I recently swapped my stock Intel cooler for a Thermaltake UX 150 ARGB Cooler, and while it looks fantastic, I'm not sure if it's doing a good job cooling my Intel i7-4790. When idle, my CPU temperatures range from 45-55°C, and they spike to 65-75°C while gaming, sometimes even hitting 80°C. Are these temperatures within the expected range, or might I have installed the cooler incorrectly, possibly not using enough thermal paste? I have an ASUS GTX 970 Strix, which seems fine on its own. I've noticed my CPU running at about 80% usage while the GPU is only at 30-40% and a cool 60°C. Is it typical for GPUs to take less load as they age, or is something else going on?
3 Answers
Have you looked into your fan settings? If you adjust the fan curve to be more aggressive, you might find that your temperatures drop significantly. It’s worth diving into your settings to see if you can improve things there.
It sounds like you might be using a cooler that’s quite similar to the stock one, which isn’t designed for heavy loads. Those temps are indeed normal for that cooler, especially under load. It’s decent for light tasks, but it won’t shine in gaming situations.
Honestly, the Thermaltake UX 150 is pretty much on par with stock coolers. If you're looking for better temperatures, I suggest upgrading to something like the Phantom Spirit, which is reasonably priced and should improve your cooling performance.
Thanks for the tip! I didn’t realize there was so much variation in cooler quality. I’ll consider that for my next build.
I wanted to adjust it for better cooling, but my BIOS only shows the fan RPM and doesn't support changing the fan curves. I might need to look at third-party solutions.