[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.

 

[Flame1]

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.

Yup, I've set is back to Auto.
Nevertheless, thanks a lot for all the help you were able to provide.

 

[Redneck5439]

Clearing all the dirt / dust out of your computer is always a good idea, and now that you have the blower I suggest just doing a quick 5 min cleaning of your system once a week or every 10 days. Its easy and really quick with that electric blower and then whatever happens in the future you can rule out dirty equipment. As far as idle clock speed and temp goes I've had Ryzen systems for the last three generations - the 2700X, 3800X, and now the 5900X. The problem you are experiencing isn't a common, known issue with Ryzen and I have only seen issues like that on systems with driver conflicts, registry issues or other software/ OS related problems.

The simple fact that even at idle you have 3% load and idle speeds of over 4Ghz shows there is something that is constantly running in the background. How long ago did you build your 3900X? Did you upgrade from a Ryzen 1000 or 2000 series prior or was it purpose built with the 3900X? As a rule of thumb whenever I upgrade a processor but keep the same motherboard I always do a full clean install of Windows. If you upgraded from a 1000 series or 2000 series Ryzen processor without doing a clean install it could cause issues that could manifest right away, or that even take weeks or months to cause enough system conflicts to grab your attention. Residual drivers from the previous processors can really make you go crazy trying to troubleshoot. Even if you purpose built your 3900X on all new hardware with a full clean install of Windows you could still have registry violations, driver conflicts, corrupted files, ect... that can be extremely hard to troubleshoot. My suggestion would be if you can rule out the hardware it is usually a problem with the OS (software), and the easiest way to fix that is with a clean install of Windows. Before doing that make sure you get copies / backups of all your important files, then get Windows installation on a flash drive, reboot and choose the clean install option. I typically format the main drive and then do a clean install. Once Windows is reinstalled and updated (as well as all the latest drivers for your hardware) any software related conflicts / driver or registry issues will be gone, you'll only have all the latest drivers.

 

[Flame1]

Clearing all the dirt / dust out of your computer is always a good idea, and now that you have the blower I suggest just doing a quick 5 min cleaning of your system once a week or every 10 days. Its easy and really quick with that electric blower and then whatever happens in the future you can rule out dirty equipment. As far as idle clock speed and temp goes I've had Ryzen systems for the last three generations - the 2700X, 3800X, and now the 5900X. The problem you are experiencing isn't a common, known issue with Ryzen and I have only seen issues like that on systems with driver conflicts, registry issues or other software/ OS related problems.

The simple fact that even at idle you have 3% load and idle speeds of over 4Ghz shows there is something that is constantly running in the background. How long ago did you build your 3900X? Did you upgrade from a Ryzen 1000 or 2000 series prior or was it purpose built with the 3900X? As a rule of thumb whenever I upgrade a processor but keep the same motherboard I always do a full clean install of Windows. If you upgraded from a 1000 series or 2000 series Ryzen processor without doing a clean install it could cause issues that could manifest right away, or that even take weeks or months to cause enough system conflicts to grab your attention. Residual drivers from the previous processors can really make you go crazy trying to troubleshoot. Even if you purpose built your 3900X on all new hardware with a full clean install of Windows you could still have registry violations, driver conflicts, corrupted files, ect... that can be extremely hard to troubleshoot. My suggestion would be if you can rule out the hardware it is usually a problem with the OS (software), and the easiest way to fix that is with a clean install of Windows. Before doing that make sure you get copies / backups of all your important files, then get Windows installation on a flash drive, reboot and choose the clean install option. I typically format the main drive and then do a clean install. Once Windows is reinstalled and updated (as well as all the latest drivers for your hardware) any software related conflicts / driver or registry issues will be gone, you'll only have all the latest drivers.

Not this agaiin... please don't get me wrong, I am thankful for all the help that anyone provides but the amount of times I had to end up having to reinstall windows is just insane to say the least.
First I had a b350 with a 1700x, then I upgraded that b350 to an Aorus x470 gaming 7 in preparation for zen 2 launch. When Zen 2 launched in July 2019 I didn't manage to get one until October. After inserting the 3900x in and trying a boot, I had massive issues trying to get the system to work, constant BSODs happening RIGHT AFTER loading in from a fresh windows install. I must have reinstalled windows about 20 times at least, if you're interested on how exactly that went, are the links:
[SOLVED] - Ryzen 3rd gen on X470 INSANE Bios loading screen | Tom's Hardware Forum
[SOLVED] - X470+3900x Windows 10 won't install (BSOD) | Tom's Hardware Forum

Then I had an issue with the motherboard where I ended up having to replace it, which I did to an Asus Crosshair VIII Hero, during that time I've reinstalled windows multiple times too. If you're interested here's the link on how that was going:
[SOLVED] - X470 motherboard resets bios when i unplug power from my pc/turn off the power supply. | Tom's Hardware Forum )

I've had this current configuration since June 2020, Windows was freshly installed when I put the cpu in the motherboard (just like if I was doing a first startup with a freshly built PC) and the only things that changed since then is the Graphics Card (1080Ti to 3090) and Power Supply (EVGA 750 GQ to EVGA 1000 GQ)
The more experience I get with PCs, the more I hate windows 10, that OS has been causing so many issues for me it's crazy.
I've been switching between the different power plans, and the only one that seems to make my cpu idle is the power saver, it makes the cpu idle at about 2Ghz.
Also I've done some research on Ryzen 3000 idling at high clock speeds and high temp, and I've found a couple of threads where people say that it's normal which I find a bit weird: High Idle temps with Ryzen 9 3900x at stock speeds : Amd (reddit.com)
Is there any other options I could try out before having to reinstall windows again? Is it a necessity at this point?

 

[Redneck5439]

Not this agaiin... please don't get me wrong, I am thankful for all the help that anyone provides but the amount of times I had to end up having to reinstall windows is just insane to say the least.
First I had a b350 with a 1700x, then I upgraded that b350 to an Aorus x470 gaming 7 in preparation for zen 2 launch. When Zen 2 launched in July 2019 I didn't manage to get one until October. After inserting the 3900x in and trying a boot, I had massive issues trying to get the system to work, constant BSODs happening RIGHT AFTER loading in from a fresh windows install. I must have reinstalled windows about 20 times at least, if you're interested on how exactly that went, are the links:
[SOLVED] - Ryzen 3rd gen on X470 INSANE Bios loading screen | Tom's Hardware Forum
[SOLVED] - X470+3900x Windows 10 won't install (BSOD) | Tom's Hardware Forum

Then I had an issue with the motherboard where I ended up having to replace it, which I did to an Asus Crosshair VIII Hero, during that time I've reinstalled windows multiple times too. If you're interested here's the link on how that was going:
[SOLVED] - X470 motherboard resets bios when i unplug power from my pc/turn off the power supply. | Tom's Hardware Forum )

I've had this current configuration since June 2020, Windows was freshly installed when I put the cpu in the motherboard (just like if I was doing a first startup with a freshly built PC) and the only things that changed since then is the Graphics Card (1080Ti to 3090) and Power Supply (EVGA 750 GQ to EVGA 1000 GQ)
The more experience I get with PCs, the more I hate windows 10, that OS has been causing so many issues for me it's crazy.
I've been switching between the different power plans, and the only one that seems to make my cpu idle is the power saver, it makes the cpu idle at about 2Ghz.
Also I've done some research on Ryzen 3000 idling at high clock speeds and high temp, and I've found a couple of threads where people say that it's normal which I find a bit weird: High Idle temps with Ryzen 9 3900x at stock speeds : Amd (reddit.com)
Is there any other options I could try out before having to reinstall windows again? Is it a necessity at this point?

It's not really Windows 10 that is solely at fault, its driver update software, viruses, malware, ect... Any of those things can cause huge software related issues in Windows. People with way too much free time on their hands are constantly upping the anti and creating ever more dangerous malware / viruses which even the very best antivirus programs have issue with. Even if a good antivirus program "quarantines" the malware you could still have corrupted files or registry issues, and driver updates... If you don't completely remove the old drivers even for your current video card in safe mode before upgrading to a new driver you could have no end of conflicts which could manifest in BSOD, CTD, random restarts. GPUs are notorious for this. Especially with upgrading from an older 1080Ti to a 3090. The RTX 3090 is such a overkill beast of a GPU that a driver conflict caused by the old 1080Ti driver not being removed properly could easily put a constant load on your processor. If you haven't used it before I would suggest booting into safe mode and using DDU (can be downloaded online for free) to completely remove all Nvidia GPU drivers from your system and reinstalling the newest RTX 3090 driver. It would be a lot easier than reinstalling Windows again and then you could all but eliminate a GPU driver conflict as the potential problem.

You can try to launch task manager and see what program is keeping a constant load on your processor. I have had limited success in the past tracking down a problem application with task manager. Unfortunately if its a system application or a program you need/ want then there really isn't a lot you can do. You can try uninstalling and reinstalling a non system application but after its reinstalled there is a good chance it will go back to misbehaving if there are registry issues.

One other thing you can try... Are you using Ryzen Balanced power plan or Windows Balanced power plan? For the Ryzen 3000 series you should really be using Ryzen Balanced power plan. With my 3800X I was able to get the best results by using Ryzen Balanced and then under processor power management manually setting minimum processor state to 5% and of course maximum processor state to 100%. I have found with my 5900X the best option for highest performance is to run High Performance with the same min and max processor states (5% and 100%). You could see if either of those power settings make a difference.

I know that doing a clean install of Windows is a major pain in the a$$, however it typically is the easiest way to eliminate all conflicts in your system at once without days to weeks of trying to track down what is wrong.

 

[Flame1]

It's not really Windows 10 that is solely at fault, its driver update software, viruses, malware, ect... Any of those things can cause huge software related issues in Windows. People with way too much free time on their hands are constantly upping the anti and creating ever more dangerous malware / viruses which even the very best antivirus programs have issue with. Even if a good antivirus program "quarantines" the malware you could still have corrupted files or registry issues, and driver updates... If you don't completely remove the old drivers even for your current video card in safe mode before upgrading to a new driver you could have no end of conflicts which could manifest in BSOD, CTD, random restarts. GPUs are notorious for this. Especially with upgrading from an older 1080Ti to a 3090. The RTX 3090 is such a overkill beast of a GPU that a driver conflict caused by the old 1080Ti driver not being removed properly could easily put a constant load on your processor. If you haven't used it before I would suggest booting into safe mode and using DDU (can be downloaded online for free) to completely remove all Nvidia GPU drivers from your system and reinstalling the newest RTX 3090 driver. It would be a lot easier than reinstalling Windows again and then you could all but eliminate a GPU driver conflict as the potential problem.

You can try to launch task manager and see what program is keeping a constant load on your processor. I have had limited success in the past tracking down a problem application with task manager. Unfortunately if its a system application or a program you need/ want then there really isn't a lot you can do. You can try uninstalling and reinstalling a non system application but after its reinstalled there is a good chance it will go back to misbehaving if there are registry issues.

One other thing you can try... Are you using Ryzen Balanced power plan or Windows Balanced power plan? For the Ryzen 3000 series you should really be using Ryzen Balanced power plan. With my 3800X I was able to get the best results by using Ryzen Balanced and then under processor power management manually setting minimum processor state to 5% and of course maximum processor state to 100%. I have found with my 5900X the best option for highest performance is to run High Performance with the same min and max processor states (5% and 100%). You could see if either of those power settings make a difference.

I know that doing a clean install of Windows is a major pain in the a$$, however it typically is the easiest way to eliminate all conflicts in your system at once without days to weeks of trying to track down what is wrong.

I don't understand why someone would go through so much effort just to ruin some random unknown persons day.. but back to the issue, I used DDU when I was switching the GPU, so I'm good there. I'm using the Ryzen Balanced power plan, I just changed the processor minimum state from 99% (which was default) to 5% after reading your reply and I saw no difference, then I closed every background app and my task manager showed that the cpu is now idling at 3.0-3.8Ghz, the voltage is amazingly jumping around from 1.46 to as low as 0.9 (before it was constantly at 1.42) which also dropped my idle temp to 43°C. When I change the minimum state back to 99% like it was, than the cpu idles at 4-4.2Ghz even with no background apps open.

I spent the past couple minutes closing and opening different software that launch on startup:

https://imgur.com/a/GauPpw5

View: https://imgur.com/a/GauPpw5


whilst doing so I noticed that the more apps I had open in the background, the higher the average clock speed was but the software that caused the cpu to idle at 4.1-4.2Ghz and 1.39-1.43v while it was the only software running in the background is iCUE.
Now that really sucks, because I need icue for controlling the fan speeds as well as lighting on my motherboard, fans, ram and keyboard.

Out of curiosity I asked my friend what his idle temps are, as he's using a 5800x stock with Kraken Z73, he said that he's idling at around 40°C.

 

[Redneck5439]

I don't understand why someone would go through so much effort just to ruin some random unknown persons day.. but back to the issue, I used DDU when I was switching the GPU, so I'm good there. I'm using the Ryzen Balanced power plan, I just changed the processor minimum state from 99% (which was default) to 5% after reading your reply and I saw no difference, then I closed every background app and my task manager showed that the cpu is now idling at 3.0-3.8Ghz, the voltage is amazingly jumping around from 1.46 to as low as 0.9 (before it was constantly at 1.42) which also dropped my idle temp to 43°C. When I change the minimum state back to 99% like it was, than the cpu idles at 4-4.2Ghz even with no background apps open.

I spent the past couple minutes closing and opening different software that launch on startup:

https://imgur.com/a/GauPpw5

View: https://imgur.com/a/GauPpw5


whilst doing so I noticed that the more apps I had open in the background, the higher the average clock speed was but the software that caused the cpu to idle at 4.1-4.2Ghz and 1.39-1.43v while it was the only software running in the background is iCUE.
Now that really sucks, because I need icue for controlling the fan speeds as well as lighting on my motherboard, fans, ram and keyboard.

Out of curiosity I asked my friend what his idle temps are, as he's using a 5800x stock with Kraken Z73, he said that he's idling at around 40°C.

I don't have any first hand experience with iCUE, most of what I have dealt with are software like Aura, TT software, several different brands of fan controllers with their own software, and "self contained" fan controllers (ie have a remote and use no software control). All of these fan controllers have their advantages and disadvantages and most of them are going to have a impact on system performance. Sometimes an update will release that will really be a game changer and other times a physical "hack" has to be done to get proper performance.

I have 8 140mm TT ring RGB lights in my case, I run them in the highest performance mode possible to keep the system as cool as possible on all air cooling. The fans run between 1400 and 1500 RPM and the software allows me to set individual rgb options for each fan. I am running an older software version (1.3.9) because I am very happy with the performance I'm currently getting and at idle my total system CPU usage is 1%. I am actually concerned if I "upgrade" to the latest software it will actually hamper my system performance (if it isn't broke... don't fix it). Now to be clear, the TT fan controllers and software (at least the version I am on) has a reputation of really sucking and not working properly. The only way I could get the fan controller to work properly was to actually drill a hole in the back of the case and via an adapter plug the controller directly into one of the USB ports. After doing that "hardware hack" I have been extremely pleased with these TT Ring fans.

I don't have first hand experience with Corsair's iCUE fan controllers or software, however if there is a way to run a USB adapter to your rear USB ports you could try plugging in the fan controller that way and see if it makes a difference. I know it made all the difference in the world for TT's software. The only other suggestion I have is to make sure you are running the latest software (iCUE version 3.37.140). Other people are reporting much better performance with this version.
https://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?s=b3eb15fed6b725515c2e6cf2462da7ff&t=189562&page=15

 

[Redneck5439]

I don't understand why someone would go through so much effort just to ruin some random unknown persons day.. but back to the issue, I used DDU when I was switching the GPU, so I'm good there. I'm using the Ryzen Balanced power plan, I just changed the processor minimum state from 99% (which was default) to 5% after reading your reply and I saw no difference, then I closed every background app and my task manager showed that the cpu is now idling at 3.0-3.8Ghz, the voltage is amazingly jumping around from 1.46 to as low as 0.9 (before it was constantly at 1.42) which also dropped my idle temp to 43°C. When I change the minimum state back to 99% like it was, than the cpu idles at 4-4.2Ghz even with no background apps open.

I spent the past couple minutes closing and opening different software that launch on startup:

https://imgur.com/a/GauPpw5

View: https://imgur.com/a/GauPpw5


whilst doing so I noticed that the more apps I had open in the background, the higher the average clock speed was but the software that caused the cpu to idle at 4.1-4.2Ghz and 1.39-1.43v while it was the only software running in the background is iCUE.
Now that really sucks, because I need icue for controlling the fan speeds as well as lighting on my motherboard, fans, ram and keyboard.

Out of curiosity I asked my friend what his idle temps are, as he's using a 5800x stock with Kraken Z73, he said that he's idling at around 40°C.

As far as idle temperature goes, 40C with a 360mm AIO seems high on a stock 5800X. To compare I am running on total air cooling, as listed I have 6 140mm TT Ring RGB fans and I have a NH-U14S for my CPU cooler (two of those TT fans are on the tower cooler in push / pull). My system is overclocked. My standard 24/ 7 overclock is 4.675Ghz CCD0 and 4.6Ghz on CCD1 and I am rocking the Crosshair VIII Dark Hero so I have my Dynamic Overclock Switcher set to 45amps, PBO set with curve optimization for my two strongest cores of CCD0 so I have single core boost speed of 5.125Ghz on those two cores. With this overclock in CB R20 I score 644 - 650 single core and 9260 - 9300 multi-core for perspective. The hardest I can push my system on my current cooling is 4.7Ghz all core with the same Dynamic Overclock Switcher single core boost. I still have some headroom on this processor, but without better cooling 4.7Ghz is my limit, and under full load I hit 83C. With my normal 24/7 overclock at full load I hit 76C and my normal idle temperature is between 30 - 32C. I have verified these temperatures using HWMonitor, HWinfo64, and Ryen Master all of which report temps within 1C of each other.

I am running a 5900X, so I have 4 more cores and 8 more threads, and I am running a robust overclock. My Noctua air cooler is considered to be about equal to normal AIOs, but not better than them in cooling performance. I use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, and I use the spread technique (I actually use a thermal compound spreader and apply a thin layer to the entire processor).

Still trying to figure out how to post images here, but I do have this validation. This was my 24 / 7 overclock before I overclocked CCD0 to 4.675Ghz and was running 4.65Ghz all core:
https://valid.x86.fr/5d32t2

 

[Flame1]

As far as idle temperature goes, 40C with a 360mm AIO seems high on a stock 5800X. To compare I am running on total air cooling, as listed I have 6 140mm TT Ring RGB fans and I have a NH-U14S for my CPU cooler (two of those TT fans are on the tower cooler in push / pull). My system is overclocked. My standard 24/ 7 overclock is 4.675Ghz CCD0 and 4.6Ghz on CCD1 and I am rocking the Crosshair VIII Dark Hero so I have my Dynamic Overclock Switcher set to 45amps, PBO set with curve optimization for my two strongest cores of CCD0 so I have single core boost speed of 5.125Ghz on those two cores. With this overclock in CB R20 I score 644 - 650 single core and 9260 - 9300 multi-core for perspective. The hardest I can push my system on my current cooling is 4.7Ghz all core with the same Dynamic Overclock Switcher single core boost. I still have some headroom on this processor, but without better cooling 4.7Ghz is my limit, and under full load I hit 83C. With my normal 24/7 overclock at full load I hit 76C and my normal idle temperature is between 30 - 32C. I have verified these temperatures using HWMonitor, HWinfo64, and Ryen Master all of which report temps within 1C of each other.

I am running a 5900X, so I have 4 more cores and 8 more threads, and I am running a robust overclock. My Noctua air cooler is considered to be about equal to normal AIOs, but not better than them in cooling performance. I use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, and I use the spread technique (I actually use a thermal compound spreader and apply a thin layer to the entire processor).

Still trying to figure out how to post images here, but I do have this validation. This was my 24 / 7 overclock before I overclocked CCD0 to 4.675Ghz and was running 4.65Ghz all core:
https://valid.x86.fr/5d32t2

I was running an older version 3.31.81. Now updated, thank you for mentioning that.

I did some more testing to see if I could get a bsod, I ran Cinebench R23 multi core test, which was running the test over and over again stressing the cpu at 100% for 10 minutes straight. I got no bsod and everything seemed very stable, the whole time I was running this test I had all my usual apps open in the background, namely wallpaper engine, msi afterburner, nzxt cam, icue, discord, steam, logitech ghub, spotify.
I was monitoring the temps with Hwinfo (CPU CCD1) and the maximum peak temperature was 83c, mostly I've seen the temperature at about 77c, the "current" temp went back to around 45c pretty much right after the test was done.
My pump is set to always be between 90-100%, as suggested and I've set the radiator fans to never go past 75% (45% at 60c, 75% at 82c).

The time that I did have a bsod in wolfenstein, my cpu was only using 30-50% and the temps were already jumping over 85c literally after just 3min in game so theres definitely a huge improvement after doing all the things that were suggested to me so far.
Whilst my idle temps are high, it seems that it's caused by the amount of programs I have open in the background.
When I exit out of everything thats running in the background except microsoft edge (with 2 tabs open) and hwinfo, hwinfo is showing the cpu ccd1 temp as 35-37c (likely would be lower if the liquid wasn't warmed up by the earlier testing), the task manager is showing the cpu usage constantly between 0 and 1% and the clocks jump around from 2.7 to 4.1Ghz on the ryzen balanced power plan with 5% min processor state.

My main issue that caused a bsod and crazy high temp spikes in Wolfenstein seems to have been fixed by cleaning the rad and/or updating the bios, the high idle temps seem to be caused by all the software that I have running in the background, which doesn't worry me as much since under load the cpu seems to handle itself alright. I haven't went through the hassle of reinstalling windows, but I have a really big feeling that if I did, as soon as I reinstall all my software and set everything back to normal, I'm gonna have the high idle temps again.

Thanks for all the help provided.

Side note: to post images here I just post a link from imgur (drop the saved image on imgur website, then click hidden and copy the link).

 

[Redneck5439]

I was running an older version 3.31.81. Now updated, thank you for mentioning that.

I did some more testing to see if I could get a bsod, I ran Cinebench R23 multi core test, which was running the test over and over again stressing the cpu at 100% for 10 minutes straight. I got no bsod and everything seemed very stable, the whole time I was running this test I had all my usual apps open in the background, namely wallpaper engine, msi afterburner, nzxt cam, icue, discord, steam, logitech ghub, spotify.
I was monitoring the temps with Hwinfo (CPU CCD1) and the maximum peak temperature was 83c, mostly I've seen the temperature at about 77c, the "current" temp went back to around 45c pretty much right after the test was done.
My pump is set to always be between 90-100%, as suggested and I've set the radiator fans to never go past 75% (45% at 60c, 75% at 82c).

The time that I did have a bsod in wolfenstein, my cpu was only using 30-50% and the temps were already jumping over 85c literally after just 3min in game so theres definitely a huge improvement after doing all the things that were suggested to me so far.
Whilst my idle temps are high, it seems that it's caused by the amount of programs I have open in the background.
When I exit out of everything thats running in the background except microsoft edge (with 2 tabs open) and hwinfo, hwinfo is showing the cpu ccd1 temp as 35-37c (likely would be lower if the liquid wasn't warmed up by the earlier testing), the task manager is showing the cpu usage constantly between 0 and 1% and the clocks jump around from 2.7 to 4.1Ghz on the ryzen balanced power plan with 5% min processor state.

My main issue that caused a bsod and crazy high temp spikes in Wolfenstein seems to have been fixed by cleaning the rad and/or updating the bios, the high idle temps seem to be caused by all the software that I have running in the background, which doesn't worry me as much since under load the cpu seems to handle itself alright. I haven't went through the hassle of reinstalling windows, but I have a really big feeling that if I did, as soon as I reinstall all my software and set everything back to normal, I'm gonna have the high idle temps again.

Thanks for all the help provided.

Side note: to post images here I just post a link from imgur (drop the saved image on imgur website, then click hidden and copy the link).

Glad you have everything under control now. Issues like the ones you were having can drive you nuts, believe me we have all been there. I really like the new Cinebench R23, and to be honest I use it like a stability test... If it can run 10 strait minutes of Cinebench R20 without a crash, then its reasonably stable. I say reasonably because when I was working on my 5900X overclock I ran back to back Cinebench R23 tests successfully only to crash within a half hour of playing Hitman 3 with a total system reboot. It took me another half day before I found the culprit was an obscure RAM voltage (cldo vddp voltage) set too low. Thanks for telling me about imgur, I'll check it out.

 

[Flame1]

Glad you have everything under control now. Issues like the ones you were having can drive you nuts, believe me we have all been there. I really like the new Cinebench R23, and to be honest I use it like a stability test... If it can run 10 strait minutes of Cinebench R20 without a crash, then its reasonably stable. I say reasonably because when I was working on my 5900X overclock I ran back to back Cinebench R23 tests successfully only to crash within a half hour of playing Hitman 3 with a total system reboot. It took me another half day before I found the culprit was an obscure RAM voltage (cldo vddp voltage) set too low. Thanks for telling me about imgur, I'll check it out.

Okay I know this thread is now marked as solved because it is, but I did something else and my cpu now isnt stuck at 1.4v and 4.1-4.2 ghz idle with all of the apps open in the background. it idles at 2.6+ Ghz (boosts up to over 4ghz from time to time as ryzen does) but the voltage is also much lower going as low as 0.9v. (still ryzen balanced plan)
In case someone is having the same issue here is what I did, might be worth a try among all the other things:

1. cmd run as admin
2. type sfc/scannow
3. If it says "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them" type this in: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and hit enter (be aware it takes much longer than sfc/scannow)
4. Restart your PC
5. Run cmd as admin and type sfc/scannow again.
6. It should say that it successfully repaired the files, restart PC again.

After that my cpu now enters the idle state even with all the apps I have open in the background.