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What temps under load should I get for i7 920?

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mas5acre

Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Basically what temp is too high for an i7 920 D0, and what should I try to run it under when overclocking?
 
Don't go over 99C, but keep it under 70C (Load) just in case. Most people will see instability after 70C (Load) anyway when overclocking from what I see.
 
90c is my warning barrier. I wont let prime run for more than a few minutes if I'm getting that hot. I like to keep it under 85c though, that is my comfort zone. 70-77c @ 4Ghz is a good temp range to work with. These temps are for 100% load btw, using prime, or occt, or linx or whathave you.
 
Keeping an i7 under 70*C is a feat for air cooling at over 4GHz, or just a really low ambient. Considering the stock cooler at stock speeds can easily see over 70*C load, I have never heard of those temps causing instability.

I try to keep mine under 85*C under the most stressful stability tests, but the i7 will run safely into the 90s.
 
Unless you run DC, don't focus so much on your 100% load temperatures. If it's Prime stable and running 95C... so be it. You're not likely to ever see that in everyday use (Unless you run DC) If you can Prime at anything less than 100C, i'd say your good.
 
I usually use handbrake @ high priority w/ 8 cores (HT enabled) for stress tests as its highly cpu dependent and forces high load, plus if the clocks work, I'm actually got a video encode. I'm hitting 4ghz with turbo enabled for the extra 21x mutiplier. (91bclk x21) I'm running 21 idle 55 (max, usually like 53) load
@1.30000v vcore and a cpu pll of 1.4 & qpi of 1.1, Everything else other than memory settings on auto with vdrop off. Speedstep off. Any suggestions? How are my numbers? Believe it or not handbrake is great for stress testing IMHO and its an everyday use program. If unstable, handbrake will crash it quick!


EDIT just ran linX, stable, max temp 61C first run 64 on the 2nd run right after first.

Basically I test like this Windows experience Index Assesment, if it doesn't crash ------>Handbrake-----------> LinX
------------------------------------(pass=semi-stable)-------------------------(pass=probably stable)----(nowpassing=stable)
If it passes all three and only if it passes all three is it stable. WEI assesment is a bad stability test but if run first out of the three, even it will crash bad settings and it doesn't take long and it is a pretty simple stress. I think of it kind of like putting me in the ballpark of the right numbers if it passes assesment. Kinda like I'm on the right track, where handbrake and LinX will just crash quick giving you no idea if your within a close range of settings of a stable clock.
 
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I want to see load temps of 61 at 1.3v on an I7. You must have a helluva watercooling setup because after one pass of Linx my hottest core hits 63 with 1.23v. Your temps seem about 10f off.
 
Your QPI voltage should really be bumped up a bit. You're getting close to flirting with a disaster. You should never be more than .55V from your DRAM voltage, you're at .55V now, as long as your DRAM voltage is set manually to 1.65V, you are right on the edge. Coming from benching Guru's, stepping out of this safety zone, can easily make a coaster of your 920.

This may be why you're experiencing low temps, as increasing the QPI voltage will bring up the temperatures, just like the vCore will. I would take it to 1.2V, just for good measure. Do you have your Uncore set to auto, or set manually. It also looks like you've dropped the CPU PLL down below the factory 1.8V.
 
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I would guess depending on what you do, 80C for maximum load in Linx/P95. Day to day tasks will let it load at 50-70C then which is fine, unless you load the chip 100% for extended periods of time, that would make me feel uncomfortable.
 
Unless you run DC, don't focus so much on your 100% load temperatures. If it's Prime stable and running 95C... so be it. You're not likely to ever see that in everyday use (Unless you run DC) If you can Prime at anything less than 100C, i'd say your good.

+1 :)
 
Your QPI voltage should really be bumped up a bit. You're getting close to flirting with a disaster. You should never be more than .55V from your DRAM voltage, you're at .55V now, as long as your DRAM voltage is set manually to 1.65V, you are right on the edge. Coming from benching Guru's, stepping out of this safety zone, can easily make a coaster of your 920.

This may be why you're experiencing low temps, as increasing the QPI voltage will bring up the temperatures, just like the vCore will. I would take it to 1.2V, just for good measure. Do you have your Uncore set to auto, or set manually. It also looks like you've dropped the CPU PLL down below the factory 1.8V.


Fixing thanx, read cpu pll at 1.4 is good enough for almost any bclk and 1.8 is overkill. Uncore is at auto. Hey thanks guys, alot of factors to be considered, and kinda confused, I keep crashing at 200blck, would prefer this or higher.

One thing though.........CPU VTT Voltage(aka QPI/DRAM Core) I think is what I should be raising, but there is also QPI pll vcore. Specs I guess should be listed:



i7 920 D0
EVGA X58 LE mobo
TRUE Copper w/ 2 high speed yate loons on it
Silverstone TJ09 case with 7fans (6 high speed yates)
enermax 85+ 1050w psu
XFX 9800gt Eco edition passively cooled by a copper thermalright v2 (soon to be physx card when gtx300 launches)
Xonar Essence STX soundcard
Windows 7 RC
SUPER TALENT UltraDrive ME 64gb x2 in raid 0 (3 maybe soon) (great bang per buck especially in raid)
2x 1.5tb samsung hdds
 
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Keeping an i7 under 70*C is a feat for air cooling at over 4GHz, or just a really low ambient. Considering the stock cooler at stock speeds can easily see over 70*C load, I have never heard of those temps causing instability.

I try to keep mine under 85*C under the most stressful stability tests, but the i7 will run safely into the 90s.

+1
 
My i7 runs just under 80C using prime95 @ 4Ghz. That's perfectly fine considering anything else I use, the chip hardly gets above 55C
 
Fixing thanx, read cpu pll at 1.4 is good enough for almost any bclk and 1.8 is overkill

Every chip is different, but I would hardly call spec intel voltage overkill lol. There is a reason they want 1.8v through the pll, I would think running it at 1.4v could cause stability issues right there, especially at 200 bclk.
 
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