Record temperatures reached at 14600k
Record temperatures reached at 14600k
You haven't discussed your situation or how you manage its fans. The top cooler in existence is useless if it can't provide cooling.
All the power used by a CPU turns into heat. That’s the rule. There’s no actual work being performed physically. You should judge efficiency by operations per joule. It makes sense to just glance at the motherboard and make sure fans are properly connected and there’s no obstruction blocking airflow.
Open air works well. Increasing performance with open air and thermal throttling seems unusual. It might be a design flaw from the beginning. If you resolve the cooling issue, the CPU should consume more power and generate more heat. Therefore, the undervolting route you were thinking of is a solid choice.
I double-checked the installation and realized I didn’t secure the cooler mounting correctly. After tightening it, the device ran a bit cooler initially, but then it returned to normal temperature. It was frustrating since I switched from a 13500 to a 14600K, yet my gaming performance stayed stable. I’m considering undervolting now but don’t know the exact settings or how much to adjust.
In my situation, cool air moves toward the cooler from the front while hot air exits the back of the case. For him, air passes through the cooler and stays there. I question if "kind of open bench" really matches a solid case (though I’m not sure). The way heat behaves and the Watts figure are intriguing. I think it’s unlikely 100% conversion to heat happens, but it’s hard to capture. You might manage to reduce CPU power in the BIOS. Edited January 15, 2024 by leclod
Limiting the output might significantly impact your results, while undervolting could offer a more balanced approach.
It might be that your thermal throttling returns to the 13500 range or that your GPU is reaching its maximum FPS. Check your case airflow, thermal paste quality, fan settings, and whether a pass-through cooler is directing hot air into the CPU cooler path. Also, consider the room temperature. You’re likely experiencing better performance without lowering your clock speed—just reducing the operating voltage, which keeps the same output.
Undervolting reduces power consumption at specific frequencies while boosting efficiency by avoiding thermal throttling. It enables higher turbo speeds without exceeding the silicon's limits, allowing performance gains beyond simple power caps. Compared to fixed power limits, it offers more flexibility and real-world improvements of only a few hundred MHz. These settings are so efficient they won’t cause noticeable lag in current games.
it’s likely the GPU is restricting my FPS, since I’m using an RX 6700 XT and not an i9. The cooling isn’t terrible but still decent. I’ve applied plenty of thermal paste and made sure it spreads well; it seems to be working. I don’t have any fan curves, so I’m unsure if it’s a pass-through unit. Either way, the GPU stays cooler than the CPU, except for the second CPU fan which I couldn’t mount due to orientation. I don’t have a precise reading of the room temperature.