H150i high temps

I'm getting very high load temps from 3970x with H150i Pro XT (push). No overclocking and I've disabled PBO in the bios.

I'm measuring with AMD Ryzen Master and getting 45-50 when idle and 85-90 on full load.

 

Is this normal?

45 - 50 on idle yes it's normal on Ryzen. Those small idle activities trigger boost spikes with high Vcore, so they tend to run warmer than the competition in idle.

 

Under load, it depends. If that is under Prim95 small FFT yes it's normal. If it's a few cinebench runs, then there may be something odd.

 

It would be good to know what is the coolant temperature in idle and under load after a few minutes, when the water temperature stabilizes at its highest.

If the water is constantly cold, you may have bad contact between the pump and the CPU. If the water heats up massively, maybe the fan curve is too smooth, or there could be a pump issue.

Coolant temperature is around 34c when idle, and steady at around 39c running on full load for several hours. Looks like it never passes that 39c mark. The curve I built has the pump and fans spinning at max RPM at that point.

 

I haven't tested with Prime95. I'm running multiple video encoding jobs in parallel which saturate all the cores to 100%.

 

Is 39c considered high for the coolant temperature?

39C coolant temperature is high if the case in a 17C environment. It's a relative value to room and specifically internal case temperature. If the interior case ambient is 35C, then that is the minimum coolant temp as well. Coolant temperature is also the minimum possible CPU temp with zero volts.

 

So 34 to 39C (+5C delta) is pretty much spot on. The cooling system is working correctly and that +5C is what you are controlling with pump and fan speeds.

 

The difference between coolant temperature and actual end CPU temp is a function of CPU design, physical properties, BIOS settings, but most of all voltage. Typical values are +30-50C with wide variance for CPU type and voltage. At +45C you likely need to check the voltage to make sure it is staying within what you think are acceptable levels. Typical "auto out of the box" configuration is going to have a lot of padding to make sure poor CPU samples don't crash. This is usually the quickest place to take a few degrees off the top end.

 

The other thing to look at is case layout and local environment. Most people will have an idle coolant of +4-7C above their room temperature, but this is case and radiator location specific. If you have a tightly sealed "noise suppression case" you are going to run warmer. If you stick your case under a desk, you are going to heat up the entire area and everything will be warmer. This might be a place you can reduce temperatures across the board, but sometimes you are limited by the case design.

 

The CPU temp jittering around at idle is normal and most recent Intel and AMD users are going to see very dynamic shifts. No more sitting on the desktop at 700 Mhz, flat as a pancake for hours unless you actively tranquilize the CPU through power saving means.

@c-attack, thanks a lot for the detailed explanation, I've learnt a lot.

 

Do you think it's also worth a shot to reseat the cooler to make sure there's no bad contact between it and the IHS as LeDoyen suggested above?

maybe check if there's a big difference in temperature between cores, that could indicate a slightly wonky installation, and one CCX less cooled than the others.

If it was a 3990X i'd have said yea, repaste it for sure because the default paste application would not exactly cover the entire iHS, but on the 3970X, the chips are centered just under the pump. So it should be fine.

 

Depending on what you'll decide, and what C-attack will have to advise too, it may be worth it to have thermal paste at hand if you reseat it.

But again, probably not necesary.

If you want to pop the CPU block off and take a look, go ahead. I don't think you will find a partial spread TIM application, but at least then you know for sure rather than harbor nagging doubts. It is possible to be just that tiniest bit off where it might cost a few degrees. Also, if your intended use is for encoding runs all day, might as well to make sure and use a high quality TIM.

It turns out that my CPU block wasn't installed properly. I took it out and saw that the TIM wasn't covering the cooler's entire square shape on the IHS.

 

Anyway, after re-applying thermal paste (MX-4) and reseating the block, I'm getting around 81c under full load, steady! Definitely an improvement from temps getting to 90c.

 

I think the problem was that I wasn't applying the correct pressure when turning the screws. I never know how much it should be, and also there's the fear factor of applying pressure on such an expensive CPU... :biggrin:

 

Thank you for your help!

OK, good. It's not greater pressure that gets you better temps, but unequal pressure will definitely cause problems. You don't need to heavily torque the block down. Work gradually around tightening a little at a time on opposing sides the best you can. Casual hand tightening is enough. Only bad things happen if you crank down hard.