How does the 9900k behave with dice? Can it stay cool?

this is the worst sample possible. my jenky pot can cool 6 cores at 1.65v on dice. can only cool this underachiever at 1.6v on dice. vrms also getting hot on z170m ocf, had to actively cool with fans

Dang, that's unfortunate. Give direct die and die lapping a try. That could probably help with the small pot.

Just over 5.4g at 1.6 is really unfortunate though.

I thought my first one was junk (5.5-5.6g on -60 single stage), dude, you really lucked out on this one.