7700k bad chip?

specs
z170 gaming k6
7700k
h115i
r9 390
16g 2400 ddr4
evga 750w b2


Hi, I recently upgraded from a 6600k to a 7700k(yes, bios is updated) and this is actually the 2nd 7700k I've tried. The first needed to be undervolted just to keep temps in check stock, so I exchanged it. This second chip runs a bit cooler, but still hot so I upgraded my cooling to a h115i. Thing is max temps are still high. Idle is fine between 25-30c but under load while in the 60-70s most of the time, temps will randomly spike into the 80s, or even 90s if I try to oc and run occt.

And speaking of overclocking, I can run realbench and xtu for hours stable at 4.9ghz and around 1.30v with realbench maxing at 88c. I tried for 5ghz but couldn't get it stable going up to 1.36v and temps where already in the 90s running realbench. So, I figured I'd settle for 4.8, which is also stable for hours running realbench and xtu at 1.28v and a max temp of 84c which I can live with. Problem is these setting fail instantly when trying to run occt. Occt fails after 5 minutes of 4.8ghz at 1.33v in bios with temps hitting the 90s, including cputin. The best stable oc I can get running occt is 4.7ghz at 1.28v. Anything more fails, even with huge voltage bumps.

Is cputin supposed to match the hottest core? Also shouldn't a h115i keep this chip cooler than this? And lastly I read that every 7700k should be able to hit 4.8ghz around 1.3 volts, yet I'm unstable at anything past 4.7. Is there something wrong with my chip that temps are so high and there's so little overclocking potential? I know you have to play the silicon lottery, but this is ridiculous. It's particularly the random spikes going from 60-70s the vast majority of the times suddenly into high 80s or 90s that are concerning. Also at times the coolest core can be 20+ degrees cooler than the hottest. And the cooler is definitely seated properly and functioning as the chip displayed the same behavior with both coolers and idle temps are low and steady while water temp slowly increases under load suggesting the water block is seated and the pump functioning. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

There is nothing wrong with your chip in all likelihood. The simple fact is the 7700K is a hot S.O.B. @ 91W. I too have seen large discrepancies in temps from core to core under single stage cooling in the very limited testing I have done. I plan on hooking up the rig tonight and will share my findings with you when I do. That being said in my limited experience the h115i is not up to the task of 5GHz with that chip.

thanks

De-lid it.

not something i want to do.

It's the only cure for your temp problem.

Mr.Scott said:

It's the only cure for your temp problem.

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you shouldnt have to delid a cpu to get reasonable temps at stock. intel really screwed up with the tim it seems, considering some chips have just fine thermals whereas others are crap. looks like im going to have to try and exchange for a third chip.

What temps are you seeing at stock settings and what voltage is the mobo pushing at stock settings?

Lochekey said:

What temps are you seeing at stock settings and what voltage is the mobo pushing at stock settings?

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80s under load at just 1.25v. which not only leaves little room for ocing, and silicon lottery or not you pay a premium for unlocked chips, its pretty much the same temps as when i had an cryorig h7 cooling it. the issue is the random spikes in temp, which leads me to believe they are due to poor tim/application by intel, negating the improved cooling potential of the h115i.

I would urge you to be a bit patient and wait for more input from experienced overclockers who have been dealing with this chip since it's release. I say this b/c from what I can glean your going to have the same issues with the 3rd chip I'm afraid. I have a budget AIO cooler I can hook up to my 7700K and share the results with you. I will try and do it tonight ( I have some AGP cards I need to bench first) tomorrow at the latest. Again patience. I know it's hard when you shell out a bunch of cash for a "premium" chip.

OptyTrooper said:

I would urge you to be a bit patient and wait for more input from experienced overclockers who have been dealing with this chip since it's release. I say this b/c from what I can glean your going to have the same issues with the 3rd chip I'm afraid. I have a budget AIO cooler I can hook up to my 7700K and share the results with you. I will try and do it tonight ( I have some AGP cards I need to bench first) tomorrow at the latest. Again patience. I know it's hard when you shell out a bunch of cash for a "premium" chip.

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yeah, it just sucks seeing people hit 5ghz at low voltage and temps under 80 whereas i cant even run stable at anything past 4.7 and have ridiculous temps stock let alone OCed, after upgrading to a 150 dollar cooler to boot.

anyway, i appreciate you running some tests and sharing the results. thanks again.

I repeat what others have said, "Delid it." Unless that is you want to continue buying and selling chips until you get a cooler running one. A recent forum new member delided his 7700k and got a full 25c reduction in temps. That's more than most but illustrative. What you are experiencing is apparently very common with Kaby Lake. It seems to be worse than it was with Ivy Bridge.

You also need to make sure your cooling system is working as it should.

This is a link to OCN they have all kinds of bad overclocking with i7 7700k not de-lided. LINK: http://www.overclock.net/t/1621347/kaby-lake-overclocking-guide-with-statistics

Are you having problems at stock default BIOS settings? If your are not, I wouldn't RMA.

like i said delidding isnt an option, not only on general principle in that it shouldnt be necessary, but my luck id ruin the chip somehow and i cant take that risk.

as for having problems with default settings... temps are ridiculously high when under heavy load and the thing cant oc for crap. silicon lottery or not, if i was going to settle for that why go K series? or hell i at least could have just gone for a 6700k and saved 20 bucks. with my cooler theres really no reason i shouldnt be able to get decent temps with a solid oc, let alone stock. and the cooler is functioning, idle temps are low and steady meaning the block is seated just fine and under load the water temp rises slowly meaning the pump is working properly as well. the chip behaved the same with the previous air cooler.

mrobscura said:

like i said delidding isnt an option, not only on general principle in that it shouldnt be necessary, but my luck id ruin the chip somehow and i cant take that risk.

as for having problems with default settings... temps are ridiculously high when under heavy load and the thing cant oc for crap. silicon lottery or not, if i was going to settle for that why go K series? or hell i at least could have just gone for a 6700k and saved 20 bucks. with my cooler theres really no reason i shouldnt be able to get decent temps with a solid oc, let alone stock. and the cooler is functioning, idle temps are low and steady meaning the block is seated just fine and under load the water temp rises slowly meaning the pump is working properly as well. the chip behaved the same with the previous air cooler.

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Your not paying for the k, it is the clock speed that costs with the i7 7700k. The i7 7700 has a base clock of 3.60 GHz Turbo boost with one core to 4.2GHz. The i7 7700k has a base clock of 4.2GHz Turbo Boost one core to 4.5GHz.

If the i7 7700k runs to hot it will throttle to 4.2GHz base clock, that is what you paid for, so stop complaining and sell the processor then get a slower i7 7700 that runs at 3.60 base speed that your cooling can handle.

mrobscura said:

like i said delidding isnt an option, not only on general principle in that it shouldnt be necessary, but my luck id ruin the chip somehow and i cant take that risk.

as for having problems with default settings... temps are ridiculously high when under heavy load and the thing cant oc for crap. silicon lottery or not, if i was going to settle for that why go K series? or hell i at least could have just gone for a 6700k and saved 20 bucks. with my cooler theres really no reason i shouldnt be able to get decent temps with a solid oc, let alone stock. and the cooler is functioning, idle temps are low and steady meaning the block is seated just fine and under load the water temp rises slowly meaning the pump is working properly as well. the chip behaved the same with the previous air cooler.

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I dont think you are understanding what everyone is saying. The chip, at stock clock / stock voltage is running within Intel's specified safe temperature zones. There is absolutely nothing wrong with your chip (like has been said here a few times). If you want to overclock, it needs to be delidded. Or, you can run at 4.9 like you stated, at whatever voltage it takes (assuming under 1.4 volts and the heat is in the 80*c range). Otherwise, delid and watch your temps drop. I currently run 5.1 ghz at 1.392 volts 24/7 with a delidded 7700k, and have zero heat issues. Under bench the chip never see's 70*c. Ever. That was with a Swiftech 320X2 AIO and my new custom loop.

As Trents mentioned, I was one of the new guys that saw a drastic temp drop with a delid. Mine was between 20-25*c drop while under 100% load depending on the bench.

i think you misunderstood. 4.9 only passes realbench while pushing temps way to high and the chip isnt stable in occt past 4.7 regardless of voltage and again temps are ridiculous. "delid" isnt a valid approach as far as im concerned considering it simply shouldnt be necessary. especially to get decent temps stock, let alone a mild OC. theres no reason for a stock chip to approach 90c stock clock/volts... with an h115i no less.

and if you dont think youre paying a premium for the unlocked feature of k chips youre fooling yourself.

mrobscura said:

i think you misunderstood. 4.9 only passes realbench while pushing temps way to high and the chip isnt stable in occt past 4.7 regardless of voltage and again temps are ridiculous. "delid" isnt a valid approach as far as im concerned considering it simply shouldnt be necessary. especially to get decent temps stock, let alone a mild OC. theres no reason for a stock chip to approach 90c stock clock/volts... with an h115i no less.

and if you dont think youre paying a premium for the unlocked feature of k chips youre fooling yourself.

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Did you happen to read what was posted above by wingman? You are paying a premium for binning... Its ALREADY running at a much higher clock than a non-k chip. You are paying for binning, not for overclock-ability. Your chip is fine. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. And its running within Intel's specifications for the chip at what they design it to run at.

- - - Updated - - -

https://ark.intel.com/compare/97129,97128

mrobscura said:

you shouldnt have to delid a cpu to get reasonable temps at stock. intel really screwed up with the tim it seems, considering some chips have just fine thermals whereas others are crap. looks like im going to have to try and exchange for a third chip.

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I'm not sure where is problem at stock and what is really stock ? 7700K comes without a cooler so for sure there is no stock cooling. If you want to overclock it then you have to buy a good cooler. Even if you want to keep it at default settings then you need good cooler. In default CPU specs there are power saving options which are lowering CPU heat. You don't have to delid it to make it run overclocked but no one is guaranteeing how high CPU can be overclocked.
Something as small as Cryorig C7 can handle 7700K at stock under full load. At default settings you can see up to about 1.25V what is enough to set 4.7-4.8GHz on most 7700K. There are not many processors which can make it.
If someone says that 7700K runs at 5GHz+ below 80°C without delidding then is clearly testing it wrong. My 7700K can make 5GHz ~1.3V and is stable at these settings but still hits ~90°C+ max on pretty good custom water cooling.
What people say on the forums is not always true. Actually it's barely ever full truth.

Again, Intel is not guaranteeing anything but declared frequency so 4.2-4.5GHz. Intel never said what cooler is recommended for 7700K and is not adding coolers to 7700K. Simply you can't say that Intel made bad product when it works 100% like they specified.
No one said that CPU should run at 30, 50, 70°C or any other temperature. Depends on architecture some processors run at higher and some at lower temperature. It doesn't change anything. The only difference is what numbers you see. If CPU is specified to run up to 95°C then anything below 95°C is good. Maybe it doesn't look good for CPU it doesn't change much.

mrobscura said:

i think you misunderstood. 4.9 only passes realbench while pushing temps way to high and the chip isnt stable in occt past 4.7 regardless of voltage and again temps are ridiculous. "delid" isnt a valid approach as far as im concerned considering it simply shouldnt be necessary. especially to get decent temps stock, let alone a mild OC. theres no reason for a stock chip to approach 90c stock clock/volts... with an h115i no less.

and if you dont think youre paying a premium for the unlocked feature of k chips youre fooling yourself.

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Here is a OP just happy to see the i7 7700k run at 4.4GHz, when before it was running at 4.2GHz sometimes running Handbrake.

When I run 4 instances of Handbrake the i7-7700K uses all 8 threads at 100% for hours and runs at 4.4 GHz (out of the 4.0 GHz stock speed and 4.5 GHz max speed). I don't OC, this is just stock on a H170 board.
I noticed when I had a 92 mm cooler it would drop down to 4.2 GHz every once a while. So I bought the 120 mm cooler and it stays at 4.4 GHz at around 70°C.
So yes, you get almost all of the turboboost. HWMonitor tells me it uses about 89W when doing so.
I don't have single-threaded application, so not sure if a single core really goes to 4.5 GHz. Even one instance of Handbrake lets it go to 4.4 GHz (except only shows 60% load on all 8 threads). https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/i7-7700k-and-i5-7600k-turbo-boost-cores-active-ratio.2498708/

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