Seeking immediate guidance on AMD R5-9600X hot cores 2 and 3 running at 68°C with low power draw (15%).
Seeking immediate guidance on AMD R5-9600X hot cores 2 and 3 running at 68°C with low power draw (15%).
Hello everyone, I’m facing a serious overheating problem with my brand new PC setup. My Ryzen 5 9600X has two and three cores consistently running hot. Core 2 is doing better but core 3 seems to be struggling constantly—especially when it’s busy handling tasks. In both idle and heavy use, the other cores stay around 35°C, while core 3 often hits 45°C or more.
Now, looking closer at the affected cores: during idle, core 2 stays near 40°C, whereas core 3 reaches 45°C (well below 1% CPU load). Under load, even with minimal usage (under 15%), core 2 holds around 40°C, but core 3 jumps to 55–60°C almost instantly and often hits 68–70°C within seconds. My build uses an SFF motherboard in a T1 case, Gigabyte B650I-AX with F34 firmware (just updated to F35 recently), no overclocking. All parts are brand new.
I’ve added two extra Arctic Cooling P12 fans that sit right on the CPU cooler, with curves adjusted for usage. The heatsink was replaced under warranty—same performance as before. I mounted it with heatpipes toward the RAM, but flipping it around didn’t help. I’ve tried reseating the CPU multiple times, changed thermal paste (now using DeepCool’s own), swapped fans from intake to exhaust, and even used Arch Linux for updates. Screenshots from CoolerControl after a cold start show stable temps, but I’m still unsure.
My last guesses are: a faulty CPU backplate, a bad retention mechanism, or maybe the heatsink isn’t making good contact. The issue seems consistent across two CPUs and heatsinks, which is unusual. I’m frustrated because this is ruining my gaming experience and I don’t want to keep guessing. Any advice on testing the motherboard or other components could help?
@emosun In normal circumstances, I would agree with you. But here, it is not normal. As soon as a light workload happens, Core 3 spikes from 45 C to 65-70 in 1 second. Core 2 also increases, but less. And this happens with 15% load. Please also allow me to demonstrate that, with an intense load, the situation is way worse. In the screenshot, Forza Horizon 4, benchmark mode, full ultra settings, 4096x1728 (5120x2160 @ 125% scale). CPU usage gets close to 90%. Cores 1, 4, 5, 6 remain relatively chill, in the low 40 C. Core 2 is at about 45 C. Core 3 goes up to 80 C. That is 40 degress difference from the coolest core, and 35 degrees difference from the 2nd hotest (Core 2, at 45 C in this case). This does not look normal to me.
I applied a uniform coating across the whole CPU area, maintaining consistency and eliminating any gaps. I repeated this process several times (6 to 8 times during CPU swaps, heatsink changes, and re-installing the CPU—on various occasions). There were no noticeable temperature differences. If this were due to user mistakes, I’d expect occasional overheating of other cores while core 3 consistently spiked the highest, with the rest staying relatively stable. I didn’t mention this before, but I’m not new to PC construction—I’ve assembled systems from Intel Core 2 Duo up through various Intel and AMD models. I even apply thermal paste to RAM slices for breakfast. I understand what I’m doing, but I’m running out of ideas about this specific problem. Coincidentally, my setup was abandoned unexpectedly when I built a system for myself... dammit...
literally nothing you typed is a problem ..... and you being worried about it regardless of what is considered overheating doesn't suddenly make it a problem. If i sat here and watch my cpu temps as they move up and down within the range they they are SUPPOSED to move in I imagine i would also think theres something wrong. but if you want to ignore that your cpu isn't overheating and just want to create a problem based on hyper fixation instead of the components operating temp then theres not much i can do. I can fix computers not people.
Seems typical for a brand new AMD CPU. At 15%, just one core is being heavily utilized while the rest remain idle. This is shown by the elevated temperatures on only one core—the one actively processing. Most applications don’t distribute workload evenly across all cores, often causing some to handle significantly more than others.
It’s very likely that cores 2 and 3 are the optimal choices for your CPU. This indicates that in tasks with few threads, the scheduler will favor those units. Ryzen performs precisely as you expect in such situations. You’ll notice a couple of cores reaching high temperatures since they’re pushing their maximum speeds, using full voltage to keep stability, and because there are only a few cores involved, power restrictions don’t limit them. As a result, a small area on the CPU die can generate 30-40 watts of heat. This is normal behavior for the processor operating as intended.
Guys, I think you are confusing normal behavior with sustained excessive temps. During light load, ok, I understand, one core or another will have a party in hell. For a short while. But even in idle? While 4 out of 6 cores stay at 30C, do you think it's normal for one single core to always stay at 48, and another at 40 - again - doing NOTHING ? Update on the situation since my initial posting. I bought a different cooler, ID-Cooling IS-50X V3 , just arrived today and mounted it immediately. It was unable to keep any temperature under control, the CPU was idling at 40C+ and Core 3 was dancing around at 55C. I mounted back the DeepCool AN600. Idle is the same, but now things got worse AF for core 3. With just Steam opened - no games, no downloads - Core 3 spikes and stays at 90C. After a while, it goes back to 75C-80C, but nothing less. Notice also how every core, other than 3, stays at a chill 40C. My PC sounds like a drone, the two Arctic P12 fans spin continuously at 3200 RPM, the CPU does not get any cooler, and I am having such a bad time. If anyone has any other idea, I'd be grateful.
Your chart indicates a 6% CPU usage still active, which corresponds to about one thread running. It seems Core 3 is likely handling some task. I’m unsure what’s causing it. You referred to Steam? Have you turned off GPU acceleration? That could cause Steam to maintain a steady, minor CPU load since the web interface rendering would then fall on the CPU. Regarding the fan speed, using the average temperature instead of the hotspot setting is recommended, as some BIOS and Windows tools like FanControl allow this. This method can better reflect overall CPU heat. With Ryzen processors, the hotspot can heat up quickly, but it doesn’t always mean the fan will cool effectively unless heat spreads through the thick AM5 IHS. The average temperature reading gives a more accurate picture of overall CPU temperature. Also, Ryzen chips may experience an "observer effect" with monitoring software, where the CPU detects itself as busy and increases clock speed unnecessarily. This can hinder proper idle performance. I haven’t tried the software you mentioned, but it might not be the best choice for tracking Ryzen’s behavior.