[SOLVED] Which CPU temps to trust?

[rohtua]

Hi, I'm running a Ryzen 5 3600 on an ASUS Prime X570 Pro motherboard. As a lot of people seemed to have experienced with Ryzen it seems to run fairly warm at idle (I'm seeing between 50-60 degrees normally).

At the minute I'm using the stock cooler that came with the CPU. When under load (encoding videos or playing games) the temps spike; the highest I've seen is around 80 degrees whilst encoding videos for around 6 hours or so.

My system is a dual boot between Manjaro Linux and Windows. Looking at the temps on Windows using HWInfo, and AI Suite 3 I see a difference of up to 10 degrees at times. I'll have them side by side and HWInfo reports a higher temp normally sitting around 50-60 whereas AI Suite sits at around 40-50. The BIOS tends to report around the same temps also again with a bit of difference which I'm putting down to cooling whilst I'm restarting to go into BIOS.

Then Linux, I monitor the temps using lm_sensors and on the first install of Linux it was reporting idle temps of around 50 but 85 under load but when restarting and checking the BIOS reading I'd see a difference of around 20 degrees less in the BIOS.

I've re installed Linux today and Manjaro has had an update as well now using lm_sensors I'm seeing temps of around 35 degrees which is now lower than what the BIOS reports.

I've read various threads online about the normal idle temperatures for my CPU and which tools to monitor it with (particularly when using lm_sensors as there appears to be a known issue with higher temperatures being reported).

My question is simple which would be the best option to monitor CPU temps. HWInfo gets a lot of ratings when looking up tools to monitor with, AI Suite is ASUS's own software for the motherboard so I'd imagine it would have the best compatibility when using the sensors and then lm_sensors, last week I'd have just taken what it said with a pinch of salt given the significantly higher temp reported but since I reinstalled Manjaro and its now reporting lower temperatures I'm leaning towards its readings over the others. Not because I want the CPU to be as cool as possible and thats the best reading in that respect but the others actually seem high values when I compare it to the heat I feel coming off the machine and the fan noise.

The fans only ramp up when encoding or gaming never for general use or whilst idle, the air coming out of the machine only feels slightly above room temperature (18 degrees where I am currently) and the case is stone cold. Based of that if I was guessing rather than looking at the figures I'd put the CPU temp nearer to the 35-40 mark than I would the 50-60 but 50-60 is where the majority of the tools put it between.

So of the tools I've mentioned and if there's any others you think I should try on Linux or Windows which ones do you think are most trustworthy?

 

[kanewolf]

For a Ryzen CPU, I would always recommend AMD's Ryzen Master.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

So first things first. Your temps are a little out of whack. You should be idling at about 30-35c, gaming load about 45-65c, and stress load at about 70-80c.

With that said there could be a number of reasons why. I'd start by making sure you have the most up to date bios for your mobo. This is essential with Ryzen right now, and has been pretty much from the start,

Let stick with windows for now for trying to diagnose. Having too many variables doesn't help.

HWinfo is an excellent tool. Make sure to run it with sensors on. HWMon is another good one. It's my preference. Either will do fine. As kanewolf has said, Ryzen master is pretty damn accurate to. So that's also an option.

Once you've updated the bios, make sure you have the latest system drivers from you mobo manufacturers website. Lan, sound, chipset etc. All of them.

Your ambient temps of 18c really should be a problem, and I can't see that being the issue here.

There used to be an issue with Ryzen reporting 20c above actual temp, but that was with Ryzen 1xxx/B350/X370 mobo's. It's not an issue anymore.

Start with those suggestions, test again and see what happens.

On the hardware side of things, it could be a poorly seated cooler, or thermal paste application. If the cooler wasn't flush it could cause high CPU temps. As could a poorly deployed thermal paste is it doesn't spread even. So that could be a possibility too.

 

[rohtua]

For a Ryzen CPU, I would always recommend AMD's Ryzen Master.

Hey there,

So first things first. Your temps are a little out of whack. You should be idling at about 30-35c, gaming load about 45-65c, and stress load at about 70-80c.

With that said there could be a number of reasons why. I'd start by making sure you have the most up to date bios for your mobo. This is essential with Ryzen right now, and has been pretty much from the start,

Let stick with windows for now for trying to diagnose. Having too many variables doesn't help.

HWinfo is an excellent tool. Make sure to run it with sensors on. HWMon is another good one. It's my preference. Either will do fine. As kanewolf has said, Ryzen master is pretty damn accurate to. So that's also an option.

Once you've updated the bios, make sure you have the latest system drivers from you mobo manufacturers website. Lan, sound, chipset etc. All of them.

Your ambient temps of 18c really should be a problem, and I can't see that being the issue here.

There used to be an issue with Ryzen reporting 20c above actual temp, but that was with Ryzen 1xxx/B350/X370 mobo's. It's not an issue anymore.

Start with those suggestions, test again and see what happens.

On the hardware side of things, it could be a poorly seated cooler, or thermal paste application. If the cooler wasn't flush it could cause high CPU temps. As could a poorly deployed thermal paste is it doesn't spread even. So that could be a possibility too.

Thanks for the responses. I've installed Ryzen Master as suggested and when I opened it the temperature was showing as 41 degrees.... but it does seem to be jumping around every second or so, showing 40ish then jumping to 50 and straight back down. Interestingly after installing Ryzen Master the temps reported by HWInfo have dropped, where it was always displaying a higher temperature around 50-60 where AI Suite said 40-50 its now in line with AI Suite and Ryzen Master at around 40-50 so I'm wondering if there's maybe a bug somewhere. I'm going to try reseating the cooler but I'll leave that till the weekend at the minute. Otherwise I'll end up making a mess of things while half asleep after work!!!

 

[rohtua]

Hi,

I've reseated my CPU and reapplied the thermal paste as well. My CPU temps now seem a lot more stable. I'm seeing 40 degrees at idle/general use (although it does spike up to 50 when opening applications or using some biggers programs like photoshop) but its not jumping up and down whilst idle. Gaming I'm still seeing temps of around 70 degrees depending on the game and especially with new titles. I've not really done any extensive gaming sessions though yet, only half an hour here and there so I can't say what thats like over a prolonged period of time. My biggest concern at the minute is that when running Handbrake encodes the temp is straight up to 80 degrees. I've had it running for a couple of hours and its gone straight up to 83 and then crept to 84. It does drop almost immediately when an encode finishes. So for example between encodes whilst it does the first pass the CPU temp drops to 50 degree and the hits 80 again once pass 2 starts. So I'm wondering if that normal behaviour for this type of usage (I'm using Handbrakes Super HQ 1080p settings) or whether I need to give reseating the cooler another go.

So in short reseatting the cooler appears to have stablised things. The temperature isn't jumping whilst idle and I'm seeing a much more consistant temperature whilst in use. All the tools (for windows anyway) are agreeing as to what the temp is now apart from AI Suite which (whilst Handbrake is running) says the CPU is 74 degrees but the CPU package temp is 85 degrees. The 85 degrees for the package temp matches the output from Ryzen master and HWInfo so I'm wondering what the difference is?