[SOLVED] Whats the Difference Between Core Temps and Package temp ?

[HealGea]

Hi!

I have Acer Nitro 5 with i7 8750. I have been having thermal issues with CPU and GPU. GPU was hovering between 85-90 while gaming, CPU was 95+. So I cleaned it and repasted. After doing that I have only seen 76 degree at %100 usage which is pretty normal as weather is quite hot right now in where I live. But unfortunately CPU wasn't affected much and it is still 85-95 (rarely spikes to 95+) while gaming/doing CPU intensive stuff. I have been limiting TDP from 45 to 24 but it hits performance hard so I have been looking for another solution. After fiddling around hours I noticed that even though my temperature is 95 for example according to MSI Afterburner, the Core temperatures are much lower than that. So I tested little bit captured took screenshots.

Here is a few screenshot: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gbqMs1OroxIAws4_zvSX3lJtEcbBIFPY?usp=sharing (I checked other softwares too, they show same)

So my questions are:

Q1: Whats the difference between Core temperatures and Package temperature ?

Q2: I have been worried about high CPU temperatures, In the screenshots it can clearly be seen that only Core 3 and Core 4 (I suppose they stand for physical core 2) are high ones and others are pretty normal (at least I am fine with these temps). And I observed that core 3 and core 4 are usually the cores/threads that very hot. So now that I know only these cores are hot and others are fine, should I worry about my CPU temperature ?

Q3: Why only core 2 and core 3 usually the only ones that are hot and others normal ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Eximo]

Core temperatures are sensors on the physical cores. Package temperature is a sensor located elsewhere, likely somewhere in the substrate. Just a general temperature sensor, core temps are much more important.

Laptop processors get warm. You've already taken the best step in re-pasting.

Those warmer cores might be the preferred ones for high frequency, or the cooler is a little uneven, or unevenly designed. Checking the cooler surface for flatness might be worth a look, but then you would still have to be willing to sand it to make it flatter. Not so easy with laptop coolers.

As long as the CPU isn't thermally throttling, ie lowering core clocks below base frequencies, then it is fine. Just giving you the best performance it can under the conditions.

 

[HealGea]

Core temperatures are sensors on the physical cores. Package temperature is a sensor located elsewhere, likely somewhere in the substrate. Just a general temperature sensor, core temps are much more important.

Laptop processors get warm. You've already taken the best step in re-pasting.

Those warmer cores might be the preferred ones for high frequency, or the cooler is a little uneven, or unevenly designed. Checking the cooler surface for flatness might be worth a look, but then you would still have to be willing to sand it to make it flatter. Not so easy with laptop coolers.

As long as the CPU isn't thermally throttling, ie lowering core clocks below base frequencies, then it is fine. Just giving you the best performance it can under the conditions.

I have an laptop cooler, it helps a lot and I dont think it is the reason as I test it without cooler. Results are basically same with added a few degrees for low cores So, as core temperature are more important for CPU, I shouldnt have any problem with high package temperature and one or two core being hot while others low right ? by the way I am not facing any thermal throttle with this temps.

 

[Eximo]

I have one warm core on my desktop CPU. Not been a big deal, and I am overclocking the crap out of it.

Each chip has the core's capabilities mapped onto it. Your warm cores might actually be the ones that run more efficiently, so they get the majority of the work. IE higher clock speeds at a given voltage.

You could try and resolve it by taking a good look at how the paste spread out, but not many options with a laptop cooler as I said. Basically only that one will fit.

I've seen mods where people add little heatsinks, but I think that might actually interfere with heatpipe layouts. Getting a tighter/flatter fit of the heatsink to the CPU die is about as good as it gets. But since it is direct die, there is much more risk in breaking the CPU by overtightening.

 

[HealGea]

Very thanks for reply. In conclusion I dont need to worry about package temp. I will keep my eye on core temps for a while. As long as I dont face any rise in other core's temp or thermal throttle, I wont limit tdp or clock speed as one or two hot core wont damage my cpu.


Update: I checked the usage percentages for each core and core 3 and 4 always high while others are are more evenly share the workload, as you said it they are hot because they are used more.