Overclocking Experiences and Temperatures
Impressive out of the box performance aside, the other big mystery is how much the new thermal interface and capacitors on Devil's Canyon would change the way Haswell overclocks. I can say, based on my experience with this chip and after talks with motherboard vendors that have used quite a few more engineering samples of the Core i7-4790K, the answer is likely not very much.
Temperatures during load of Core i7-4770K at stock speeds
Temperatures during load of Core i7-4790K (DC) at stock speeds
Both processors were run on the ASUS Z97-Deluxe motherboard with a Corsair H80 self-contained water cooler.
Take a look at the two temperature readings above. Operating at 3.5-3.7 GHz, the 4770K was measuring about 53-55C. While that isn't a bad temperature range, the Core i7-4790K, running at 4.0 GHz, was only measuring at 50-51C. Seeing a couple of degrees improvement in load temperature with an increased clock speed is a welcome change and can be attributed to the improvements Intel designed into Devil's Canyon.
Let's see how the processor overclocks and what that might change.
The overclocking process with the Core i7-4790K is identical to that of other Haswell parts. The theory has been that, thanks to these improved thermals, we should see improved scaling. That did not happen for me. My peak overclock for all cores was 4.7 GHz running at 1.36v and no amount of added voltage or changes to the overcurrent protection or cache voltages, seemed to matter. I could not reach 4.8 GHz for a standard stability run.
To be clear, even for a standard Haswell processor, this result is pretty average. Setting your core voltage to 1.36v is pretty damn high and I've had much better luck with our single Core i7-4770K, as you'll see below. By itself, this does not mean that Devil's Canyon is a worse overclocker, or that it isn't a better overclocker, just that the single sample we were provided didn't show the improvement.
On this same motherboard, on this same day, I was able to take a Core i7-4770K ES processor and hit 4.8 GHz stable with a voltage of just 1.25v. Clearly THAT result is well above average and could be considered one of the better Haswell parts I have seen. So how did the temperatures compare in our best overclocks with the two CPUs?
Temperatures during load of Core i7-4770K at 4.8 GHz
Temperatures during load of Core i7-4790K at 4.7 GHz
Interesting stuff. Even though I wasn't able to get higher than 4.7 GHz, the limit does not appear to be temperature on my Core i7-4790K, just crappy luck. Under load with a voltage of 1.36v, temperatures on Devil's Canyon didn't go past 84C. On the other hand, the original Haswell part hit 91C with a lower voltage (1.25v) and higher clock speed (4.8 GHz).
With just a single CPU sample in my hand its hard to make any definitive statement, but my guess is that the changes Intel made on the Core i7-4790K did in fact have a positive effect on the temperature of the core. It just so happens that our sample from Intel didn't perform as highly as we might have hoped, purely by chance. I am hoping to pick up another 4790K to do some more testing but even then, with a sample size of two, we will be depending on the community to really make the final decision on the benefits of Devil's Canyon.
Always get to get 2 different
Always get to get 2 different chips from 2 different countries. Send the 1 back the doesn’t OC as good. I expect an easy 5ghz on all 4 cores full time oc turbo disabled.
If broadwell’s version of devils canyon can hit a good 5.4ghz or so I may even give up on x99 and build a badazz mini itx gaming rig in the ncase m1 with a 45mm double thick 120mm rad in push pull for the cpu and a 45mm double thick 120mm radiator in push pull for the GPU (Preferable the GTX 880 or 980 maxwell flagship) or maybe just a triple slot version since the ncase m1 can handle triple slot gpu’s even tho it’s a mini itx case. And with maxwell being so incredible power efficient a triple slot gpu in that architecture would have the fans running so slow from that massive of a heatsink it would be so quiet. Like tripling the amount of heat the gpu can dissipate with what it needs to dissipate =’s very low rpm quiet gpu fansn
Stock speeds really dont
Stock speeds really dont matter much in a K part because 100% of the time it will be OCed or else it would not be a K part. If Intel wanted to push performance to average person they could have made 4790 non K @ 4GHz also. The way i see it these K CPUs are getting less and less impressive. 4.7GHz OC even if not a amazing one still shows how far this CPU can go. 200-300Mhz more will not make it a amazing overclocker unless 90% of the CPUs can achieve it. Feels like Intel is killing overclocking with this CPU. I mean a 300MHz OC, why even bother. Why spend money in high end MB, cooling for this CPU.
It’s about time they
It’s about time they addressed the die to heat spreader issue post sandy bridge is this Tim better than soldered ? Energy efficiency are always good, but that better be a bad binned part compared to average were looking for a cool <>5ghz, and the fact there’s been transistor count or logic improvement on the cpu side excluding energy efficiency and igpu for so long, makes one worry they lost the skill to advance it, and they’re for core count increase to resolve the power advancement issue for them, Moore law since sandy bridge has been skewed.
Devils canyon: It’s about
Devils canyon: It’s about time they addressed the die to heat spreader issue post sandy bridge is this Tim better than soldered ? Energy efficiency is always good, but that better be a bad binned part compared to the average, were looking for a cool <>5ghz, and the fact there’s been no transistor count or logic improvement on the cpu side excluding energy efficiency and igpu for so long, makes one worry theyve lost the skill to advance the xx design, and they’re waiting for core count increase to resolve the power advancement issue for them or the need to enhance the design, Moores law since sandy bridge has been slooowwed. And the use of the stream units in the igpu is dependant on people coding for it ? Whereas plain increases in x86 could from logic enhancement that is largely static at the moment. Corrected version
Thanks for the review, I have
Thanks for the review, I have mine on order from micro center.
where’s the gaming benchmark
where’s the gaming benchmark we love to see?
“Performance of the Core
“Performance of the Core i7-4790K is impressive, even if you choose to not overclock at all. The 500 MHz clock speed increase (at both base and Turbo speeds) when compared to the Core i7-4790K makes the choice between the two parts pretty much a no-brainer. ”
I think you meant “when compared to the Core i7-4770K”.
I think the proper comparison
I think the proper comparison should be the 4790 (non-K). For an extra $38 (list) you get a guaranteed 400 MHz boost (that’s almost linear scaling!) and the unlocked multi on top.
Best value in a long time, IMHO.
If you still have the
If you still have the engineering sample, do you know if the lid is soldered on or not? I want to know if this can be de-lidded asap.
A big Thank You for including
A big Thank You for including a 2600k in your review. Mine is still in service and it looks like it’ll stay at least until Skylake. It’s tough to find comparisons between old and new so it’s great you included it.
Any take on why only Core #1 got really hot during overclocking?
ok..maybe someone could help
ok..maybe someone could help me out understanding something.
currently running 2 pcs ..1 gaming with an i5 3570k and gtx 780 and 1 streaming box for twitch with an i7 970. I want to give my 1 i7970 system to a friend who is disabled and loves to game but his system is dying. I want to re-purpose my i53570k for an Htpc.
Looking to build a system that i can play Swtor, ESO, BF4 and be able to Twitch Stream at 720p 60fps smoothly or 900p at 45 fps using Fast settings.(no worries on upload speeds..i have that covered at 15mb up)
looking at the Haswell 4790k x264 second pass it does VERY well against the 4960x 6 core. I was denating on going Haswell e 6 core at release but maybe i wont have to..
would the 4790k do what i want and give me good in game performance with my gtx780 + 27″ 2560 x 1440 monitor) AND stream to twitch at 720p 60 fps or 900p 45 fps at fast encoding settings? (i use xsplit and obs..havent really settled on 1 yet)
well one thing, the reason
well one thing, the reason why you where limited on the overclock is that you used asus motherboard, I’ve never had any asus board compete with a msi gaming or a power version of any of their motherboards, and that isn’t using the auto overclock, try better componets when trying to overclock
I have just purchased this
I have just purchased this CPU and currently shopping around for an aftermarket cooler (as Intel’s HSFs are crap). I’ve run across a few forums where bad CPU thermal throttling occurs, including this one with nice details on testing procedures:
https://communities.intel.com/thread/54032?start=45&tstart=0
Ryan, have you heard about this? Thanks.