How does thermal margin relate to Temps?

KyleRaino

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Nov 7, 2016
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My new AMD athlon x4 880k is running at 83°c under stress test, and amd overdrive says my thermal margin is 37°c is that bad ? My Temps are quite bad but that's a whole other issue, I am using stock cooler btw
 
Solution
No.....well, not exactly.

AMD measure things slightly different, measuring more of a safe zone.

It maxes at 70'C, so in theory, you're 70'C - 37'C = 33'C. In practice though, the temp readings come from a different area of the chip and I believe there's a bit of a 'buffer'.

Your CPU is probably truly in the ~55'C range if you wanted to compare (somewhat) directly to Intels way of measuring, but with the way AMD monitor, you'll never know for sure, as TM is the only accurate method.

How does your TM look after "a while" of playing? Unless it's near 10'C or less, it's unlikely to be thermal throttling.

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Most monitoring software can't actually capture AMD temps correctly.

Thermal Margine is essentially 'degrees until you shutdown'.

37'C is "37'C until 0'C, at which point the system will shut down". Throttling occurs usually around 10'C or high single digits.

37'C TM is a very good TM, especially on the stock cooler!
 

Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator


Thermal margin is the difference between the max temp of the CPU and 0. So in overdrive for example 37, is good. 10 however is hot, 5 is bad, you will likely hit some throttling. 0 you WILL throttle..
 

KyleRaino

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Nov 7, 2016
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so my temps arent actually 84 celcius? i swear ive noticed (light but still their) throttling on games like gta 5 after a while of playing
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
No.....well, not exactly.

AMD measure things slightly different, measuring more of a safe zone.

It maxes at 70'C, so in theory, you're 70'C - 37'C = 33'C. In practice though, the temp readings come from a different area of the chip and I believe there's a bit of a 'buffer'.

Your CPU is probably truly in the ~55'C range if you wanted to compare (somewhat) directly to Intels way of measuring, but with the way AMD monitor, you'll never know for sure, as TM is the only accurate method.

How does your TM look after "a while" of playing? Unless it's near 10'C or less, it's unlikely to be thermal throttling.
 
Solution

KyleRaino

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Nov 7, 2016
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the same, i guess im hallucinating, is my cpu at a safe temp then ?