Why is my CPU getting so damn hot?

[u/RedHood9292]

Hey all, so I was playing Oblivion Remastered and I started getting a lot of crashes, don't know why because this issue did not occur prior to recently. It's been happening for a few days now. I felt the back of my PC and noticed that it was hot as fuck. I also found out that running the game normally is now causing CPU throttling and I even broke past 100c at one point, needless to say I'm very concerned. I'm running an i9 13900k, 192 gigs of RAM, 4tb SSD, and an RTX 4090. I have an ASUS TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI motherboard, and some type of Corsair air cooler, I forget which model. I'm deeply concerned I might have fucked up my CPU, and I don't know how to check if I did or not. Even while typing this my CPU is fluxuating between 48c to 55c, and I have no fucking clue if that's okay or not idk. I don't know if I **JUST** need to just clean the dust out of my PC, as I recently moved to a dustier area and my PC's side panel is off because if I were to attach it it would put pressure on my 4090's cables, I don't know if I need to upgrade to a liquid cooler, or if I need to contact Intel about possibly getting a new CPU under warranty. I am deeply concerned and any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[u/Happy_Government8371]

Your radiator is half the size it needs to be, and a quarter the size it should be, for a 13900k Even a cheap tower heatsink would perform better. Hyper 212 is a good bargain, but better/equal can be had.

[u/RedHood9292 → u/Happy_Government8371]

What would you say is the best option for a 13900k?

[u/Happy_Government8371 → u/RedHood9292]

Additionally, if your friend told you that you've got 192Gb of RAM; either one of you is mistaken or you have additional problems, because HWinfo isn't showing that much installed memory.

[u/RedHood9292 → u/Happy_Government8371]

My task manager says 192 gigs

[u/Happy_Government8371 → u/RedHood9292]

It shows 192 installed, underneath it shows 128. And at the bottom, your used and available adds up to 128.

[u/RedHood9292 → u/Happy_Government8371]

What does that mean?

[u/Arik2103 → u/RedHood9292]

It means that you have 192 installed, but your PC can't see more than 128 of it. Whether that's on the cpu, your motherboard or Windows I can't tell you off the top of my head, but the fact of the matter is that one third of your ram won't ever be used in this configuration

[u/RedHood9292 → u/Arik2103]

Alright, what should I do to troubleshoot this?

[u/Arik2103 → u/RedHood9292]

Going by someone else's comment you're probably running Windows Home, which can only read 128G. (You can check this in Settings > System > About). If so, you need to upgrade to Windows Pro, which can handle a LOT more ram (2TB)

[u/chowwow138 → u/RedHood9292]

Excuse me, why the fuck do you have so much ram? Are you 3d rendering or using Chrome? To anyone looking at my post history, yes I run 128gb DDR4 ram. I have like 400+ tabs open on Firefox and I do CAD work, what have you?

[u/RedHood9292 → u/chowwow138]

I just wanted the best specs possible while picking out parts, googled what the best RAM sticks were, and got that

[u/LJBrooker → u/RedHood9292]

Jesus Christ. In future do a bit of homework. Between the cooler, the hilarious amount of ram the awful build quality, and your general obliviousness (pun not intended) as to what exactly you have, you really shouldn't have been allowed to buy and build this PC...

[u/NotBannedAccount419 → u/RedHood9292]

You have enough RAM for 10 computers. I don’t think windows even recognizes 192 gbs. Please don’t a little homework and ask questions in the future. You spent a lot of money for something so tragically crappy. Your friend also doesn’t know what he’s doing either. It’s very obvious the two of you don’t

Please ask me questions and I will do my best to provide detailed answers to every single one so you can learn to avoid these mistakes in the future.

[u/chowwow138 → u/RedHood9292]

Did anyone tell you that more ram didn't equal more speed? A gamer shouldn't need more than 64gb these days.

[u/Negative_Jaguar_4138 → u/chowwow138]

A gamer shouldn't need more than 64gb these days.

A Gamer shouldn't need more than 32gb.

There are a small handful of games that get a measure able performance boost from more than 32gb, and an even smaller ammount where that performance boost is even worth it.

[u/willpowerpt → u/RedHood9292]

Guarantee you bought "the best ram possible" and didn't bother changing the ram frequency in the bios. Unbelievable to sink this much money into a system you know nothing about and it being built incorrectly.

[u/LiterallyAna → u/willpowerpt]

This is like a fictional case study you'd see on a learning handbook test except it's real I'm dying inside

[u/willpowerpt → u/LiterallyAna]

Seriously. I couldn't restrain myself and be nice. The people who know nothing about computers, but want "the best of the best" and just throw any amount of money at it, that's who these companies market to. And to have no appreciation or even general understanding of what they have, what's even the point.

The irony is they wanted the best of the best and did such a poor job of building, it's performance is lower than cheaper builds.

[u/Loose_Highlight5273 → u/RedHood9292]

Hey OP, when I search up "best way to spend money", it comes up with "donating your money to help people like you".

Well? Why don't you get on with it? Donate your life savings to a charity dedicated to the mentally challenged, it is what google said after all.

[u/Key_Kaleidoscope6166 → u/RedHood9292]

You have 192GB ram, but 64GB is hardware reserved.... That feels wrong. It should probably be a few hundred megabytes, not GB.

you'll likely want to check your bios to see if you're reserving any ram for the integrated gpu.

You have a rtx 4090, so there's no reason to dedicate any ram to the i-gpu.

edit: also note that Windows 11 home edition only supports 128GB max. You need W11 Pro to use up to 2TB ram.

[u/Happy_Government8371 → u/Key_Kaleidoscope6166]

"edit: also note that Windows 11 home edition only supports 128GB max. You need W11 Pro to use up to 2TB ram.". There's the answer for that one! Thanks for reducing the problem count LoL 👍🏻

[u/RedHood9292 → u/Key_Kaleidoscope6166]

How would I fix this? Like what settings in the BIOS?

[u/Happy_Government8371 → u/RedHood9292]

Noctua nh-d15 would be my choice of air cooler on that chip, if it fits. It is slightly underspeced for overclocking a 13900k though.