Sheesh, could it just be my chip? (Temperature)

So I've been having an extremely hard time with my chip and temperatures.
It never overheats, the system has never frozen on me or crashed (Without me being the reason due overclocking). But the way the chip reacts doesn't make any sense to me and it's frustrating me a lot recently.

I am running my A10-5800K at 4.3GHZ on a Cooler Master N520 cooler, which was enough for my previous A6-3670K, and it would never break 65C.

But this thing even with the same TDP breaks the 70C barrier in less than 10 seconds on an OCCT stress test. Or so the sensors say. I have reapplied TIM to make sure everything was okay. And one of the things that worry me is that the heatsink does not feel -FIRM- sure, if I wiggle it a bit after it's bolted down it stays in place, but if I twist it a little, it does budge, making me believe there is not enough pressure between the cooper plate and CPU, which could be the cause of the issue, the bolts are tight, and I dont dare to tight them more as Im afraid the motherboard could crack, but this wasn't an issue before. I am seriously at a loss.

Now the leap I took from 3.8 to 4.3GHZ is fine, it is a stable overclock and it works. But not knowing my temperatures is really frustrating as the hot months are coming, and I can sure you room temperature is going to go up to the 110's soon enough.

When gaming which is the most intensive task I do, I run hwmonitor and after a session I check temperatures, I am overwhelmed by the fact that my max temperature is 72C. Just 2 degrees short of AMD's max temperature recommended for the chip. Bear in mind I have only ran hwmonitor with Tomb Raider 2013, and it -is- kind of a demanding game, but the temperature readings I get are unacceptable. The air being pushed by the heatsink is indeed warm, but it doesn't burn.

I'm just at a loss, I want better cooling, but what's the point if I can't know if my temperatures are good or not?

Any advice is truly helpful, specially if you own the same chip.

Thank you.

All chips are not made equal, even the same model chips. Yours might just be at it's limit. Also, I understand that you don't want to crank on the bolts holding the CPU cooler on, but have you tried seeing if they had backed off any? 1/8 of a turn won't hurt anything, and will let you know if they are as tight as they need to be, or have loosened up some.

Also, have you checked to see what your temps are(idle and load) without any overclock?

kbrady1979 said:

All chips are not made equal, even the same model chips. Yours might just be at it's limit. Also, I understand that you don't want to crank on the bolts holding the CPU cooler on, but have you tried seeing if they had backed off any? 1/8 of a turn won't hurt anything, and will let you know if they are as tight as they need to be, or have loosened up some.

Also, have you checked to see what your temps are(idle and load) without any overclock?

Thank you for the reply. At the moment I am getting ready to go work, and I will be able to answer some questions that don't require system tweaking.

And yes, as a matter of fact yesterday I removed the heatsink completely to do some cleaning, and I turned the bolts as far as they could go please a little push, but I don't want to go any tighter or else Im afraid I'll hear a creak.

Britton30 said:

My cooler will turn a bit to if I try it and it is completely tightened. Have you tried disable the on-chip GPU and run only the GPU card?

As far as I know, there is not way to -disable- integrated GPU. I guess I could downclock it down to 0? never really thought about it, I would need to check the motherboard manual/BIOS.

Layback Bear said:

First could you fill in your system specs completely. It will help us help you. Look at my specs and the other good folks that are helping you.
Next I would put the computer back to default and play the game while monitoring the temps. That will give you a temp base line to work with.
Like kbrady1979 has posted no two chips are equal. We need the temp base line to work with.

Also when you post temps please also give us ambient temp to compare with.
The object of all of this is to get your cpu temps as good as possible under load with no over clock using normal test and methods. At that point the good folks here can help with the over clock.
I don't recommend over clocking anything in a computer before knowing the facts and figures of a stock clock under load.

Thank you, ambient temperature today is much cooler than yesterday.

Today's temperature is 73.4
I lowered the clock to stock (3.8hz(, and there was no temperature change.
I then took the clock up to 4.2GHZ and lowered the VCORE one value down to 1.4325 and there was a difference. My CPU took 5 minutes to reach 72C under OCCT, but still. Too much for my liking. And it didn't use to heat up like that before.

As I said, my 4.3GHZ overclock was stable on OCCT for 24 hours without going past 65C, I don't know where those 7C are coming from, possibly ambient temperature.

Perhaps my cooler is just not cutting it for the job anymore?

..Interesting.
Today I read an article about actual temperature readings with AMD chips.
Basically it was telling how I should focus on Core temperatures instead of CPU temperatures due the location of the thermal sensors. Core temperature being the one inside the processor, and CPU temperature actually being the socket temperature.
Here is the thread:
AMD Temp Information and Guide

It is a little dated, but it does make a lot of sense even today.

After some more testing I took my Voltage a little lower and left the clock at 4.2GHZ, then turned on Core Temp and ran Tomb Raider 2013 for an hour or two. Highest Core temperature registered by core temp peaked at 50C, and CPU temp as dictated by HWmonitor was 70. So there is a big temperature discrepancy between both values, as stated in the URL I previously mentioned.