I've been gaming on Star Wars BF2 and noticed my CPU temperature hitting 89°C and my GPU at 79°C. The CPU is running at about 45% load while the GPU is maxing out at 100%. I cleaned my CPU's heat shrouds and replaced the thermal paste around a year ago, but even when I'm not gaming, the CPU idles at around 60°C—this doesn't change much, even with the tempered glass case off. All my fans are working, and I adjusted the fan speeds in the BIOS. Given that my case limits fan options, should I consider upgrading to a 120mm AIO cooler? Here's my setup: NZXT 510 case, two 120mm fans for exhaust, a stock AMD cooler, Ryzen 3500, and a 3080 Ti.
3 Answers
If your CPU cooler is just OK, you might want to repaste it but make sure to do it carefully—following a tutorial can help! Also, having only exhaust fans can lead to higher temperatures, so consider adding at least one intake fan to help with airflow.
While I’m idling at 22°C with my i5-12600K, I recommend looking into a Peerless Assassin air cooler. It should get your temperatures down to a more reasonable level.
89°C is definitely high for a Ryzen 3500, and it shouldn't idle at those temps. Are you sure your CPU cooler is properly installed and that the fan is running? If everything's fine there, consider using a budget cooler like the Thermalright Assassin King 120 instead of going for an AIO. For your GPU, 79°C is acceptable but you might want to reapply the thermal paste there too. It also sounds like your CPU is bottlenecking your GPU, so upgrading to something like the 5700X3D might be a good idea.
Thanks for the advice! I updated my post to clarify that my idle temps are actually around 60°C. I used Arctic Silver MX4 last time, and everything seems fine with the cooler fans. Maybe I just need a new fan or to reapply the paste again.