Question Would this step up in CPU cooler really allow significantly better performance?

[mook33]

Hi all,

I've had a Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B for a number of years now on an intel 6700k. Initially it was in a mini-ITX case, hence the need for a low profile.
For a while now I've been in a tower case & in most usage the limiting factor I am hitting is my CPU in rendering a content creation.

I'm on an ASUS Z170-WS motherboard, and the overclock is decent (not at home so can't look at exact numbers), but I'm curious if any of you would know...
What would 'stepping up' to something like the Be Quiet! Dark Rock 4 (or a Pro...or something around that) really do for real-world performance boosts?

If it would be significant and justifies the money, then I can go that route. If there's not much to be gained though, then I'll stick with what I have.

Thank you!

 

[Obakasama]

Picking apart your post, what exactly is limiting your content renders? I ask this question because it might be a software limitation. You imply it's a heat related issue, so what are the CPU temperatures while rendering? If it's beyond spec temperatures I would suggest clearing the PC of dust and reinstalling the cooler with new thermal paste first to see if temperatures drop.

 

[CountMike]

It all depends on your OC level, voltage it needs for it and temps you are getting now. Coolers like that one have advantage of cooling surrounding areas too, mostly VRM which is a good thing. Don't forget that case cooling is also as important.

 

[mook33]

Thank you for the reply you two. At the moment I'm still out of the area but will be back soon and will give more specific information on voltages and temps.

I guess I'm curious if (generally) having a much bigger CPU cooler is likely to let me unlock some more performance...or if it really wouldn't really be worth the investment and setup.

Obviously getting you the data would help, so I'll try to do that soon -- but if there are any general overall likely outcomes, I'm happy to hear them!

Oh, and as far as case fans, I have a large 120mm in the front and (I think?) an 80mm in the back, and with the bottom-mounted PSU that has a fan on the top. My GPUS are NVIDIA reference coolers so they exhaust the heat out of the case. All the drives are SSDs so not too much heat off of those.

Thank you!

 

[Obakasama]

The ability for the CPU to reach higher clockspeeds would be beneficial (at least academically), though will depend on whether the software scales with it well and whether it makes a discernible difference to the work flow.

A better cooler would help somewhat with achieving lower running temperatures or dissipating heat quicker. The one issue with this is it assumes the CPU can be safely overclocked beyond what you currently have it running at. In this sense we're entering silicon lottery territory.

 

[mook33]

Hi all,

Finally am back at home and was able to take a look at my PC a bit. It was previously very modestly overclocking itself at 7% above it's base speed (of 4.01 ghz), at least according to the startup bios screen.

I ran the Asus utility in Windows 10 & let it do its restarts, and now it's sitting at (supposedly) a 15% overclock. The newer one is, I think, a dynamic overlock (?) with ghz speed adjusting based on thermal status (TPU 2 in the Asus 5-way setup).
Is this a recommended thing to do?

I'm not a seasoned OC person, so I've mostly been letting the ASUS mobo / software do the figuring-out of things, though the software does of course have a number of options.

The CPU fan spins up a lot more now, even doing fairly light CPU tasks, so I'm sure it's running a lot hotter.
Idling I'm running at about 44-55 C right now; don't know if that's considered good or bad.

When I ran Cinebench, CPU was at 100% for the render (of course) and it hit 98, 99, and 100 degrees C.

Thoughts? Is that running too hot, and is it likely throttling itself when hitting those temps?

And, of course, the initial question -- is installing a beefier cooler likely to give me more headway in getting faster performance out of this CPU, since I'm likely going to be hanging on to it for a good while? It sounds (from some replies) that it is hit-or-miss, though the noise I'm getting from the fan currently may itself be reason enough to revert back or upgrade in cooling solutions -- if it would help, that is.

Thank you!

John

 

[Obakasama]

The temperature sticky has a fair bit of info:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/intel-temperature-guide.1488337/

That idle temperature seems rather high, and load temperature seems uncomfortably high; these will depend somewhat on your ambient temperatures where you live. I would still start with getting rid of dust and reseating the cooler first, and confirming it cannot do its job; then it would be time consider the other cooling options.

 

[mook33]

The temperature sticky has a fair bit of info:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/intel-temperature-guide.1488337/

That idle temperature seems rather high, and load temperature seems uncomfortably high; these will depend somewhat on your ambient temperatures where you live. I would still start with getting rid of dust and reseating the cooler first, and confirming it cannot do its job; then it would be time consider the other cooling options.

Thank you for the info and guidance. I didn't read that entire guide, but I did read a good bit of it & have a generally better idea now.

I'll also get some compressed air and dust off the cooler soon, though I'm not sure if it's overly dusty.

You are right in regards to idle -- this room can get very hot (sun comes in room during day), and I'm guessing those idle temps were what the room was at.

I re-ran the OC tool with some different settings, and now I'm getting stressed performance at about 77-79 degrees. Again though...that's with this cooler ambient temperature in the room.
Regardless, I think re-running the tool helped a bit.

Performance is still above stock, but I'm not sure how much 'better' it would get with a better cooler. I guess I'd just have to buy it in order to find out, though I always wonder how much of a difference those make in real-world usage for people (if trying to eek out more performance).

Thank you everyone, and anymore advice is always appreciated!

 

[Obakasama]

Even ignoring the overclocking aspect, it does sound like you'd benefit from better cooling.

The Noctua in the following link reviewed well, but more importantly there are charts to show performances of other coolers too. You might find it helpful to choose a new cooler:

https://www.bit-tech.net/reviews/tech/cooling/noctua-nh-u12a-review/2/