Cooler replaced, nothing is overheating but i'm getting low framerates?!

[Gak]

As you can see by the signature i'm still using nF4 boards. My primary is the DFI. I had been using it until recently with a Thermalright XP-120. It did its job, on winter no problem although on summer things depending on ambient temperature could get a bit high. CPU hitting 50Cº (cores higher off course) still stable though, never skipped a beat. Despite that on hotter days i clocked it back to stock. The motherboard previously had a Thermalright HR-05 SLI IFX (passive) on it's chipset. When i got the 260GTX i was forced to mount it on the second slot so i had to take the HR-05 and install the stock cooler. The temperatures were similar, slighlty lower with the Thermalright cooler.

Some days ago i replaced the XP-120 for a Noctua NH-U12P, therefore going from an horizontal to vertical style cooler. The CPU has gotten 5/6Cº on average lower max. temperatures which is quite enjoyable. Better yet the cores now do not exceed 50Cº. They use to rocket to near 60's. Since i had to take the board out i also re-installed a HR-05 IFX once again (passive). Things are on a Lian-Li PC-7 case with an exhaust fan and used to work fine with the XP-120.

The differences I've noticed were the PWIMC running hotter and the back fan connected to its header takes a bit more time on full rpm's in order to get the temperature under its configured threshold. By running hotter i mean circa +10Cº on full load. After the load stops it drops to it's usual temperature. The XP-120 despite blowing hot air over the motherboard definitely helped the PWMIC being cooler...

Unfortunately something weird is happening. After a while playing my framerate drops considerable to the point it seems a stop motion film. My GPU is way under it's maximum temperature (modded fan profile!) and all temperatures are in check.

Cpu max 45Cº, cores max 50Cº.
Chipset 49Cº
PWMIC 59Cº.
GPU 69Cº

When this happens a high pitch noise can be heard at the same time.

I've been trying to tackle this before posting for help and the only possible co-relation I've seen is that the noise installs at the same time as the frames drop and also when the PWMIC it's 59Cº.

What effect could the PWMIC have on my framerate? I've tried to re-enact the situation with Lynx and rthdribl and the same behaviour happens and the CPU speed does not lower neither the GPU...

Going back to the XP-120 is a bit unpleasent - money spent on the Noctua and higher temperatures! Getting a fan on the HR-05 beats it's passive & silence purpose also the space its quite scarce. Only chance would be a 25mm fan and those are hard to find even harder when only care for silent ones.

Any ideas on this one guys? I just can't see how related could the PWMIC be with framerate. I also thought they were rated to way higher temperatures. For instance motherboards running on water usually registered higher temperatures on those components with no problems. So why the heck is this happening with me?!

[Gak]

Just posting a follow-up. It has been back to the basics for me. XP-120 once again in place and I'm ditching and selling the U12.

I have the computer overclocked but i do also enjoy a quiet workspace, so adding more fans was unacceptable. With the horizontal style XP-120 temps have again dropped to the high forties for both PWMIC and chipset (passive).

Before replacing coolers i tried different positions for the fan on the Noctua and i even sinked the PWMIC to no avail. Just guess that is a zone on the motherboard without much airflow using a tower style cooler.

I'll be thinking about getting a C12 but I'll have to research a bit more if it really worth the money vs. the XP...

I know many people have moved on from this type of platform but for instance if anyone is thinking about similar configurations, or for the ones who may found this thread through Google, be aware of the details I've spoken about.

[Panther_Seraphi]

Well it doesnt seem like the NF4 boards like high temperatures. I thought it was a NB issue at first but ive looked at various posts and none of them have the PWM going above 50 really.

THe squeal your talking about sounds like a PWM squeal under high load. Could be the PWM controller backing it down until it got down to a lower temp.

[Gak]

Well it doesnt seem like the NF4 boards like high temperatures. I thought it was a NB issue at first but ive looked at various posts and none of them have the PWM going above 50 really.

THe squeal your talking about sounds like a PWM squeal under high load. Could be the PWM controller backing it down until it got down to a lower temp.

I recall seeing watercooled Ultra-D with high PWM temperatures, unfortunately i don't recall the exact values however i kept the impression they were able to withstand way higher temperatures... For some reason this board doesn't seem to like it. What baffles me even more is that i also once had this board watercooled and even though i don't remember the exact PWM temperatures for that configuration i find it hard to believe they weren't near 60Cº. Back then i never noticed a problem... Maybe the overclock being higher now and the cpu and memory being different have something to do with it. At least cpu "overclockability" and stability from what I've read are quite related to PWMIC temperatures...

Things are working nice now, as they were before with the XP-120. The downside are the higher core temperatures. Oh life!