This problem started about two days ago. A game that previously ran normally began lagging badly on two consecutive nights, so I checked the system with a hardware monitor and noticed that some CPU cores were reaching unusually high temperatures even when the computer was mostly idle. I cleaned the dust out of the PC, but the temperatures remained high. Other games still run normally, the GPU and RAM usage look fine, and sometimes restarting causes a CPU over-temperature warning that requires shutting the system down and powering it back on. The system has a Ryzen 7 3700X, an RTX 2070, and 32 GB of memory. What could cause only a couple of cores to overheat like this?
2 Answers
It would help to confirm the temperatures in the BIOS or with another monitoring utility, since a bad sensor or incorrect software reading can affect only certain cores. Also check CPU usage by process while the game is lagging. If the BIOS temperature is genuinely excessive, the likely causes are a failing or poorly seated cooler, a stopped fan or pump, dried-out thermal compound, or uneven mounting pressure. The listed 3700X platform normally uses DDR4, so it may also be worth double-checking the exact hardware specifications.
Different games can stress different parts of a CPU, so one title may expose a cooling or monitoring problem that others do not. Check whether the CPU cooler fan is spinning properly, make sure the cooler is mounted evenly, and consider replacing the thermal paste. If the temperature really reaches around 90°C at idle or the firmware reports an over-temperature condition, avoid heavy use until the cooler and temperature readings have been verified.
That makes sense, although the high readings are showing up even when the system is barely doing anything. I’ll check the cooler and fan rather than relying only on the software reading.