The CPU is excessively hot because of the increased strain from overclocking, which also negatively impacts performance.
The CPU is excessively hot because of the increased strain from overclocking, which also negatively impacts performance.
Hello everyone,
I set up a PC about six months ago. It runs an AMD Athlon 860K with a Cooler Master 212 EVO. I'm only slightly overclocked, moving from 3.7 to 4.0 GHz. However, according to HW-Monitor, my idle temperature is in the low 60s, which seems unusually high. AMD Overdrive indicates a thermal margin of about 55 degrees. Does this align with what I see? Could there be an issue with the sensor or something else?
Additionally, since I overclocked my CPU, my startup time has noticeably increased—more than double. The increase was gradual before, but after overclocking, it jumped sharply. My XFX R9 290, which I boosted by around 10 MHz, now has a much lower Unigine Valley score. What could be causing this change? Here are my specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Storage: Seagate 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Drive
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Double Dissipation
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply
Verify your voltage levels, and consider reinserting your cooler.
No.... is it not included in the issue? Or should we not bring them up?
Re-seating your cooler might be the most confusing thing they meant to say. Remove the heatsink, wipe the thermal paste from the top of your CPU and the bottom of the heatsink with alcohol. Apply a thin layer of new paste to the CPU, spreading it evenly with the tube tip. Reattach the heatsink carefully, ensuring it's properly connected. This should bring your temperatures down nicely; if not, the software you're using might be incorrect. Many programs mix up Celsius and Fahrenheit readings, but it seems your CPU isn't running at 60F.
How did you increase the clock speed? Did you use a multiplier or FSB? Which other adjustments were made? If you changed the FSB, did you modify the RAM settings or let it downclock for stability? There are many factors involved, so we need more details to assist you.
Many overclocked AMD graphics cards are already operating at or close to their maximum capacity. If you further increased the memory speed on the card, it might trigger memory errors. In this scenario, the card needs to pause for another read operation without errors. (GDDR5 includes error detection and correction, which consumes time and resources, leading to a reduced performance score.)