[SOLVED] Ryzen 9 3900X hits 80°C+ while playing Wolfenstein The New Colossus

[Flame1]

So when I launched Wolfenstein The New Colossus I noticed that my fans ramped up and became quite loud, so I checked the temps and saw that my CPU usage is jumping around 40% and the temperature is around 67°C however it kept on jumping for a second to much higher temperatures, I even saw it hit 88°C at one point, then after 5 more minutes I got a Blue screen, when my pc restarted I went into bios and changed the cpu voltage from auto (at auto it was showing 1.46v) to 1.3v. I am not sure if lowering the core voltage will prevent another bsod, however the temps still seem to be insanely high so I recorded a short clip to show what's going on, please see the link:

View: https://youtu.be/J2T5viSJLM8

(it was recorded with shadowplay, my temps are exactly the same when not recording)

Also, my cpu idles on desktop at ~4Ghz even when I close all the background apps, cpu usage is only ~3% and idle temps jump around from 45-55°C. I'm on the Ryzen Balanced Power Plan.

I'm using Asus Crosshair VIII Hero Motherboard and NZXT kraken X62 280mm AIO.

 

[Darkbreeze]

How old is your cooler?

 

[Phaaze88]

Does it only happen in that game? You need to run more samples, not just Wolfenstein.
It helps to narrow down the causes if you can reproduce the issue or not with other samples.
Also, restore the cpu to before you fixed the core voltage when running those other titles.

There should've been an error message with the BSOD - do you remember what it was? For example:
IRQL-NOT-LESS-OR-EQUAL
MACHINE-CHECK-EXCEPTION
KERNEL-SECURITY-CHECK-FAILURE

*Sees Cpu-Z link
How do you have the cooler set up in your chassis?
By chance, is it set up as top exhaust, so that not only is it dealing with the 3900X, but also the heat from a 450w 3090 also passing through it?
What is the chassis make and model? Does it allow air in and out effectively?

 

[Flame1]

How old is your cooler?

I bought this cooler around September 2019.

 

[Flame1]

Does it only happen in that game? You need to run more samples, not just Wolfenstein.
It helps to narrow down the causes if you can reproduce the issue or not with other samples.
Also, restore the cpu to before you fixed the core voltage when running those other titles.

There should've been an error message with the BSOD - do you remember what it was? For example:
IRQL-NOT-LESS-OR-EQUAL
MACHINE-CHECK-EXCEPTION
KERNEL-SECURITY-CHECK-FAILURE

*Sees Cpu-Z link
How do you have the cooler set up in your chassis?
By chance, is it set up as top exhaust, so that not only is it dealing with the 3900X, but also the heat from a 450w 3090 also passing through it?
What is the chassis make and model? Does it allow air in and out effectively?

I can't remember the BSOD error code, I'm gonna try to get that to happen again and take note that time.
It seems to only be happening in Wolfenstein, In Horizon Zero Dawn under 99% GPU load at max settings 1440p and around 30~40% cpu usage I was getting 60-74°C (It's mostly 60-63°C but whenever the cpu boosts it spikes up to over 70°C)
Aside from that I've played Red Dead Redemption 2 but it was the same as with Horizon, I ran all those games for about 15min and the only game that pushed my cpu over 80°C is Wolfenstein, it ran at least 10°C hotter than any of the other games I played. I've also been playing in VR for 4-5h straight and the temps were pretty much the same as in Horizon and Red dead.
Currently, I am using the Lian-Li O11 Dynamic XL with 7 corsair LL120 fans as well as the 2 140mm nzxt fans mounted on the radiator.
Here's a rough sketch of how I have the fans set up:

https://imgur.com/koUh36Y

View: https://imgur.com/koUh36Y

At the time I was doing research it was said that the best possible fan setup is this but with the 3 centre fans as intake instead of exhaust, however I went with exhaust because it simply looked much better, the LLs are quite ugly on the other side.
The weird thing I noticed is that in those other games, the CPU goes down to around 60°C before it boosts again and spikes up to around 70°C, with Wolfenstein it's like it doesn't care that it hits over 80°C when it boosts and keeps doing so spiking the temps higher and higher, as you saw on the video where the temp spiked up to 84°C right at the end (that was only about 10min into the game too). I don't feel comfortable with either cpu or gpu running at over 75°C.

 

[drea.drechsler]

So when I launched Wolfenstein The New Colossus I noticed that my fans ramped up and became quite loud, so I checked the temps and saw that my CPU usage is jumping around 40% and the temperature is around 67°C however it kept on jumping for a second to much higher temperatures, I even saw it hit 88°C at one point, then after 5 more minutes I got a Blue screen, when my pc restarted I went into bios and changed the cpu voltage from auto (at auto it was showing 1.46v) to 1.3v. I am not sure if lowering the core voltage will prevent another bsod, however the temps still seem to be insanely high so I recorded a short clip to show what's going on, please see the link:

View: https://youtu.be/J2T5viSJLM8

(it was recorded with shadowplay, my temps are exactly the same when not recording)

Also, my cpu idles on desktop at ~4Ghz even when I close all the background apps, cpu usage is only ~3% and idle temps jump around from 45-55°C. I'm on the Ryzen Balanced Power Plan.

I'm using Asus Crosshair VIII Hero Motherboard and NZXT kraken X62 280mm AIO.

Ryzen spikes temps as cores boost and the in-game monitoring might be showing the spikes. Those temp spikes aren't really significant as they're just a small area of the CPU and short duration.

I'd check temp using HWInfo64 in the background at the same time. Make a screen graph of the AVERAGE CPU temperature readings to see the true thermal state. That's what you want to pay attention too.

 

[Phaaze88]

At the time I was doing research it was said that the best possible fan setup is this but with the 3 centre fans as intake instead of exhaust, however I went with exhaust because it simply looked much better, the LLs are quite ugly on the other side.

Unfortunately, the bottom is where airflow in the O11 Dynamic/XL is weakest, unless you brute force it with some very loud fans... the LL120s aren't very good fans down there, except with the 2200rpm version.
At the moment, you've got no real cool air going to that 280mm. It's keeping cool mostly on the liquid flow.


If it only gets that high in Wolfenstein, and not Horizon: ZD or RDR2, then it's probably AVX running in the former.

 

[Redneck5439]

If it were me I would start with adding a couple of intake cooling fans in the front of your case if possible. It will bring in a lot more cool air and help keep all of your components cool. I would also suggest getting some compressed air and giving your whole system a good cleaning (make sure to clean any dust filters you have too). Dust kills computers. If you are comfortable with it I would suggest taking your radiator off and really blowing it out good with compressed air, take the mounting off your processor, remove the old thermal paste (rubbing alcohol) and replace it with quality thermal paste then remount everything. If you have never cleaned the system with compressed air you are in for a surprise for how dusty everything gets. I usually take the glass side plate off my system once a week and give it a good compressed air cleaning.

If you are still having overheating issues it could actually be a hardware breakdown with your AIO. AIOs have several areas of failure from gunk buildup of the coolant to pump failures. For that reason I usually recommend building with a good quality air cooling solution like the NH-D15, NH-U14S, Dark Rock Pro 4, ect... These air coolers will give the same cooling performance as your Kraken AIO without nearly as many points of failure.

After getting your heat issues under control I would recommend setting the Vcore to either auto or unvolting it using a negative offset. A lot of times a negative offset undervolt will result in better PBO boosting behavior, but setting the Vcore at 1.3V is going to have a negative effect on your single core boosts while using PBO.

 

[Flame1]

Unfortunately, the bottom is where airflow in the O11 Dynamic/XL is weakest, unless you brute force it with some very loud fans... the LL120s aren't very good fans down there, except with the 2200rpm version.
At the moment, you've got no real cool air going to that 280mm. It's keeping cool mostly on the liquid flow.


If it only gets that high in Wolfenstein, and not Horizon: ZD or RDR2, then it's probably AVX running in the former.

If it were me I would start with adding a couple of intake cooling fans in the front of your case if possible. It will bring in a lot more cool air and help keep all of your components cool. I would also suggest getting some compressed air and giving your whole system a good cleaning (make sure to clean any dust filters you have too). Dust kills computers. If you are comfortable with it I would suggest taking your radiator off and really blowing it out good with compressed air, take the mounting off your processor, remove the old thermal paste (rubbing alcohol) and replace it with quality thermal paste then remount everything. If you have never cleaned the system with compressed air you are in for a surprise for how dusty everything gets. I usually take the glass side plate off my system once a week and give it a good compressed air cleaning.

If you are still having overheating issues it could actually be a hardware breakdown with your AIO. AIOs have several areas of failure from gunk buildup of the coolant to pump failures. For that reason I usually recommend building with a good quality air cooling solution like the NH-D15, NH-U14S, Dark Rock Pro 4, ect... These air coolers will give the same cooling performance as your Kraken AIO without nearly as many points of failure.

After getting your heat issues under control I would recommend setting the Vcore to either auto or unvolting it using a negative offset. A lot of times a negative offset undervolt will result in better PBO boosting behavior, but setting the Vcore at 1.3V is going to have a negative effect on your single core boosts while using PBO.

Thank yall. So i'll rotate the 3 side fans to be intake instead of exhaust and give it all a good clean, replace the thermal paste and afterwards just set the voltage back to auto and see if there's an improvement. Once I have spare time and get done with everything i'll report back. Thanks a lot for the suggestions.
Is there any good brands that you recommend for compressed air? I was looking to order some on amazon but they all have bad reviews and complaints saying that they spray a lot of water which is kinda scary if I'm gonna use it to clean my pc.
Also I'm sorry but I have no clue what AVX is :/

 

[Redneck5439]

Thank yall. So i'll rotate the 3 side fans to be intake instead of exhaust and give it all a good clean, replace the thermal paste and afterwards just set the voltage back to auto and see if there's an improvement. Once I have spare time and get done with everything i'll report back. Thanks a lot for the suggestions.
Is there any good brands that you recommend for compressed air? I was looking to order some on amazon but they all have bad reviews and complaints saying that they spray a lot of water which is kinda scary if I'm gonna use it to clean my pc.
Also I'm sorry but I have no clue what AVX is :/

Yep, I've got a great suggestion:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SI67YRU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Its a little pricey, but its totally amazing!! I use it to clean out air filters on my truck, clean all my power saws, clean my computer, blow up exercise balls for the wife, inner tubes for the kids for water play or sledding... You can also use it to power clean televisions, monitors, really any electronics. It really is a total investment that has a ton of applications. Had mine over a year and a half of heavy use and still works like brand new. Definitely won't have to worry about it spraying any water

 

[Phaaze88]

Is there any good brands that you recommend for compressed air? I was looking to order some on amazon but they all have bad reviews and complaints saying that they spray a lot of water which is kinda scary if I'm gonna use it to clean my pc.

I used compressed air cans for a couple years, and eventually gave up on them: huge money sink for a whole lot of nothing.
-you have to hold them straight up, or liquid gets expelled instead.
-the pressure quickly falls, even if you just do quick bursts of a couple seconds, forcing you to switch to another can.
-the can 'freezes up' as the above happens. You can hurt yourself with them, via frostbite, if you're not careful.

Simply wash and rinse your radiators and mesh out with some soap and warm water, rinse, and dry with a hair dryer or something.
Fans can be wiped by hand - don't dip them in water, please.

Also, screw those electric computer dusters: that's the same gimmicky BS as the cans.
You already have the tools you need to clean these things. Spend your money on things you actually need.

Also I'm sorry but I have no clue what AVX is :/

AVX: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Vector_Extensions
1)There's AVX, AVX2, and AVX-512, the last of which is Intel only, but has the stupidest power and thermal demands of them all. It is the fastest, but isn't widely used - definitely not used in games.
2)At the same frequencies, they are faster than the standard SSE instructions that cpus normally run.
3)They have higher power and voltage demands than SSE, which leads to higher operating thermals.
4)AVX and AVX2 didn't have much presence in games of old. That'll obviously change as time goes on. Some of those overclockers will get a nice wake up call when their 5.0ghz OCs are no longer thermally acceptable...

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, you had the radiator set to be exhaust instead of intake, or am I misunderstanding?

As far as the dust and such is concerned, anybody who owns a computer and is serious about trying to keep it clean inside should seriously consider getting SOME kind of air compressor.

You can get a 3 gallon compressor from harbor freight, and certainly places like Walmart or Amazon having comparable deals, and that should be plenty for blowing out your rig. Just be sure to not blow continuously so you don't "frost" anything.

Buying five cans of compressed air costs as much as buying a compressor, one time, that will last you years and years AND will be useful for other things too.

 

[Phaaze88]

Buying five cans of compressed air costs as much as buying a compressor, one time, that will last you years and years AND will be useful for other things too.

Welp, that's one place I went too cheap on...

 

[Redneck5439]

I used compressed air cans for a couple years, and eventually gave up on them: huge money sink for a whole lot of nothing.
-you have to hold them straight up, or liquid gets expelled instead.
-the pressure quickly falls, even if you just do quick bursts of a couple seconds, forcing you to switch to another can.
-the can 'freezes up' as the above happens. You can hurt yourself with them, via frostbite, if you're not careful.

Simply wash and rinse your radiators and mesh out with some soap and warm water, rinse, and dry with a hair dryer or something.
Fans can be wiped by hand - don't dip them in water, please.

Also, screw those electric computer dusters: that's the same gimmicky BS as the cans.
You already have the tools you need to clean these things. Spend your money on things you actually need.


AVX: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Vector_Extensions
1)There's AVX, AVX2, and AVX-512, the last of which is Intel only, but has the stupidest power and thermal demands of them all. It is the fastest, but isn't widely used - definitely not used in games.
2)At the same frequencies, they are faster than the standard SSE instructions that cpus normally run.
3)They have higher power and voltage demands than SSE, which leads to higher operating thermals.
4)AVX and AVX2 didn't have much presence in games of old. That'll obviously change as time goes on. Some of those overclockers will get a nice wake up call when their 5.0ghz OCs are no longer thermally acceptable...

I can't attest to other electric computer dusters. I did a lot of research before buying the one I linked and liked it so much I've stopped using my 5gallon compressor and exclusively use it for cleaning out my computer. as far as moving air it does a really great job, blows hard enough to clean the big air filters in my 7.3 diesel and tractors. Keeps my computer super clean as I do a quick air cleaning about once a week, just blow everything out and put the side cover back on. Once every few months then I'll spend extra time and really do a deep cleaning. When I was using the 5 gallon compressor it took several minutes for it to "fill" and build pressure and I would typically have 20 seconds of full burst before the compressor would kick back on and it was already loosing pressure. The 5 gallon was really loud and drove my wife nuts, so the little electric blower has been totally ideal. Doesn't loose pressure, can use it in the house (I have a large farm compressor in my barn but taking my computer to the barn for cleaning just really feels counter productive) the electric duster just does a great job. As Darkbreeze said though, cleaning is extremely important and investing in a good air cleaning system is a very good idea.

 

[Phaaze88]

I can't attest to other electric computer dusters. I did a lot of research before buying the one I linked and liked it so much I've stopped using my 5gallon compressor and exclusively use it for cleaning out my computer. as far as moving air it does a really great job, blows hard enough to clean the big air filters in my 7.3 diesel and tractors. Keeps my computer super clean as I do a quick air cleaning about once a week, just blow everything out and put the side cover back on. Once every few months then I'll spend extra time and really do a deep cleaning. When I was using the 5 gallon compressor it took several minutes for it to "fill" and build pressure and I would typically have 20 seconds of full burst before the compressor would kick back on and it was already loosing pressure. The 5 gallon was really loud and drove my wife nuts, so the little electric blower has been totally ideal. Doesn't loose pressure, can use it in the house (I have a large farm compressor in my barn but taking my computer to the barn for cleaning just really feels counter productive) the electric duster just does a great job. As Darkbreeze said though, cleaning is extremely important and investing in a good air cleaning system is a very good idea.

I know some of those electric dusters are garbage - just can't tell which ones. Also can't trust the reviews, ¯\(ツ)/¯

Soap and warm water has been working fine for me for the past few months, so I don't know if I need to bother with a small compressor now...

 

[Redneck5439]

I know some of those electric dusters are garbage - just can't tell which ones. Also can't trust the reviews, ¯\(ツ)/¯

Soap and warm water has been working fine for me for the past few months, so I don't know if I need to bother with a small compressor now...

I work with a lot of different computer systems... In my area I ended up being "that guy" that if you have an issue with electronics you bring it to me... Eventually I just started a side business of it... My farm is "unique" as I have a "man cave" in the house where I fix and build custom computers, I also farm (mainly premium grade hay) and I also board and train horses, and make training videos... I guess I'm not a typical IT type person...

I have washed heat sinks and fans with warm water and soap, however its usually when I'm working on a very old or very neglected system and it is really disgusting. The downside is those components have to be physically removed from the system, then have to dry totally before they can be trusted back into the system. I usually let heat sinks, radiators, fans dry for a couple days before putting them back into a system, which is one reason I very rarely do that. The electric blower is great for the vast majority of systems that only have normal dust, nothing has to be removed (unless really dirty), and as soon as the system is reassembled / covers put back on it can be powered back on right away, no drying time...

I wouldn't recommend that electric duster without first hand knowledge and experience with it. I have two of them, one at my farm and I bought one for my mother (she has several of those electric space heaters and one that looks like a fireplace, works great to clean those things out and keep them running right). I have had great success with this particular duster and highly recommend it. With that said there are a lot of electric dusters on the market that are pure garbage, but this one is amazing.

 

[Flame1]

Yep, I've got a great suggestion:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SI67YRU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Its a little pricey, but its totally amazing!! I use it to clean out air filters on my truck, clean all my power saws, clean my computer, blow up exercise balls for the wife, inner tubes for the kids for water play or sledding... You can also use it to power clean televisions, monitors, really any electronics. It really is a total investment that has a ton of applications. Had mine over a year and a half of heavy use and still works like brand new. Definitely won't have to worry about it spraying any water

Okay, I can give this a go. Thing is I had something like that and was using it to clean my pc a lot until about 3 months ago when I plugged it in, pulled the trigger, saw a spark and could feel something burning inside of it, I was lucky that I wasn't near my pc when I did that. It was really scary.

 

[Flame1]

So, you had the radiator set to be exhaust instead of intake, or am I misunderstanding?

As far as the dust and such is concerned, anybody who owns a computer and is serious about trying to keep it clean inside should seriously consider getting SOME kind of air compressor.

You can get a 3 gallon compressor from harbor freight, and certainly places like Walmart or Amazon having comparable deals, and that should be plenty for blowing out your rig. Just be sure to not blow continuously so you don't "frost" anything.

Buying five cans of compressed air costs as much as buying a compressor, one time, that will last you years and years AND will be useful for other things too.

Yeah my radiator is on the top and the fans on it are exhausting the air (please see the picture I posted earlier with my full fan config). If I put the fans on the top of my case as intake people will burn me alive 😬

 

[Phaaze88]

If I put the fans on the top of my case as intake people will burn me alive 😬

I, at least, wouldn't burn you for it, but know that top intake can work - in specific scenarios. Gpu cooler is:
-blower/turbo
-custom liquid
-hybrid
The other air cooled gpus: ❌

 

[Flame1]

I, at least, wouldn't burn you for it, but know that top intake can work - in specific scenarios. Gpu cooler is:
-blower/turbo
-custom liquid
-hybrid
The other air cooled gpus: ❌

I'm using the Msi Suprim X model so it's a big no for me I guess

 

[Darkbreeze]

Soap and warm water has been working fine for me for the past few months, so I don't know if I need to bother with a small compressor now...

Done right, this will always be the best method, given that there'll be a sufficient drying allowance. For quick and easy, but still pretty thorough, it's really hard to beat a decent air compressor so long as you are wise enough to not frost things.

However, even given the washing, following that with air is a really good extra step so it's hard to ever see that as a bad investment. One drop of ignored moisture can cause 5000 dollars worth of damage in about 1ms.

 

[Flame1]

Yep, I've got a great suggestion:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SI67YRU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Its a little pricey, but its totally amazing!! I use it to clean out air filters on my truck, clean all my power saws, clean my computer, blow up exercise balls for the wife, inner tubes for the kids for water play or sledding... You can also use it to power clean televisions, monitors, really any electronics. It really is a total investment that has a ton of applications. Had mine over a year and a half of heavy use and still works like brand new. Definitely won't have to worry about it spraying any water

I, at least, wouldn't burn you for it, but know that top intake can work - in specific scenarios. Gpu cooler is:
-blower/turbo
-custom liquid
-hybrid
The other air cooled gpus: ❌

Done right, this will always be the best method, given that there'll be a sufficient drying allowance. For quick and easy, but still pretty thorough, it's really hard to beat a decent air compressor so long as you are wise enough to not frost things.

However, even given the washing, following that with air is a really good extra step so it's hard to ever see that as a bad investment. One drop of ignored moisture can cause 5000 dollars worth of damage in about 1ms.

First of all sorry for all the quoting, I don't know how to reply to people without it.

I had some spare time today and I've received that air blower from amazon which Redneck5439 recommended so I cleaned my pc, saw quite a bit of Dust come out from the radiator, I rotated the side fans to be intake instead of exhaust and I have tightened the screws a little on the cpu. I was supposed to replace the thermal paste, but it won't come until 2 weeks from now. The last time I replaced thermal paste was 8 months ago (Kryonaut) which was when I had to replace my previous motherboard. While I was at it, I also updated the bios to the latest one, then I just put all my bios settings back on like xmp on the memory and made sure that the voltages are all on the default (auto) just like they were when I had that bluescreen in Wolfenstein.

When I first booted into windows, I went into task manager and saw that the CPU is STILL idling at 4.1-4.2Ghz on the Ryzen Balanced power plan, even when I turn off all the background apps and switch power plans to the normal windows balanced power plan the cpu is still sitting at 4.1-4.2Ghz. Idle cpu usage was still around 3% and idle temp was sitting at 45°C. I'm not sure if that's normal anymore.

So then I got on to testing the 3 games that I've tested before on the same settings, I played each of them for 15 minutes walking around the exact same areas of the game. Here were the results all in the same order as I've launched those games:

Horizon Zero Dawn: 95-99% GPU usage, 30-50% CPU usage and 63-66°C CPU temp.
Red Dead 2: 75-95% GPU usage, 30-50% CPU usage and 64-68°C CPU temp.
Wolfenstein The New Colossus: 55-85% GPU usage, 30-50% CPU usage and 68-72°C CPU temp.

During the testing, I have noticed that my CPU temps do not randomly spike up any more.

All my LL120 fans are set to 1000RPM and as for the AIO:

https://imgur.com/a/Quy4zl6

View: https://imgur.com/a/Quy4zl6

So the temps have improved, but do they make sense? Also, the AIO is kinda loud so I'd really appreciate some feedback on the pump and fan curves.

Thank you!

 

[Phaaze88]

I haven't seen you mention this yet, but have chipset drivers been updated? If that didn't fix the boost clocks, then it might be time to look at updating the bios.

Hybrid cooler:
Pump at 90-100%
Fans is on you; you'll have to find that happy medium between what's audibly bearable to you and thermals you're comfortable with.

 

[Flame1]

I haven't seen you mention this yet, but have chipset drivers been updated? If that didn't fix the boost clocks, then it might be time to look at updating the bios.

Hybrid cooler:
Pump at 90-100%
Fans is on you; you'll have to find that happy medium between what's audibly bearable to you and thermals you're comfortable with.

I have Updated the chipset drivers from amd website prior to cleaning my pc and updating the bios.

 

[Phaaze88]

And you removed the manual Vcore setting?
Hmm... gonna have to hear from someone else then. I'm not as familiar with Ryzen as some of the other members here.