[SOLVED] 3700x HIGH temp with stock cooler

[70marom]

So I bought a few months ago the Ryzen 7 3700x with RTX 2070 super.
I'm using the stock cooler with my CPU.
I have 4 fans in my case, my case is NX 600.
When I'm playing games, like Marve's Avengers at this moment, I'm reaching 85c.
Is that a really bad thing? can someone tell me why does this happen?
Does someone have a fix for that?
Btw, I'm using MSI Afterburner.
And if I'll need to buy water cooling, someone can give me a good product and a good budget?

 

[dchen2105]

If your overclocking, the stock cooler won't be adequate. It's not terrible to get to 85c, but trying to keep it at 80c or lower is best for longevity. You won't necessarily need an AIO, but to get the best performance, an AIO is the way to go. I just like traditional air cooling, with a tower cooler.

 

[70marom]

If your overclocking, the stock cooler won't be adequate. It's not terrible to get to 85c, but trying to keep it at 80c or lower is best for longevity. You won't necessarily need an AIO, but to get the best performance, an AIO is the way to go. I just like traditional air cooling, with a tower cooler.

So that's OK that I'm having 85c? And sometimes the game is loading with a black screen, like starting a cutscene and at this point, I have 95-97c for 2 seconds and then it goes back.

 

[Phaaze88]

You likely don't have the ideal air flow setup to use the top-down area air cooler.
Really, these kinds of coolers need side intake:
The fan draws air from above it, pushes it down into the heatsink below, and the heat expands into all directions, of which there should be top and rear exhaust to pull it out.
But since solid windowed side panels are still 'in' these days, that hurts the first part regarding the function of TDA coolers.
Since there's no side intake, it's drawing in the exhaust from the gpu instead.

You need a tower air or hybrid cooler. I'm leaning more towards the tower air cooler though, because that chassis is not very airflow-friendly, and hybrid coolers are just as dependent on good airflow, if not more so, than air coolers are.
NH-U12S or NH-D15S would be nice.

 

[dchen2105]

So that's OK that I'm having 85c? And sometimes the game is loading with a black screen, like starting a cutscene and at this point, I have 95-97c for 2 seconds and then it goes back.

Oh, reaching 85c as your highest wouldn't be a big deal, but reaching 95c is. Stock cooler isn't great for higher end CPUs. As a temporary fix, you could undervolt(and consquently underclock) your CPU. This will lose some performance, but will lower temps. I'd recommend getting a tower cooler as a long term fix in the 30-45USD range. Cheaping out a little won't do you terribly, but since your already investing money into a new cooler, might as well get one for a few bucks more that will last longer, look nicer and do a better job of keeping your precious CPU cool.

 

[70marom]

Oh, reaching 85c as your highest wouldn't be a big deal, but reaching 95c is. Stock cooler isn't great for higher end CPUs. As a temporary fix, you could undervolt(and consquently underclock) your CPU. This will lose some performance, but will lower temps. I'd recommend getting a tower cooler as a long term fix in the 30-45USD range. Cheaping out a little won't do you terribly, but since your already investing money into a new cooler, might as well get one for a few bucks more that will last longer, look nicer and do a better job of keeping your precious CPU cool.

What will happen if I'll reach 95c? Cause sometimes I reach that for few seconds and then it's go back to 90 and 85.

 

[drea.drechsler]

What will happen if I'll reach 95c? Cause sometimes I reach that for few seconds and then it's go back to 90 and 85.

95C is what's called Tjmax, the max safe temp rated by AMD. All that happens is the processor will safety-throttle itself to get back to lower temps (which is probably what you're seeing). It's not immediately dangerous but running the processor at such a high temp constantly will reduce its service life much faster. It's best to keep temp in the 70's so that the processor can boost aggressively but running in the mid-80's is safe and very common under heavy processing loads.

But the thing is, gaming isn't a heavy processing load, especially not an 8 core Zen2. You definitely need to fix something with cooling. Getting even an expensive Noctua cooler won't help if it's still just sucking in the hot air from the GPU. The only way to fix that is adequate cross-flow ventilation to pull the hot air out of the case instead of just circulating it around with the fans on a tower cooler.

 

[Fiorezy]

Don't listen to anyone who tells you that 85c is okay for Ryzen or any other CPU. First at all the silicon is going to degrade faster with consistent high temps, also, 3rd gen Ryzen needs low temps to run higher clocks, in your case, you are experiencing 85c in gaming which is considered a low load task, in that case, you are going to experience much higher temps in high load tasks.

I own the 3700x and used to have high temps like you when I first installed it something like 98c on multicore and 85c gaming, so I did some adjustments to get much lower temps on stock cooler starting with locking the cooler itself using the lever, thus gave me ~10c degree less. The lever has to be like this when locked.

The next steps I did was cleaning my case fans, then I undervolted the CPU by 0.0750V which resulted in higher performance with less heat, and ofc I updated my BIOS to the latest version, installed AMD chipset and changed the power plan to AMD balanced, btw, if you want higher performance in single core tasks like gaming, install 1usmus power profile. There are other settings that I changed on BIOS and helped a lot with temps:

-Global C-state Control = Enabled
-Power Supply Idle Control = Low Current Idle
-CPPC = Enabled
-CPPC Preferred Cores = Enabled
-AMD Cool'n'Quiet = Enabled (not available in some mobos)
-PPC Adjustment = PState 0 (not available in some mobos)

By doing all of the above, my temps went down from 98c to 77c on multitasking and from 85c to 66c while gaming. Please note that the ambient temperature in my room was around 30c so you should expect better results in lower ambient temperature.

And last but not least, what is your case fans setup?

 

[70marom]

Don't listen to anyone who tells you that 85c is okay for Ryzen or any other CPU. First at all the silicon is going to degrade faster with consistent high temps, also, 3rd gen Ryzen needs low temps to run higher clocks, in your case, you are experiencing 85c in gaming which is considered a low load task, in that case, you are going to experience much higher temps in high load tasks.

I own the 3700x and used to have high temps like you when I first installed it something like 98c on multicore and 85c gaming, so I did some adjustments to get much lower temps on stock cooler starting with locking the cooler itself using the lever, thus gave me ~10c degree less. The lever has to be like this when locked.

The next steps I did was cleaning my case fans, then I undervolted the CPU by 0.0750V which resulted in higher performance with less heat, and ofc I updated my BIOS to the latest version, installed AMD chipset and changed the power plan to AMD balanced, btw, if you want higher performance in single core tasks like gaming, install 1usmus power profile. There are other settings that I changed on BIOS and helped a lot with temps:

-Global C-state Control = Enabled
-Power Supply Idle Control = Low Current Idle
-CPPC = Enabled
-CPPC Preferred Cores = Enabled
-AMD Cool'n'Quiet = Enabled (not available in some mobos)
-PPC Adjustment = PState 0 (not available in some mobos)

By doing all of the above, my temps went down from 98c to 77c on multitasking and from 85c to 66c while gaming. Please note that the ambient temperature in my room was around 30c so you should expect better results in lower ambient temperature.

And last but not least, what is your case fans setup?

I have 3 fans in the front and one in the rear.
My case is new.
I think I'll just buy an AIO...

 

[Fiorezy]

I have 3 fans in the front and one in the rear.
My case is new.
I think I'll just buy an AIO...

Don't buy anything yet, please do the adjustments first

 

[kurdtnz]

I was running a wraith prism on a 3600x and the best thing I ever did was buy a after market cooler. The constant ramping up and down on the prism was driving me crazy! It really can get pretty loud. I still have an air cooler but it's a tower type and you wouldnt even know it's spinning, plus temps have come right down and processer speed has gone up!

 

[Fiorezy]

I was running a wraith prism on a 3600x and the best thing I ever did was buy a after market cooler. The constant ramping up and down on the prism was driving me crazy! It really can get pretty loud. I still have an air cooler but it's a tower type and you wouldnt even know it's spinning, plus temps have come right down and processer speed has gone up!

Yeah an aftermarket cooler is always great but still, his temps with the wraith prism are not normal and he should get much lower temps, so I'm afraid he will still get high temps with an aftermarket cooler

 

[Phaaze88]

The biggest issue is likely the Antec NX600. It's potential for airflow SUCKS.
While 70marom would get better cpu thermals with a tower air or hybrid cooler, they won't be as good as they could be in a more airflow friendly chassis.
Cooling performance is only going to be as efficient from what the chassis allows.

Top-down area cooler + a 200w+ axial fan 2070 Super below it + airflow choked chassis...
The TDA cooler is mostly cooling on the 2070 Super's exhaust, so of course it's going to be bad. TDA coolers really need side intakes.

 

[dchen2105]

An AIO could do you some favors, since it won't rely on good case airflow. Generally, getting an AIO is unnecessary on even high end consumer chips. Would recommend doing the adjustments suggested above first. If my CPU was getting to even 82 degrees celsius, I would immediately look for a fix. This is just me, not how you need to do it btw. A stock cooler, even one as good as the AMD stock cooler is generally just barely good enough for keeping temps below 80C(under heavy load). Seems like an issue with the case, try to see if higher fan curves on case(and CPU cooler) can solve the issue as well. As long as it never and I mean NEVER reaches 85C, I'd consider it a win.