Thermal Grizzly's Contact Frame Reduces Alder Lake Temps by 10 Degrees Celsius
Thermal Grizzly lowers thermals.
Independent test results of Thermal Grizzly's contact frame for Intel's LGA1700 socket show that using the simple device can reduce the temperature of Intel's overclocked Core i9-12900K processor by 10 degrees Celsius. In addition, the results emphasize that the device can significantly improve overclocking potential of Alder Lake processors.
It turned out that the independent loading mechanism (ILM) of Intel's LGA1700 socket can deflect CPU's integrated heat spreader (IHS) and significantly reduce its ability to transfer heat from the die to a cooling system (thus reducing the CPU overclock potential). As a result, numerous methods and mods emerged to solve the issue and lower Alder Lake's temperature. Several companies have also released various tools to prevent Alder Lake's bending, but their efficiency has mixed feedback. Furthermore, Intel says that deflection does not cause any issues. In contrast, mods can void a warranty; this almost guarantees that large companies will not modify Intel's socket of its ILM mechanism.
Thermal Grizzly and Roman 'der8auer' Hartung teamed up for the 12th Gen CPU Contact Frame product (TG-CF-i12G) that replaces Intel's recommended ILM with a milled piece of aluminum that presses the processor evenly on all sides and is thus promises to prevent bending. Our colleagues from Igor's Lab took the Contact Frame for a spin, and the results turned out to be quite inspiring.
Thermal Grizzly's Contact Frame for LGA1700 CPUs can reduce the temperature of Intel's Core i9-12900K CPU with P-cores operating at 5.0 GHz, deactivated E-cores, and DDR5-7000 memory from 70.48 degrees Celsius to 60.29 degrees Celsius, or by 10.19 degrees Celsius in Prime95 stress test with Small FFT. In addition, the testers used Alphacool's XPX Aurora all-in-one liquid cooling system.
By contrast, 1-mm washers dropped the temperature by 5.40 degrees Celsius, and Alphacool's backplate lowered the temperature by 5.11 degrees Celsius. In contrast, the contact frame and the backplate reduced temperatures by 6.34 degrees Celsius. As a result, thermal Grizzly's 12th Gen CPU Contact Frame works more efficiently alone than in combination with a custom backplate.
But Thermal Grizzly's 12th Gen CPU Contact Frame is not cheap. It costs €39.90 in Germany ($36 without VAT), so everyone will have to decide whether a 10 degrees Celsius difference in temperatures is worth this price.
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Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
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Alvar "Miles" Udell But Thermal Grizzly's 12th Gen CPU Contact Frame is not cheap. It costs €39.90 in Germany ($36 without VAT), so everyone will have to decide whether a 10 degrees Celsius difference in temperatures is worth this price.
And the EU should start price gouging investigations...tomorrow? -
hotaru.hino
I think there are bigger fish to fry than going after a product that maybe a handful of people would actually buy.Alvar Miles Udell said:And the EU should start price gouging investigations...tomorrow? -
darknate
You would have to justify why you require it. If you don't, then it's not price gouging.Alvar Miles Udell said:And the EU should start price gouging investigations...tomorrow?
Also, I'm pretty sure you have zero clue the amount it costs to pay for the aluminum and the time to have it machined and then made into a finished product. -
rmzalbar "Price gouging?" For a totally optional thing you've been doing fine without? Are you serious with this whining? Do you really expect germany to compete with china prices anyway? Yes we must call the lawmakers I'm sure they will get right on this emergency.Reply -
TerryLaze
It changes the amount of pressure between the pins and the CPU and intel can't guarantee that everything will keep running fine, so they can't warrantee it.King_V said:So, is Intel going to insist that using this ALSO voids your warranty?
On the other hand, if you send in a CPU by itself how are they going to tell, other than by the CPU testing out fine. -
hotaru.hino
Of course, because you're doing something to the CPU outside of what the manufacturer specified. Heck, AMD won't honor your warranty if you used PBO (but how they'll prove that is up in the air). And at some point, both companies wouldn't honor your warranty if you used an aftermarket cooler (which again, good look to them proving that).King_V said:So, is Intel going to insist that using this ALSO voids your warranty? -
TerryLaze
Usually the support people just straight up ask people for their bios settings or a list of hardware, most people will answer honestly, mostly because they have no idea what's going on anyway.hotaru.hino said:Of course, because you're doing something to the CPU outside of what the manufacturer specified. Heck, AMD won't honor your warranty if you used PBO (but how they'll prove that is up in the air). And at some point, both companies wouldn't honor your warranty if you used an aftermarket cooler (which again, good look to them proving that).
People that use this thing will be more knowledgeable so they will know not to mention it.