[SOLVED] CPU (and GPU to a much lesser extent) overheating. Not sure what exactly is causing the problem.

Jul 2, 2020
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Hi everyone. I finished my current build back in May, but I just noticed a problem a few days ago.

My CPU temperatures from what I have seen online are way too high. Just typing this right now after playing Desperados 3 for a few, measured with Ryzen Master, it is hovering around the mid 70s(C) and occasionally jumps up to the 80s. This is an outlier though, as the last few days it has been in the low 60s a lot of the time at idle, which still seems a little too high. During gameplay of Desperados and Star Wars: Battlefront II, I have seen the temperatures go as high as the low 90s at its peak. However, over more testing is seems to stay pretty steadily in the mid-80s. The GPU is running pretty well, but seems maybe a few degrees warmer than it should be based on other peoples' results. It sometimes stays in the mid 70s, although I don't know what a reasonable expectation is for a 5700 XT as I know they run hot anyway. I don't know if this is related, but a crash today is what prompted me to seek help online. I was playing Desperados and letting steam download a game and all of a sudden with out warning both of my monitors went black and had no signal. My computer then started to boot up normally on its own. I got no blue Windows crash screen or anything at the beginning of the crash. It's like a reset button was hit on my computer. I wasn't monitoring temperatures at the time so I'm not sure if it could be related to that or not.

Yesterday, I planned to replace the stock AMD cooler with a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo I had laying around from my previous computer that I just hadn't used yet, but then I realized I couldn't use it with an AM4 socket, and it seems the upgrade kits have been discontinued. If I really wanted one, I'd have to pay the cost of a new cooler to have it shipped from their European store. So I chose to just get a new cooler instead, and it is on the way. I went ahead and reapplied thermal paste and put the stock fan back on in the meantime. I hoped that maybe this would help, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference. I figure my case should have pretty good airflow, and it is not dusty inside. One of my worries is that it's maybe the PSU, as I have been using this one for almost 5 years. I haven't noticed any other issues with it though, and I wasn't sure if components overheating was a symptom of an old PSU. I had never applied thermal paste before until yesterday, but I feel I did it correctly and with an appropriate amount (slightly larger than pea sized). If anyone has any insight as to what might be causing this it would be greatly appreciated, as I feel that even with the stock cooler I should be getting better temps than this as I do no overclocking.

Here are my specs:

Case: Corsair Crystal Series 570X RGB (from previous build)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: Sapphire Nitro + RX 5700 XT
RAM: 16 GB (2 x 8) Corsair Vengeance LPX, DDR4, 3200 MHz
PSU: EVGA Supernova 850 B2 (from previous build in 2015)


Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
Components overheating is a symptom of a whole slew of things: warm air entering and getting heated up and recirculated, inadequate airflow inside the case to evacuate the hot air, or not enough fans in general. Running two GPUs doesn't help your heat issue. That much is a given.

How are you with that case in terms of fans? Stock or have you added others? Ever tried to take off the front glass to improve intake air to see if it helps at all?

Your PSU is a good unit and I wouldn't worry about that. It's not that old and seeing it's a good quality unit, I don't see any need to replace it. I can't tell if there's a grating on the top of that PSU enclosure or not as far as my next question is concerned, so you'll have to help me in that...
Components overheating is a symptom of a whole slew of things: warm air entering and getting heated up and recirculated, inadequate airflow inside the case to evacuate the hot air, or not enough fans in general. Running two GPUs doesn't help your heat issue. That much is a given.

How are you with that case in terms of fans? Stock or have you added others? Ever tried to take off the front glass to improve intake air to see if it helps at all?

Your PSU is a good unit and I wouldn't worry about that. It's not that old and seeing it's a good quality unit, I don't see any need to replace it. I can't tell if there's a grating on the top of that PSU enclosure or not as far as my next question is concerned, so you'll have to help me in that regard. if it has grating, have you tried to turn the PSU upwards so it's drawing air from within the case and exhausting it rather than having it draw in from the bottom? Sometimes that helps as it creates an additional exhaust for you.

Getting rid of that stock HSF is a given. As for your application of paste, what you applied is likely fine.
 
Solution
Jul 2, 2020
2
0
10
Components overheating is a symptom of a whole slew of things: warm air entering and getting heated up and recirculated, inadequate airflow inside the case to evacuate the hot air, or not enough fans in general. Running two GPUs doesn't help your heat issue. That much is a given.

How are you with that case in terms of fans? Stock or have you added others? Ever tried to take off the front glass to improve intake air to see if it helps at all?

Your PSU is a good unit and I wouldn't worry about that. It's not that old and seeing it's a good quality unit, I don't see any need to replace it. I can't tell if there's a grating on the top of that PSU enclosure or not as far as my next question is concerned, so you'll have to help me in that regard. if it has grating, have you tried to turn the PSU upwards so it's drawing air from within the case and exhausting it rather than having it draw in from the bottom? Sometimes that helps as it creates an additional exhaust for you.

Getting rid of that stock HSF is a given. As for your application of paste, what you applied is likely fine.



I just finished installing the new cooler and it was definitely the main problem. I guess I overestimated the capability of the stock cooler even with no overclocking. Now I'm barely cracking 70 degrees in Cinebench, whereas before I was easily hitting 90. Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply.