[SOLVED] I9-10850k Running at the heat of the sun

RubbingAlcohol

Honorable
Dec 26, 2016
4
0
10,510
Hi, I have recently been getting a BSOD (WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR) so I slowly started "crossing off" certain things and while making sure my CPU was stable I realized that it would consistently hit 100c in prime95 (AVX-Off) and Cinebench R20.

Although these are not real world examples of how much heat my cpu will produce I looked into my bios and some of the stuff I saw seemed unholy to say the least.
These are the "optimized default" settings in my MSI Bios and I run a Noctua DH-15.

The main advice I am looking for is just how to have everything at stock, I'm not interested in overclocking as my CPU is fast enough as it is for the games I play, the reason I assume this is not stock is 4096W seems to be about 10x what other people have as their short power limit, Cheers. (MSI Gameboost is disabled, only XMP is enabled.


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May be irrelevant but my cpu clock speed also does not drop from 4.8ghz regardless of what I am doing.
 
Solution
Setting the turbo power limits to 4096W is a trick to get the CPU to ignore the turbo power limits. HWiNFO typically reports this as Unlimited. It is perfectly OK to do this. It will not turn your CPU into a 4096W inferno. The CPU only consumes as much power as it needs. The default Long Duration Power Limit (PL1) is only 125W. The Intel default for the Short Duration Power Limit (PL2) is 250W. You can set these values in the BIOS but setting PL1 that low will significantly reduce maximum full load performance.

GS51PG2.png


Intel puts the good 10 core CPUs in 10900K boxes. The CPUs that are not so good have their default turbo speeds reduced 100 MHz and the default voltage is increased so they...
Setting the turbo power limits to 4096W is a trick to get the CPU to ignore the turbo power limits. HWiNFO typically reports this as Unlimited. It is perfectly OK to do this. It will not turn your CPU into a 4096W inferno. The CPU only consumes as much power as it needs. The default Long Duration Power Limit (PL1) is only 125W. The Intel default for the Short Duration Power Limit (PL2) is 250W. You can set these values in the BIOS but setting PL1 that low will significantly reduce maximum full load performance.

GS51PG2.png


Intel puts the good 10 core CPUs in 10900K boxes. The CPUs that are not so good have their default turbo speeds reduced 100 MHz and the default voltage is increased so they can be guaranteed to run reliably long term. These unholy specimens go in 10850K boxes. All 10850K are likely to be high voltage processors. Luckily many of them can run 100% reliably with far less than default voltage. Here is an example.

Run a consistent test like Cinebench R20 or R23 and run HWiNFO to monitor your CPU Vcore voltage. At 4800 MHz, my 10850K is running Cinebench R23 reliably with 1.163V and the peak CPU core temperature is only 58°C.

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What is your Vcore voltage when you run this test? Many 10850K are getting 1.30V to 1.35V or more during this test. That is the real reason so many people have trouble with 10850K CPUs running so hot. It is possible to run a negative offset voltage of between -50 mV and -100 mV. Less voltage equals less power consumption and lower temperatures.

my cpu clock speed also does not drop from 4.8ghz regardless of what I am doing
The Windows power plan controls this. If you want your CPU to slow down when lightly loaded, switch from the Windows High Performance power plan to the Windows Balanced power plan. I would not bother.

It is OK to run an Intel CPU at full speed when it is lightly loaded. If you want to save power, all you have to do is make sure the low power C states are enabled in the BIOS. I prefer setting these to Enabled compared to Auto. With the Auto setting, you can never be sure if the C states will be enabled or not.

The low power C7 state disconnects CPUs from the internal clock and from the voltage rail. That means 99% of the time when idle, your 10 cores will be sitting at 0 MHz and 0 volts. The 4.8 GHz that monitoring software shows you is a meaningless number. It is wrong 99% of the time when idle because most of your cores are dormant.

If you are not interested in overclocking or maximum performance then I would set your CPU to run all cores at a steady 4.8 GHz. Keeping the CPU at a fixed frequency like this will allow you to reduce the voltage more. This saves power and should significantly reduce your core temperatures when loaded. If your CPU is still running too hot, reduce the PL1 power limit to 200W or however much heat your cooler can dissipate. You can also reduce the turbo time limit. This used to always be 28 seconds. I think Intel bumped this spec up to 56 seconds for better Cinebench results for reviewers.
 
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Solution

RubbingAlcohol

Honorable
Dec 26, 2016
4
0
10,510
Setting the turbo power limits to 4096W is a trick to get the CPU to ignore the turbo power limits. HWiNFO typically reports this as Unlimited. It is perfectly OK to do this. It will not turn your CPU into a 4096W inferno. The CPU only consumes as much power as it needs. The default Long Duration Power Limit (PL1) is only 125W. The Intel default for the Short Duration Power Limit (PL2) is 250W. You can set these values in the BIOS but setting PL1 that low will significantly reduce maximum full load performance.

GS51PG2.png


Intel puts the good 10 core CPUs in 10900K boxes. The CPUs that are not so good have their default turbo speeds reduced 100 MHz and the default voltage is increased so they can be guaranteed to run reliably long term. These unholy specimens go in 10850K boxes. All 10850K are likely to be high voltage processors. Luckily many of them can run 100% reliably with far less than default voltage. Here is an example.

Run a consistent test like Cinebench R20 or R23 and run HWiNFO to monitor your CPU Vcore voltage. At 4800 MHz, my 10850K is running Cinebench R23 reliably with 1.163V and the peak CPU core temperature is only 58°C.

prLOazl.png


What is your Vcore voltage when you run this test? Many 10850K are getting 1.30V to 1.35V or more during this test. That is the real reason so many people have trouble with 10850K CPUs running so hot. It is possible to run a negative offset voltage of between -50 mV and -100 mV. Less voltage equals less power consumption and lower temperatures.


The Windows power plan controls this. If you want your CPU to slow down when lightly loaded, switch from the Windows High Performance power plan to the Windows Balanced power plan. I would not bother.

It is OK to run an Intel CPU at full speed when it is lightly loaded. If you want to save power, all you have to do is make sure the low power C states are enabled in the BIOS. I prefer setting these to Enabled compared to Auto. With the Auto setting, you can never be sure if the C states will be enabled or not.

The low power C7 state disconnects CPUs from the internal clock and from the voltage rail. That means 99% of the time when idle, your 10 cores will be sitting at 0 MHz and 0 volts. The 4.8 GHz that monitoring software shows you is a meaningless number. It is wrong 99% of the time when idle because most of your cores are dormant.

If you are not interested in overclocking or maximum performance then I would set your CPU to run all cores at a steady 4.8 GHz. Keeping the CPU at a fixed frequency like this will allow you to reduce the voltage more. This saves power and should significantly reduce your core temperatures when loaded. If your CPU is still running too hot, reduce the PL1 power limit to 200W or however much heat your cooler can dissipate. You can also reduce the turbo time limit. This used to always be 28 seconds. I think Intel bumped this spec up to 56 seconds for better Cinebench results for reviewers.
Changing that has drastically reduced my temps, just to make sure I've done it right I've added a picture, Is it normal for my max vcore to be higher than what it is currently sitting at while running a stress test?
 
Changing that has drastically reduced my temps
I was very disappointed with my 10850K until I did some voltage tuning. Now I love it! This makes you wonder, what was Intel thinking? Reducing the voltage can knock almost 20°C off the temperature of these CPUs when they are fully loaded running Cinebench.

Many computers will be running at a reduced speed when they are sitting idle in the BIOS. Reduced speed means the voltage will also be reduced.

To determine voltage, boot up into Windows, run HWiNFO and run Cinebench so you can see what Vcore voltage your CPU is getting when it is fully loaded. Full load voltage is more important than BIOS voltage.

Edit - The 0.906V voltage that your CPU is using is the exact same that my CPU uses when it is running with turbo boost disabled. It is normal for motherboards to disable turbo boost when you are in the BIOS. It likely improves stability. My Asus board allows you to enable turbo boost when you are in the BIOS if you like. This can help speed up boot times a few milliseconds.
 
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