6 replies to this topic

[RenegadeMaster]

There aren't any specific threads and hardly any discussion regarding CPU core temperatures on this forum, but they are very important and very different from the CPU temperature that most system BIOSs give. At the end, I have posed some questions about my particular processor & temperature problem, but I've otherwise learned a lot that I wanted to share with fellow Mechwarriors.

So this thread is for you, especially if you are:

• Thinking about overclocking your processor
  
• Troubleshooting a computer that shuts down on its own without a BSOD
  
• Replacing a processor or heat sink

My research comes from having an AMD Athlon II X4 640, so keep in mind that other processors or brands may vary. Follow these tips at your own risk.

Almost all the threads I have read about temperatures here just talk about some general processor temperature, which most people obtain from the BIOS. I have come to the conclusion that at least with my processor that this general temperature is the motherboard's equivalent of putting a moist finger to the wind, because you can obtain the general direction but not the number that ultimately matters.

If you want to make sure that your CPU will be able to handle overclocking or whatever you throw at it, you need to monitor the core temperature of the CPU. For graphing over time of temps, voltages, and fan speeds, I recommend SpeedFan. For a little more verbose CPU info and alert capabilities, get Core Temp.

When you get a reading, keep in mind that Core temp is always higher than the regular CPU temp given by the motherboard (sensor located under the processor). Core temp is often some sort of calculation performed within the CPU itself and is independent of the motherboard sensor. From what I've read, Core of under 50 degrees Celsius is okay, 70C is unusually high, and around 85-90C you are in the danger zone and may risk a shutdown. With my particular CPU, it would shut down if it ran ~93C or hotter for more than a few minutes. This happened to me every few hours if I were playing a current computer game that is CPU & GPU intensive.

Got a CPU running too hot like I do? Here are the things I can think of that can help:

• Get a better heat sink & fan for the processor
  
• Reapply thermal paste
  
  • Clean the CPU's top face and heatsink carefully with a lint free cloth & rubbing alcohol (~70%)
    
  • There seems to be a dividing line between putting a BB sized dot of paste in the middle & squishing it down, or applying some and spreading it with a business card or razer blade.
    
  • Air bubbles, lack of thermal paste, or too much will evidently hurt heat dissipation.
    
    • "Too much" is when thermal paste seeps off the top face of the processor and kinda drips off the side of the metal/die part
• Stop overclocking and revert your CPU related BIOS settings back to defaults.
  
• Make sure you have the latest BIOS updates
  
  • The way they handle voltage or the CPU may have changed
• Lower the voltages to the processor
  
  • Check your manufacturer's recommended voltage settings and compare that to your BIOS' readings on vcore and cpuNB voltage
    
  • Lower the voltage to match or get closer to the manufacturer voltages. I learned that my particular motherboard was giving my CPU more voltage than it really needed.
• Turn on power saving methods for the processor
  
  • Examples include AMD Cool N Quiet and C1E.
    
  • These can automatically step down voltages and/or various processor multipliers to limit power consumption
    
    • For me, it doesn't seem to lower the maximum temperatures, but might help you with idle temperatures

Now that you have done everything you can to make your CPU cooler (right?), it is time to find a program that can test how hot your CPU can get. I recommend Prime95. When you run it, make sure that one of the core temp programs is running so you can monitor the activity and stop the test at any time.

The only step I haven't followed myself is checking for newer BIOS updates. So you would think that after all this I would have been able to decrease my processor's core temp by like 10C, right?
WRONG - That's a big reason why I posted this thread. The only step that made a difference for me personally was lowering the processor voltages, and that lowered the core temps by only 1-2C when running Prime95 for 5 minutes.

Any other suggestions regarding my processor, or anyone else have a similar problem with their processor? I haven't been able to find any information about how reliable my processor model's core temps are - Even when reading customer reviews online. Do I just suck that badly at applying thermal paste - Two different times?

[Vulpesveritas]

http://openhardwaremonitor.org/

I keep it (and use it's widget) to actively monitor my CPU temperatures, and actually has higher readings than most other tools I've used, and hence has a bit more of a "safe zone" than other tools, getting you to cease heavy tasks (if you watch the numbers, unfortunately unavailable in game) before you risk damaging your CPU.
Plus it actively watches load amounts, and more than just the CPU.

[Ouster]

If you want to find out how well a particular heatsynk should performs or you need to find a better heatsynk this website has great reviews using synthetic heatsynks benchmarks. Your results should be fairly similar but they may be just a tad higher given that there are synthetic benchmarks. So heat is distributed evenly a crossed the bottom of the heatsyncs and not localized to each core location. This can cause higher temperatures with some cpu coolers that directly expose heat pipes to the cpu package since not all heat pipes will operate at max efficiency.

http://www.frostytech.com/

RenegadeMaster, on 15 August 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

1. Clean the CPU's top face and heatsink carefully with a lint free cloth & rubbing alcohol (~70%)
2. There seems to be a dividing line between putting a BB sized dot of paste in the middle & squishing it down, or applying some and spreading it with a business card or razer blade.
3. Air bubbles, lack of thermal paste, or too much will evidently hurt heat dissipation.

if your heat sync does not have a mirror smooth surface you may want to apply a thin cote of thermal past to it and then wipe it off this usually guaranties that all the small imperfections will get filled in regardless of how thick the past is this will leave a tinted sheen on the heatsynk.

For #2 I say it really depends on the thickness of your thermal past. If it really thick the spreading method will probably be more effective. If it really thin the BB method will be just fine.

Also remember some thermal past have a break-in period and the will become more efficient over time. I know AS5(Arctic Silver 5) take 100 hours and will drop a few degrees C over with time. While a past like MX-2 will be at full efficiency almost immediately. But it probably a good idea to give all thermal past at least a few hours at full load so that the past has time to redistribute and optimize it self even if it advertised as a not require a brake in period.

[Iarwain ben Adar]

Do you have any insights for GPU temps?
I have a pair of GTX 560's (1GB) in SLI but the game only seems to utilize the primary and run the temps in the 70-80C range.
Examples from other games: Skyrim uses both and I only see 60-68C running it, and Crysis is in a similar range, and other than MWO, nothing else seems to drive it past 70C. My ambient is around 25-26C, and I gathered the information using MSI Afterburner.
Any help would be appreciated.

[DV McKenna]

Iarwain ben Adar, on 19 August 2012 - 07:53 AM, said:

Do you have any insights for GPU temps?
I have a pair of GTX 560's (1GB) in SLI but the game only seems to utilize the primary and run the temps in the 70-80C range.
Examples from other games: Skyrim uses both and I only see 60-68C running it, and Crysis is in a similar range, and other than MWO, nothing else seems to drive it past 70C. My ambient is around 25-26C, and I gathered the information using MSI Afterburner.
Any help would be appreciated.

Little bit warm, not catastrophic yet tho.
Have you set a custom fan profile in afterburner?

[Iarwain ben Adar]

I know it isn't terrible but it's unusually high, and the lack of utilization for the second GPU defeats the idea of SLI optimizing the load and thus balance the heat better. My primary goes to 80%+ on usage in the GPU and memory, whilst my secondary is fiddling about at ~15%.
Is there a way to force the program into using the SLI correctly?

I have a water-cooling setup, the fans on the radiators scale up when the temps rise, but afterburner isn't controlling that; although, I can see/hear the fan speed ramp up on the primary GPU radiator when I launch the game.

Thanks.

[DV McKenna]

Iarwain ben Adar, on 19 August 2012 - 08:23 AM, said:

I know it isn't terrible but it's unusually high, and the lack of utilization for the second GPU defeats the idea of SLI optimizing the load and thus balance the heat better. My primary goes to 80%+ on usage in the GPU and memory, whilst my secondary is fiddling about at ~15%.
Is there a way to force the program into using the SLI correctly?

I have a water-cooling setup, the fans on the radiators scale up when the temps rise, but afterburner isn't controlling that; although, I can see/hear the fan speed ramp up on the primary GPU radiator when I launch the game.

Thanks.

SLI is not supported by the game yet.