Is my i7-14700KF overheating during Ark 2 renders?
Seeing my core temps bounce against the 100℃ ceiling was stressful, and it caused my frame rate to jump randomly between 40-90 FPS. The i7-14700KF pushes way too much voltage by default; during complex physics calculations in Ark 2, power draw often spiked past 280W, triggering aggressive throttling. I tried Windows Power Saving mode, but that was a joke—it locked me at 30 FPS. I had to dive into the BIOS for an undervolt. I set the CPU core voltage offset to -0.05V, and HWInfo showed temps drop from 98-102℃ down to 82-88℃. It wasn't a smooth ride; my first attempt at -0.10V resulted in a BSOD during the loading screen. I had to baby it back up to -0.07V before settling on -0.05V for absolute stability. Now P-Cores hold 5.2-5.4GHz and E-Cores stay around 4.0GHz. Cinebench R23 loops are clean, and the input lag is finally gone.
