Spicy Hot 9700k?

[SPL Tech]

A new BIOS came out for my mobo. It says something to the extent of 'improved CPU voltage and power regulation' whatever that means. Anyway, I flashed it and now I was able to lower the vcore from 1.39v to 1.305v and it's stable. However, I am not exactly sure it's doing what you'd think becasue the power usage to the CPU is still the same under load as is the heat produced. So I was able to get the vcore way down, but under load the CPU still uses about 215W according to CPU-Z and it gets crazy hot--like 95C. At 1.32v it basically hits 100C and the mobo throttles some of the cores. Here is the thing though. I have a large watercooling system and I use Thermal Grizzly TIM which is the best on the market. So I have a solid cooling system so I am not sure how I could possibly cool the cores any more.

If I try to hit 5.0 GHz. and up the voltage to 1.33, like 4 of the cores hit 100C and then thermal throttling takes place. So why the hell is it getting so damn hot? I also find it really weird that after this flash I was able to drop the voltage almost a full 0.1v, but the power usage and temp under load dident change... They for sure changed the way the power system on the mobo works because before I needed 1.39v to stay stable and now I am fine at 1.305. However, dropping the voltage had no effect on power consumption and heat. If I try to use the exact same settings as pre-BIOS flash, that is 1.39v, the CPU spikes to 100C the second I start the benchmark and the mobo cuts the power to the CPU. So 1.39v on this version of the BIOS very much is not the same as 1.39 on the last version.

Edit: I think what the new BIOS version did was it just changed how the labels in the BIOS screen look. As in 1.39v as reported in the BIOS was actually 1.31v in CPU-Z in the old version, and now 1.31 in the BIOS is 1.31 in CPU-Z. Still, why so hot? Maybe I need a delid...

 

[bigtallanddopey]

What were your temps before the bios update? We’re they the same?

 

[SPL Tech]

What were your temps before the bios update? We’re they the same?

The same. They have always been spicy hot. Benchmark is about 95C. Gaming is in the 70s.

 

[Zerileous]

Sounds like the BIOS change had more to do with power reporting than with power usage. Makes sense because you can't just suddenly get the same performance from less power by changing BIOS. But motherboards are notoriously inaccurate in how they report voltage. The changes might even do something with the boost algorithm to improve performance at stock, but not impact a set OC.

Since your CPU has a soldered IHS, this shouldn't be an issue, but if you see a large difference between cores I always suspect the interface between the CPU and the IHS. I would also suggest opening up your CPU block and checking it out the next time you do loop maintenance. As the most restrictive element in most loops, the pressure plate can become occluded by a rather small amount of gunk.

EDIT: another thought, are you sure LLC settings didn't change when you flashed the BIOS?

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

In my experience, motherboards seem more likely to report a wrong 3.3V reading. Not quite as likely to report the Vcore wrong, albeit very plausible.