Just re-did my HT / Gaming PC and have temp questions

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x-voodoo

Member
Finally upgraded from my old i7 6700k 1070 system and went with AMD CPU for the first time. Using the same Silverstone GD09B HTPC case but had to drop the optical drive, although I did use it to install Win11) on the new build while it was outside the case (otherwise I barely used it anyway except for burning but I can easily get a USB slim if needed).

Went with the Ryzen 7 9700x Microcenter bundle that included a Gigabyte B650 Gaming X AX motherboard and 32GB RAM.

CPU cooler is beQuiet Pure Rock Slim 2 (the only one in stock that fit my case and rated at 130w TDP). For GPU I splurged for the 5070ti cause it has 16GB VRAM and wanted to "futureproof" the new build (would've gone with 5070 but that only came with 12GB VRAM).

So anyway, did a little testing with GTA5 and all seemed good, till I looked at the temp from HWMonitor where it indicated a 90*C for the "CCD #0", PAckage was slightly lower but in the upper 80s (actual CPU cores ranged between 50-70*C). I then reset the "values" and tested a few more minutes, highest it went was 75* so I;m wondering if that "90*" was just a "spike" or if I have a cooling issue (the 9700x is advertised as "65w TDP" and the cooler I chose is rated up to 130w (which is double the TDP rating on the 9700x).

I then discovered I could do "eco mode" and am trying that, seems the highest spike was 80-85*C.

My question is this - do these Ryzen 9000 series run this hot? Should I be using a different cooler (if so, any that are 135mm that would cool better)? I don't want to burn up my new build....I probably should try using one of those "in-game" monitors to check the CPU temps. Thanks!!!
 
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Apparently that's considered normal. max temp seems to be 95 C. Lower is better for longevity I'm sure, but 90 apparently not concerning. More detail at the link. Older CPU.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/nk73kw/yes_your_ryzen_5000_temps_are_normal_they_are
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and newer

superuser.com

Safe sustained operating temperatures on CPU(Ryzen9)

I am contributing my compute to Folding@Home. However until now I have only used the GPU for folding, since my Ryzen9 3900x got to 93C and stayed there when folding. On various forums I heard that ...
superuser.com superuser.com
 
Wow that's crazy considering 90*F feels too hot for being outside, and 90*C is just 10 away from the boiling point.

Is there a way to tell if my cooler is working properly? I already tried reapplying thermal paste with no change. I also tried touching one if the copper pipes and it didn't feel that warm (was expecting it to be hot to the touch). the air from the heatsink did feel somewhat warm....again, not as warm as expected.

or am I worrying too much about it and should just relax and game on....
 
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Well, better pastes can lower temperature a few degrees.

If the paste isn't fully covering the cpu lid that could be a problem in some parts being cooled and some not. If the paste is too thick it might not be efficient. If the cooler wratchit-down isn't all the way that might leave things lopsided and thicker in spots.

Saying that the cooling pipes and fins don't seem especially warm seems to indicate a problem getting heat off the CPU reliably, not a problem with overall airflow or anything like that.

what process are you using for applying/spreading the paste? Did you fully clean the CPU and cooler before applying new paste?


(full disclosure, I don't have an AMD CPU currently, but have an air-cooled gen 14 i7)


But about heat generation generally, these newer CPUs have a LOT of execution units. If you have a game utilizing a lot of threads then they'll be dumping heat like crazy. A thread feeding a video pipeline will be busier if no vysnc or frame cap to slow it down. Underclocking/undervolting a CPU could be another way to lower heat.

As your CPU gets toward dangerous territory the CPU should start slowing itself down to protect itself, resulting in lower performance.
 
koralis said:
Well, better pastes can lower temperature a few degrees.

If the paste isn't fully covering the cpu lid that could be a problem in some parts being cooled and some not. If the paste is too thick it might not be efficient. If the cooler wratchit-down isn't all the way that might leave things lopsided and thicker in spots.

Saying that the cooling pipes and fins don't seem especially warm seems to indicate a problem getting heat off the CPU reliably, not a problem with overall airflow or anything like that.

what process are you using for applying/spreading the paste? Did you fully clean the CPU and cooler before applying new paste?


(full disclosure, I don't have an AMD CPU currently, but have an air-cooled gen 14 i7)


But about heat generation generally, these newer CPUs have a LOT of execution units. If you have a game utilizing a lot of threads then they'll be dumping heat like crazy. A thread feeding a video pipeline will be busier if no vysnc or frame cap to slow it down. Underclocking/undervolting a CPU could be another way to lower heat.

As your CPU gets toward dangerous territory the CPU should start slowing itself down to protect itself, resulting in lower performance.
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I used 70% rubbing alcohol to clean the old paste off the CPU and cooler, and used an old credit card to spread the new paste (Corsair TM30) across the entire CPU to make sure it is spread all over the CPU.

Forgot to mention the GTA version is the Enhanced one with RT. I tried playing a 5 minute session. alt-tab to hwmonitor and saw the max temp at 75*. I continue playing, a few minutes after that I check hwmonitor again and saw the max approach 90* which is what made me story worrying....

can't say I noticed any loss of performance as it ran great the whole time. RT effects were very nice as well...
 
you might look into some premium cpu paste, but other than that sounds like you're probably doing things right. The fact that other people are noting those sorts of temperatures means there's probably nothing wrong... it's just damned hot. :)
 
OK! I picked up some Corsair XTM60 which is a higher performance paste that includes a nice spreader. So far it has not exceeded 80*C so I think the stock paste on the cooler and the TM30 were just not good enough....

Will do more testing and see how that goes before ordering a different cooler that is less than 138mm height (would probably do the Noctua U9S in that case)
 
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Ok I tried something else - put GTA5 in windowed mode in 1080p so I can see the hwmonitor while playing.

Seems quite reasonable during most gameplay, in the 60s maybe 65-70 at times.

Then I loaded a "save" and watched the CPU temps.climb into the 70s (game is on my M.2 drive (I'm using the included heating for that). Once the game stopped loading, the temps came right back down.

Idle temps are in the 30s.

Weird....right?
 
So now I'm wondering if there's any setting I can change for the NVME drive that would perhaps slow it down a little so the CPU would not run as hot using the NVME?

Or should I move it to another slot (currently between the CPU and GPU)?

Or should I be using a slower NVME drive (the 990 EVO instead of the 990 EVO Plus that I chose)?
 
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Fast nvme is more important to my mind than huge framerates. Asset loading can be a real problem with hiccups, etc.

Nvme is driven by the cpu... Accessing the data activates pci lanes that might be otherwise idle.

If you are really concerned about slowing anything down, underclocking the cpu slightly and dropping the voltage will do a lot more and at all times.

You would need to Google.

But like we said before, the cpu is rated for 95.. If it never hits it, I wouldn't worry. If it's normally 80 and spikes to 90 when loading I wouldnt worry about it.
 
My issue gets even weirder......

I just realized GTA5 "self radio" might be causing my higher CPU temps by 15-20 degrees! As soon as I tried a normal station, temps dropped back down.....


EDIT - one Google search has revealed that's actually a common issue!
 
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x-voodoo said:
My issue gets even weirder......

I just realized GTA5 "self radio" might be causing my higher CPU temps by 15-20 degrees! As soon as I tried a normal station, temps dropped back down.....


EDIT - one Google search has revealed that's actually a common issue!
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Dang! I mean I know GTA5 has always kinda been full of oddities, but thats gotta take the cake lol
 
Trunks0 said:
Dang! I mean I know GTA5 has always kinda been full of oddities, but thats gotta take the cake lol
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😆 🤣

Quick update - I just swapped out the cooler for a Noctua NH-U9S black as Noctua themselves have specified compatibility with the Ryzen 9700x.

I think I see a slight improvement, about 5 degrees as the highest I've seen is 87.5 vs 91-92 with the bequiet cooler. Still seems high, and for some reason the heat pipes don't feel hot on this one either (I would think the cooler is doing something cause once the load is gone. the temps plummet back down).

Gotta say the Ray-Tracing is pretty cool! Especially when driving in the rain...

EDIT - temps are spiking back to 85-90C again with self radio, averaging 65-70 with a normal station, gonna have to look into undervolting (I'm aware AMD says it's safe up to 95C but I feel too close for comfort)...
 
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Another quick update hoping to help confirm my CPU cooler is adequate and installed correctly.....

I decided to run Cinebench 2024 multi-core test, task manager showing 100% cpu across all threads. The CCD1, Die, and TDie all stayed at 68-69*C. Core temps around 66-67*C. I did notice the clock speed is only 4.9GHz (max boost is 5.5GHz)

Multi-core score was 1151 (I did a google search and found the 9700x should be capable of 1255.

Running single-core test now, boosted up to 5.25GHz and the temps are in the 61-63*c range.

So now I'm trying to figure out.....is my CPU underperforming in these tests or do I have sufficient cooling and for some reason GTA5 "self radio" just happens to be the "worst case scenario" when it comes to CPU loads causing the temps to rise to 90*C?
 
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Given GTA:V's overall buggy and odd ball nature of the years. I would personally lean towards it just being GTA:V acting strangely.
 
Trunks0 said:
Given GTA:V's overall buggy and odd ball nature of the years. I would personally lean towards it just being GTA:V acting strangely.
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yep....learned to accept that :D

CPU temps continue to stay in the mid-upper 60s without self-radio (I just won't use it anymore was just a gimmick anyway).

All other games I tried so far work great without any issues, temps all stay normal, etc
 
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If it's something you're really worried about, disable Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) (later known as "Precision Boost 2", and god only knows what inside your BIOS configuration menus). Unless they've changed how PBO works since Zen 3, when you disable it, your CPU will stay at or (when idle) below its base clockspeed and you'll have to deal with a LOT less heat. You will also lose a substantial amount of performance, because the CPU will never try to get to its advertised Boost Clock speed.

PBO is AMD-sanctioned [0] overclocking. The general way it works is that it increases the clockspeed (and voltage) of the CPU until it hits either a thermal limit or a motherboard power draw limit. Unless you're using something like LN cooling, you're always going to hit a thermal limit long before you hit a mobo power draw limit.

I have had aggressive PBO enabled on my Threadripper 2950X for the last ~7 years, and I've regularly worked the absolute hell out of the processor. I've done the same for my Ryzen 5 5600X for the last ~3 years. Both processors are still running just fine. In my opinion, this is something you absolutely should not worry about.

Also, you mentioned: "I did notice the clock speed is only 4.9GHz (max boost is 5.5GHz)". The Max Boost speed is the highest expected speed for single-threaded (or very-low-threaded) work. More CPU cores working means more heat. More heat means you're gonna hit thermal limits and PBO will stop boosting.

[0] <https://www.amd.com/en/resources/support-articles/faqs/CPU-PB2.html>
 
Any pics
x-voodoo said:
yep....learned to accept that :D

CPU temps continue to stay in the mid-upper 60s without self-radio (I just won't use it anymore was just a gimmick anyway).

All other games I tried so far work great without any issues, temps all stay normal, etc
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Any pics? Love to see what it all looks like :D
 
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