[SOLVED] My CPU is overheating while playing games! Help!

Jul 18, 2019
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Hello Everyone,

I built my first pc a couple months ago and everything has been running smoothly until recently when i experienced my first PC restart while playing a game. I just found out the red CPU light on my motherboard means that the CPU is VERY hot, I didn't know this and I've been playing like this for a while. The PC has been overclocked from the very beginning and everything was running perfectly. Now I get very small FPS stutters while playing games like fortnite and APEX. I tried to remove CPU cooler and reapply thermal paste, didn't notice any difference. I also cleaned the fans even though there's not much dust build up since the PC is fairly new, the only way to reduce the temperature while playing games is to disable turbo mode is BIOS, but when I do that, my games can't perform as well as they used to (240FPS + on games). not sure what to do at this point, I want to be able to overclock and not have any issues as I know my CPU should be able to handle it. my GPU temperature has never gone above 53 degrees whereas my CPU touches 90-100 degrees when playing games. If anyone could help, and advice what I should do that would be great.

My PC :
CPU - i7-9700k
GPU - EVGA GEFORCE RTX 2070 XC ULTRA GAMING
RAM - CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB PRO 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz
CASE - DarkFlash Phantom (has 6 case fans)
COOLER - Deepcool Gamerstorm Captain Pro 240
MOBO - Rog Strix Z-390E
POWER SUPPLY - EVGA 650 GQ
 
Solution
My recommendation is to hold on any upgrades.

If things did work for awhile then something, TBD, has gone astray.

Changing things (i.e., i9 CPU and cooler to NXT) may not be helpful per se as those changes will only introduce more variables.

And temperatures just go higher.

Go back. Stop overclocking even if that means losing games.

If your computer runs cooler and stays stable - good.

Then slowly ramp up on the OC. Determine if there is some threshold configuration that, once hit or passed, causes overheating and performance losses.

Could simply be that removing a few apps from startup could resolve the CPU overheating problem.

Look in Task Manager and Resource Monitor.

You need to methodically work through the various...

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
May fall into one of those "you can but you should not" categories.

Example: Yes I can run my Ford F-150 at 100+ mph and that will work - for awhile.....

The overclocking/turbo mode, etc. "requirement" may indeed be the issue.

Things to consider:

Quality of CPU thermal paste and the installation itself.

Are those six fans truly efficient and doing what is necessary to cool the CPU?

Can you verify that the CPU is able to handle some overclocking? And for how long? Is that timeline in the specs?

Another thought:

Take a look at the PSU. Do verify that the PSU is up to the wattage load being imposed.
 
Jul 18, 2019
3
0
10
May fall into one of those "you can but you should not" categories.

Example: Yes I can run my Ford F-150 at 100+ mph and that will work - for awhile.....

The overclocking/turbo mode, etc. "requirement" may indeed be the issue.

Things to consider:

Quality of CPU thermal paste and the installation itself.

Are those six fans truly efficient and doing what is necessary to cool the CPU?

Can you verify that the CPU is able to handle some overclocking? And for how long? Is that timeline in the specs?

Another thought:

Take a look at the PSU. Do verify that the PSU is up to the wattage load being imposed.

Noctua thermal paste, and the cooler is screwed on pretty tight.
I can feel the case fans, so I don't think they're a problem.
CPU has been overclocked for couple months now, and I've read other people with the same CPU do the same.

I'm thinking I may need to upgrade to i9 CPU and maybe change my liquid cooler to NXT
 

Ralston18

Titan
Moderator
My recommendation is to hold on any upgrades.

If things did work for awhile then something, TBD, has gone astray.

Changing things (i.e., i9 CPU and cooler to NXT) may not be helpful per se as those changes will only introduce more variables.

And temperatures just go higher.

Go back. Stop overclocking even if that means losing games.

If your computer runs cooler and stays stable - good.

Then slowly ramp up on the OC. Determine if there is some threshold configuration that, once hit or passed, causes overheating and performance losses.

Could simply be that removing a few apps from startup could resolve the CPU overheating problem.

Look in Task Manager and Resource Monitor.

You need to methodically work through the various configurations to identify some possible reason for the problem.

Once you can duplicate the problem at will then you will know the what is the cause.
 
Solution
Jul 18, 2019
3
0
10
My recommendation is to hold on any upgrades.

If things did work for awhile then something, TBD, has gone astray.

Changing things (i.e., i9 CPU and cooler to NXT) may not be helpful per se as those changes will only introduce more variables.

And temperatures just go higher.

Go back. Stop overclocking even if that means losing games.

If your computer runs cooler and stays stable - good.

Then slowly ramp up on the OC. Determine if there is some threshold configuration that, once hit or passed, causes overheating and performance losses.

Could simply be that removing a few apps from startup could resolve the CPU overheating problem.

Look in Task Manager and Resource Monitor.

You need to methodically work through the various configurations to identify some possible reason for the problem.

Once you can duplicate the problem at will then you will know the what is the cause.

thanks for the reply, will try this instead