Can't understand my CPU temps

[Julio Kirk]

Hello, this is my first time here at Tom's Hardware. I believe this site to be a nice place to ask my computer related questions; although I know a few things, sometimes I just want some help.

Anyway, what made me come here today were my CPU temps. I have a new computer that I built maybe three months ago. It's got one of these new AMD APUs, an A8 3870k, with integrated video and I constantly watch its temps, since I lost an old computer I had because of overheating.

So, my idle temps are normally between 10 and 15°C, when I'm browsing the internet they go to 20-30, and they never go over 51°C even when I'm playing games like Battlefield 3 or the latest BioShock. But today I noticed something very puzzling: I was just browsing the internet and listening to music and the cpu temps were between 43 and 45, and they won't go down! Right now, they're still high for no apparent reason and I can't track down the causes.

My question is: Why is this happening? What factors are responsible for elevating cpu temps?

Sorry for writing too much, and thanks.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Being an APU, graphics workloads will affect the CPU temperatures. Are you watching video, playing a game, or doing anything with the graphics?

Have you delved into Task Manager to see what your CPU utilization is at? There could be a task you are unaware of that is doing some work.

 

[Julio Kirk]

Being an APU, graphics workloads will affect the CPU temperatures. Are you watching video, playing a game, or doing anything with the graphics?

Have you delved into Task Manager to see what your CPU utilization is at? There could be a task you are unaware of that is doing some work.

I've watched some videos on YouTube a while ago, but the tab is closed now. Haven't played anything since I turned on the computer a few hours ago. I opened Task Manager and... I don't know very well, but guess nothing unusual is happening. The only "different" process is something related to Adobe Reader, "AcroRd32.exe", two instances of it actually.

 

[Julio Kirk]

Dammit, I closed the aforementioned process, AcroRd32, and the temps immediately fell back to 19-20!

What the hell... ?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Adobe has always written poorly behaved software. If you're interested, my PDF software of choice is Foxit Reader:

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/

Just be careful if you consider installing it that you don't install the extra crap that is being shoe horned into installers these days.

Looking forward to the day Flash is no longer a necessary evil.

On the plus side, glad you found the culprit! 🙂

 

[Julio Kirk]

Yes, guess it was really that Adobe process. And I guess the ambient temperature is also part responsible... it's probably 30°C now. But I must say: AMD has done a great job on these new processors...

Anyway, thanks for answering. =)

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

You're welcome! Glad when things work out!