I've had my NZXT Kraken X53 for a little over three years now, and I use it quite a bit—about 8 hours a day since I'm working from home. I recently built a new PC featuring a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and a Radeon RX 9070XT, thinking the Kraken would still do the job. However, I've been experiencing serious thermal throttling lately. After the release of a game called Rematch, I noticed my CPU hitting crazy temperatures around 97/98°C, which led to crashes during gameplay. Even after adjusting my graphics settings and capping my FPS, my CPU temps remained high, around 89/92°C.
Today, while playing Counter Strike 2, things got worse, and my system crashed again. I've even repasted my CPU, but I'm still sitting around 65-72°C while idling in Windows, which seems high for minimal load. I'm wondering if this overheating is due to a failing cooler or just poor game optimization. Should I consider getting a new cooler? I could RMA my current one, but I'd be without a cooler for a while during that process.
2 Answers
It sounds like your cooler might be malfunctioning. With the Kraken X53, temps shouldn't be that high under normal load. Check the pump—if you can feel vibrations, that's good, but both tubes should be noticeably different in temperature (one should feel hot and the other cooler). If they’re similar, that’s a red flag.
Honestly, it sounds like your cooler's showing signs of aging. After three years of heavy use, it’s possible the pump's failing or the fans have slowed down. Restart with a fresh thermal paste to see if that helps, but consider a new cooler if you need reliable performance for gaming—it might save you a lot of headaches.
I think I might replace the fans too, since one of the original ones died and the new ones might not be up to par. Any suggestions for replacements?
I can feel a slight vibration in the pump, but both tubes are just warm to the touch. NZXT Cam shows liquid temp is stuck at 40°C, which seems odd.