Question i7 9700kf+ Red Dead Redemption 2 questions (I'm noob)

methodrik

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Nov 19, 2019
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1,510
Hi all,

I bought a new rig last week (first after 8 years) and paid a good 2400$ (canadian). Really all I could afford currently and the guys at the store who built it also recommended the parts according to what I wanted to do with it. (they are very well reviewed so I trust them)

i7-9700kf, asus z370-a II mobo, geforce rtx 2060 super, 16 gb ram, master cooler evo hyper 212 black edition, fractal meshify Case and some extra fans.

I've had zero problems so far and bought RDR2 to play online (did the story on ps4 already) and to my surprise I've had no issues at all, like zero. No stutter, no lag, no screen tear, not one crash to desktop, smooth as ever fps. I run the game at mix of low, medium and high settings, nothing crazy, in 1920 x 1080.

Been like that for a week now and still no issue! I can't even hear the fans turn on except when I go near a small town or city, then they go on and back off when I get outta that zone. Anyway today I just decided out of curiosity to install some sensor software (CPUID HWmonitor and Core Temp) to see how high the temps were when said fans turned on when going near these zones in game.

Turns out when in regular zones the cpu seems to run at around 70 celsius, GPU at 60 C.

When near NPC-Buildings heavy zones CPU goes up to 80-85 C and GPU 65-70.

The cores even spike to 100 and back to 80-85 when in these heavy zones it looks like..

Now I'm most definitely a noob and don't understand most of the inner mechanics here but is this normal at all?
Is this the game just needed the cores to go turbo and that's what I'm seeing on the sensor? Anything I can do ? I definitely don't want to fry anything in there..

If the temp is this high how am I getting this smooth gameplay?

I tried running other/older games (Dark Souls 3-Witcher 3 for example) at max settings and couldn't see the cpu go higher than 65-70, which sounds normal to me.

Thanks for any and all help/advice!
 
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Phaaze88

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Although it's only momentary, the cpu doesn't thermal throttle until 100C.
Regardless, it's not a good sign to be seeing temps climbing over 85C anyways - the issue is obvious to most who will read your post.

they are very well reviewed so I trust them
Yet, they made such a terrible call to pair the high end 9700K with a bloody budget cooler. That's a newbie mistake, so what the heck?
You're going to want a stronger cooler.
-be quiet! Dark Rock 4
-Deepcool ASSASSIN III
-Noctua NH-D15S
Those are just a few samples, there are more options.


I'm not familiar with RDR2's game engine, so I wonder if it perhaps uses AVX instructions...
Do you experience similiar temps in other games?
What are your temps like while idling on the desktop?
 
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methodrik

Commendable
Nov 19, 2019
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1,510
Although it's only momentary, the cpu doesn't thermal throttle until 100C.
Regardless, it's not a good sign to be seeing temps climbing over 85C anyways - the issue is obvious to most who will read your post.


Yet, they made such a terrible call to pair the high end 9700K with a bloody budget cooler. That's a newbie mistake, so what the heck?
You're going to want a stronger cooler.
-be quiet! Dark Rock 4
-Deepcool ASSASSIN III
-Noctua NH-D15S
Those are just a few samples, there are more options.


I'm not familiar with RDR2's game engine, so I wonder if it perhaps uses AVX instructions...
Do you experience similiar temps in other games?
What are your temps like while idling on the desktop?


Yea another user on reddit is pretty much telling me the same thing as you're telling me :p I did have a set budget but I did tell the guys that it could definitely go over a bit if it was going to avoid most issues for the next few years.
According to my last 2 hours spent looking through coolers for the 9700 it seems the dark rock pro 4 or Noctua Nh-D15 are the ones I see mentioned the most.

Any real difference between the NH-D15 and NH-D15S ?

I don't see similar temps in other games (though the only one I tried so far was Dark Souls 3 at max settings and it runs at 60c just fine).. it's just RDR2 and only in small towns-cities. It spikes and the moment I get out of those zones the fans go off and it goes back to 75'ish.
Suppose I should try something newer like Borderlands 3 maybe? (didn't get much time to download and install much games since I've gotten it)

Idle on desktop I'm around 35c. Is that regular?
 
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Phaaze88

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NH-D15S is the high compatibility version of the regular NH-D15:
-single fan
-heatsink is offset: allows for compatibility with a wider variety of motherboards, as the regular NH-D15 can block the 1st PCIE slot on some mobos
-the lower fins on the heatsink are trimmed, allowing for greater compatibility with memory with tall heatspreaders
-all that, and it performs within 1C of the regular model

Your cpu's idle temps are fine - the 60C in DS3 is also good.
The problem arises from games that really push the cpu; RDR2 is proving to be one of those.
The 9700K is capable of pushing out some 200w of waste heat when fully loaded - the CM Hyper 212 was only designed for 150w.
 

methodrik

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Nov 19, 2019
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Thanks for the explanation! I do play mostly games that don't push cpus all that much but I wanted to get a new rig especially for those new and/or upcoming demanding games and if this cooler isn't going to cut it for those then I'll def be changing it soon.
 
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atljsf

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intel cpus can go up to 90 or 100 degrees celsius, no problems, if they go over that they slow cpu cores to keep temperatures under control, it was designed to be like this and is normal

same for the gpu

if you don't like the cpu temperature you can consider to change the cpu heatsink for a unit that can handle more heat faster and remains quiet under load, other than that, sounds like you are having a good time with the pc, keep enjoying the new gaming pc!
 
as Phaaze88 mentioned. that cooler can do that cpu, but not for sustaned heavy load. I think they used cheap paste, so with 5$ you can get ~5-10*C lower.
even now that temps are in acceptable range that you can tinker with.
going down with voltage by around 3-5% will lower another 5*C and can actually improve performance.
if you're lucky 1.21v seems to be sweat spot for a lot of dies. But you will give up your OC cappability.
At some point you will need stronger cooler.
With stuff above you can get to the point that works for now (I know if you bought it fresh, spending another 100$ on new cooler is painfull) OR reach out to the shop and explain.
In my experience they will accept the cooler back and for 15$ more will give you CRYORIG H5 Ultimate if you're lucky.
All in all you need 6 heatpies tower.
 

methodrik

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Nov 19, 2019
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1,510
intel cpus can go up to 90 or 100 degrees celsius, no problems, if they go over that they slow cpu cores to keep temperatures under control, it was designed to be like this and is normal

same for the gpu

if you don't like the cpu temperature you can consider to change the cpu heatsink for a unit that can handle more heat faster and remains quiet under load, other than that, sounds like you are having a good time with the pc, keep enjoying the new gaming pc!

Well everything runs perfect, I suppose it's just seeing those high numbers when running a highly demanding game wake up bad memories from overheating issues from the past, so I feel like it should be fixed before it could even become a problem. But maybe you're right too!

Either way it can definitely wait a bit but I sure would hate to fry anything in there..
 

methodrik

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Nov 19, 2019
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1,510
as Phaaze88 mentioned. that cooler can do that cpu, but not for sustaned heavy load. I think they used cheap paste, so with 5$ you can get ~5-10*C lower.
even now that temps are in acceptable range that you can tinker with.
going down with voltage by around 3-5% will lower another 5*C and can actually improve performance.
if you're lucky 1.21v seems to be sweat spot for a lot of dies. But you will give up your OC cappability.
At some point you will need stronger cooler.
With stuff above you can get to the point that works for now (I know if you bought it fresh, spending another 100$ on new cooler is painfull) OR reach out to the shop and explain.
In my experience they will accept the cooler back and for 15$ more will give you CRYORIG H5 Ultimate if you're lucky.
All in all you need 6 heatpies tower.
I'll call today and explain how things see what they say. I did read about voltage a bit last night but not sure if I'm condifent enough to start tinkering with that :p

Thanks for the tips though!
 

atljsf

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nothing will be fried, because the cpu can work at those speeds and those temperatures, if it goes over the temperature limit it will slow the cpu cores to reduce or control temperature, so it will not fry itself

previous generation of apple laptops work hotter than the temperature you report, and they were designed to do that, intel says the cpu can take these temperatures and remain operative, so, well, let them be

as i mentioned, if you want lower temperatures and less noise, a better heatsink might be what you want, but nt what you need right now
 

methodrik

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Nov 19, 2019
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1,510
nothing will be fried, because the cpu can work at those speeds and those temperatures, if it goes over the temperature limit it will slow the cpu cores to reduce or control temperature, so it will not fry itself

previous generation of apple laptops work hotter than the temperature you report, and they were designed to do that, intel says the cpu can take these temperatures and remain operative, so, well, let them be

as i mentioned, if you want lower temperatures and less noise, a better heatsink might be what you want, but nt what you need right now
Pretty reassuring to read that this morning, thanks :)
I could also try to adjust fan curves in bios see how that goes. Or what about disabling turbo boost all together or that is not recommended?
 

atljsf

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the cpu you bought is not only designed to run in turbo boost, is a k cpu meant to be overclocked, should reach 5.1ghz or more

you are not going to fry it this easily

what you could do is try edit option for the overclocking, lower vcore, cpu voltage, see what overclock is doing, i bet is not doing turbo but is overclocked,

i think you bought a product and you don't know what is capable of or you are not aware of the tollerances it has in terms of speed, temperatures and noise

you could check some videos about the i7 9700kf on youtube, reviews, overclock, more details, so you feel better with what you bought

look at this in depth video reviewing it

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuUwLuQGPj4
 

Phaaze88

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I think they used cheap paste, so with 5$ you can get ~5-10*C lower.
That is one hell of a stretch... and I'm sure the 212 comes with it's own small tube of paste, which is just fine. The primary issue lies with the inadequate heatsink.
The brand does not make as big of an impact as you believe it does:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/thermal-paste-comparison,5108-10.html (Cooler Master thermal compound 'bundled', on the list is what would've come with the 212, assuming that's the paste the shop owners used)

Even the application matters little:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUWVVTY63hc
 
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That is one hell of a stretch... and I'm sure the 212 comes with it's own small tube of paste, which is just fine. The primary issue lies with the inadequate heatsink.
I had contact with 212 evo twice. In both examples paste did a lot of good. I assumed it's cheap as it was all dried up from sides on both occasions and probably not doing its job on whole die, once applied kind of crescent that covered only 3/4 of die. I guess either PL got different shipments or really poor luck?
 
I had contact with 212 evo twice. In both examples paste did a lot of good. I assumed it's cheap as it was all dried up from sides on both occasions and probably not doing its job on whole die, once applied kind of crescent that covered only 3/4 of die. I guess either PL got different shipments or really poor luck?
Large areas uncovered with paste usually means either not enough paste, improperly placing the cooler down on to the CPU to spread it out, not enough pressure when mounting or improper height to contact the CPU IHS. Sometimes it's one or more of those problems at once and sometimes you just need to apply paste differently, like directly on the heat-sink itself or spread it out evenly on the CPU IHS.
 
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Phaaze88

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I had contact with 212 evo twice. In both examples paste did a lot of good. I assumed it's cheap as it was all dried up from sides on both occasions and probably not doing its job on whole die, once applied kind of crescent that covered only 3/4 of die. I guess either PL got different shipments or really poor luck?
Paste doesn't last forever, even if just sitting in the tube. Usable paste shouldn't be 'dry'.
While the 212 is a good budget cooler, the installation process isn't quite beginner-friendly, so I agree with Third-Eye's above points.