The stock cooler might not provide sufficient cooling for gaming with a Ryzen 5 5500.
The stock cooler might not provide sufficient cooling for gaming with a Ryzen 5 5500.
You're thinking about whether you need an extra cooler with your new Ryzen 5 5500. Since you already have a Deepcool cooler for $32 AUD, consider if upgrading to a Ryzen 5 5500 will increase heat output enough to warrant another one.
Stock cooling works okay. It won’t be amazing, probably makes some noise, but performance remains acceptable. Since it’s free, you could give it a shot—just consider switching to a quieter option if the sound bothers you.
Usually running the chip at stock voltage works well, but adjusting OC settings can affect performance once the system is loaded. For a low-wattage chip, just avoid extreme clock speeds and voltages—it should be fine unless you push things too far. AMD typically uses 1.40V as default; if that’s your setting, you can lower it manually in BIOS under “Manual” voltage selection to cool it down. Don’t rely on offset adjustments, as misunderstanding them might increase voltage unnecessarily. Start with around 1.30V and test at stock load, observing temperatures during operation rather than idle.
There are several issues with that approach. Ryzen processors are prone to significant performance drops when clock speeds are reduced or voltages are fixed. A better solution is manual overclocking and avoiding PBO entirely, though this sacrifices single-core gains and may hurt gaming results. To lower the voltage, you need to use the curve optimizer, but it behaves unpredictably—crashes often occur during idle rather than under load, making it risky. Also, 1.4V is only appropriate at idle, and temperatures should already be low, so the adjustment isn’t that critical.
For cooling purposes, standard stock coolers usually work well for everyday use. If you anticipate heavy workloads, think about switching to an aftermarket model. In my view, the Hyper 212 is a solid choice, and others seem to support this idea too. I found a list on Google that suggests many affordable coolers are worth upgrading from the stock AMD units.