AMD Athlon X4 860K Temperature - Overheating?

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tfitch11

tfitch11

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Oct 15, 2015
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Hello everyone, I'm new here. So here's what Ive got..

AMD Athlon X4 860K
MSI A88X-G45 GAMING ATX FM2+ Motherboard
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card
Enermax UCTVS12P-W 76.0 CFM 120mm Fan

So this is the first computer I have built myself and I'm concerned about the temperatures. Based off of the readings I've done, the temp shouldn't go over 60 degrees Celcius.

When I run MSI Command Center, I get a temperature of about 61 degrees celcius (that is right now, with only google chrome running, as I write this post)

I am concerned about overheating possibilities and if I did anything wrong or am overlooking something. Games that I play are not all too demanding, but include Diablo 3, Heroes of the Storm, and League of Legends.

Can someone please advise me if this temp is a normal temp for this processor? If not, can you also provide pointers on what I can do to troubleshoot? When i installed the CPU fan I used an incredibly thin layer of the thermal paste so I don't think that's the problem.

Thank you in advance.


 
Solution
clutchc
If you are getting accurate readings, that is too warm for a light load like that. APUs and their Athlon cousins are notorious for reporting flaky temp readings with 3rd party software, tho. Check the accuracy by running AMD Overdrive http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/over-drive
...and watch the Thermal Margin. TM is the distance left until the CPU throttles to save itself. TM will decrease as temp increases. I like to stay in double digits at peak CPU load.

But if the temps you are getting is correct, I suspect you have a cooler mounting problem. The 212 EVO can be tricky to get mounted correctly if you've never done it before. Make sure the x-bracket is on correctly and that...
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If you are getting accurate readings, that is too warm for a light load like that. APUs and their Athlon cousins are notorious for reporting flaky temp readings with 3rd party software, tho. Check the accuracy by running AMD Overdrive http://www.amd.com/en-us/innovations/software-technologies/technologies-gaming/over-drive
...and watch the Thermal Margin. TM is the distance left until the CPU throttles to save itself. TM will decrease as temp increases. I like to stay in double digits at peak CPU load.

But if the temps you are getting is correct, I suspect you have a cooler mounting problem. The 212 EVO can be tricky to get mounted correctly if you've never done it before. Make sure the x-bracket is on correctly and that all 4 mounting screws are turned all the way tight; bottomed out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYFUJKvL9js
 
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Solution



Thank you so much. I will download that as soon as I am home and post my results. I also thought it was too warm with that little of a load on it. Would the fact that I previously gamed on this before without any cooling on it have anything to do with it? Could my processor be damaged?

 
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Hard to say. Usually one core will go before all of them. But with the Piledriver architecture using 2 "cores" per module, and AMD only having a single temp sensor per CPU, it is impossible to tell. My hunch is that the 212 EVO mounting needs some attention or that the TIM is at fault. Or both.
 
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Ok so here's where I am with a fresh reboot and the computer doing nothing:
5MRWYQo.jpg



Thoughts?

OMG. I totally forgot to mention this.. So my boyfriend installed the 212 cooler on his computer the night before. The next day he went to do mine and did not remove the existing thermal paste from the stock CPU fan. He ended up applying way too much thermal paste for the 212 and as a result, thermal paste leaked out and got onto the CPU AND in the CPU slot on the motherboard. i was able to completely clean the CPU with 91% isopropyl alcohol and a child's toothbrush, very carefully, however some thermal paste remains on the acutal MB itself in the CPU slot. Would this be a huge factor?

 
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If your system is at idle state, the multiplier should not be at 42. Do you have it OC'ed? You must have C&Q disabled too. If OC'ed be sure to disable Turbo mode. But leave C&Q enabled. Considering the speed you have the CPU set to run at, the idle temp isn't that bad according to the thermal margin.

It will depend on the thermal paste (TIM) you used. If it was something like Arctic Silver 5, it is very electrically conductive and will short out any contacts in the socket. If it was a non-conductive TIM like MX-4, it is not a big issue as long as you got it all off the socket. The board itself is coated in a sealer that should keep the traces safe. Can't speak to any exposed solder points, however. Tell your boyfriend to read up on how to apply TIM in the future, or do it yourself.

Another point; if he just put new TIM over old TIM, I can almost guarantee that is hindering thermal transfer between CPU and heat sink. Clean both surfaces and start over with just a tiny dab the size of a used pencil eraser in the center of the CPU and let the pressure and heat from the heat sync spread it naturally. Too much TIM is worse than too little.
 
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No, it's not OC'd and I'm so sorry for my ignorance but I don't know what C&Q is... However I did just now redo everything he did. I used a soft bristle toothbrush on the socket and was able to get a LOT of the paste off. The paste that was in the socket was actually the paste that came with the 212 fan. So then I cleaned everything off to pristine conditions again and re-mounted everything. Used Arctic Silver 5 (the thinnest layer humanly possible- I put it on with a credit card. and now my thermal margins with no changes otherwise are at 44-45C so whatever I did made an improvement! And yes, initially he did put new TIM over the old TIM :\ Needless to say he won't be doing work on my PC going forward. Thank you so much for your help. This was my first post on this forum and I can't say how happy I am to find someone who was very pleasant to learn from.

sQfjrDG.jpg


Edit: I figured out what C&Q means. it was set to auto, but I went ahead and enabled it.
 
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Looks great. Btw, C&Q is shorthand for AMD's Cool and Quiet feature that keeps the fan at low RPM until needed by lowering the clock speed and voltage of the CPU. If it was enabled in BIOS, you would be getting even lower idle temps because the clock speed would be lower. And it appears turbo mode is on all the time for some reason. The normal idle freq. should only be 3700 MHz with a multiplier of 37. So if it were mine, I'd do some snooping around in BIOS and see if he set anything wrong. Turbo mode should only activate when needed. Not at idle.

Now to test the installation job you did by running the CPU at max load. Run the stress testing app in AOD and see that the TM stays within safe limits. You don't have to run it for the full length of time. Just long enough for the TM to stabilize at its lowest point. If you stay in the double digits, you are golden.
 
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One more question, I promise. So you brought attention to the normal idle frequency and how mine is 4200MHz as opposed to 3700 MHz. So i poked around in my BIOS and found this:

rnW2AbI.jpg


So my question now is how do I bring it down to 3700MHz? It does not allow me to edit the ratio or the frequency, as you can see. It also shows that the turbo mode is disabled.

My temps ended up rising again but I think that's just because my lack of proper ventilation. I ordered several more fans today so hopefully that shouldnt be an issue once they are in.

Again, thank you so much for your help.


Edit:

and now i'm really confused. When I opened up AMD Overdrive, I saw this:

AYSkdVI.png


So now the multiplier is 17.00, but it was fluctuating between 17 - 42. I dont understand this.


Edit again:

I found a setting in AMD overdrive where it allows me to specify the max multiplier. I set it to 37.
 
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Alrighty,, went into BIOS and disabled OC Genie.. Now check this out. I am getting this on the AMD COmmand center, fluctuations like this within seconds and not doing anything ont he computer itself

zMoAwwU.png



I kind of want to throw this over my balcony.
 
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There doesn't appear to be anything wrong. The computer is always doing stuff in the background. That's what you're seeing on those graphs.
And as far as the lower clock speed displayed, that is normal now too since Cool and Quiet is working. The CPU clock speed will only speed up as needed. If it doesn't need much to get the job done, it will run at lower speed. Saves you money on electricity, saves heat from sending your CPU to an early grave.

The high clocks on 2 cores (1 module) is because the system is running a single or double threaded instruction. Those threads are speeding up the clocks like they are supposed to. The 3.9 GHz is turbo mode running them faster than normal.

And the thermal Margins are good too.

All good.

Frequency 3700 MHz
Turbo frequency 4000 MHz
 
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Yay! Thank you! Afterwards, I went back into BIOS one more time and completely disabled turbo mode. I 've no need for it at this time and certainly lack the cooling for now :)

You have been a huge help! Much appreciated!
 
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There's really no need to disable turbo mode if you are not OC'ing. It will only come into play when less than all cores are loaded. As more cores become needed, turbo mode decreases its 'boost' until it is off. It will never increase the CPU temp beyond what would be normal TDP for the processor.
 
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OMG thanks so much. I have the exact same motherboard and processor and heat sink, I am also getting this problem. It's running at the same temperatures but I have the right amount of thermal paste. With the stock cooler it was terrible so I installed my old 212 evo. Except I didn't install the bottom bracket because the screws for my X thing were stuck on way too tight. It's at 50 degrees right now running at 3.5 GHZ. I set the highest to 3.5 GHz because at 3.7/3.8/3.9/4 it was overheating like crazy
 
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Are you running Win 10 by chance? Random question, but do you have random restarting issues?
 
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I solved the issue a long time ago. Basically I was a noob when it came to AMD back then because I was an Intel user and didn't know that on AMD Overdrive it tells you how many degrees you have until your pc reaches TJ Max... so I thought it was overheating while it was not. Now I have it running at 4.5GHZ on a Hyper 212 Evo and it is running borderline but yeah.
 
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