New I7 4790k running @ 4.6 ghz Stock?!? And more questions

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Franco Battaglia

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hey guys, I just got my new system with a fine i7 4790k.

I have an ASUS Z97-A MB, 2x4 gb G. Skill 1866 mhz CL9 RAM, if that helps.

However, upon looking at different stuff like CPU-Z and AIDA64 reports, I've wondered a couple of things:

1) Why is the CPU running at 4.6 ghz on idle with no OC? (Voltage is around 1.268v and raises spontaneously, up to 1.290v). Please bear in mind that I did not OC at all
2) Is it alright that the CPU is running @ 42ºC with the stock cooler, at idle?
3) Should I set the CPU Q-Fan option on PWM or DC?
4) Is it okay to set the processor to be at 100% at the energy plan? Or will this decrease the CPU's lifespan?
5) Last and least, does this have anything to do with the silicon lottery?

Thanks for reading! Maybe I'm being a bit too obsessive with my new CPU:??::wahoo:

 
Solution
dgingeri
1. Because Asus sets their motherboards to overclock by default these days. I had a similar issue with my Z97-WS and Maximus VII Hero. You will have to go into the bios setup and manually change it to not overclock.
2. You shouldn't see damaging temperatures from the stock cooler. If anything happens to bring it close to overheating, it will throttle back to prevent damage.
3. With the stock cooler, PWM would be best.
4. Again, this is the Asus default automatic overclocking. You can turn on SpeedStep and get it to clock down to 800MHz in the bios. It saves a LOT of power, like around 60W. Enabling the C states can save you power, too, about 15W more at idle, but it does come with a little performance cost. I have mine set...
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Epsilon_0EVP

Epsilon_0EVP

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Jun 27, 2012
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Where do you see this frequency? Windows' Task Manager is known to report slightly inaccurate results often, so I wouldn't worry about it.

With the stock cooler, 40C is common at idle. It's not the best, but the CPU should not see damage from that.

It's best to set the fan to PWM. That way the fan will spin up only when needed, making less noise in general and increasing the fan lifespan. If you are concerned about temperatures, though, you can run it on DC mode, which will make it run constantly at a high RPM.

Settings the CPU to 100% performance in Windows will not cause any decrease in lifespan. It is pretty hard to really mess up a CPU nowadays, anyway.
 
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Franco Battaglia

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hey Epsilon, thanks for your advice.
I was using both ASUS CPU-Z and AIDA64 CPUID as utilities. Here is a screenshot of the AIDA64 utility I took 2 minutes ago:
JEW10QN.png


I forgot to add that current ambient temperature in my room is about 30ºC since it is still summer where I live.
 
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Epsilon_0EVP

Epsilon_0EVP

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I wouldn't worry about the clock rate. If you see instability, then I would worry, but I don't think it will be a big issue. Unfortunately I'm not sure why you get 4.6GHz, though. Maybe someone else can help tell us why.

If your ambient temperature is 30C, then 40C makes perfect sense. Temperatures are perfectly fine.
 
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dgingeri

dgingeri

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1. Because Asus sets their motherboards to overclock by default these days. I had a similar issue with my Z97-WS and Maximus VII Hero. You will have to go into the bios setup and manually change it to not overclock.
2. You shouldn't see damaging temperatures from the stock cooler. If anything happens to bring it close to overheating, it will throttle back to prevent damage.
3. With the stock cooler, PWM would be best.
4. Again, this is the Asus default automatic overclocking. You can turn on SpeedStep and get it to clock down to 800MHz in the bios. It saves a LOT of power, like around 60W. Enabling the C states can save you power, too, about 15W more at idle, but it does come with a little performance cost. I have mine set with all the C states enabled, SpeedStep enabled, and turbo up to 4.5GHz, and don't notice any difference from not having the C states and SpeedStep enabled. Benchmarks tell me it is less than 3% on most things, but SSD performance is down about 7%. The difference in my electric bill is noticeable, though, at about $20-30 per month.
5. nope, all Asus.
 
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Solution
Epsilon_0EVP

Epsilon_0EVP

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Jun 27, 2012
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Really? Asus does automatic overclocking now? That is interesting. Thanks for pointing that out.
 
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dgingeri

dgingeri

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It's funny. I have a Xeon E5-2603v2 system (for a VM host) on a Asus Sabretooth X79 board. My C602 board died and I couldn't afford another. Every time I reboot it, it says "failed overclocking" (because the Xeon doesn't overclock, at all) and waits to go into the bios once before it will let me boot. It refuses to allow me to run the system at stock, no matter how I configure it. It works well after that, though, so I've kept it around.
 
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