[SOLVED] 9400F instantly jumping from 67ºC to 58ºC on games?

[TBlazeWarriorT]

So, I built my first PC a while ago, but as I started playing my first CPU-intensive game since then (Far Cry 3), things became a bit unstable, with usage spiking from 20% to 80% and my temperature once instantly jumped from 67ºC to 58ºC according to MSI Afterburner.

The spike isn't as quick on OpenHWMonitor, but still a little too big/fast (like 50 -> 55 -> 60 straight over ~3s, 10ºC in 3s doesn't sound great). Either it is too unstable or the readings aren't too accurate? The usage/temps look a bit more normal in other parts of the game.

My CPU mode is set to silent in the gigabyte smart fan 5 bios setting because default is a little too loud, but this might not be related, and I'm using the stock cooler. I accidentally touched the thermal paste while installing but it was just a little bit.

Here's a 10s video showing the spikes on Afterburner and OpenHardwareMonitor:

View: https://youtu.be/bM_cYEXntSc


It might be just normal and safe, specially since I doubt my CPU will go over 75-80ºC, but I wanted to check with you guys if my readings look safe enough to ignore and let it be. Thanks.

 

[Ziferous]

No doubt the stock cooler isn't the best quality, but it seems to be doing alright with the temperatures. A spike from 20% to 80% is a bit alarming. Do you know if you have any background applications or processes running? Since it is your first build, it is common for mistakes to occur. Make sure your CPU is installed correctly. If it isn't, just reseat it and you should have much more consistent usage/temps.

 

[TBlazeWarriorT]

No doubt the stock cooler isn't the best quality, but it seems to be doing alright with the temperatures. A spike from 20% to 80% is a bit alarming. Do you know if you have any background applications or processes running? Since it is your first build, it is common for mistakes to occur. Make sure your CPU is installed correctly. If it isn't, just reseat it and you should have much more consistent usage/temps.

So far, I only noticed weird spikes in Far Cry 3. Other games have run fine.
I had nothing running on the background, though Bitdefender was causing my computer to slowdown to the point where it crashes, so I had to uninstall it and the pc started working again. After that, I had just the very basics running, like Discord and firefox
I installed the cooler as well as I could. It actually came out accidentally due to being not properly attached while building, so I made sure it was firm afterwards, and checked the bottom of the motherboard to see if the black pins were all the way through. I don't think it can get any firmer.
I'll re-check my cpu usage and temps in Vampyr to make sure, but they looked stable there.

 

[TBlazeWarriorT]

No doubt the stock cooler isn't the best quality, but it seems to be doing alright with the temperatures. A spike from 20% to 80% is a bit alarming. Do you know if you have any background applications or processes running? Since it is your first build, it is common for mistakes to occur. Make sure your CPU is installed correctly. If it isn't, just reseat it and you should have much more consistent usage/temps.

I've tested it on minecraft now.
On multiplayer, temperature oscilates 40-45 with jumps of up to 5ºC and usage stays at 3-10%, very low usage.
On single player (where your CPU processes stuff, not an external server), I tried to intentionally force some CPU spikes (by changing between high and low render distance settings) and it had quite a few spikes indeed.

^ Notice some sharp increases and decreases in CPU temp, such as going from 61ºC to 46ºC very rapidly in a matter of seconds. This seems to be either sensor inaccuracy or because the CPU usage rapidly dropped, but it reflects that on the temperature a little bit too rapidly/sharply?

^ Those (or at least one of those) CPU spikes happened when I exploded a few hundred TNTs in the game. This freezes basically any computer, and keeping below 100% usage even then without freezing the game sounds ok to me. Other than that, it almost always ranged from 5 to 30% usage. End of the graph is on idle.

Idle readings (~2 min after pausing the game):

Lastly, intel's CPU diagnostic says my CPU is ok integrity-wise.

My CPU temp caps out at around 80ºC at stable 100% CPU usage, which is where I'd expect it to cap out at using the stock cooler, and is actually pretty stable when the CPU usage is also stable. It only ranges wildly when CPU usage also does, and CPU usage only seems to wildly range when games/benchmarks cause it to.
This makes me a bit more confident that it is just normal variance; I don't think I can do anything about it.

 

[Ziferous]

Does this problem occur with all programs? Perhaps it could be due to corrupt files.

 

[TBlazeWarriorT]

Does this problem occur with all programs? Perhaps it could be due to corrupt files.

all programs like MSI afterburner vs openhardwaremonitor? I only have these two
OpenHWMon displays my processor as a bit more stable than MSI
As of what causes the instability, so far I only noticed it significantly on far cry 3, quite a bit less on minecraft, and not at all when idle.
Everything on this pc is supposed to be new and updated, so I'd normally think they're not corrupt.

 

[mdd1963]

Temps jump commensurate with clock speed and core voltage and load...

A CPU can go from 1% load to 100% in a fraction of a second, and, from 38C to 68C just as quickly, and often do many times per second......

This is nothing to 'fix'...; it is normal.

 

[TBlazeWarriorT]

Temps jump commensurate with clock speed and core voltage and load...

A CPU can go from 1% load to 100% in a fraction of a second, and, from 38C to 68C just as quickly, and often do many times per second......

This is nothing to 'fix'...; it is normal.

That explains it, just wanted to make sure it was normal to be that quick. Being paranoid
Thank you