaaze88]

Would it make sense that multiple cores would be around 1.45V too? I don't want to damage anything just from playing games without OCing my CPU.

On auto settings, yes. They don't sit at that kind of voltage regularly; it's done to ensure stable clocks.
Your power issues most likely originate from somewhere else.

 

[senatorsack]

On auto settings, yes. They don't sit at that kind of voltage regularly; it's done to ensure stable clocks.
Your power issues most likely originate from somewhere else.

Great, good to know. I did just swap out my PSU today so we'll see if I still get the crashes. Thanks for the help!

 

[Phaaze88]

Sure thing!