Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon Processor Review

Intel Core i7-4790K CPU Temp Testing

The Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon processor uses Next-Generation Polymer Thermal Interface Material (NGPTIM), so let’s take a look at idle and load temperatures to see if we can tell a difference between the 4770K and 4790K when tested on the same exact system with identical applications of Gelid Extreme Thermal Compound on the Corsair H105 Closed Loop Water Cooler. Intel says that new thermal compound should mean that you can get better CPU temperatures. Some will be disappointed that Intel didn’t solder the lid down on Devil’s Canyon, but everyone should be happy that Intel improved the thermal interface material. If it works, we hope that Intel uses it on all Broadwell processor or at least the Broadwell K-series processors when they come out later this year.

With the Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon processor sitting on the desktop at an idle we observed an average CPU core temperature that bounced around 26-28C and the voltage was at 0.7220V. We ran a run of POV-Ray 3.7 across all the CPU cores and saw that it the processor temperature topped out at 71C and was using 1.2590V. The test was repeatable and after running it half a dozen times we were constantly hitting 70-71C each time. We used the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility v4.4 to monitor the temperatures. So, on our system with the Corsair H105 water cooler along with Gelid Extreme Thermal Compound we were running 26-28C at idle and 70-71C at load. How does this compare to the Intel Core i7-4770K on the same setup?

On the Intel Core i7-4770K processor we would get 36-38C idle temperatures with the CPU core voltage defaulting to 0.6930V and when running POV-Ray we topped out at 65-66C at 1.1300V.

So, to recap the temperatures we are seeing pretty significant temperature differences on the Intel Core i7-4790K versus the Intel Core i7-4770K. For example at idle we found Devil’s Canyon (4790K) to be 10C cooler, which is pretty damn amazing. At load the 4790K was hotter, but you have to keep in mind that while it is 5C warmer, it is running with 500MHz faster turb0 clock speeds and at a higher vCore. The fact that it is only 5C warmer is impressive. The ambient room temperature was 75F for those that are curious.