Stock 6700K unstable temperatures.

So I recently upgraded my CPU/Mobo/Ram:

i7 6700K (Stock)
NH-D15 dual fan CPU cooler
Gigabyte Z170x Gaming 7
Trident Z 3200 Mhz 16 GB
G1 GTX 970


and I'm getting terrible temperature fluctuations. Here is a gif of a video I recorded and it's in real time with Overwatch Menu screen in the background. If you watch the core temperatures, they update every 2-3 seconds and jump from 30 > 50 > 40> 60.

I have already reseated the CPU cooler, as well as reapplying the thermal paste (It was perfect the first time as well). Is this a faulty chip? I switched from a FX8350 which has inaccurate readings but atleast it was stable and consistent. This just jumps around regardless if it's idling or under load.

Your voltage is going up and down like crazy, are you using power saving options ?

Kenrou said:

Your voltage is going up and down like crazy, are you using power saving options ?

Click to expand...

In windows all available options are set to "performance mode". As far as BIOS goes, only thing I changed was setting the XMP for my ram. I didn't touch the C1E and the C-States and what not so they're all on (or on auto). I noticed my vcore was going up to 1.3 as well which stock it should be 1.2.

Also HWInfo says my VID has gone up to 1.36, which I'm not too familiar with the 6700K yet but that seems like its way too much

Switch to manual voltage in BIOS and try around 1.05-1.10V @ 4.0 GHz and check your temps again:
Here's the voltage vs frequency curve I have for my 6700k:

Leegit said:

Switch to manual voltage in BIOS and try around 1.05-1.10V @ 4.0 GHz and check your temps again:
Here's the voltage vs frequency curve I have for my 6700k:

View attachment 182683

Click to expand...

Unfortunately I don't think that would work. I just tried 4.5 Ghz at 1.25v and my PC froze in like 1 min with Aida64. Currently trying 4.4 [email protected] and it's been around 5 min so no crash yet, temps are at 66. Problem is there is still quite a bit of fluctuation going on.

Use that more as a guide. 66C seems about right, I'm using a Kraken x61 AIO cooler in Push/Pull config which is a 280mm radiator. I used Prime 95 version 28.9 set to Small FFTs to generate that chart. Here's my temperature curve too:




I generally have things jump around 2-3C while I benchmark. I watched your video and it seems the temps are correlated with an increase in load on each core. Your going from 15% load to 30% load on some cores and that's is where the temp jumps are coming from... You need to use a program which is loading your CPU cores with a constant load otherwise that is normal behavior.

I've been testing 4.4 Ghz @ 1.23v for the last hour with Aida 64, max temp at 65. VID is jumping around 1.3-1.33 range but Vcore is basically staying at 1.164.

The issue is even with a consistent 100% load on all cores, my temperatures are still jumping from 61 > 50 > 60 > 45 >62 > 54. I'll try P95 after 2 hours of Aida64 to see if temps are more stable, but I just want to make sure I'm getting the correct temperatures reported, and having a +/- 10C-20C on the graph every few seconds is not really comforting.