Overclocking my AMD R9 7950x

[jhogan93]

hey guys! i have been rocking this beast for about a year now and i want to start overclocking it. the only issue is that it runs almost always at 95C! im using a NZXT Kraken Z Series Z73 360mm, and i cant seem to keep temps under control. as much as i love the led screen on the pump, i would rather have performance. is there a better cooler on the market? i dont feel comfortable with custom water cooling but i might have to give it a try. and help or advice would be awesome. thanks!

[Jurrunio]

There's not much reason to overclock Zen 4 because they are pretty maxed out from the factory, undervolt instead. Or if you do want more performance, focus on tuning up your memory sticks.

[RONOTHAN##]

11 minutes ago, jhogan93 said:

i want to start overclocking it.

No point, Ryzen CPUs since the 3000 series have not had any amount of headroom in them. You'll get maybe 5% more performance in Cinebench if you don't go for full stability while losing performance in games, and you'll be losing performance over just enabling PBO if you do go for full stability. If you want to do anything, mess with the curve optimizer or if your board supports ECLK support. Memory overclocking is also an option. 

 

11 minutes ago, jhogan93 said:

is there a better cooler on the market?

Nothing really worthwhile. Technically something like an Arctic Liquid Freezer 2 is better, but not by enough to be worth swapping out. 

[Lukjo]

almost always at 95C?so you mean like gaming aswell?

that seems like an issue i would address 1st

[jhogan93]

Update! I gave my pc a good cleaning. reapplied thermal paste. added 2x 140mm case fans to add more airflow and reoganized my case fans to be more efficient. Fresh install of Windows 11 and all my drivers are intalled. im using NZXTcam to track my temps. What i find interesting it that by default it will adjust fan curve to AIO liquid temp. but i have never seen my AIO liquid temp get above 35c. while extracting cinebench2024, cpu temp got to 75c and liquid temp got to 30c. just opening cinebench 2024 caused a huge spike to 95c on the cpu! all the while my lquid temp is still on 31c! is that normal? im wondering if the my block isnt transfering the heat away from the cpu into the water efficeintly enough. did i get a "bad" AIO out of the box? its been about a year of thermal throttling issues. or is the R9 7950x that much of a thermal beast?

 

okay update^2. i ran cinebench r23 for the 10 min stress test and my liquid temp never went above 33c while my cpu was roasting at 95c! theres no way thats normal!

 

so now im going to try to see if my thermal compound needs to be reapplied again or maybe even add more? in the mean time can anyone give me any reccomendations for high quality cpu coolers? black friday is around the corner and at this point im going to get these cpu thermals under control one way or another. maybe try custom watercooling? idk may need help with that as well.