I've noticed that during CPU-heavy gaming sessions, my 7800X3D's temperature spikes up to 87 °C. I understand that's within the acceptable limits, but it's concerning to see it get so close to thermal throttling with my cooling setup. I've got a Thermalright Phantom Spirit cooler installed in a Silent Base 802 case featuring mesh front panels, with 4 intake and 2 exhaust fans (all 140mm). I'm using a PCM pad from Thermal Grizzly for thermal transfer. Should this setup be able to handle those temperatures without issue? If it's not performing as expected, what could be causing the high temps?
6 Answers
Make sure your fan curve is set right. I run my CPU fan at 100% by 70 °C, it's actually quite quiet. With your setup, you shouldn't be hitting 87 °C gaming. I have a less efficient cooler and still manage to stay around 78 °C during heavy loads. Perhaps re-evaluate the mounting of your cooler and ensure it’s secure. A thorough clean and repasting can also work wonders for temps!
What's the ambient temperature in your room? That can have a big impact on your cooling performance. I run a Ryzen 7900, and at a 25 °C room temp, I only hit 65 °C with the same cooler you have, even under all-core loads for several minutes.
Reaching those temperatures can happen if you're compiling shaders in games, that's pretty normal. But if you’re consistently hitting such high temps, especially with adequate cooling, that’s not ideal. You might want to check your average temps over time, not just the peak spikes.
If you're not comfortable with the temps you're seeing, it might be a good idea to crank up your fan speeds a bit. Your cooling setup should ideally keep the temps lower than that under load.
Have you considered undervolting? You can do this in BIOS or with Ryzen Master to help manage those temps better.
Typically, your CPU should throttle at around 89 °C. My 7800X3D rarely exceeds 70 °C, even in heavy gaming sessions. It runs around 55-65 °C normally, using a similar-performing 240mm AIO cooler. You might want to check that you removed the plastic seal from the cooler if there was one. Also, consider that maybe your thermal pad isn't working well or your fan curve needs adjusting.
Thanks! I'll double-check the seal and look into the fan curve settings.