7950X + NH-U12A Thermal Throttling?

nintenjo

nintenjo

nintenjo

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When using my PC for sustained rendering work which i do a lot of work work, ive seen my CPU core temps reach 96c and it thermal throttles (about 5-10 mins of load).. (Dosnt happen in games etc). Be aware that my rendering will max all cores for sustained periods of time (2-12 hours) so needs to be something that can keep up as much as possible. My current setup is:
  • FD Torrent compact
  • NH-U12A chromax.black
  • 7950X (at stock speeds)
  • MSI 4090
Id rather not change my case, but i wondered if there is much point in swapping to an alternative cooler? I'm going to struggle to fit an AIO in this case due to the 5mm gap from the front intake fans and the 4090.. But i could try an alternative CPU cooler such as the NH-D15.. but would the slight increase in cooler size help that much? My existing NH-U12A is rated to be compatible with the 7950X .. but i havn't tried reseating it yet, so wanted some opinions first?
 
Pull the side panel off the case and test if temps improve it looks like airflow threw your case may need adjusting. If not a bigger heatsink should help but not guaranteed.

Did you fit a rear exhaust fan on that case as it doesn't come with one ?

Have you called nsidered undervolting the 7950x ?
 
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mickyflinn said:
Pull the side panel off the case and test if temps improve it looks like airflow threw your case may need adjusting. If not a bigger heatsink should help.

Did you fit a rear exhaust fan on that case as it doesn't come with one ?
Click to expand...
i didnt fit one, as i was hoping the front 2 x 180mms would be enough push air through .. but i could fit a 140mm at the back to pull as well? I'll try with no side on the case as well.
 
One thing that I have found when rendering using something like Blender or V-Ray, if you are utilising both the CPU and GPU with a high end 3000/4000 series card something that seems to be overlooked is that the blow through design of the coolers when used with air cooler isn’t a great config as the GPU dumps hot air towards the CPU heatsink causing significantly higher temps. You won’t really notice in games as most will utilise the GPU more than the CPU but rendering is a whole different story. I am surprised that tech YouTubers have never done any research into this.

I am also would be hesitant about the compatibility lists that Noctua have. They state that the NH-U14/15 is compatible with CPUs such as the 13900K/KS however they do work but under artificial load or rendering they hit 100 degrees and throttle. And that is when set to the Intel limits.
 
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When I tested it when I first got it (7950X, also a U12A cooler), I put everything on 100% (Cooler and the 9 other A12x25's) and there was no difference in keeping it away from Throttle Temps (95C+) only how long it got there, and it got there usually instantly (with the 100% fans on the entire rig not helping at all). Moving the fans down, I got pretty much the same deal. So airflow increase is unlikely to help much, no matter the case really. Unless if like above, your GPU is throwing out a lot of heat into the case as well. I figured from that, either the U12A was unable to keep the 7950X from Throttle, or the design of the 7950X makes it hard to keep it from Throttle anyway.

Subsequent talk around various places suggest that CCD placement of the 7950X means many coolers would not be operating at their best because they're not directly over the hotspot of the CPU, so without undervolting, Curve Optimisation, ECO mode adjustment, etc, changing coolers may not be very efficient without grabbing something to offset the coldplate first unless if that cooler is able to brute force the cooling, which I don't believe there was one at stock/defaults.

There is that Noctua Cooler Offset Bars you can grab (fairly cheap) that will allow you to see if that'll help in your instance by mounting the cooler slightly lower onto the CPU (over the CCDs), but I'd imagine if you keep it at normal default settings (190W) you'd want to at least undervolt it a tiny bit else even that might not help.
 
you could always set a manual cpu voltage in the bios, 1.3v would be a good starting point, its what i use on my 7950x, though i am on custom loop cooling but my cpu still boosts around 5.5ghz and runs in the mid 70 region, you could also set a manual multiplier but depending which tasks you are running will dertimine what ratio you'll be able to run, all core loads look at x48/49 multipliers, and if gaming put back on auto but run a lower voltage instead of auto.
 
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