[SOLVED] CPU Running Top Hot?!

[StoneHardMagic]

My CPU is the Intel Xeon E3-1240v5 and it usually idles around 30-45°C (usually more towards the cooler side) but when I launch a game like Minecraft the CPU jumps to 80% usage and 80°C then it cools down to like 5% usage and 50°C. When I'm in a game however, when I'm running and jumping the CPU will sometimes jump to 30% usage and jump to 70°C. These temperatures seem rather high for these usage levels, are they? If they are let me know if you have any ideas of what might be causing this. Thank you!

 

[gn842a]

60 to 70 degrees is pretty normal for an intense game you can simulate some of these stresses with a bench mark like Unigine Superposition. (Start with medium setting and work your way up).

The real issue is what you're using for a cooler. I'm very partial to the Noctua and am not alone in that view, it actually beat some water cooled systems in a Linustech test.

There are less expensive options. There are lots of videos about how to install an aftermarket cooler.

85 c is getting to be a bit high. The other element of keeping your cpu cool is making sure you have air flowing into and out of the case. Eight inch fans are a good idea assuming you have the appropriate openings, one for intake one for exhaust. My CPU runs at 35C when just surfing the net and the GPU runs mid 50s. GPUs have their own fans. The GPU, not the CPU, is typically what gets hottest fastest.

Greg N

 

[Karadjgne]

Usage is very deceiving if you look at the total. Instead look at individual core use. A core at 50% will be a lot cooler than a core at 80%, just based on workload and voltages. So for examples sake, say a core runs 10°C for 10%.
The game isn't the only thing running, there's also windows, Antivirus and all the other stuff in background, sometimes heavier, sometimes lighter.

The math. 4 cores, each running 50%. That's 50+50+50+50 = 200 /4 = 50% loads. Highest temp 50°C.

Run the game limited to 2 cores and you'll get 80+80+20+20 = 200 /4 = 50% usage, highest temp 80°C

Same total usage, quite different temps. Very rough scenario, but that's the gist of it.

So it's not so much about total usage as to how it's applied. If that minecraft is using very high amounts of single core and not split up over 4 cores or even all 8 threads, you'll see high temps, but that temp is a single number representing the highest, not average and not individual core usage.

 

[geofelt]

What is your cooler?
What is the make/model of your case?
Any cooler needs a good source of fresh air to let it do it's job.

Your temperatures are not out of line.
The throttle point is around 100c. and running at 85c during a benchmark is ok.
Monitor with HWmonitor which will tell you the current, min and max cou temperatures.
If you see 100c. max then it is likely that throttling has occurred.

As to cpu utilization, yes, that can be confusing.

Be careful how you interpret task manager cpu utilizations.
Windows will spread the activity of a single thread over all available threads to reduce individual core heat buildup.
Although, I think windows may adjust this if it detects a single threaded application.
So, if you had a game that was single threaded and cpu bound, it would show up on a quad core processor as 25%
utilization across all 4 threads.
leading you to think your bottleneck was elsewhere.
It turns our that few games can usefully use more than 2-3 threads.
How can you tell how well threaded your games or apps are?
One way is to disable one thread and see how you do.

You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
If you see little difference, it tells you that you will not benefit from more cores.
Likely, a better clock rate will be more important.