XPS 8960, 13900K, low benchmarks and current EDP/Throttling

Have you monitored CPU temps for possible thermal throttling due to insufficient cooling?

Is the Windows Power plan set to best energy saving or best performance?

Is Max processor state set to 100% on active Windows Power plan's Advanced Settings screen? And how is Min processor state set on that screen?

The Current/EDP Throttling, even when your i9-13900K CPU is idle, is a common feature with Dell motherboards and VRM . . . most likely a design decision.

@RoHe​ So I just checked the power plan, under processor power management the min. setting is 5%, and the max  setting is at 100%.

I thought temperature might be part of the issue. When I run a benchmark thermal throttling definitely kicks in (can see it happen in the Intel extreme tuning utility). During normal use I see temps sometimes peaking out as high as 90. They tend to average around mid 60s 50s under normal use. I can take a screen cap of my log graph and add it to the post.

@ProfessorW00d​ Hmm, so I guess this is acting normal? Though it sounds like normal is maybe not so great?

@Usagisama​   do you have air or liquid AIO cooling solution?

@ProfessorW00d​ I have the advanced air cooling. When I was researching my purchase, I had read that the all in one cooler was a dubious improvement over the advanced air cooler. Also some folks complained about pump noise from the AIO cooler. This computer is my home office and gaming machine, and it lives in the bedroom so noise was a concern. Though now I'm thinking maybe air cooling was a mistake. It has been quiet though... despite the temps and thermal throttling I feel like it's really rare to ever hear the fans. During a benchmark is the only time I've actually heard them ramp up.

If it's throttling due to temps, you may want to look for bigger after-market fans and/or the liquid cooling...

@RoHe​ In looking at possible after market solutions I see the Noctua NH-U9S pop up, as well as the VetrooV5 tower cooler. Those seem to be the only options that fit from what I seem to be finding... unless I missed another one? Also, these seem to be used in older versions of the XPS, like the 8940 and 8950. Would these coolers work with the 8960 just as well? Or does the 8960 have additional internal space that might allow for other options?

Between an aftermarket air cooler option, or the dell AIO liquid cooler, would the aftermarket air option be better? I avoided the dell AIO cause it really sounded like it's cooling ability was debatably better than the dell air cooler. Although, those posts were older, and I think were more in reference to the i7k so maybe that led me wrong.

Finally, if going for an after market cooler, I see a lot of talk about bios errors when replacing stock fans. Though it sounds like more of an annoyance rather than a real problem, correct? Like the error popes up on a restart, but everything still works fine?

Thanks for all your help so far, just trying to sort out my best path forward.

@Usagisama​

Just went through the whole thing with the i9-14900K, this CPU inside the XPS 8960 performs exactly as my old custom PC with the i9-12900K.

After running all the benchmarks with the XPS, I moved the 14900K CPU to my custom PC and got a 1-7 % performance increase on single core applications and a whopping  11-42% increase with multicore applications.

YT Video here:

https://youtu.be/HFBwlwSPwy0?si=ZyrxxQld9HzFVIWD

@S.Tech9​ Wow, I just stumbled on your video just a little bit ago! This was exactly what I was looking for, really helped me understand the limitations at play and seems to confirm the dell liquid cooler and advanced air cooler do pretty much perform the same for cooling. So it looks like after market would be my best bet to get more of the power out of this chip if I want to go there.

Thanks again for the video, you got my like and subscribe! :D

You are welcome and thanks for subbing!

I don't run benchmarks on my 8960 i7-13700K. However, I have read that Dell - and other OEMs - will throttle their CPUs for the simple reason that their cases aren't designed with sufficient ventilation for full-out performance. To get really good benchmark numbers you need more and larger fans/radiators, and you'd probably want to rethink the interior layout to promote better circulation, and all that requires a larger case. Most Dell customers don't want a computer that large.

@Usagisama​    you won't see a big improvement in cooling over air with a 120mm radiator. If you want get more power out of your processor you will need to go with a 240mm radiator.

ProfessorW00d is correct, a minimum of 240mm radiator would be necessary.  If you choose to use a 3rd party air cooler such as Noctua (generally considered the best), I suggest installing the Dell fan/fans onto the 3rd party air cooler to avoid the possible BIOS error. You would have to see if the Dell fans will fit properly, of course.

Hope this helps.

@Usagisama​ 

Well, running some tests as we speak. The fans are not recognizing by the motherboard, the side panel might not close properly, just collecting some data with both fans…

Noctua-NH-D15

Got some large Dell fans, will see about the side panel and performance