[SOLVED] i9 with AIO going up to 100°C in Cinebench

[dennynulled]

Hello,

When testing my build in Cinebench I am getting near 100°C temps. My idle temps are 30-40°C.

• I am using i9 12900k and Corsair Elite Capelix 360mm AIO.
• I am using right standoffs - LGA 1700 Retrofit kit and I did mount it correctly.
• I tried reapplying paste (Arctic MX-5) and remounting AIO like 4 times already. Every time the paste spread out evenly (as far as I know, I will attach pictures) and I think that AIO had nice contact with CPU.
• I did not boost/OC my CPU, it is using default specs.
• I am using 4000D Airflow case with this fan setup: 3 intake fans on the front with radiator, 2 exhaust fans on top and 1 exhaust fan at the back.
• All my fans are 120mm Corsair fans.
• I tried running my pump and fans speeds at 'Extreme' and 'Balance' settings in iCUE. When running 'Extreme' my temps stay at around 91°C, but when running 'Balance' settings it goes near 100°C.
• Power plan on Windows is Balanced and I am using Windows 11 OS.

Here is video of me using Cinebench:

View: https://youtu.be/59ZVXjOKMuk

Here is video of me using Cinebench with pump and fans using 'Extreme' settings:

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

Images of my thermal paste spread:

 

[Phaaze88]

Normal for that cpu, if you do nothing to it. Some reviewers brought this up, as well as those who purchased one and soon after complained about thermals in non-gaming applications.
That cpu needs to be manually tuned if you want it in your comfort zone. Probably the easiest step you can do is to turn down Maximum Turbo Power - and Processor Base Power* - until you reach a temperature range you are more comfortable with.
[On some boards, MTP and PBP are the same, instead of PBP being lower than MTP.]

I did not boost/OC my CPU, it is using default specs.

Varies between boards, since Intel doesn't really tell board vendors what they should/shouldn't do with their cpus.

 

[KyaraM]

That's completely normal for that CPU, it really stresses even the best coolers in benchmarks.however, normal =/= good. Though remember, it will be running cooler most of the time since that is an unusually intense workload. What you can do is undervolt it. Less voltage means less power consumption means lower temperatures. Get Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and try lowering the offset a bit. For my i7-12700k, what I have seen on YouTube was someone setting the voltage to 1.290V and then the offset down to -0.120V. Drastically reduced temps in Cinebench and increased performance due to no throttling anymore. I undervolted to save some watts on both CPU and GPU. You can also lock the CPU to run inside the specified parameters, instead of without any limits which is the default on most boards. XTU lets you test different power limits, too, btw. And in games the CPU will draw less power, as well, so limiting it to PL2 should help a lot while not impacting gaming performance (and other programs onlu a little). My 12700k gets to around 65W tops and stays well below the PL2 of 190W or even PL1 of 125W. Due to the undervolt, it only draws about 165W even in Cinebench when unlimited they often go to 220W+.

It works the same with any CPU, but you will have to test for yourself what your chip can do. Maybe go to YouTube and look up some videos, just understand that every chip is different and your might be undervolting better or worse than another's, just like with OC. It's a whole lot of testing normally, but worth it imho. When you found stable settings, go to BIOS and use the same parameters there, done.

And before you ask. No. It won't fry anything. Especially not in XTU. Worst that happens is the system crashing and restarting with the last stable settings, usually default. Then you can go to the last undervolt rhat worked and stay there.