Why do the temps of my cores vary so much?

dawei · Mar 19, 2009

I have the Intel Q6600 quad core processor. According to Realtemp, the different cores are: 69, 69, 75, 79 (overclocked to 3.1 ghz with stock HS at full load).

My question is, why so much variation? Why a full 10 degrees difference in temp from the first 2 cores to the 4th one?

RevengE · Mar 19, 2009

The reason is because those cores are under more load than the other two cores. Do you have alot of apps/processes running at idle In your task mgr?

95Viper · Mar 19, 2009

When you say full load are you running like prime95 or something.

Have you got the HS on good and sure it is locked in?

Did you run sensor test on it, in realtemp?

RevengE · Mar 19, 2009

Yeah I really don't know if he meant at idle or under load I guess that will the change the outcome of our responses.

r9 · Mar 19, 2009

Difference in quality of the cores or precision of the sensors. I don`t think that that is uncommon. How ever vary from CPU to CPU sample.

RevengE · Mar 19, 2009

Couldn't it come from cores taking more load than other cores too? Or not?

r9 · Mar 19, 2009

xRevengEx said:
Couldn't it come from cores taking more load than other cores too? Or not?

Full load if it means orthos than I don`t think that you could load more one core. They are loaded to the maximum even if windows start some other process on one of the cores it will only slow down calculations on that core and not loading it more IMO.

Hayder_Master · Mar 19, 2009

what test programs you use , if you use real temp there is an option called test sensors try it and see the different

silkstone · Mar 19, 2009

Remember u need to d/l prime95 to test the sensors. It could also be due to improper Heatsink or TC placement. I believe there are only 2 physical cores (split into 4) so 2 being hotter than the other may be because of the heatsink.
Although i only heard about this in passing, so i'm not sure of those facts.

alexp999 · Mar 19, 2009

Also dont forget that the Q6600 is made up of two dual cores on one chip, so they are not in contact with each other, other than through the IHS, and are in different positions on the chip.

Cooler efficiency, design, positioning and TIM application can be reasons for difference in the two groups of cores.

dawei · Mar 19, 2009

Okay, so you guys seem to mostly agree it's because I have a sh*t HS, right?

The app I'm running for full load is called climateprediction, similar to SETI@home, and under task manager it shows all four cores at 100%.

I am using Realtemp for my temperature. Here is the result from the sensor test:

Core 0: 10
Core 1: 10
Core 2: 14
Core 3: 16

...hm. It says a difference of greater than 3 is bad. So what does this mean exactly?

BTW when I'm idling the cores are all pretty much the same temp, around 41.

alexp999 · Mar 19, 2009

TBH, when you remember that Core 0 and 1 is one chip, and Core 2 and 3 are another, the actual difference is only 2*C.

Everything seems fine to me.

Dont worry about it.

Though 41*C idel does seem a bit high.

dawei · Mar 19, 2009

alexp999 said:
Though 41*C idel does seem a bit high.

Yeah normally I'm in the lower 30's, it's just bloody hot out today. In the winter I was getting below 20.

Hayder_Master · Mar 22, 2009

sometimes the cooler design make different cuz like my friend alexp999 say cuz the core2quad design , i see somewhrere test xigmatik coler on core2quad and there is different in temp when you change cooler install side

Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Motherboard	ASUS P5Q Pro
Cooling	Arctic Cooling
Memory	G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 @ 1066 mHz
Video Card(s)	SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 1GB
Storage	Corsair 64 GB SSD; Western Digital 160 GB HDD
Case	CMStorm
Power Supply	Antec BP550 Plus 550W
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)

System Name	JIM LAHEY
Processor	CORE I9 9900K
Motherboard	ASROCK Z390 TAICHI
Cooling	COUGAR HELOR 360 AIO
Memory	32GB TRIDENT Z RGB DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	EVGA 3080Ti FTW3 ULTRA
Storage	SAMSUNG EVO 1TB
Display(s)	ASUS ROG STRIX 4K UG27UQR
Case	THERMALTAKE VIEW 37
Audio Device(s)	STEELSERIES ARCTIS 7 WIRELESS
Power Supply	EVGA SUPERNOVA G+ 1000
Mouse	STEELSERIES RIVAL 600
Keyboard	STEELSERIES APEX 7 TKL
Software	WINDOWS 10 ENTERPRISE
Benchmark Scores	WUT

System Name	JIM LAHEY
Processor	CORE I9 9900K
Motherboard	ASROCK Z390 TAICHI
Cooling	COUGAR HELOR 360 AIO
Memory	32GB TRIDENT Z RGB DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	EVGA 3080Ti FTW3 ULTRA
Storage	SAMSUNG EVO 1TB
Display(s)	ASUS ROG STRIX 4K UG27UQR
Case	THERMALTAKE VIEW 37
Audio Device(s)	STEELSERIES ARCTIS 7 WIRELESS
Power Supply	EVGA SUPERNOVA G+ 1000
Mouse	STEELSERIES RIVAL 600
Keyboard	STEELSERIES APEX 7 TKL
Software	WINDOWS 10 ENTERPRISE
Benchmark Scores	WUT

System Name	Primary\|Secondary\|Poweredge r410\|Dell XPS\|SteamDeck
Processor	i7 11700k\|i7 9700k\|2 x E5620 \|i5 5500U\|Zen 2 4c/8t
Memory	32GB DDR4\|16GB DDR4\|16GB DDR4\|32GB ECC DDR3\|8GB DDR4\|16GB LPDDR5
Video Card(s)	RX 7800xt\|RX 6700xt \|On-Board\|On-Board\|8 RDNA 2 CUs
Storage	2TB m.2\|512GB SSD+1TB SSD\|2x256GBSSD 2x2TBGB\|256GB sata\|512GB nvme
Display(s)	50" 4k TV \| Dell 27" \|22" \|3.3"\|7"
VR HMD	Samsung Odyssey+ \| Oculus Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 Pro\|Windows 10 Pro\|Windows 10 Home\| Server 2012 r2\|Windows 10 Pro

System Name	JIM LAHEY
Processor	CORE I9 9900K
Motherboard	ASROCK Z390 TAICHI
Cooling	COUGAR HELOR 360 AIO
Memory	32GB TRIDENT Z RGB DDR4-3200
Video Card(s)	EVGA 3080Ti FTW3 ULTRA
Storage	SAMSUNG EVO 1TB
Display(s)	ASUS ROG STRIX 4K UG27UQR
Case	THERMALTAKE VIEW 37
Audio Device(s)	STEELSERIES ARCTIS 7 WIRELESS
Power Supply	EVGA SUPERNOVA G+ 1000
Mouse	STEELSERIES RIVAL 600
Keyboard	STEELSERIES APEX 7 TKL
Software	WINDOWS 10 ENTERPRISE
Benchmark Scores	WUT

Why do the temps of my cores vary so much?

dawei

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System Name	MASTER
Processor	Core i7 3930k run at 4.4ghz
Motherboard	Asus Rampage IV extreme
Cooling	Corsair H100i
Memory	4x4G kingston hyperx beast 2400mhz
Video Card(s)	2X EVGA GTX680
Storage	2X Crusial M4 256g raid0, 1TbWD g, 2x500 WD B
Display(s)	Samsung 27' 1080P LED 3D monitior 2ms
Case	CoolerMaster Chosmos II
Audio Device(s)	Creative sound blaster X-FI Titanum champion,Creative speakers 7.1 T7900
Power Supply	Corsair 1200i, Logitch G500 Mouse, headset Corsair vengeance 1500
Software	Win7 64bit Ultimate
Benchmark Scores	3d mark 2011: testing

System Name	Gaming System / HTPC-Server
Processor	i7 8700K (@4.8 Ghz All-Core) / R7 5900X
Motherboard	Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming / MSI B450 Mortar Max
Cooling	CM ML360 / CM ML240L
Memory	16Gb Hynix @3200 MHz / 16Gb Hynix @3000Mhz
Video Card(s)	Zotac 3080 / Colorful 1060
Storage	750G MX300 + 2x500G NVMe / 40Tb Reds + 1Tb WD Blue NVMe
Display(s)	LG 27GN800-B 27'' 2K 144Hz / Sony TV
Case	Xigmatek Aquarius Plus / Corsair Air 240
Audio Device(s)	On Board Realtek
Power Supply	Super Flower Leadex III Gold 750W / Andyson TX-700 Platinum
Mouse	Logitech G502 Hero / K400+
Keyboard	Wooting Two / K400+
Software	Windows 10 x64
Benchmark Scores	Cinebench R15 = 1542 3D Mark Timespy = 9758

System Name	Gaming Rig \| Uni Laptop
Processor	Intel Q6600 G0 (2007) @ 3.6Ghz @ 1.45625v (LLC) / 4 GHz Bench @ 1.63v \| AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 2 GHz
Motherboard	ASUS P5Q Deluxe (Intel P45) \| HP 6715b
Cooling	Xigmatek Dark Knight w/AC MX2 ~ Case Fans: 2 x 180mm + 1 x 120mm Silverstone Fans
Memory	4GB OCZ Platinum PC2-8000 @ 1000Mhz 5-5-5-15 2.1v \| 2 x 1GB DDR2 667 MHz
Video Card(s)	XFX GTX 285 1GB, Modded FTW BIOS @ 725/1512/1350 w/Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 + Scythe sinks\| ATI X1250
Storage	2x WD6400AAKS 1 TB Raid 0, 140GB Raid 1 & 80GB Maxtor Basics External HDD (storage) \| 160GB 2.5"
Display(s)	Samsung SyncMaster SM2433BW @ 1920 x 1200 via DVI-D \| 15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050 resolution)
Case	Silverstone Fortress FT01B-W ~ Logitech G15 R1 / Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000
Audio Device(s)	Soundmax AD2000BX Onboard Sound, via Logitech X-230 2.1 \| ADI SoundMAX HD Audio
Power Supply	Corsair TX650W \| HP 90W
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate Build 7100 x64 \| Windows 7 Ultimate Build 7100 x64
Benchmark Scores	3DM06: 19519, Vantage: P16170 ~ Win7: -CPU 7.5 -MEM 7.5 -AERO 7.9 -GFX 6.0 -HDD 6.0