Question Games consistently crash after CPU swap

[Fynn Erman]

Recently swapped from a Ryzen 5 3600 to a Ryzen 7 5800 X in my PC. All of my drivers are fully updated (GPU, CPU, Audio), but games have been crashing at the same & even worse settings than before the CPU swap. I'm not blue screening, just the games are freezing up and crashing. Could it be a power issue? IE my power supply (550 W) cannot handle the new CPU? Or could it be overheating (I have barely any thermal paste on my CPU averaging around 80 C when checking bios after the crash.)

COMPUTER COMPONENTS:

Motherboard: B450 AORUS PRO WIFI
CPU: Ryzen 7 5800
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6600
Storage: Samsung SSD 980 Pro
Power Supply: Crossair 550 W
RAM: 32 GB (I forget brand)

 

[COLGeek]

What is the make/model of all installed components, especially the PSU and GPU?

Is your motherboard BIOS up to date?

Any overclocking (CPU, GPU, memory)?

80C isn't bad if temp under load (like when gaming). If that is at low or no load (idle) then that is too warm. What CPU cooler are you using?

 

[drivinfast247]

80°c in BIOS is not good!

 

[Fynn Erman]

What is the make/model of all installed components, especially the PSU and GPU?

Is your motherboard BIOS up to date?

Any overclocking (CPU, GPU, memory)?

80C isn't bad if temp under load (like when gaming). If that is at low or no load (idle) then that is too warm. What CPU cooler are you using?

GPU: XFX Speedster SWFT 210 Radeon RX 6600 CORE, 8GB GDDR, AMD RDNA 2
PSU: CV550 Corsair 550 W 80 Plus
CPU: Ryzen 7 5800 X
motherboard BIOS fully up to date (had to update motherboard before installing new CPU)
Nothing should be overclocked. I checked AMD Adrenaline and it says nothing is overclocked (I'll check bios but I'm pretty sure not).

I just have a normal CPU fan and no thermal paste on CPU

Checked bios again after a crash and the CPU was dropping from around 95 C, so I hope the situation is overheating because that would make my life so much easier.

 

[General_Cool]

no thermal paste on CPU

Umm...can't tell if you meant to say you just used the pre-applied paste from the cooler or if you genuinely mean you're not using thermal paste...

If my first assumption is correct...
1. Did you check to make sure the plastic film on the bottom of the heatsink was removed? (if it came with a film on it)
2. Remove the cooler, clean the heatsink and CPU IHS thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol (as close to 100% as possible to it vaporizes quickly) and reapply your own thermal paste, and make sure to be generous (not too generous). Be sure to apply even pressure while doing this. Please also let us know what model your CPU cooler is; it may not be sufficient for your new chip.

In the unfortunate scenario that my second assumption is correct...
I'm going to ask one question, and give a piece of advice.
Question: Do you understand how important thermal compound is and why it is used on every single PC component where a heatsink comes into contact with another?
Advice: Never touch the inside of a computer again! Please buy prebuilt systems or bring it to a PC shop to do the work for you properly and safely.

 

[DSzymborski]

Something definitely appears to be off with the temperatures. I'd reassemble the cooling solution step by step, carefully applying thermal paste (I am also hoping you meant that it was preapplied, not that you've avoided thermal paste at all).

The PSU is an extremely poor choice for this system -- it's an entry-level one of not particularly good quality -- but I'm not sure it's the cause here. If getting the cooling situated doesn't solve the issue, I'd certainly replace the PSU, but mainly because it should have been replaced under any and all circumstances.