While the best CPUs available today are pretty fast, they also get pretty hot, particularly Intel's 14th generation chips and AMD's Ryzen 7000 chips. Although CPUs should get pretty hot under load, if they get too hot, thermal throttling will occur to prevent damage, but this will also affect performance. In extreme cases, a CPU will shut itself down so it doesn't destroy itself.
What is considered too hot for a CPU depends on the model. For modern chips, the limit is between 90 and 100 degrees Celsius, and for older chips, 85 degrees Celsius was usually the maximum you wanted to reach. If your CPU is constantly hitting or approaching 100 degrees, or if you just don't like the heat, even if it's technically safe, you have several options.
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1 Dust off your PC
It's annoying, but necessary
Dust can prevent your CPU from getting access to the fresh air it needs to maintain a good temperature. If you've recently noticed your CPU reaching pretty high temperatures, this could be the reason.
To ensure good airflow, you must clean the dust filters regularly.
Many PCs come with dust filters that prevent dust from entering the PC, but can clog and restrict airflow. You need to clean these filters regularly to ensure good airflow. Even if your PC doesn't have filters, it's a good idea to dust the fans and CPU cooler.
In addition to cleaning your PC tower, you should also clean your motherboard if it is excessively dusty. While this won't do much to lower our CPU temperatures, it is advisable to maintain a clean appearance.
2 Increase the fan speed of your CPU cooler
Get the most out of your cooler
A CPU cooler works by blowing air over an arrangement of metal fins called a heatsink, which sucks all the heat away from the CPU. The easiest way to improve the performance of a cooler is to increase the amount of air flowing through it, which means increasing the fan speed. There are two ways to do this: manually adjusting the fan speed in your motherboard's BIOS, or using a useful app called Fan Control.
However, there are some limitations here. First, if your fan is already working at its limit, you won't be able to increase anything here. Or your fan might not even support speed adjustment; only fans with a 4-pin connector can be adjusted. Also, Fan Control might not support your motherboard and thus won't work on every PC, even though it supports countless motherboards.
3 Increase the speed of your case fans
Helps in every “case”
You can also indirectly improve the performance of your CPU cooler by increasing the speed of the case fans in your PC. This applies to both desktops and laptops, although you'll find on many laptops that there is only one fan that basically serves as both a CPU and case fan. For PCs with multiple fans, setting up your case fans correctly should help direct cooler, fresher air to the CPU cooler and further reduce temperatures.
However, this brings with it the same problems as increasing the CPU fan speed. Also, case fans have a much smaller impact on CPU temperatures than the fans on the CPU cooler itself, so this is definitely an example of diminishing returns. It's worth a try, but don't expect a massive drop in temperatures.
4 Set a performance limit
Prevent your CPU from overheating
If none of the above solutions worked, your options are pretty limited. The last thing you can really do without getting into hardware is to limit your CPU's power consumption. All of the power consumed by a CPU (or any processor) is converted into heat, which is why the most power-hungry CPUs are also the hottest. You can undervolt your CPU in the BIOS, via OEM software for laptops and pre-built desktops, and by using first-party apps – Ryzen Master for AMD CPUs and Extreme Tuning Utility for Intel CPUs.
For some chips, the performance degradation is minimal or nonexistent.
Of course, in most cases, a power limit also means a performance limit. There are some chips where the performance drop is very small or even non-existent (like the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 7 7700X), but usually you have to expect worse performance, especially in multi-core scenarios.
5 Re-paste your CPU cooler
Good old muscle work
We've settled on hardware-based solutions, and the simplest of these is to simply replace the thermal paste between the CPU and the CPU cooler. Although the CPU and the metal base of a CPU cooler both appear perfectly flat, they are anything but. Thermal paste helps fill the gaps in both surfaces, allowing heat to easily travel from one to the other. To do this, you'll need to remove the CPU cooler from the CPU, clean both, and apply a fresh layer of thermal paste before putting the cooler back on.
It is possible that the original paste has dried out or that too little of it was applied in the first place.
There are many reasons why reapplying thermal paste might help. Maybe the original paste dried out, maybe too little was applied to begin with, or maybe none was applied at all. It's also possible that the person who installed your CPU cooler forgot to remove the protective film that is usually found on the bottom of CPU coolers, or they didn't screw it in properly, preventing good contact. Whether the problem is with the thermal paste or not, reapplying it and reinstalling your CPU cooler might help.
6 Get a new CPU cooler and case fan
Time for some upgrades
You probably don't want to hear this, but one of the best ways to fix an overheating CPU is to buy a better cooler. If you've paired a Core i9-13900K with a stock Intel heatsink, for example, you'll eventually run into problems pretty quickly. You don't need $100+ CPU coolers like Noctua's NH-D15 to get great cooling performance. If you're willing to give a less established brand a chance, Thermalright has plenty of cheap CPU coolers on offer, and even its $35 Peerless Assassin 120 SE can rival the NH-D15 and other high-end air coolers.
You may need one of the best liquid coolers with a 360mm radiator.
However, with a CPU like the Core i9-14900K, the power consumption is very high and even the best air coolers cannot reliably cool the temperature below 100 degrees Celsius under full load, although multi-core performance would still be pretty good. You may need one of the best liquid coolers with a 360mm radiator, which will provide much better cooling than any air cooler. Liquid coolers are more expensive than air coolers, however, but if you are already paying $500 or more for a CPU, this may not be a big issue.
7 Get a CPU that consumes less power
Last way out
Source: XDA Developers
If a new CPU cooler isn't an option, your only option is to buy a new CPU that uses less power. Hopefully you can get one that offers better efficiency and thus the same or similar performance at significantly lower power consumption, but this usually requires upgrading to a newer generation CPU. At the time of writing, this isn't possible on AM5 as the Ryzen 8000 is still a long way from it, and while LGA 1700 has 12th, 13th and 14th generation CPUs, they are all extremely power hungry and offer similar efficiency.
Hypothetically, you might be using an older Ryzen 1000 or 2000 series CPU in a mini-ITX PC where a better cooler isn't possible due to space constraints. In that case, you would get significantly more efficiency by upgrading to a Ryzen 5000 CPU, and the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in particular would be a great chip. It's very efficient for gaming and offers top-end performance, making it a great candidate for this type of upgrade.
How to Lower Your CPU Temperature: Final Thoughts
While increasing the fan speed or cleaning your PC tower may help to some extent, you'll likely need to modify your hardware in some way. This could range from applying new thermal paste to buying a brand new cooler. It's unfortunate that improving your CPU's temperature may come at a cost, but that's the reality of modern CPUs and thermodynamics.
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