Question Intel I7 10700 Thermal Throttling Possibly with Arctic Freezer 7X

BikemanI7

Member
Jan 18, 2021
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Hello All

Upgraded to this Cooler in May 2022 via Local shop, and wondering why its still thermal throttling on stock settings?

Should i have gone for a bigger cooler if shop had one in stock? unforuately they didn't, so had to go with this one, as i'm terrible at installing Coolers myself, (I tried before taking it there with Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 Cooler, failed miserably)

I didn't check PL1 or PL2 settings yet in UEFI bios though, but i can if i need to
Motherboard is Gigabyte B460M-DS3H

Knows i probably can't get Max CPU Processor speed, but at least 4.7 is good enough for most of my tasks, typically get around that now in most of my PC tasks
 
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In2Photos

Golden Member
Mar 21, 2007
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That cooler is not a great match for the 10700. A better cooler would eliminate any throttling. The shop should have told you that.
 

BikemanI7

Member
Jan 18, 2021
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Yeah well unforuately they didn't, at first i asked if they had any 240MM AIOs, and reply was well 240MM won't fit in your case with your Ram---Thermaltake V200 TG RGB Case

They then suggested 120MM AIO, i was like that doesn't sound like it will cool it that good, so i was like well do you have any Air Coolers that are compatible with LGA 1200. and he was like well we got Arctic Freezer 7x that will work

Guess sometime i'll have to see if Family will take me out to Micro Center that is 45 minutes to an hour away, and get the cooler upgraded one more time i suppose, though i know once i'm out there if do get out there, might just have them rebuild it in an entirely new case lol with better airflow, or maybe attempt this local shop again if can't get to Micro Center is my only other option
 

Steltek

Diamond Member
Mar 29, 2001
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If you want a relatively cheap air cooler as a replacement (and if it will fit your case), the Thermaltake Peerless Assassin 120 is a surprisingly good value.

While I have to say I don't care much for the mounting system (and, pretty much everybody who has reviewed it seems to agree with that), you can't really argue with the results you get for the cost. Surprisingly enough, it actually performs better than my far more expensive Noctua NH-D15 in a lot of regular use cases.
 

BikemanI7

Member
Jan 18, 2021
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Ok will check out that one, though not sure if shop would install it, but i can at least check into it, and go from there. As i couldn't even get a Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 installed myself, not sure i trust myself with another as yet lol
 

Asterox

Golden Member
May 15, 2012
1,026
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Hello All

Upgraded to this Cooler in May 2022 via Local shop, and wondering why its still thermal throttling on stock settings?

Should i have gone for a bigger cooler if shop had one in stock? unforuately they didn't, so had to go with this one, as i'm terrible at installing Coolers myself, (I tried before taking it there with Be Quiet Pure Rock 2 Cooler, failed miserably)

I didn't check PL1 or PL2 settings yet in UEFI bios though, but i can if i need to
Motherboard is Gigabyte B460M-DS3H

Knows i probably can't get Max CPU Processor speed, but at least 4.7 is good enough for most of my tasks, typically get around that now in most of my PC tasks

CPU cooler with only two heatpipes+9cm fan, it is not ideal for cooling "Intel 8/16 65W TDP CPU-s". I hope that the cooler is properly installed, and even more important whether the PC case has adequate or proper ventilation.

As you can see, it is quite enough to cool an stock 6/12 i7 8700K.
Quite expected, given that this Intel CPU is not a big power-guzzler.



I use the same CPU cooler, but with 65W CPU(R5 4650G) that under maximum load cant consume more than 80W.

In short, any good CPU cooler with four heatpipes+12cm fan is more then enough for your 65W 8/16 i7.

 
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BikemanI7

Member
Jan 18, 2021
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Ohhh Well i think they installed it properly as far as i know, i'm not a cooler expert installer or installing them is not my strong suit, i know a little on hardware, but not a whole bunch. Ventilation on this PC is 3 Front Intake fans on this case--(Thermaltake V200 TG RGB) and 1 Rear exhaust.

Top fan spots empty at this time.

PC Dusted every 2 months fully with my electric air duster

and yes i do loosen front cover and dust the front fans as best i can each time i do a dusting.
 

coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
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I didn't check PL1 or PL2 settings yet in UEFI bios though, but i can if i need to
Motherboard is Gigabyte B460M-DS3H

Knows i probably can't get Max CPU Processor speed, but at least 4.7 is good enough for most of my tasks, typically get around that now in most of my PC tasks
First of all, check your PL1 and PL2 settings. From memory the i7 8700 can pull ~120W when not power limited, and that's 6c/12t. The 10700 adds 2 more cores and slightly higher clocks, partially offset by lower voltage and better heat dissipation. With this in mind, I think you can still look at 150W if no power limit is set in place. I expect your MB to have some power limit put in place, but there's no sense in guessing when we can simply check.

The easy way to do a preliminary estimate is to use something like HWiNFO64 to check both power usage during testing and also possibly see a reading for PL1 and PL2 without having to go into UEFI. The info you're looking for is in the Sensor Status window, the section depicted bellow.

1679297148255.png

After you get an idea of how much power the CPU is using during the benchmark of your choice, how high temps are and also how fast the cooler fan is spinning (there's a reading in there as well), then we can discuss possible reasons for thermal throttling.
 

BikemanI7

Member
Jan 18, 2021
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Ok ran Hardware Info 64, doesn't work too well with Core Isolation and Intel 10th Gen Chips, so doesn't show exact CPU speed while running, of course i am willing to try with Hardware Info 64 if need be

Hardware info run with Cinebench as well

Hears later if all this is good, not an expect on PC cooling or settings that much lol, know a tiny bit of things on this type of stuff


Core Isolation i did turn on Manually after my clean Windows 11 Install in 2021.HWinfo Pic 1.pngHWinfo Pic 2.pngHWInfo Pic 3.png
 

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coercitiv

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2014
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Hardware info run with Cinebench as well
A few observations:
  • Based on the screenshots your CPU is configured for PL1=85W and PL2=225W. This means it's not running with an effective power limit, either for a short interval of 30-60 seconds as configured in BIOS, or indefinitely if the timer is infinite.
  • The CPU uses ~150W in Cinebench, and the cooler is working hard to keep up. Your temps go up around 80-85C, which is high but not a problem considering the workload.
  • One other temperature that should be noted is the VRM reading (the components that feed current tot the CPU). They hit 111C during this test. If this reading is accurate, that means they get too warm and this system shouldn't be used without a power limit for continuous heavy workloads. (like using it daily for rendering in Blender or some other similar application).
All things considered the cooler you have mounted is doing a good job, a better cooler would not help as you're already limited by the power delivery on your motherboard. You could use the system as is and you won't have problems in everyday workloads like office / browsing / games. If you feel like you want more thermal headroom for hotter summer days or the noise from the cooler fan is a bit loud, then you can enter BIOS and lower the PL2 setting to 100W. That's the only setting you need to touch.

You should be able to find this setting in the Tweaker tab, under Advanced CPU Settings / Turbo Power Limits / Package Power Limit TDP . If the options available in there are confusing, you can set both power limits to 100W. That would make the system work at PL1=PL2=100W, which is still a valid configuration.

1679425689985.png

Enjoy your system, the new cooler is adequate for your build.
 

BikemanI7

Member
Jan 18, 2021
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Yeah i don't do any rendering with Blender.

My Typical daily tasks are light use of Handbrake to Make a digital Copy of Home DVD movies at times (No commercial discs) old VHS Tapes of like Family videos, and such (probably once a month if that) PC Gaming, Music Listening, Youtube video watching.

As for Power Limits I've never touched the PL1 limit, always thought it was at 65 watts as that is the default, i did experiment in the past with Intel XTU tuning, but thought i set that back to defaults and uninstalled it many many months ago when i had Intel Stock LGA 1200 Cooler--temps got up to like even 97C while simply doing A Windows Defender Scan

Turbo Power limits shows Enabled in my UEFI bios, not sure if it should be showing that way or not. Previously i thought it was on Auto in the past, but maybe shop did set that when they installed this cooler, not for sure
 
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