Is the 4790k OC paired with a Noctua NH-D15S running too hot under these conditions?
Is the 4790k OC paired with a Noctua NH-D15S running too hot under these conditions?
Hi everyone,
Just a quick check on the temperatures.
I have a 4790k OC, 48x or 4.8Ghz with a 1.305 VCore. Running Prime95 26.6 small ffts and the CPU temp is spiking to 89°C. The other cores are between 79 and 87°C.
I own a Fractal Define Mini (mATX), with five fans arranged in bottom/front to top/back, including one 140mm PPC at the top and a Noctua DH15S on the CPU. The minimum idle was 26°C.
Is this considered high? I thought the 4.8Ghz voltage would be fine and my 4690k didn’t reach these temps at that voltage, so I expected cooler operation. Especially with five fans.
I’m experimenting with VRIN and Ring voltages now that I’ve found a stable Vcore to try lowering it slightly. I also re-applied the thermal paste, which improved things by about 3°C. Using Arctic Silver 5 should let me add another 2-5°C after a break. I might try again, but I’m getting tired of being too precise and finding it hard to get that perfect clean temperature just for a few more degrees.
In the worst case, we could see around 87°C during testing after a break. Gaming temps should stay much lower. I’m not overly focused on cooling; I just want realistic long-term stability for regular use. Most heavy workloads are gaming or video editing at 4K.
Feel free to share your thoughts, thanks!
Intel advises keeping CPU temperatures under 70 degrees Celsius. Running it too hot could harm your processor immediately. Lowering both the voltage and clock speed would be best.
intel's recommendations and the individual reality are 2 different things. And, their "TCase" recommendation is not the core temp. Throttling won't occur until around 100. All I'm wondering if this is average, i.e. how much headroom I have to improve my cooling. Just updating my knowledge on all this as I go, but less concerned about hitting high temps in Prime95, more concerned about what is realistic for this setup and how it will play out in real world scenario after torture/stability tests.
Just did a little test run of Heaven, didn't go above 60 Core. Prime95 is just stressing the CPU beyond normal function. So from the limited reading I have done in a few threads, if I can keep it below 90 for this torture tests, real world I should be far below this.
Mostly posting to find out if anyone has any numbers for similar setups etc
😉
In case someone encounters this discussion:
I managed to get the (Realtemp) readings down to 85 peak by lowering the Uncore/cache to 35, and setting the Ring to default 1.05. Vrin is at 1.85 currently, and Vcore is 1.301.
I’m satisfied with these settings for these reasons:
- The Intel TCase suggestion of 74 is a solid choice, and the core count measurement is 5° higher than TCase because of the chip layout. This gives us a theoretical safe level of 79.
- The temperature sensors have a +/- 5° margin, so even at 84 we’d still be near the safe threshold.
- Intel tends to stick to conservative recommendations, and with TJMax around 100 (throttling), the chip won’t shut down until another 20 degrees above that. Adding an extra 5–10° buffer makes sense.
- With Arctic Silver 5, there’s a 2–5 degree temperature drop possible after burn-up.
- Also, Prime95 isn’t a practical benchmark—it’s more of a "stress test" tool. It doesn’t reflect real-world stability for long runs (like 24-hour tests), unless you’re aiming for extreme stability and high clock speeds, which is probably not your case. I run Prime95 26.6 for about 20 minutes; if it crashes during other weaker tests or gaming, we’ll know we need to adjust and start over.
Overall, the setup feels a bit too hot for my Noctua fan configuration, so I’ll redo the paste and experiment with voltage a bit more.
Cheers
Sure, I'd try using the thermal compound, even though the pea method is common but often requires more peas or larger ones that are harder to handle.