Check if your CPU and GPU temperatures, MHz, and load are within typical ranges.
Check if your CPU and GPU temperatures, MHz, and load are within typical ranges.
The GPU temperatures are very stable and the CPU stays between 70-80°C during intense use. It's clear you're looking for a cooler since 75-80°C is acceptable for gaming, but your CPU shouldn't exceed 90°C.
Budget CPU cooler works well if temperatures stay below 85 degrees. I believe the 3D design might cause the processor to overheat.
They can reach up to 90C and then stop increasing, possibly hitting peaks around 91, but it won’t exceed that. They’ll start throttling their clock speed and voltage to stay at or below 90C, adjusting aggressively until the temperature or power constraints are met. This is how these AMD processors work—they become more demanding as they approach those limits.
Keeping them under 80C with even a large air cooler or a 360 AIO is quite challenging. The better the cooler, the more aggressive the cooling will be due to power restrictions. This isn’t the same as older systems. New CPUs from AMD and Intel are similar to GPUs in this regard; it’s unclear why they mention base clock speeds anymore—likely just marketing.
To be honest, that Peerless Assassin is about the same performance as a 360mm AIO, its pretty decent cooler. I honestly wouldn't wastes your money on a AIO that wont really do much unless you want you, of course its your money.
But yes, the cooler it is, the longer it will sustain higher clocks, But there is a limit, if you cool it too much, you wont gain anything other than a cooler running CPU as you'd hit a power limit and clock limit, You are better off learning and researching on how to adjust the curve optimizer and fine tuning the EDC, TDC and PPT for best thermal at less power so it will end up boosting higher increasing performance. That's the route I'd go rather than buying an expansive AIO.
Good Luck!
Does using a kombo strike affect performance on an MSI motherboard, and is it equivalent to curve optimization?
To the best of my understanding, Kombo seems to work well for you, although I don't have an MSI board to offer a definitive answer. You might get better results if you handle it yourself, though not much more. Others praise Kombo, so it's worth continuing to use it.