Question AMD Ryzen 7 2700x heats up to 80C.

[OverBobin]

I've resently bought myself a new pc and found out that CPU was starting to heat up when on heavy load. It stays around 30-40 C while idling with some programms running in the background. But when I try to run more demanding games it gets 75-80 C with some rare spikes up to 90 C while GPU stays around 65-70 C. I have stock coolers both on CPU and GPU as well as three fans on the tower (two in the front and one in the back). I didn't do manual overclocking. I used Ryzen Master, Core Temp and HWMonitor to get the temperatures (they all showed similar results).

My pc specs:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700x with Wraith Prism
Motherboard: ROG STRIX X470-F GAMING
Ram: Corsair DDR4-3000 16384MB PC4-24000Vengeance LPX
SSD: Samsung 860 QVO 1TB 2.5" SATA III V-NAND QLC
GPU: Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1080 Ti
PSU: 1200W AeroCool KCAS-1200М
Case: Zalman N2 (Black) Steel/Plastic, ATX, M-ATX, M-ITX Mid Tower
OS: Windows 10

My question is whether these temperatures are normal? And should I be updating my cooling system in case they are not?

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you run it with the case's side panel off, what do temperatures do then?

 

[OverBobin]

It does improve a little bit with side panel off. While the same game is running it stays somewhere around 68 C. When I run with CPU being 100% loaded in both cases it gets to 65 C and then slowly rises to 70 C (but a lot slower if the side panel is off).

 

[Darkbreeze]

Are all three case fans installed, and if they are, are they facing the correct direction as seen here? All three fans should be facing the front of the case. So if the front of the case is East, the fan blade side of each fan should also be facing East.

And, are all three case fans actually working? Have you assigned a profile for each fan in the BIOS, assuming each fan is connected to a fan header on your motherboard?

 

[OverBobin]

Yes, all fans are facing the right direction and all are working. I haven't assigned a profile to them. I've just checked my BIOS and they all are set to Standard mode.

 

[CosmicDance]

80c is quite hot and above average.
The CPU will thermal throttle at 85c to protect itself.

You have the same CPU and cooler as me.

Firstly - there is a switch on the cooler marked 'L/H'.
Put it to H as that is the High setting and it will spin up to 3700 RPM at max.

Next check your Standard fan curves in your BIOS that you are using.
I set a Manual one.
Roughly speaking I now use -

20% fan speed up to 55c
80% at 60c
100% at 75c

You can set yours higher if you like e.g. 100% at 65c.
It does get louder but keeps temperatures cooler.

If you are still getting high temps then try re-seating your cooler.
Too much or too little thermal paste makes a huge difference.
Mine came pre-coated with paste but I found the temps too high so I bought some decent thermal paste, cleaned the CPU off, used the dot in the middle about half the size of a pea method and tightened it.
Temps are now fine during heavy game with Battlefield V and the Division 2.

 

[OverBobin]

I switched to "H" a while ago, it did help, the CPU had been heating up even more before that.
I switched to Turbo curve and that doesn't seem to help much. I have a suspicion that there may be too much thermal paste, I'll have to check it since I wasn't the one to apply it.

 

[OverBobin]

Update: I've just checked, the CPU currently has original preapplied paste on it. Is it worth replacing it with new one? I've read on various threads that it should run fine with the stock paste.

 

[CountMike]

Update: I've just checked, the CPU currently has original preapplied paste on it. Is it worth replacing it with new one? I've read on various threads that it should run fine with the stock paste.

Not if it was mounted properly, there's only few degrees between best and worst paste.

 

[CosmicDance]

Personally I would clean the paste off and apply some fresh.
That way you will know the cooler is seated properly and doing its job.

If you still have high temps after doing that you can try a minus voltage offset on the CPU.
It's important to know the cooler is working efficiently really as an offset might not be needed.
The offset also won't help that much if the cooler is not seated properly.

There are some excellent tutorials on youtube showing you how to fit a cooler if you haven't done so before.
Cleaning the old stuff off is a delicate operation as you don't want to squeeze it over the sides of the CPU onto the motherboard.

Using an old credit card or thin plastic scraper that some thermal paste comes with you can carefully scrape up from the sides of the CPU onto the face to get the old paste off without it going where you don't want it.

Use alcohol cleaner to get it perfectly clean on both the cooler and CPU faces.
It's a good idea to do a practice fitting first with no thermal paste so you get a good feel for how the clips on the cooler grab the motherboard and then lock into place.

This way once you are ready to fix it permanently with the paste apllied you will find it a lot easier as some clips are a bit tricky to hook/unhook without sliding the cooler around too much.

Once you are used to this hooking of the clips take it off, apply your paste using your chosen method then clip it together permanently.

You get enough thermal paste in the small tubes to seat a cooler many times over so you have plenty of flexibility if it is tricky ir the the first time you have attempted it.
It's a straightforward process though.

 

[OverBobin]

Thanks for the detailed answer. I might try doing that.
Do you play with 4k or 1080p resolution? It seems like it starts heating up less when I reduce resolution and graphical settings. My doubts vere that stock cooling isn't powerfull enough for 4k gaming.

 

[CosmicDance]

You are welcome.
I have found these forums to be absolutely fantastic with some excellent helpful people.

Another couple of things to try -

make sure you are using Windows Balanced Power Plan and not High Performance as that runs the CPU flat out without letting it down clock.

In your BIOS try setting your PBO Precision Boost Overdrive to Auto.
On my Asus B450 motherboard if I do this it gives a lower noost but much lower temperatures.
I use Enabled to bypass the default settings hence me using a voltage offset as I get a much higher boost.
Each motherboard is set up differently.

When you game at 4K you are more GPU dependent and will find the CPU working less.

The stock cooler is fine for gaming at all redolutions.
I run at 4K gaming mostly - Battlefield V at mostly Ultra settings and GTA V at mostly Very High.
The Division 2 is 1440p for me with High and Ultra settings as my RTX 2070 won't stretch to 4K for this.

I have also tried them all at 1080p without any real temperature rise on the CPU or GPU so they both handle it fine at this resolution.

In Battlefield V at 4K the CPU's 8 cores range from around 35-45% usage.

Your GTX 1080 Ti outclasses my RTX 2070 so you will get better performance at 4K which is handled more by your GPU.

I use MSI Afterburner and have the OSD showing GPU, CPU temps, % usage, MHZ and fan speed while testing hardware for performance and maximum settings.

 

[OverBobin]

Would it help if I disabled Precision Boost Overdrive entirely? Is it why my clock speeds sometimes go up to 4.2GHz? And that's when temperatures rise in most cases.

 

[CosmicDance]

Try Auto as that uses the motherboard's values with lower voltages.

You can disable it to lower voltages but it won't boost past the base 3.7 GHZ then.