Question about CPU temp when gaming

[Mikey89]

So i was doing some gaming earlier and noticed something.

 

After about 1-2 hours when i exited the game, after like 2-3 minutes the CPU temp was at 51'C then going down to 45'C then 40'C and then jumping back up to 52'C. And it kept doing this for like 3-4 minutes after i exited the game.

 

I'm using a Ryzen 5 3600 with a BE QUIET! Shadow Rock LP cooler.

 

Ussually my CPU temp doesn't go above 65'C when gaming and on idle it's about 36'C.

 

But were those jumps after i exited the game normal ?

 

I mean it kept going from 51'C to 45'C to 40'C and then jumping back to 51'C and kept doing this for like 3-4 minutes. After that temp went back to regular 37-38'C after around 5 min or more.

[Cyracus]

Temp variations sound like typical windows running background stuff

[Mikey89]

5 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

Temp variations sound like typical windows running background stuff

@Cyracus

 

But i only had steam running... nothing else except for antivirus.

 

Also can't say for sure, but i don't remember the temp variations being there when on idle.. i mean only had steam open. I know i get temp variations when doing stuff but not when on idle.

[Guest]

Just now, Mikey89 said:

@Cyracus

 

But i only had steam running... nothing else except for antivirus.

If you see the expanded view on Task Manager you will see a load of windows processes, and how much of your resources they take up. Still, the anitvirus software is probably the culprit here.

[Mikey89]

Just now, Konrad_K said:

If you see the expanded view on Task Manager you will see a load of windows processes, and how much of your resources they take up. Still, the anitvirus software is probably the culprit here.

@Konrad_K

 

I know but i don't remember ever having these variations after exiting games.

 

I monitor my temps pretty much and they always go down without variations... well CPU has variations but ONLY when it's doing something... not on idle.

 

And after exiting the game, wasn't the system technically on idle ?

[Cyracus]

1 minute ago, Mikey89 said:

@Cyracus

 

But i only had steam running... nothing else except for antivirus.

windows has a lot of built in background junk, Jay did a video quite a while back about murdering the nonsense

 

[Mikey89]

45 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

windows has a lot of built in background junk, Jay did a video quite a while back about murdering the nonsense

 

@Cyracus

 

So i just tried again after like 1-2 hours of gaming.

 

I exited the game and checked CPU temp but this time i did NOT get those variations i got earlier from 51'C to 45'C to 51'C again and back and forth.

 

This time it just went back to like 36-37'C after 3-4 minutes after i exited and stayed there. Had no variations.

 

Have literally no idea what was causing those variations... i only hope my CPU and CPU cooler aren't malfunctioning or something... hope they're working as should.

[Cyracus]

3 minutes ago, Mikey89 said:

Have literally no idea what was causing those variations... i only hope my CPU and CPU cooler aren't malfunctioning or something... hope they're working as should.

Almost certainly it was something running in the background, windows does a lot of background stuff by default. Even small loads on Ryzen can cause temps to jump up, especially if using stock boost behavior

Nothing here indicates cpu problems, and it sounds like the cooler is doing its job well.

[KohanaCoyote]

1 hour ago, Konrad_K said:

If you see the expanded view on Task Manager you will see a load of windows processes, and how much of your resources they take up. Still, the anitvirus software is probably the culprit here.

Windows, by default standards, does many background tasks. Try also checking your privacy settings as it could also be sending "usage and diagnostics data" to Redmond. Also, upon closing steam, it also uploads files to the cloud, at least it does with SteamVR

[Mikey89]

1 hour ago, Cyracus said:

Almost certainly it was something running in the background, windows does a lot of background stuff by default. Even small loads on Ryzen can cause temps to jump up, especially if using stock boost behavior

Nothing here indicates cpu problems, and it sounds like the cooler is doing its job well.

@Cyracus

 

I think i've managed to sort of... "isolate" the issue.

 

I noticed it mostly happens after i specific game in this case Aliens Fireteam Elite. Played more of Aliens and noticed after exiting the game like 4 minutes the CPU temp did have those jump variations i was talking about earlier again... which is kinda weird i suppose since the game itself is not too demanding.

 

With other games like RDR2 for example it does not happen.

 

Really not sure what to think.

[YoungBlade]

1 hour ago, Mikey89 said:

@Cyracus

 

I think i've managed to sort of... "isolate" the issue.

 

I noticed it mostly happens after i specific game in this case Aliens Fireteam Elite. Played more of Aliens and noticed after exiting the game like 4 minutes the CPU temp did have those jump variations i was talking about earlier again... which is kinda weird i suppose since the game itself is not too demanding.

 

With other games like RDR2 for example it does not happen.

 

Really not sure what to think.

If it's only happening after a particular game, it's probably that the game hasn't fully shut down yet. Or Steam might be doing some housekeeping. Or Windows might be readjusting the data cached in RAM. Or Windows Defender is scanning the files the game used.

 

It's probably nothing to worry about. Ryzen can have temps spike pretty hard from minor usage. If it's not constant, it shouldn't hurt anything.

[Mikey89]

@Cyracus@YoungBlade

 

Forgot to mention something that i noticed now.

 

Even when on idle i see like some temp variations form 35'C to 40'C to 37'C to 44'C then back to 34'C.

 

Is this normal ? I thought it was mostly after gaming, but now on idle i'm curious.

[RAS_3885]

There is nothing wrong with your system. Something as simple as a single thread being spun up for a random Windows process can cause a quick temp spike to 50-60 C depending on what it is. That behavior is completely normal.

 

Realistically, the only temps that remotely matter are those while under load (gaming, rendering, etc.). As long as those are in check nothing else matters (hardware safety wise; fan noise is another thing with transient spikes).

 

Really high idle/low load temps (like 70+ C) can be indicative of a cooling issue, such as a poorly mounted cooler, but below that it's irrelevant.

[A1200]

@Mikey89you are way to precious about this - system temps change wildly - if you weren't looking at monitoring software how would you know/care. Temps will change and be different at different times of the year - depending on your ambient temp. A silent fan profile will also allow temps to rise to a given point, fan speed kicks in, brings temps down, drops speed, rinse and repeat. Don't keep looking at the temps dude, unless your chip is reaching 90 degrees (you are miles off), this is fine. Your system is cool, you be cool.

 

 

[YoungBlade]

1 hour ago, Mikey89 said:

@Cyracus@YoungBlade

 

Forgot to mention something that i noticed now.

 

Even when on idle i see like some temp variations form 35'C to 40'C to 37'C to 44'C then back to 34'C.

 

Is this normal ? I thought it was mostly after gaming, but now on idle i'm curious.

This is totally normal behavior for Ryzen. Ryzen actually uses higher voltages at lower load levels, and turns off cores not in use. So the core that becomes active will have to go from 0 to 60 in a fraction of the second, which means that temps are going to be more volatile than when under full load, where you'll reach equilibrium as all cores are on and using consistent voltages.

[Mikey89]

14 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

This is totally normal behavior for Ryzen. Ryzen actually uses higher voltages at lower load levels, and turns off cores not in use. So the core that becomes active will have to go from 0 to 60 in a fraction of the second, which means that temps are going to be more volatile than when under full load, where you'll reach equilibrium as all cores are on and using consistent voltages.

@YoungBlade

 

So let me get this straight... you're saying Ryzen cores are more volatile when running on idle rather than while gaming ?

 

I mean shouldn't it be backwards ?

[YoungBlade]

24 minutes ago, Mikey89 said:

@YoungBlade

 

So let me get this straight... you're saying Ryzen cores are more volatile when running on idle rather than while gaming ?

 

I mean shouldn't it be backwards ?

By "volatile" I mean that the temperatures fluctuate more. If you look at Ryzen Master, you'll see that the CPU puts cores to sleep whenever it can. Those cores are basically doing nothing. The chip will wake a core up if it needs to do something.

 

At that point, the processor is probably only using one or two cores, which is when the highest boost clocks are available. To maintain those higher clocks, it needs higher voltages, and it's allowed to give those because the total power consumption of the chip is still pretty low (there's only a couple of cores active). Those cores are going to rapidly heat up, because they have relatively large amounts of power going through them, concentrated in that small space.

 

However, when the processor is at full load, the cores aren't allowed to boost as high, so it can use lower voltages. In addition, the CPU will reach its power limit. That limit cannot be exceeded, and the available power will be spread across all the cores. So while the average temperature of the whole CPU will be higher when all cores are in use, the hot spot temps might actually be lower, because that heat and power is spread over a wider area.

 

The result is that, when under load, your temps are more stable. At idle, temps will fluctuate as cores become active and boost to max speed, concentrating all that voltage and power into a tiny space means it'll get hot quickly, but once the core stops being active, the heat will dissipate just as quickly, because it wasn't the whole chip being heated up, just one spot.

[Mikey89]

16 hours ago, YoungBlade said:

By "volatile" I mean that the temperatures fluctuate more. If you look at Ryzen Master, you'll see that the CPU puts cores to sleep whenever it can. Those cores are basically doing nothing. The chip will wake a core up if it needs to do something.

 

At that point, the processor is probably only using one or two cores, which is when the highest boost clocks are available. To maintain those higher clocks, it needs higher voltages, and it's allowed to give those because the total power consumption of the chip is still pretty low (there's only a couple of cores active). Those cores are going to rapidly heat up, because they have relatively large amounts of power going through them, concentrated in that small space.

 

However, when the processor is at full load, the cores aren't allowed to boost as high, so it can use lower voltages. In addition, the CPU will reach its power limit. That limit cannot be exceeded, and the available power will be spread across all the cores. So while the average temperature of the whole CPU will be higher when all cores are in use, the hot spot temps might actually be lower, because that heat and power is spread over a wider area.

 

The result is that, when under load, your temps are more stable. At idle, temps will fluctuate as cores become active and boost to max speed, concentrating all that voltage and power into a tiny space means it'll get hot quickly, but once the core stops being active, the heat will dissipate just as quickly, because it wasn't the whole chip being heated up, just one spot.

Thanks for the explanation.

 

I still find pretty weird though the way Ryzen works compared to the older AMD CPU models. Guess some things do change after all.