CPU Package Temp Fluctuating Like Crazy

[TikPandora]

Hello everyone. This is my first post to the forums! As for my little issue, I just got a new PC the other day, and today while messing around with HWMonitor I noticed something strange. As a very paranoid individual, I began to worry almost immediately about something being wrong either with a sensor or with my system itself.

Basically, the issue arises when looking at the "Package Temp" value. The CPU itself never reports above 35 degrees Celsius at idle (when I mean idle I mean while running Chrome with multiple tabs), but it seems to jump quite rapidly from around 21 to 35 with the cores reporting different temps and the package as a whole jumping around like mad.(This also applies and seems to correspond with the frequency.) The reading from my Gigabyte MOBO always is 40-41 degrees without the dramatic jumps of the FX readings.

Is this normal, or is something wrong with my processor/MOBO? The main concern I have is that it can jump up ten degrees and then back again within the course of a second. It makes me think something might be wrong. It even seems to do this in AMD Overdrive when looking at the distance to throttle temp.

AMD FX-6300 hexa-core at 3.5 GHz (No overclock)
8GB DDR3 RAM
Windows 10 Home
XFX AMD Radeon RX 560 (2GB) Graphics

 

[NostaSeronx]

This is nominal as far as I know.

DVFS and P-states will have the CPU jumping from P-slow, P-base, P-turbo rather quickly. In turn this changes the frequency and voltage which causes the temperature fluctuations.

 

[TikPandora]

This is nominal as far as I know.

DVFS and P-states will have the CPU jumping from P-slow, P-base, P-turbo rather quickly. Which changes the frequency and voltage which causes the temperature fluctuations.

It never goes high or anything. I just am a worrier especially with this being a brand new PC. So you think it's normal then, even the multiple jumps within a very short period of time? I'll be using the PC for professional work so I need to make sure it's a-ok.

 

[NostaSeronx]

It is normal for it to do that.

Bristol Ridge mobile has it worse. 0% to 100% CPU usage on idle workloads. So, yes it is completely normal to see temp fluctuation.

 

[TikPandora]

Strange. I would think that a desktop CPU would be more stable with temps. Guess I'm used to my old i5 2400. Whenever I peeked at it's temps it remained nice and stable. It was just alarming, looking at a brand new CPU jumping around like it doesn't know what it's doing. Changing up and down by sometimes 10° from second to second.

 

[Markfw]

Brand new CPU ? the FX6300 is quite old, 5 years old actually. Oct 2012 release. It runs hot, its probably slower than that I5-2400. Why did you switch ?

 

[TikPandora]

Brand new CPU ? the FX6300 is quite old, 5 years old actually. Oct 2012 release. It runs hot, its probably slower than that I5-2400. Why did you switch ?

I don't mean brand new by release standards. I mean that it's a new CPU as part of a new build. The old Dell mobo in my previous build with the i5 finally bit the dust and I ended up going with the FX6300 based on price and reviews.

But despite that, do you think this behavior is normal?

 

[Markfw]

I don't mean brand new by release standards. I mean that it's a new CPU as part of a new build. The old Dell mobo in my previous build with the i5 finally bit the dust and I ended up going with the FX6300 based on price and reviews.

But despite that, do you think this behavior is normal?

Actually, even though they run hot, you may have a problem with your HSF or TIM. That would be my guess.

 

[DrMrLordX]

OP, go into the BIOS and turn off all power savings (CnC, etc) and set a fixed clockspeed for the CPU. Something relatively low.

Then run a stress test program like Prime95. Watch what happens to your package temps then.

 

[TikPandora]

So, I just spent an hour wrangling with my CPU cooler. I didn't do the install, so figuring it out was quite an issue. I reapplied thermal paste and upon booting it up again the temps seem much much more stable. Now they only go and down in one to two degree units instead of ten at a time. Scary enough though when i tried to boot the PC up again it hung at the BIOS splash screen and I was convinced that I broke it, but upon turning it off and on again it booted up like it should. I wonder what caused that...

I wonder if I accidentally tightened the cooler too tightly so I loosened it up about two screwdriver turns on every corner. It's one of those coolers where it has a backplate.

I also changed my SATA cables around, just because I realized I had them in the last slots instead of the first ones.