Power Consumption and Temperatures

The MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X uses a monoblock that spans across both VRM sections and the first M.2 socket. This is the biggest selling point in my opinion. You can buy a CPU waterblock alone, but having one that covers everything CPU related in one loop is great. The M.2 cooling is just a bit of extra icing on the cake.



For temperature measurement, I use a Reed SD-947 4 channel Data Logging Thermometer paired with four Omega Engineering SA1 Self Adhesive Thermocouple probes. One probe directly touches the chipset and two are placed on select power stages. The last probe actively logs the ambient temperature.

For the MSI MPG Z690 Carbon EK X, one probe is placed along each bank of power stages. A probe is left out to log the ambient temperature. All temperatures are presented as Delta-T normalized to 20°C, which is the measured temperature minus the ambient temperature plus 20°C. The end result accounts for variation in ambient temperature, including changes over the course of a test, while presenting the data as if the ambient were a steady 20°C for easy presentation. Additionally, there is direct airflow over the VRM for the first five minutes, after which the fan is removed. This gives an idea of what to expect with and without moderate case airflow.

Prime95 is used for maximum power consumption over a 30 minute period. For testing, I used an Intel Core i7-12700K set to 4.2 GHz and locked at 1.35 V. Clock speed was lowered to keep it below 300 watts for core temperature control. Temperatures are logged every second, and the two probes are then averaged for a cleaner presentation before subtracting the ambient to calculate the Delta-T. The results are charted below.


I split this into multiple tests for a wider understanding of what the monoblock can offer in terms of VRM cooling. Prime95 is in many ways designed to be a brutal torture test. It is a fairly unrealistic daily use-case. Just to get this to run for 30 minutes without thermal throttling, the i7-12700K clock speed was lowered until the power draw was near 280 watts. This is generally the soft-limit for many users as the surface area is extremely small for dissipating the immense heat created by the load. Good results have been seen when lapping the CPU IHS, using liquid metal or running it as a direct-die. Whatever method you choose to use to keep the temperature in check, the 70 A power stages are still up to the task for a moderate overclock.


The next step was to take the currently most readily available CPU, which is the i9-12900K, and see how well it does without changing any default settings. This is completely running at stock. While the power draw may be in the 250-watt range, the VRM is perfectly capable of handling this load for long periods of time. This is of course owing to the monoblock directly placed on the power stages.


The final test was to see how a game might perform. It is quite disappointing to look at because it's not even 10°C above idle. Games do not often fully utilized the CPU. Cyberpunk 2077 generally had the CPU clock frequency in the 3 GHz range, which moved up or down as the amount of load on the GPU changed.