New DAW 14700k build, fiddling with voltages

[DevonB]

Just built a I7-14700k with a Gigabyte Aorus Elite X AX motherboard with Windows 11. Playing with Cinebench 24 and watching temps/core freqs in Speccy. I installed a Thermaltake CPU plate and a Noctua NH-D15. It's now essentially the D15S because I can only manage to fit 1 fan in there with the RAM and the Fractal Design Meshify C case because it hits the RAM otherwise and I can't close the side of the case. I used the thermal paste that came with the Noctua.

If I have the UEFI set to Auto on everything, I hit 100c and notice it switches from 5500 to 5400 and 5200, etc. I have tried setting -

VCORE - Auto to Normal
CPU VCORE Loadline Calibration - Auto to Standard
Turbo Power Limits - Auto to Intel POR

That has mostly reduced the temps from floating in the 97-99 range down to high 80's/low 90's. XTU benchmark is still in the 11800ish range. I do notice that I'm floating in the 5200-5500 range without even hitting 100C more frequently.

I'm interested in stability. I'm not interested in overclocking. 5500 on my p cores solid while under load is what I'm trying to achieve, if possible. I haven't even started to install Cubase, attach my audio interface or anything else until I got this under control. I have tried a 0.025 undervolt in XTU with no difference so far.

Suggestions?

Devon

[Jim Roseberry]

If you're looking for maximum performance, you're not going to get that with air-cooling.
When the 14700k is under heavy load, the D15 just can't dissipate enough heat.
If you're determined to use air-cooling, you can throttle-down the CPU.
If you set everything in the BIOS to "Auto", the CPU will thermal-throttle (as you've been experiencing).
If you don't pay attention to the RAM's clock-speed, you'll experience instability.

[Zombie Queen]

If stability is your priority, don't fiddle with voltages. Undervolting can give you more performance or lower temps / lower power consumption at cost of potential instability, depending on quality of your actual chip.
5200-5500 range is what I see on my 14700k, with AIO and temps floating in mid 70s under load. So it's not abnormal apparently.

[DevonB]

If you're looking for maximum performance, you're not going to get that with air-cooling.
When the 14700k is under heavy load, the D15 just can't dissipate enough heat.
If you're determined to use air-cooling, you can throttle-down the CPU.
If you set everything in the BIOS to "Auto", the CPU will thermal-throttle (as you've been experiencing).
If you don't pay attention to the RAM's clock-speed, you'll experience instability.

I have 64 GB of 5600 MT/s, with XMP settings turned on and set to 5600.

Am I going to get audio drop outs if I don't do water cooling with this system, bottom line? Was hoping not to spend hundreds just for cooling. Already noticing LatencyMon with nothing on this system showing DPC spikes.

Devon

[DevonB]

If stability is your priority, don't fiddle with voltages. Undervolting can give you more performance or lower temps / lower power consumption at cost of potential instability, depending on quality of your actual chip.
5200-5500 range is what I see on my 14700k, with AIO and temps floating in mid 70s under load. So it's not abnormal apparently.

Have you run Cinebench 24 and seen what your temps are with the multi core test? What AIO are you using?

Devon

[Zombie Queen]

Yes, Cinebench multicore, don't remember version now. average temp was mid 70, peak temp was 86 or 88. AIO is EK-Nucleus cr360. Consider that I'm running non-standard loadline, so it's somewhat undervolted. Also it's the middle of a hot summer here, so ambient temp is like 27C.

[Zombie Queen]

Am I going to get audio drop outs if I don't do water cooling with this system, bottom line?

Nope. You can run hot, you will loose some performance due to thermal throttle. But that shouldn't affect audio drops.

[uOpt]

Make sure you give it a complete set of tests. mprime/prime95, superpi, memtest86+

Otherwise it'll start scrambling your harddrive contents.

[Pictus]

(...)Already noticing LatencyMon with nothing on this system showing DPC spikes. (...)

The main tweak is to disable Core parking.
https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/

IF you want to go deeper, check
viewtopic.php?p=8820694#p8820694

[Valkasman]

Do you use your system for anything other than music or just music production?

[DevonB]

Do you use your system for anything other than music or just music production?

This system will be dedicated for music production. I have another system dedicated for gaming.

Devon

[DevonB]

(...)Already noticing LatencyMon with nothing on this system showing DPC spikes. (...)

The main tweak is to disable Core parking.
https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/

IF you want to go deeper, check
viewtopic.php?p=8820694#p8820694

I certainly will start digging into all of this. I liked how Win7 and Win10 really needed no tweaking at all to get a smooth system. Certainly wasn't so with Win95/Win98 back in the day. At least initially with my new Arturia AudioFuse 16Rig, things are ok. Will have to get everything configured and take it from there. Hopefully start this weekend.

Devon

[DevonB]

(...)Already noticing LatencyMon with nothing on this system showing DPC spikes. (...)

The main tweak is to disable Core parking.
https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/

IF you want to go deeper, check
viewtopic.php?p=8820694#p8820694

Got the Park Control program, turned it off, so now everything runs at 5500mhz all the time across all 8 cores. Started to do some of your tweaks, but got a ways to go. On Windows 95/98/ME, good luck getting any audio to work without tweaking. Win7/10, I did absolutely no tweaks at all, not a single issue all the way up to 100% CPU. Since I'm just getting started with Win11, are we somewhere in between? Sure, lots of tweaks 'might' have helped on Win7, but I wasn't trying to eek out every last bit of CPU. So far, Win11 doesn't seem to be much different.

Devon