The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (stock speed) can hit 90 degrees after about five minutes of gaming.
The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (stock speed) can hit 90 degrees after about five minutes of gaming.
The stock cooler for the 3600 isn’t great. What anyone says doesn’t change what I know. I own the CPU and figured it was the mounting issue—I swapped it out with fresh paste and it still ran at a high temperature during games. The included cooler is subpar. I tested it on standard settings, with PBO enabled and auto overclock turned on. I installed a Corsair H100i RGB Platinum with auto overclock at 4.25GHz, and it stayed under 55°C even after hours of gaming.
Most supporters of stock Zen coolers are focusing on the first and second generations, while third-gen models are considered poor quality. My 3600x cooler was solid—just aluminum without copper—and I was confident from the start after reading reviews. I went all-in on a Hyper 212 without any hesitation.
On a tighter budget, what’s the arctic freezer 34 setup for you? I haven’t tested one on Ryzen yet, though I’ve run some on Intel. My 3600 comes with a Noctua D9L, which works but isn’t great value. The 3700X has a budget Coolermaster 240mm AIO that gives a bit more life, while the 2600 is a bit hotter than the 3600. I’ve noticed the 3600 tends to overheat more easily. Running it near ppt with a stock cooler seems manageable. The 1600/1700 models offered better performance and more metal feel. The 2600 model had less metal but similar build quality to the 3600. They were quite affordable. If you kept the 1600, it might be fine. I was excited about the Prism but found it noisy and underperforming on the 3600 right after booting. The RGB is nice though.
I've had a great time using the Arctic Freezer 33. It's super affordable and maintains that i7-8700 at a comfortable temperature. The 4300mhz performance lasts all day without overheating, staying under 60°C even in real conditions.
TLDR: Forget the stock cooler setup. I tried the same build with B450TM and R5 3600, but gaming at 90°C was a problem. The real fix was securing the CPU fan fully in place—preventing it from slipping out. At 90°C, CSGO felt like 80°C. These chips are built that way, but I didn’t know about the NH-D15 issue yet. Overall, my build is running fine now. Good luck to everyone!