I've got a five-year-old pre-built system, and I recently discovered the motherboard is a GIGABYTE B460M DS3H, which has terrible VRM performance when paired with my i7 10700KF. The VRM temperatures are hitting over 110 degrees Celsius, so I'm considering capping the CPU's power limits to 65W for PL1 and 225W for PL2, which should keep temps more manageable around 85-95 degrees Celsius. My question is, how much performance would I realistically lose in competitive or CPU-intensive games by doing this?
2 Answers
Have you thought about adding a dedicated heatsink or even a fan on the VRMs? That could help keep temperatures down without needing to limit the CPU power too much. Sometimes just improving airflow can make a big difference!
The only way to know for sure how much performance you'll lose is to test it out yourself. Try running a few benchmarks before and after you limit the CPU's power. If those VRMs are indeed a bottleneck, lowering the power could actually improve stability and performance in some scenarios. You might also want to look into thermal pads for the VRMs or consider adding heatsinks to improve cooling.
I've already added heatsinks, but they didn't help much. I'm thinking of getting a fan to improve airflow.