Uncooling the 10900K
Uncooling the 10900K
I just got the 10900k and Aorus Xtreme Z490 about a month ago, and things are running fine with stock settings. MCE is off, Hyperthreading is on, Vcore is set to AUTO at 1.2V, and I haven't changed anything yet. Temps under load come in around the right spot (68 to 74 degrees). But I really want to lower it a bit without hurting performance. I searched for Intel's official min voltage for this CPU but couldn't find it online. What would be a safe starting point if I just set a manual fixed Vcore before testing stability? Some guys use Adaptive too, so maybe that works here? Thanks a lot, and stay safe!
I need a little more info. What is your RAM and power supply make/model? Is the voltage limiter (LLC) on? If yes, what setting do you have it at? Do you have Intel Turbo Boost running? Do you have XMP enabled? (Let's start with these first). Also, before messing with anything, take some stats while your CPU is busy under load. While you run a 15+ minute RealBench stress test in the background, keep HWiNFO64 open and only show sensors. Then upload that log file somewhere we can see it. Great job asking this question first!
Hey there! I'm using a Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 750W power supply. My RAM is two sticks of Corsair Vengeance RGB pro at 16 gigabytes, running on 3200mhz (the XMP settings are active). For the CPU, I have Turbo Boost and Turbo Boost Max 3.0 turned on, while MCE is off. The CPU's voltage level is set to auto. Let me run some stress tests for a little bit first, then I'll post the results here: https://ufile.io/3j2xeo5s Prime95v26.6 Small FFT
I'm wondering why you should avoid touching anything with that CPU. The Comet Lake chip gets warm only when running at default settings because of Intel's power limits set for these processors. Also, the i9 has a special feature called Thermal Velocity Boost that kicks in automatically once the temperature hits 70C or below. Undervolting might actually make things worse if you leave everything on auto mode, meaning threads could boost less than they usually do. I think adjusting the voltage will need more hands-on work from me.
You shouldn't try to fix a computer that isn't broken. The 68-74C works fine under normal use, it's really stable. This little chip watches its temperature and turns down its speed or powers off if it gets too hot, which happens around 100 degrees Celsius. Using adaptive voltage helps too; if the processor has nothing to do, it lowers the power settings. Just focus on other things instead of worrying about this one.
Should I change over to adaptive mode and keep the power fixed at 1.2 volts that the BIOS gave me? What do you think of the LLC part?
The way you change things will depend on your computer's built-in software. Tweaking these things can cause problems later if you don't know what you're doing or have no experience. If you want to push the limits by overclocking, look at how people do it on a forum for your specific motherboard. The goal when adjusting speedstep and voltage is to lower the power levels and the numbers used when they aren't needed. If lowering voltage and reducing limits helps, keep doing that. If you are a hobbyist who likes messing around, read about experimenting. If you just want to use it normally, leave those settings alone for now.