See how an i9-13900K and RTX 4090 perform when it's -63F outside

[Daniel Sims]

WTF?! PC gamers often joke that seasonal temperature changes have a measurable effect on their systems' internal temperature while under heavy load. A recent record cold snap in northern China allowed a content creator to take this idea to the extreme.

Chinese hardware enthusiast and content creator 苏baka recently posted a video (below) in which she tested a PC outdoors in -63-degree weather. The experiment resulted in some amusing obstacles and workarounds.

Last Sunday, the northern Chinese city of Mohe posted the aforementioned temperature – one of China's lowest on record. To see the extreme weather's effect on a PC, Baka tested a rig containing an Intel i9-13900K and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 outside over two nights.

Anyone who has used tools like MSI Afterburner or CPUTemp knows that graphics cards and processors get very hot while running intensive tasks, sometimes approaching 100 Celsius. Those who build and customize PCs often spend a lot of money on keeping those components cool. That task is often easier in the winter when ambient temperatures are lower, but how low is too low?

Baka started by testing another PC out in the cold without any onboard cooling, which ran at around -1.8C. After a few minutes under an AIDA64 stress test with a heatsink, temperatures topped out at 3C.

When Baka tested the 13900K/4090 system under similar conditions with an AIO cooler on the 4090, the GPU stopped working because the liquid coolant froze solid. That's where things got crazy.

Baka then installed a passive cooler for the GPU and strapped the tower up next to an array of fans the same size as the tower. When she turned everything on, the custom cooling arrangement sounded like it was about to take off from a runway.

Under these conditions, the CPU reached 6.18 GHz while hovering around 15C, and the graphics card maintained -40C with a hotspot at -18C. In an October test, the same CPU achieved a record-breaking 8.8GHz overclock using liquid nitrogen cooling, which can reach temperatures as low as -196C.

One might imagine the best software to push a 4090 in sub-zero weather would be a notorious high-end game like Crysis, Microsoft Flight Simulator, or maybe Portal RTX. Baka chose Minesweeper.

The video doesn't say much about how the other components like the motherboard, RAM, or SSD withstood the cold. However, Baka promised that no hardware was harmed during the test.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/97403-see-how-i9-13900k-rtx-4090-perform-when.html

 

[Theinsanegamer]

How long until intel hires her for their next CPU demonstration?

 

[psycros]

-63 is mind-boggling and I honestly don't know how anyone could survive in that for more than a minute. I mean, her eyes aren't even covered...the locals must be part penguin. My takeaway from this experiment is that you could probably be comfortable at just below freezing in a small tent with an overclocked 4090.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Why would you use the oddball-Fahrenheit scale for the ambient temperature and Celsius for the PC's temperature? That's just plain dumb because it makes it impossible for anyone to understand without having to convert one to the other, regardless of whether or not they use that oddball scale to begin with.

Tech uses Celsius (along with 96% of the world's population) so just use Celsius. To anyone else who is confused by this weird decision on the author's part, the ambient temperature in this article is -53°C.

 

[VitalyT]

And if you live in Yakutsk, you don't need CPU or GPU coolers at all.

 

[punctualturn]

Why would you use the oddball-Fahrenheit scale for the ambient temperature and Celsius for the PC's temperature? That's just plain dumb because it makes it impossible for anyone to understand without having to convert one to the other, regardless of whether or not they use that oddball scale to begin with.

Tech uses Celsius (along with 96% of the world's population) so just use Celsius. To anyone else who is confused by this weird decision on the author's part, the ambient temperature in this article is -53°C.

First rule of marketing, "use whichever term that makes the paying customer product look its absolute best!".

The peasants dont know any better.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

Everyone should retire those retrograde things like feet, inches, fahrenheit, etc... wth

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Why would you use the oddball-Fahrenheit scale for the ambient temperature and Celsius for the PC's temperature? That's just plain dumb because it makes it impossible for anyone to understand without having to convert one to the other, regardless of whether or not they use that oddball scale to begin with.

Tech uses Celsius (along with 96% of the world's population) so just use Celsius. To anyone else who is confused by this weird decision on the author's part, the ambient temperature in this article is -53°C.

Ctrl-f, look for "Fahrenheit", the only example I can find is your comment. Everything in the article is Celsius.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Ctrl-f, look for "Fahrenheit", the only example I can find is your comment. Everything in the article is Celsius.

Article title is in F for some reason. However -40 is the same on both scales so -63F is pretty close in C, prob about -54C or so.

 

[waclark]

-63 is mind-boggling and I honestly don't know how anyone could survive in that for more than a minute. I mean, her eyes aren't even covered...the locals must be part penguin. My takeaway from this experiment is that you could probably be comfortable at just below freezing in a small tent with an overclocked 4090.

I was in Minneapolis a few times in -40F. That is cold as ****. We stepped outside the bar for a minute just to see what it was like. The door locked and we had to run around the hotel to get back to the front door. It was cold to say the least. -63? No thanks.

 

[scavengerspc]

Tech uses Celsius (along with 96% of the world's population) so just use Celsius.

And we all know how common sense is always the rule for tech sector decisions, don't we ? Metric is the norm in tech and science because it was easier to switch 10% of Imperial users than the 90% of Metric users.

Besides, Celsius is less precise. Between freezing and boiling is 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but only 100 degrees Celsius.

(Pic added for dramatic effect!!!!)

Besides, a lot of people that complain about that think there is a u in color and favorite.

 

[Tantor]

And we all know how common sense is always the rule for tech sector decisions, don't we ? Metric is the norm in tech and science because it was easier to switch 10% of Imperial users than the 90% of Metric users.

Besides, Celsius is less precise. Between freezing and boiling is 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but only 100 degrees Celsius.

(Pic added for dramatic effect!!!!)

Besides, a lot of people that complain about that think there is a u in color and favorite.

Very true about the coarseness of Centigrade units. You find the same problem in other areas of the 'metric' system. The Imperial system is simply superior when it comes to natural dimensions and proportions. Metric units have no basis in common human experience. The meter and mm don't relate well to the human body. The designers of the metric system originally tried to go to metric time, ten hour days, ten minute hours, 100 degree circles etc. However, nature doesn't work that way. Different areas are better served with their own scales and numeric systems.
Metric also went to exclusively decimal measure. Decimal measure can only generate approximate results. For exact results you need fractional math. Imperial gives you a choice of fractional or decimal. Anyone studying trigonometry can quickly understand the utility of fractional math.
Metric comes out of early progressivist thought, it's ideologically driven. Progress by reducing everything to a single base, I.e., the number 10, and one unit, the meter. It's egalitarianism extended into the realm of physics.

 

[Tams80]

Very true about the coarseness of Centigrade units. You find the same problem in other areas of the 'metric' system. The Imperial system is simply superior when it comes to natural dimensions and proportions. Metric units have no basis in common human experience. The meter and mm don't relate well to the human body. The designers of the metric system originally tried to go to metric time, ten hour days, ten minute hours, 100 degree circles etc. However, nature doesn't work that way. Different areas are better served with their own scales and numeric systems.
Metric also went to exclusively decimal measure. Decimal measure can only generate approximate results. For exact results you need fractional math. Imperial gives you a choice of fractional or decimal. Anyone studying trigonometry can quickly understand the utility of fractional math.
Metric comes out of early progressivist thought, it's ideologically driven. Progress by reducing everything to a single base, I.e., the number 10, and one unit, the meter. It's egalitarianism extended into the realm of physics.

Hmmm, but a lot of 'Imperial' measurements are base 12 (duodecimal).

Now, I do like base 12 (and bases 20 and 60), due to their factorisation characteristics. But decimal is quite neat and tidy. So really, it's what you are used to and your criticisms can be used both ways.

Not a good idea to mix them up in any given application though.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

And we all know how common sense is always the rule for tech sector decisions, don't we ? Metric is the norm in tech and science because it was easier to switch 10% of Imperial users than the 90% of Metric users.

Besides, Celsius is less precise. Between freezing and boiling is 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but only 100 degrees Celsius.

(Pic added for dramatic effect!!!!)

Besides, a lot of people that complain about that think there is a u in color and favorite.

Not a valid point, you talk as if fractional numbers don't exist.

 

[Nobina]

Intel and Nvidia for their future release:

We have made drastic improvements on thermals and boost clocks!

Font size 3: *temperature was measured in bum**** China at -600C.

 

[scavengerspc]

Not a valid point, you talk as if fractional numbers don't exist.

And you talk as though they don't also exist for Imperial measurements.
But for weather, you don't see any reports using it.

 

[Prosercunus]

-63 is mind-boggling and I honestly don't know how anyone could survive in that for more than a minute. I mean, her eyes aren't even covered...the locals must be part penguin. My takeaway from this experiment is that you could probably be comfortable at just below freezing in a small tent with an overclocked 4090.

It has reached -50F to -60F with windchill in my neck of the woods (eastern ND/Western MN, plains region) a few times in recent memory. I couldn't even imagine -80. You just don't go outside, although you would be surprised at how well you can do if you cover every inch of exposed skin with a good solid layer of clothing.

 

[Hodor]

And we all know how common sense is always the rule for tech sector decisions, don't we ? Metric is the norm in tech and science because it was easier to switch 10% of Imperial users than the 90% of Metric users.

Besides, Celsius is less precise. Between freezing and boiling is 180 degrees Fahrenheit, but only 100 degrees Celsius.

No, you got it wrong.

1. It wasn't easier to switch everyone to metric, but it was smarter to do that. Since metric rejected old units, which were incompatible, and made a uniform scalable system. Each country had their own units, which were illogical even inside the same country, not to mention between countries, not to mention between continents. Metric introduced order into the chaos. Except in a few countries.

2. Celsius is not less precise, as in decimal system units can be divided into any fraction you need. You can have kilo or milli, mega or micro. Imperial units instead use a few subdivisions, which are sometimes 1/12 (inches in a foot), sometimes 1/3 (feet in a yard) and sometimes totally weird (how many feet are there in a mile??)

Metric system introduces uniform scale, predictable, easy to implement and use. It's just evolution of measurement system. You don't like meters, use centimeters. You need more precision, use millimeters. Or micrometers. Or nanometers. Now, try expressing the size of transistors in a CPU in inches.

Everything evolves, including measurement systems. Why not accept something that is more logically organized?

 

[Skjorn]

To the Celsius freaks. Yall act like the universe revolves around earth.

 

[scavengerspc]

It wasn't easier to switch everyone to metric, but it was smarter to do that

In fact, from what I have seen, it was easier and smarter to just acclimate the Imperial system users to the Metric system because of the small number of scientists that used it.

Celsius is not less precise, as in decimal system units can be divided into any fraction you need.

It is much more precise for the general population. There is no fraction or division that can't be applied to Fahrenheit.
But keep in mind, I don't know how it applies in scientific applications, though there is no world where 18.4 C is not 65.1 F.
If we are watching the news, the temps in F are much more accurate for how it feels than C.

Why Do Scientists Prefer To Use The Metric System - Micro B Life

Why Do Scientists Prefer To Use The Metric System? The metric system is the preferred system of scientific units for several reasons: The majority of ... Read more

www.microblife.in

"Scientists use metric system because if they want to repeat the work of others it would be easier to do so because all scientists use the metric system."

Just a note. I'm not posting that and proclaiming I'm right, but only that it was definitely a consideration.

And by the way, it is actually a very interesting read. I read it quite some time ago and it's very informative and comes straight from scientists.

 

[mailpup]

Back on topic please. Thank you.

 

[Pensiveclown]

The overclockers are already packing their bags for the move.

 

[TempleOrion]

Besides, a lot of people that complain about that think there is a u in color and favorite.

You mean British people? The guys that still use Imperial measurements, since they invented them?

Except of course for Fahrenheit, since that's too ridiculous, even for Brits LOL

"Horse Power" is still a thing there too FFS...