Saturday, May 12th 2012

TIM is Behind Ivy Bridge Temperatures After All

It's proven: the thermal interface material (TIM) used by Intel, inside the integrated heatspreader (IHS) of its Core "Ivy Bridge" processors are behind its higher than expected load temperatures. This assertion was first made in late-April by an Overclockers.com report, and was recently put to test by Japanese tech portal PC Watch, in which an investigator carefully removed the IHS of a Core i7-3770K processor, removed the included TIM and binding grease, and replaced them with a pair of aftermarket performance TIMs, such as OCZ Freeze and Coolaboratory Liquid Pro.

PC Watch findings show that swapping the TIM, if done right, can shave stock clock (3.5 GHz, Auto voltage) temperatures by as much as 18% (lowest temperatures by the Coolaboratory TIM), and 4.00 GHz @ 1.2V temperatures by as much as 23% (again, lowest temperatures on the Coolaboratory TIM). The change in TIM was also change the overclockability of the chip, which was then able to sustain higher core voltages to facilitate higher core clock speeds. The report concluded that Intel's decision to use thermal paste inside the IHS of its Ivy Bridge chips, instead of fluxless solder, poses a very real impact on temperatures and overclockability.
Source: PC Watch
Add your own comment

219 Comments on TIM is Behind Ivy Bridge Temperatures After All

#1
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
so basically someone was thinkin it be cheaper or to cater to extreme overclockers
Posted on Reply
#2
SuperSonic X 316
I upgraded to an Ivy Bridge from a Phenom II; this is pretty disappointing to hear and has kind of left me with a bad image of Intel. :\ Still looking forward to Haswell for another upgrade though.
Posted on Reply
#3
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
supersonic x 316i upgraded to an ivy bridge from a phenom ii; this is pretty disappointing to hear and has kind of left me with a bad image of intel. :\ still looking forward to haswell for another upgrade though.
1150
Posted on Reply
#4
LAN_deRf_HA
Odd. Earlier tests showed no temp change.
Posted on Reply
#5
arterius2
i'm sure someone will come up with the idea to mount the HSF directly to the bare chip (without the IHS) and lower the temps even further :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#6
swirl09
SuperSonic X 316I upgraded to an Ivy Bridge from a Phenom II; this is pretty disappointing to hear and has kind of left me with a bad image of Intel. :\ Still looking forward to Haswell for another upgrade though.
Not exactly fightin' words ;-p How bad does that make AMD look, you moved from them to intel, dont like the news about your new chip and your still looking forward to another chip from intel ^_^'

Anyway... I did read those posts about cheap grease being the possible culprit to ivy's higher temps, but not being much of an OCer it didnt deter me and I must say Im pretty happy with the temps on mine so far.

Those are cooler than average temps. Typical idle so far is about 30c, all Ive done with the chip is EZ mode ^.^ Gaming has the chip running @4.22 on 1.19V which results in max 51c
Posted on Reply
#7
SuperSonic X 316
eidairaman11150
Socket? Yes, I'm aware I'm going to need to switch motherboards. This one will be reused on my media PC. I went with a cheaper one too due to that, an ASUS Maximus V Gene; I only needed 1 PCI-E slot and I didn't want to pay another extra 100 just for the extra 2-3 PCI-E slots I wouldn't touch.
Posted on Reply
#8
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
SuperSonic X 316Socket? Yes, I'm aware I'm going to need to switch motherboards. This one will be reused on my media PC. I went with a cheaper one too due to that, an ASUS Maximus V Gene; I only needed 1 PCI-E slot and I didn't want to pay another extra 100 just for the extra 2-3 PCI-E slots I wouldn't touch.
If the Price on that board drops, otherwise for a HTPC any motherboard will due (It comes to my notion it wont be overclocked)
Posted on Reply
#9
reverze
sad to hear, will need a revision to make it interesting for enthousiasts
Posted on Reply
#10
DualAmdMP
SuperSonic X 316I upgraded to an Ivy Bridge from a Phenom II; this is pretty disappointing to hear and has kind of left me with a bad image of Intel. :\ Still looking forward to Haswell for another upgrade though.
I think you are wrong about Intel. I'm actually glad that they used TIM instead of solder on the core. You need to try to put a waterblock directly on the core (once in your life) and you will be surprised how well it conducts heat into water compare to IHS + waterblock. XS forum has a lot of info on this topic.

I has few Athlon X2 (65nm/90nm) running with waterblock directly on the Core. No matter how much voltage i pumped into the CPU, the temperatures were always great!

I hope AMD doesthe same thing with their new FX line.

If you don't care about watercooling the CPU for max overclock or low temperature, then just ignore me:D
Posted on Reply
#11
function69
Hey, at least it's a cheap and easy fix; 10 minutes and you have a 15 degree drop in temps.

Also, how about ditching the IHS altogether and attaching the cooler directly to the core, or will the pressure cause it to crack?
Posted on Reply
#12
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
I recall everyone bitching at how the Core Line Up You couldnt remove the IHS without wrecking the core, now people are bitching they used a cheap TIM on it so you could remove the IHS to get further in capability, I dont get the Intel fans honestly, does anything satisfy them???
Posted on Reply
#13
Xzibit
Since its Friday. I will be the first one to call B.S. on this.

1) I'm lazy and I could have done that graph

2) No video

3) The OC just looks lazy like .05. More of a graph you find on the back of the Freeze and Liquid Pro so back to 1^

4) From the few pics hes got up there this guy is no Doctor with his hands.

5) I cant read spanish that well

6) W1z didnt include a temp review on the Ivy-Bridge so i'll have to say it isnt true

:p
Posted on Reply
#14
MxPhenom 216
ASIC Engineer
XzibitSince its Friday. I will be the first one to call B.S. on this.

1) I'm lazy and I could have done that graph

2) No video

3) The OC just looks lazy like .05. More of a graph you find on the back of the Freeze and Liquid Pro so back to 1^

4) From the few pics hes got up there this guy is no Doctor with his hands.

5) I cant read spanish that well

6) W1z didnt include a temp review on the Ivy-Bridge so i'll have to say it isnt true

:p
you must be high. We don't need a video for this. The overclock is not lazy at all from 3.5ghz to 4.6, and maybe you should learn another language so you can read these things :p
Posted on Reply
#15
RejZoR
Still, it's a very sloppy job. Tell me, what will happen after 3 or 5 years when this crappy TIM will turn into an useless powder? Things will get even worse just because someone at Intel wanted to save some bucks. Not cool. I'll skip this series anyway since they wouldn't really give me much extra compared to my good ol' Bloomfield at 3,8GHz...
Posted on Reply
#16
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
RejZoRStill, it's a very sloppy job. Tell me, what will happen after 3 or 5 years when this crappy TIM will turn into an useless powder? Things will get even worse just because someone at Intel wanted to save some bucks. Not cool. I'll skip this series anyway since they wouldn't really give me much extra compared to my good ol' Bloomfield at 3,8GHz...
you have more capability than 1155 atleast with slot configurations
Posted on Reply
#17
PopcornMachine
If I were shopping for a CPU now, I would gladly pay an extra penny, maybe even a nickel, for a chip with fluxless solder.

Fortunately for me, I'm not shopping for a CPU.
Posted on Reply
#18
wolf
Better Than Native
I hope intel fixes this with later batches... well at least the K and X series chips you know, this means a lot to people.

Still, no reason for me to ditch the trusty 2500K in sight :D
Posted on Reply
#19
NC37
SuperSonic X 316I upgraded to an Ivy Bridge from a Phenom II; this is pretty disappointing to hear and has kind of left me with a bad image of Intel. :\ Still looking forward to Haswell for another upgrade though.
eidairaman11150
Exactly. You'll need to buy a new board for Haswell. Might as well get as much out of Ivy as you can.
Posted on Reply
#20
kajson
I would be amazed if there'd be a stepping later on with a proper IHS, because that would mean that someone like myself would just have to fry their cpu, and use my 20$ intel no questions asked insurance policy to get a brand new flashy high oc cpu in return. :o
Posted on Reply
#21
Rowsol
when I first heard of this someone said it was just the prerelease chips. Now I'm hearing all the chips are like this. I hope they fix this with a new revision.
Posted on Reply
#22
dj-electric
Now shiz gets real... I also really hope intel will fix it. This was a big deal breaker for me.
Posted on Reply
#23
LAN_deRf_HA
eidairaman1I recall everyone bitching at how the Core Line Up You couldnt remove the IHS without wrecking the core, now people are bitching they used a cheap TIM on it so you could remove the IHS to get further in capability, I dont get the Intel fans honestly, does anything satisfy them???
Weak sauce man. When are you going to upgrade?

Anyways if they were insane enough to do that for extreme clockers (like .001% of buyers) they'd of said something about it to put a positive spin on this mess.
Posted on Reply
#24
Dent1
Where is Trickson? He has spent years in every AMD Forum and thread bashing AMD. Now where is he when Intel are looking like a bad choice. :)


As far as this topic, maybe Intel can fix the temparatures with an stepping revision?
Posted on Reply
#25
blibba
I feel I should point out that a change in load temperature from 61 degrees Celcius (334K) to 50 degrees Celcius (323K) is a change of 3.29%, not 18%.
Posted on Reply
Add your own comment
Nov 13th, 2024 02:24 EST change timezone

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts