Do I need to replace my i7 870?

[shortylickens]

Its been running fine for 5 years, never felt the need to toss it. Still using the same LGA 1156 motherboard too.

BUT, lately (last month or so) it seems to not be driving my games very well, especially anything CPU intensive.
Fallout 4 performance has dropped sharply, most noticeable in downtown areas with lots of junk all over the place.

Also getting benchmark scores much lower than systems with my exact same hardware. (3DMark among others.)

Hardware monitor tells me all 4 cores tend to idle at 60 degrees and max out at 99 degrees when I do anything like a stress test or run a game. Clock speed maxes out at 3ghz but with turbo boost enabled they should be able to get all the way to 3.6ghz.

Never get any heat errors from the motherboard, BUT, I did notice a slight increase in CPU benchmark scores after I opened the case and pointed a Vornado fan at it.

Do I need a new heatsink or do I need a new CPU?

 

[daveybrat]

Those temps are way too high. What heatsink are you using?

 

[shortylickens]

Those temps are way too high. What heatsink are you using?

Included OEM. But for many years it was not an issue. You think maybe it allowed the CPU to get a little too warm and perhaps its mildly damaged?

 

[StrangerGuy]

I definitely think something is broken, either the CPU or the HSF. You will wanna check the fan RPMs first, then check if the HSF is loose.

 

[shortylickens]

OK, I went and dug up an old heatsink and shoehorned the bastard into my case.

So while its running cool enough, the CPU refuses to turbo boost up to the expect 3600 mhz.
And CPU benchmarks did not improve at all.

I will need a new processor, but I know this one is not going to break any time soon.

 

[Bouowmx]

Intel Core i7-870 Turbo multipliers with 1, 2, 3, 4 active cores: 27 26 24 24.
Frequencies with 133.3 MHz base clock (MHz): 3599 3466 3199 3199.

I formerly used an 870 in a HP HPE-430f with its included cooler: processor did not use Turbo, either because of temperatures (> 50 C) or power limit (95 W).

 

[pantsaregood]

Just overclock it. Those Lynnfield units hit 3.8-4.2 GHz pretty easily. 22*183 would land you around 4 GHz.

 

[Denithor]

Temps look a lot better, I would hazard a guess that the thermal paste under the stock cooler was degraded/dried out/not working. Now that you have temps under control, yeah, overclock time.

 

[Bouowmx]

My data point on Intel Core i7-870 overclock: 178 MHz × 22 = 3916 MHz on Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H with normal voltage with load-line calibration (1.232 V).

 

[Yuriman]

CPU was thermally throttling before. If it isn't giving bluescreens, it isn't broken. They don't "fail slow", they start to crash.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Everybody else has pretty-much covered it, I guess.

I second or third the overclocking. Though I have no experience overclocking Lynnfield.

 

[shortylickens]

The highest I could go and still boot:

Pretty good for a non-enthusiast motherboard.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Gonna stress-test it too? Or is that with stress-testing?

 

[SPBHM]

the Intel coolers can accumulate a lot of dust after a few years and perform badly, probably what happened here?

also it looks like he is running an Intel board, I don't think P55 Intel boards allow overclocking?
3GHz Nehalem is less than ideal for the latest games, but it should still be OK most of the time.

 

[Denithor]

The P-series were all overclocking boards. No onboard graphics, had to use discrete card. IE, perfect for gaming use.

Not a bad OC there shorty, make sure it's stable and you should be gtg for a while longer!

 

[shortylickens]

actually, I went to Amazon and ordered a kaby lake & gaming MB both of which should arrive soon.
Along with a fancy new case I'm expecting things should be much faster from now on.

 

[shortylickens]

HOLY CRAP IT JUST ARRIVED!

But I think I'll wait for the new case before I do anything. Makes my job easier.

Oh, and its an ASUS ROG STRIX by the way. Perfect for an enthusiast.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

HOLY CRAP IT JUST ARRIVED!

But I think I'll wait for the new case before I do anything. Makes my job easier.

Oh, and its an ASUS ROG STRIX by the way. Perfect for an enthusiast.

Just went from a i7-860 @ 3.8ghz to a i7-7770k stock at the moment with an Asus Z270E Strix and I got an instant 40-50fps boost in Overwatch FWIW.

Wasn't a problem with a 60hz screen but now I got a 144hz monitor and it needed that extra CPU power to push it past 60 FPS.

 

[shortylickens]

OK, its time to shut down and assemble my new system. If for some reason I dont make it back, tell my mom I love her.

 

[shortylickens]

Finally got it all put together and installed Windows.

CPU seems quite fast. Will install some games later and benchmark. ASUS motherboard is awesome. Overall I like Kaby Lake.

 

[CHADBOGA]

Finally got it all put together and installed Windows.

CPU seems quite fast. Will install some games later and benchmark. ASUS motherboard is awesome. Overall I like Kaby Lake.

What cooling solution have you chosen to use?

 

[shortylickens]

What cooling solution have you chosen to use?

The massive beast. My over-sized thermaltake fan and heatsink. its keeping the CPU at 25 C during normal use.

 

[Jean-Sebastien Blais]

The massive beast. My over-sized thermaltake fan and heatsink. its keeping the CPU at 25 C during normal use.

normal use meaning idle ? its very hard to believe u get 25 celcius, even on idle, kaby lake 7700k is toasty

 

[shortylickens]

Desktop use.

Netflix and Youtube and xHamster.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

normal use meaning idle ? its very hard to believe u get 25 celcius, even on idle, kaby lake 7700k is toasty

Mine's like high 30s with a Megahalem.