Why do my CPU / graphics card get so hot?

MrYossu · Jun 20, 2023

I'm in an office about 3m by 3m with one other person. The temperature in here is around 26 degs C at the moment.

I have Speccy open, and it shows that my CPU and graphics cards are running at around 80 degs C. This is not unusual, even on a cooler day.

The other person in the office says Speccy reports his CPU and graphics card running around 40 degs C.

Anyone any idea why mine run so hot, and what I can do about it? Full system specs can be found here.

Thanks for any help you can give.

jvickers · Jun 20, 2023

I'm thinking a lot of things can play into the difference. What CPU is your officemate running? Still, your system is a little hot.

What CPU cooling option do you have? How many case fans? Etc.

pparks1 · Jun 20, 2023

Air flow in the case is important. The model of CPU you have is important. Since both your GPU and CPU are over 80C, i suspect you have an airflow problem in your case.

I have a Ryzen 9 5900x and an EVGA 3080, and they both idle around 40c. I have a Dark Rock Pro 4 cooler on my CPU, i have my fans always on on my video card (versus letting the fans shut off when temps are low) and I have a high air flow Fractal meshify S2 case with 2 intake 140mm fans and 1 exhaust 140mm fan.

FreeBooter · Jun 20, 2023

Ideally, your CPU temperature should be around 60 to 70 degrees Celsius (140 to 158 degrees Fahrenheit) when running essential apps and around 40 to 45 degrees Celsius (104 to 113 degrees Fahrenheit) when sitting idle. Moreover, the safe CPU temperature range for gaming is roughly 70 to 80 degrees Celcius. If your CPU is regularly shooting above these temperature ranges, you need to clean your PC, improve the cooling system, and re-apply thermal paste.

hsehestedt · Jun 20, 2023

As has been noted, there are a number of factors involved. Some you have control of, some you don't.

Things you do not have control of: Some systems are simply designed with better cooling than others. Depending upon the system, there may not be a lot that you can do.

Here are some things that you can check or possibly control:

Make sure that vents are clear and not blocked by walls, or other items pushed up against the system. Dust accumulation can be a major contribution to decreased cooling performance, both on inlets and outlets of the case, and internally in fans and heatsinks.

Also, check to see if your system has any sort of utility to alter the fan speeds. It may be as simple as needing to speed up the fans a bit. Some systems will have utilities to modify fan speeds in Windows, others may require that you perform tuning from the BIOS setup.

It's also important to make sure that cooling components, particularly the CPU heatsink, and firmware screwed down to make the best possible contact with the CPU.

If a system is very old, it may be time to remove the CPU heatsink and reapply a fresh coat of thermal paste.

ShamrockRig · Jun 20, 2023

MrYossu said:
I'm in an office about 3m by 3m with one other person. The temperature in here is around 26 degs C at the moment.

I have Speccy open, and it shows that my CPU and graphics cards are running at around 80 degs C. This is not unusual, even on a cooler day.

The other person in the office says Speccy reports his CPU and graphics card running around 40 degs C.

Anyone any idea why mine run so hot, and what I can do about it? Full system specs can be found here.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Are you running custom fan curves? If i dont open msi my gpu will sit at 50 doing nothing, Once msi is open my fan curve takes over and its chill, CPU is the same except its fan controlled via bios. Maybe look there and set you're own curves.

MrYossu · Jun 20, 2023

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. Few comments in case they help...

jvickers said:
I'm thinking a lot of things can play into the difference. What CPU is your officemate running? Still, your system is a little hot.

What CPU cooling option do you have? How many case fans? Etc.

Office mate's specs can be seen here.

Not sure I have any special CPU cooling. I'm a bit of an ignoramus when it comes to hardware (I'm a software developer), so I might be a bit vague here!

I can see a big fan fitted over the CPU, but I think that's part of the unit.

pparks1 said:
Air flow in the case is important. The model of CPU you have is important. Since both your GPU and CPU are over 80C, i suspect you have an airflow problem in your case.

I have a Ryzen 9 5900x and an EVGA 3080, and they both idle around 40c. I have a Dark Rock Pro 4 cooler on my CPU, i have my fans always on on my video card (versus letting the fans shut off when temps are low) and I have a high air flow Fractal meshify S2 case with 2 intake 140mm fans and 1 exhaust 140mm fan.

The case is sitting on my desk with quite a lot of space around it, except on the side where it's behind my monitors, but even there it's got between 4" and 12" (it's on a slant), so I don't think air flow around the case is a problem. As for air flow inside, I haven't done anything to the case, and it has four fans (three on the front and one on the back). Don't know if that's considered enough.

hsehestedt said:
As has been noted, there are a number of factors involved. Some you have control of, some you don't.

Things you do not have control of: Some systems are simply designed with better cooling than others. Depending upon the system, there may not be a lot that you can do.

Here are some things that you can check or possibly control:

Make sure that vents are clear and not blocked by walls, or other items pushed up against the system. Dust accumulation can be a major contribution to decreased cooling performance, both on inlets and outlets of the case, and internally in fans and heatsinks.

Also, check to see if your system has any sort of utility to alter the fan speeds. It may be as simple as needing to speed up the fans a bit. Some systems will have utilities to modify fan speeds in Windows, others may require that you perform tuning from the BIOS setup.

It's also important to make sure that cooling components, particularly the CPU heatsink, and firmware screwed down to make the best possible contact with the CPU.

If a system is very old, it may be time to remove the CPU heatsink and reapply a fresh coat of thermal paste.

As mentioned above, the case has plenty of space around it, and I vacuum it regularly, so there isn't much dust around or inside.

Having said that, I just took the side off and had a closer look inside. When the CPU fan is working, the lighting shows me that there is a build-up of dust behind the fan. I don't normally see this, as I vacuum when the system is off, and without the CPU lights, you can't see the dust. However, I can't see any way to take the fan off the CPU, so am not sure how I'd clean inside. I tried holding the end of the vacuum against the fan (keeping the fan still with my fingers), but it didn't pull off any dust.

I think I'll call the PC shop where I bought it. The person who built it for me will know how to sort that out, and I'll ask him about extra cooling at the same time.

Thanks again to all.

MrYossu · Jun 20, 2023

ShamrockRig said:
Are you running custom fan curves? If i dont open msi my gpu will sit at 50 doing nothing, Once msi is open my fan curve takes over and its chill, CPU is the same except its fan controlled via bios. Maybe look there and set you're own curves.

Forgot to answer this one before.

As I mentioned above, I'm a hardware ignoramus, and wouldn't know a fan curve if it hit me in the face, so no I'm not running any custom ones.

How would I go about setting one up? Might be worth a try.

Thanks

bobkn · Jun 20, 2023

MrYossu said:
Thanks to everyone for all the replies. Few comments in case they help...

Office mate's specs can be seen here.

Not sure I have any special CPU cooling. I'm a bit of an ignoramus when it comes to hardware (I'm a software developer), so I might be a bit vague here!

I can see a big fan fitted over the CPU, but I think that's part of the unit.

The case is sitting on my desk with quite a lot of space around it, except on the side where it's behind my monitors, but even there it's got between 4" and 12" (it's on a slant), so I don't think air flow around the case is a problem. As for air flow inside, I haven't done anything to the case, and it has four fans (three on the front and one on the back). Don't know if that's considered enough.

As mentioned above, the case has plenty of space around it, and I vacuum it regularly, so there isn't much dust around or inside.

Having said that, I just took the side off and had a closer look inside. When the CPU fan is working, the lighting shows me that there is a build-up of dust behind the fan. I don't normally see this, as I vacuum when the system is off, and without the CPU lights, you can't see the dust. However, I can't see any way to take the fan off the CPU, so am not sure how I'd clean inside. I tried holding the end of the vacuum against the fan (keeping the fan still with my fingers), but it didn't pull off any dust.

I think I'll call the PC shop where I bought it. The person who built it for me will know how to sort that out, and I'll ask him about extra cooling at the same time.

Thanks again to all.

I'd normally blow the dust out with "canned" air.

One caution: don't hold the can upside down. That could cause liquid propellant to be sprayed onto the components. It probably wouldn't lead to disaster, but it could cause condensation, which should be avoided.

If you're capable of giving the make and model of the PC case, and the numbers and sizes of fans, that would be useful information.

MrYossu · Jul 5, 2023

Thanks again to all who replied.

I took the PC back to the place where I bought it, and they checked it over. Turned out that the AMD paste that they used on the CPU had gone hard, so wasn't removing heat. On the contrary, it looked like there were air pockets that trapped the hot air, increasing the temperature even more.

They cleaned it out and reseated the CPU using some better paste, and now the temperature is around 55-60 degs C. Still a bit warmer than I'd expect (the other PC in this room runs around 45-50 degs C), but nothing to worry about.

Thanks again

jvickers · Jul 5, 2023

MrYossu said:
Thanks again to all who replied.

I took the PC back to the place where I bought it, and they checked it over. Turned out that the AMD paste that they used on the CPU had gone hard, so wasn't removing heat. On the contrary, it looked like there were air pockets that trapped the hot air, increasing the temperature even more.

They cleaned it out and reseated the CPU using some better paste, and now the temperature is around 55-60 degs C. Still a bit warmer than I'd expect (the other PC in this room runs around 45-50 degs C), but nothing to worry about.

Thanks again

Your CPU is 142W at idle and 168W at Auto OC. That's likely going to cause it to run hotter than what you'd think it would, even with new thermal paste. I use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut paste, have a liquid cooler, and five, large case fans with a roomy case. My Ryzen 9 5900X runs between 44C-75C. My older Ryzen 7 3700X ran in the mid-30s to mid-40s, but it's a lower wattage CPU. So, the temps you're running could be about normal for the CPU.

MrYossu · Jul 9, 2023

jvickers said:
Your CPU is 142W at idle and 168W at Auto OC. That's likely going to cause it to run hotter than what you'd think it would, even with new thermal paste. I use Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut paste, have a liquid cooler, and five, large case fans with a roomy case. My Ryzen 9 5900X runs between 44C-75C. My older Ryzen 7 3700X ran in the mid-30s to mid-40s, but it's a lower wattage CPU. So, the temps you're running could be about normal for the CPU.

Thanks for the reassurance!

TM21 · Jul 13, 2023

The temperature of the CPU is directly related to how hard it's working.
Right now, my own CPU fan is hardly spinning at all, and is really quiet, because I have very few programs running and the CPU is just loafing.
But if I'd start my AV/SA scanner running, I'll hear my CPU fan speed up, to blow out the extra heat.

So if 'your' PC is running hot, start off by eliminating all unnecessary programs from running. If you let your CPU run less, it will run cooler. That's the one thing you have direct control over, without disassembling your PC.

Heat has always been the enemy of Computers. That simple fact has been around for decades, with all sizes of computers, from PC's to Mainframes. I was once the operator of a Mainframe, where we had the back covers removed from the main CPU, and two 20" window fans sitting there blowing cool air into the cabinet. Heat BAD!

Good Luck!
TM

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