CPU Temperature while gaming

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axeman 221

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Sep 24, 2016
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Hey folks.
After checking my CPU temp today while idle, I decided to leave HWMONITOR running while I played The Witcher 3. My idle temps were 31 celsius and I noticed after playing The Witcher 3 that my maximum temp had reached 83 celsius and my GPU had reached 73 celsius. After exiting The Witcher my temps went back down to average 34 within a minute or so. Are these temperatures high? Should I reapply my thermal paste?

I'm running an i5 4460 with a stock cooler, on a H97 Pro4 motherboard and my GPU is R9 390.

Thanks guys!
 
Solution
amtseung


The N300 has huge cooling potential, but with one intake and one exhaust, you aren't exactly taking advantage of it. At minimum, I'd put another fan in the front, and turn all the fan speeds up, fast enough so that they move air, but just slow enough that they aren't painfully loud to listen to. Optimally, I would fill both front fan slots as intakes as well as one on that side by the hard drive cage if that space isn't filled by hard drives, one exhaust in the back, and another exhaust in the top as far back as possible. If you have the non-windowed version...
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amtseung

amtseung

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A 30-34C idle on the i5 4460 is pretty normal. The Intel stock cooler is pretty abysmal when it comes to cooling performance, so your 83C peak doesn't surprise me. The fact that your temps drop shortly after exiting the game means your cooler is working properly, although I'd begin to question how good your case flow is when it comes to forcing all that hot air out. It matters quite a bit, especially considering you've got that hot-as-balls R9 390 sitting right underneath that poor CPU with that abysmal cooler.

oh, edit: your GPU temps are perfectly fine, in fact, they're rather quite good.
 
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axeman 221

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Sep 24, 2016
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Thanks for the reply! Do you think it's safe to game at these temps? I was playing The Witcher on ultra when I got those temps and the performance is great, but I don't want to damage my CPU. My case flow seems pretty good, but I could be wrong.

Edit: In fact, seeing as how my temps are high I probably am wrong
 
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axeman 221

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Sep 24, 2016
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I have the Cooler Master N300 and I use the two fans that came with it. I have one fan in the bottom-front that draws air in and a fan in the top-back that blows it out the back.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Dec 26, 2012
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300 series amd cards run hot. No 2 ways about it. There are ways to maximise airflow through the case, some get quite involved, but mainly they boil down to common sense.

Heat rises. No dispute about that at all. So, common sense would dictate that as that hot air is rising, 2 things need to happen. 1, you need to help it out, as in out of the case, so a smooth transition is best. That means get some fans on top of the case as exhaust, more so since you have an OEM area type cooler. 2,becausr heat rises, it'll create a vacuum behind it. This vacuum needs to be filled. This is where intake fans come to play. These will help draw cooler air into the bottom, to be played with by the gpu, heated, so it'll rise. All in a continuous cycle.

You, as the pc user, need to find the balance. No point in blowing tons of air into the case if it's not exhausted and vice versa. So play around with fan curves, either with software or bios. It may be that you need extra fans, or just to adjust the settings to provide better flow. In your case, I'd be using 2x intakes and 2x exhaust and the intakes would be better with a higher static pressure. This'll get the air to the gpu better. Cfm is always nice, but the broadcast area can be very large, so much of the air goes everywhere but to the gpu. Default setpoint in bios for 100%duty cycle on the fans is usually pretty high. I'd set that down for case fans so they reach 100% at 40° case temp or 60°cpu temp.
 
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amtseung

amtseung

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The N300 has huge cooling potential, but with one intake and one exhaust, you aren't exactly taking advantage of it. At minimum, I'd put another fan in the front, and turn all the fan speeds up, fast enough so that they move air, but just slow enough that they aren't painfully loud to listen to. Optimally, I would fill both front fan slots as intakes as well as one on that side by the hard drive cage if that space isn't filled by hard drives, one exhaust in the back, and another exhaust in the top as far back as possible. If you have the non-windowed version of the N300, I'd put a fan on the side panel pointed at the GPU instead of the one next to the motherboard. With a GPU this hot, evacuating the heat from your case becomes even more of a priority.

On top of that, a better CPU cooler won't hurt. Even the cheap Hyper TX3 will keep the i5 4460's temps under check. I get a maximum of 55C under full load with mine. If you want a quieter CPU cooler, the Hyper212 or the Cryorig H7 with their 120mm fans will help. If possible, with any of these tower coolers, I'd mount them horizontally with the fan blowing up instead of sideways, helping vent the heat from the graphics card and following the natural path of heat rising. Combined with a top-mounted exhaust fan, this will in turn raise your CPU temps a bit, but it'll help evacuate the heat inside your case even faster, and keep temps more stable in the long run. Keep the fan between the heatsink tower and the top of the GPU for maximum effect.

All of this depends on how much you want to spend. In terms of least to greatest expenditure:
1.) one extra case fan
2.) one extra case fan and a cheaper CPU cooler
3.) one extra case fan and a slightly more expensive CPU cooler
4.) more extra case fans and a slightly more expensive CPU cooler

To be fair, you shouldn't be spending more than $50 maximum. Make sure you have the motherboard headers or necessary splitters to have all your fans plugged into the motherboard so you can control their speeds.

Holy essay :O
 
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Solution
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axeman 221

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Sep 24, 2016
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Thanks for the answers! I most certainly will add another fan and will probably upgrade my CPU cooler. I was strongly considering upgrading anyway. Do you think it will be safe to continue gaming until the fans/cooler arrive?
 
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amtseung

amtseung

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Keep an eye on those temps, but otherwise, it's probably still pretty safe. If anything, keep the side panel off and let it breathe a bit harder in the meanwhile. Point a desk fan at the open case if you're worried about temps going too high.

I hope you have a proper amount of thermal paste on your CPU, not too much, not too little. Too much paste tends to lead to temps being too high all around, but too little will give you ok idle temps, but extra high load temps, especially when the cooler sucks. It's kind of hard to tell in your case, with one of the hottest graphics cards in existence sitting right under it. When you go to replace the cooler, I guess you'll get the opportunity to check.
 
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burgessanthony

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Jun 27, 2012
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For reference:
Matx case
390 overclock to 1100 - 75c max in heaviest gaming
6600k at 4.4 - 48 max during gaming on a h60

Your temps are high I would say. The 390 MUST HAVE excellent case airflow. Try to create equal intake/exhaust cfm for a wind tunnel effect. Takes setting up. Use argus monitor to set fan curves etc.

The CPU tower cooler will get warmed up by the 390 heat output.

Another option is to undervolt if you are struggling. The 390 can sometimes manage -50mv at stock clocks.

Just because it kicks out 250w heat, doesn't mean it can't be properly managed.
 
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