Before I explain, here’s a few things for reference:
ASUS Maximus X Hero
i7-8700k
64g 3200 RAM
1080ti w/ 11g VRAM
Noctua NH-U12S tower cooler
Windows 10 optimized for performance over appearance
Used GeForce Experience to optimize game
With that out of the way, here’s the problem. I’ve been using the CoreTemp app to monitor things while playing. I’ve alt-tabbed to peek at it while doing all level of activity, from standing in town, to fighting clusters of outdoor mobs during Helltides, and while doing dungeons. While the average running temps stay well below 70, there are these strange, blips where something is pushing them up into the low 90’s. I can’t seem to catch the average temperature doing that though, even when during the most intense usage and the fans going.
I’ve disabled all non-essential background apps and services, but it didn’t seem to affect anything. Do you have any idea where these spikes may be coming from? They don’t happen when the game is not running, but I can’t catch them happening. I’m not overly worried about millisecond spikes, especially when they don’t even reach throttle mode, but it would be nice to identify the source and address it.
Hopefully, I’ve given you enough information to test things. Sadly, all I had available were current, min, and max temps. No over-time readout, isolating them.
Diablo IV game is working as designed by developers: using all required hardware resources.
By now, you probably know about some Gigabyte graphics cards not surviving 100% demand and bricking themselves, because they are using too much power, beyond Nvidia specification. This is a hardware fault which is being addressed by Gigabyte, by way of RMA.
Intel CPU will not brick itself, don’t worry. The game is and will continue to, using all needed CPU resources to get you maximum performance.
So, in other words, this is not a “bug” in the game. It’s just a game using all resources it needs to display your game at desired framerate.
If you don’t like fan speed curve or CPU temperatures, you can modify fan speeds in BIOS, or fan speed tool, or other app you have at your disposal. Or change CPU cooling to something more powerful.
Alternatively, you could disable frequency speed boost (IDK how is this called in Intel CPU) in BIOS, so that the CPU is not spiking power use so high, therefore maintaining more averaged-out temperatures throughout your playing session.
Test for you:
If you want to see maximum power use and heat from your CPU, run Prime95 stress test. This will tell you maximum temperature and fan speeds your system is able to produce. Diablo IV in comparison will be cooler and quieter, I am sure, but it will give you a perspective of what your system MUST sustain to be considered fully operational and healthy.
Thanks for the info. I was aware of certain GPUs having issues, but mine runs smooth as butter. It’s only those CPU spikes I was concerned about. But as they don’t exceed TJMAX, and are super quick, I’m good. My fan curves are fine, and they’re liquid bearings so even at max (which they don’t reach until 70c), they’re super quiet.
Happy to hear you actually don’t have problem with fans, like some other people do in recent topics. It’s only CPU temperatures which raised your attention. But no need to worry, your Intel CPU have excellent thermal protections, and if your cooling is adequate, you can enjoy long playing sessions without any detriment to CPU overall performance or lifespan of the processor.
Enjoy the game
There are definitely some CPU optimizations Blizz will need to make over the next few months.
Going to Kyovashad and opening my inventory will result in 100% CPU usage on i7-9700k until I go somewhere else. Turning the graphics down to low/resolution to 1920*1080 does not change anything. Still 100% CPU.
While fighting out in the world, I’m around 30-40% usage.
Yeah, Blizz could limit CPU/GPU usage in such places like inventory or trading with NPC, optimize some code, so it’s not running in such heavy CPU loop. That will save us some money on electricity really, no other downsides, as long as the game is stable (for me, it is and has been since early betas).
But this is not a cause of hardware malfunctions people are reporting, this is important to iterate.
Periodic temperature spikes are a known issue experienced by a portion of the player base.
My temperatures average around 55-70°C during gameplay, but will occasionally spike up to 85°C, sometimes even 90°C, for just 2-3 seconds before they normalize again for a few seconds/minutes until it happens again, and again… and again.
Oddly, my CPU usage never goes above 25% despite the high temperatures.
Changing graphics settings isn’t likely to have a big if any impact on CPU. I’d agree though it’s a bit of an oddity why the CPU usage kicks up majorly in inventory screens so far as does GPU usage.
