Why is my DeepCool AK620 struggling with Civ 7 calculations?
During the late-game stages where civilization collisions peak, the CPU load hits these violent pulse-like jumps. I saw core temps rocket from 55°C to 92°C in literally one second, causing the clock speed to tank. The default fan curve on the DeepCool AK620 is just way too sluggish; the heat builds up in the core before the heat pipes can even move it to the fins. At first, I tried locking the fans at 100% in the BIOS, but while it dropped temps by about 4°C, the noise was a total nightmare and drowned out the game audio. I eventually dropped the fan trigger threshold to 60°C and slashed the step response time to 0.1 seconds so the fans ramp up the instant the temp climbs. Monitoring via HWiNFO showed max temps finally suppressed to the 82-86°C range, and the clock speeds stopped plummeting. I did hit a snag where the fans had a weird resonance hum, but that vanished after I tweaked the mounting bracket pressure. Now the fans hover around 1400-1600 RPM, and the thermal efficiency is balanced. Stress tests confirm the frequency curve is flat now, with fans steady at 1400-1600 RPM.