Hi everyone,

I wanted to check whether my system is behaving normally or if I'm missing something. I've attached a screenshot with the detailed readings.

My system:

Intel i5-14600KF

ASUS ROG Strix B660-A Gaming WiFi D4, BIOS: latest

Cooler: air (single tower, one fan)

RX 9070 XT

32 GB DDR4-3200

I ran a ten-minute measurement in Expedition 33, standing in the same spot the whole time, with everything on Auto in the BIOS. I get around 79 FPS and the GPU sits at 98.8 percent usage, so I'm clearly GPU-bound.

Meanwhile the CPU is only at about 27 percent usage, but it still pulls a steady 120 W and keeps all P-cores locked at roughly 4.9 GHz. Average temperature is 83.5 C, with individual cores briefly spiking to 96-98 C. I spent about 19 percent of the time above 85 C, but only 0.6 percent above 90 C.

My question: is it normal for the CPU to stay at full boost and burn 120 W at that little load? I would have expected it to clock down somewhat under partial load.

For context: Vcore read 1.394 V at idle in the BIOS. Power limits are set to 125 W and 181 W, and I haven't touched MCE.

What I already tried:

I set IA AC Load Line from Auto to 30 and left DC Load Line on Auto. The result was pretty bad. Clocks dropped to around 2.1 GHz, with E-cores down to about 1.0 GHz. FPS fell from 79 to 64, and the CPU still pulled 105 W despite the low clocks. Looks like heavy throttling to me. I've since reverted everything to Auto.

My questions:

1. Was setting AC Load Line to 30 while leaving DC Load Line on Auto the mistake? Do the two values need to match?

2. Is there any sensible way to undervolt on a B660 board, or is that simply not supported there?

3. Are 83 C average with peaks up to 94 C fine for a 14600KF, or should I upgrade the cooler?

Thanks in advance!

Expedition 33 · AC Load Line Auto · 623 s measurement · 24,961 frames

Overall values

Value	Avg	Max	Min
FPS	79.3	80.8	74.6
1% Low	63.4	–	–
0.1% Low	24.8	–	–
Frametime	16.2 ms	64.5 ms	13.3 ms
CPU temperature	83.5 °C	94.0 °C	77.0 °C
CPU power	120.4 W	141.5 W	98.5 W
CPU usage	26.9 %	35.6 %	24.0 %
CPU clock	4980 MHz	5291 MHz	4792 MHz
GPU usage	98.8 %	99.0 %	94.0 %
GPU temperature	63.7 °C	64.0 °C	63.0 °C
GPU power	315.7 W	407.0 W	269.0 W
RAM used	15.96 GB	16.11 GB	15.59 GB
Commit charge	24.25 GB	24.37 GB	24.07 GB

Time above 85 °C: 19.4 % · Time above 90 °C: 0.6 %

All cores

Thread	Avg %	Max %	Min %	Clock Avg	Clock Max	Clock Min	Temp Avg	Temp Max
CPU1	34.4	58.2	0.0	4918	5291	4393	76	90
CPU2	30.5	67.6	0.0	4913	5192	4393	77	88
CPU3	63.5	81.8	3.7	4908	5192	4393	82	90
CPU4	18.4	74.7	0.0	4910	5192	4393	82	90
CPU5	35.7	57.6	9.2	4898	5192	799	81	96
CPU6	25.2	50.1	0.4	4901	5192	4792	81	96
CPU7	38.7	60.2	19.7	4900	5192	4792	81	98
CPU8	21.7	45.4	0.1	4896	5192	4792	81	98
CPU9	40.3	72.9	19.9	4894	5192	4792	78	95
CPU10	19.9	48.6	0.0	4895	5192	4792	78	95
CPU11	40.3	63.1	17.7	4889	5192	799	79	96
CPU12	19.5	53.7	0.0	4896	5192	4792	79	96
CPU13	18.3	37.3	14.5	3751	3993	799	74	80
CPU14	18.4	36.2	14.9	3783	3993	2596	74	80
CPU15	18.6	34.6	14.8	3754	3993	2596	74	80
CPU16	18.8	30.4	15.2	3734	3993	2596	74	80
CPU17	19.1	32.2	15.5	3738	3894	799	73	81
CPU18	19.0	34.5	15.1	3800	3894	2596	73	81
CPU19	18.4	39.1	14.8	3782	3894	2596	73	81
CPU20	19.1	33.8	14.7	3784	3894	2596	73	81