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i7 5960X high idle temperature?!

Associate
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7 Feb 2017
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Hi,

I've recently upgraded my cooling system with a full water loop. I have two 480 radiators and I'm cooling my i7 5960x and two Asus GTX 980Ti DC3OC.

The GPUs (they are at parallel setup) are set at OC mode and run at 20 Celsius idle, 26 Celsius when playing DOTA (and similar games) and 40-42 when playing Witcher, City Skylines, Skyrim (and similar).

The CPU on the other hand runs at 30 Celsius idle at 1.2GHz-1.3GHz (the Asus AI suite plays between these two frequencies) and sky rockets to 50-55 Celsius. I've used the MX4 and the Hydronaut from EKWB. I doubt I didn't apply the thermal paste correctly twice.

Could you suggest any number of temperature monitoring software because I want to test the temperature numbers since I have a feeling the Asus AI suite isn't reading the temperature correct, and if the CPU IHS has a problem and can't transfer the heat I really doubt Intel will replace the CPU after 2 years.
 
Soldato
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I use HWMonitor, MSI afterburner and Open Hardware Monitor across various devices. Others use Realtemp, coretemp, HWinfo etc. They're all decent and show temps within a couple of degrees. CPU-Z is good for showing frequencies and voltages (though HWMonitor does the exact same). I never use motherboard software as experience has shown that they are almost entirely garbage.

When it rockets to 50-55C is that just random or is that due to some load on the CPU? Don't be surprised that CPU temps are higher than GPU temps in the same loop. GPUs are far more efficient and transferring their heat to the coolant than CPUs. My 1080 maxes at 50C but my 5820K can reach 75C on the same loop.
 
Associate
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22 Oct 2006
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Your temps seem OK to me. Some of it will depend on the ambient air temp.


I've got a 980 and a 5960 @4.5 on the same loop. running at 100% on all cores using Handbrake doing video encoding the CPU will run at high 50's low 60's. Mine is Idling at mid 20's

the loop has a 240 and a 360 rad

try HWiNFO for monitoring your temps
 
Associate
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3 Sep 2014
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30c idle isn't that unusual. You'll struggle to get water temps much lower than this unless your fans are running 100%, which is usually never the case when the CPU is idle. As long as your temps are good under load when the fans are up to speed then heat transfer from IHS to block and radiator to air are fine.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
7 Feb 2017
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7
[..]

When it rockets to 50-55C is that just random or is that due to some load on the CPU? Don't be surprised that CPU temps are higher than GPU temps in the same loop. GPUs are far more efficient and transferring their heat to the coolant than CPUs. My 1080 maxes at 50C but my 5820K can reach 75C on the same loop.
Yes, when it rises to 50C+ it's when is under load and reaches 3.5GHz stock before throttling down. I just don't think that it should be at 30C when idle at 1.2GHz
 
Associate
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My 5960x @ 4.5ghz 1.265v adaptive is in a loop with 2x 60mm 360 rads and a Titan X. My idle temps are around 27 degrees with a loop temp of around 25 degrees , max temp on any given core under Realbench or Aida stress tests is 73 degrees with a loop temp of around 35 degrees. Thermal paste is Thermal grizzly Kryonaut with the pea method of application.

For monitoring i use Hwinfo64.
 
Associate
OP
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7 Feb 2017
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7
Well, the AI suite wasn't reading the correct values for the temperature, it was reading the package. I've used HWinfo, HWMonitor and Open hardware. All report the CPU is idle at 21C and is maxing at 36C.
I was sitting on pins and needles because I was thinking I lost the CPU silicon lottery or the CPU IHS wasn't positioned correctly, because 30C idle was ok but under load when it was reading 55C I was anxious since the max temp for the 5960 is 60.8C

I guess I shouldn't have updated the OC panel's firmware because something changed.
 
Associate
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26 Jun 2015
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The Tcase temp is meaningless, you shouldn't be using this temp as a basis, and it does not represent a max nor a safe temp.
 
Associate
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Also, the specs Intel release are the STOCK specs, if your overclocking then those are irrelevant as your not using Intels stock vid table or power limits, its an unlocked cpu and has plenty of overclocking headroom but with that your going to have to increase voltage which in turn is going to increase temps outside of intels stock specifications.
 
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