Inconsistent CPU temperatures when gaming (Acer desktop)

Aster

Buckle up, I'm providing as much info as possible to get to the bottom of this.

I brought home an acer predator orion 3000 (po3-620 with i7 10700 and RTX 2060 super) a little over a week ago, but a few days later I noticed the CPU was getting VERY hot in gaming, namely in the 95C area in Destiny 2 for several hours (yes I played it that long just to make sure it was going to stay there and tried closing things to see if it helped). I tried a few things afterwards and was happy to see temps were 60-70C the next day and for a whole week after. This is what I did:

1. stopped using chrome altogether, have been using firefox instead
2. changed the power profile back to "Acer" (default) from "balanced" (which I changed it to on a whim shortly after setting up the pc)
3. plugged in an Ethernet cable just in case the Wifi 6 is hot or something.
4. re-installed geforce experience (installed it day 1, uninstalled it day 2, reinstalled day 3)

Tonight I am getting a similar issue again, though I'm not letting the CPU get above 85-89C before turning off the game. It seems OK in idle game activity, but heats up in matchmade activities.

The thing is, this week, I played Shadow of the Tomb Raider on highest settings, even streamed it on discord while doing so; AC Origins performed well earlier today and the day after my "fixes"; I probably clocked in about 2-4 hours of D2/Subnautica BZ every day this week because school ended and the CPU was fine. The reason I know the CPU wasn't getting too hot (besides occasional monitoring) is that the case fans get extremely loud (like AC in a truck) if the CPU goes above 75C-ish for too long. The RTX has been getting the low 80s (usually 60-79 though) but I am told that's normal for something of its caliber.

Other notes:

-I unplugged the Ethernet cable 2-3 days ago but I am not convinced this is the issue as I did not see immediate changes.

-Idle, the CPU can be anywhere between 40-70C, usually 60-70 when I'm downloading or installing stuff, and in the 50s-60s when I'm using my art program (Clip Studio, I work in high resolutions), which is normal to the best of my knowledge. When just using firefox and discord, it tends to be in the high 40s/low 50s.

-I shut down the PC every night around the same time and wake it up every morning for work and play. After shutting down, there is a fast and quiet clicking in the PSU area that does not stop unless I unplug it entirely.

-Destiny 2 is on the SSD (C drive) while most of my other games are on the D drive.

TL;DR, I'm very confused because it was working like a charm since last Tuesday and I was sure the culprit was the power profile. Does it need better paste on the CPU cooler? A BIOS check?

EDIT next morning: temps are back to "normal", of course, after I spend hours overnight researching, but I am still at a loss to what is going on so I have tried something courtesy acer forums/reddit, though it was mostly suggested for laptops.

Both of these numbers were at 100% and the CPU has consistently been above 4000mhz since I unboxed it. So Acer had it boosting the whole time. Now it is sitting around 2700 and doesn't even hit 50C in Destiny. 60FPS 1080p is all I need right now so I HOPE this is a sturdy solution; at least until I can Frankenstein the whole build into a bigger case with better fans (and bigger psu if compatible ones come around) in a year or so. (I set the minimum to 5% after some more googling and may try this with the max set back to 100%).

Here are the temps in Destiny 2 before and after my initial group of fixes. As you can see the CPU % and GPU values are roughly the same so something else may still be going on. You can also see the difference between WiFi and Ethernet here.

Ian

It seems like you have quite done quite a bit of troubleshooting and may have found a temporary solution. Looking over the model I see on our website, it does appear it is just using the stock cooler, so you may want to look into replacing / upgrading that if the issues persist.

Aster

@Ian If I run into more issues/find myself missing the boost, I probably will. The Acer forums have a few instances of people needing to unscrew the motherboard to change the CPU cooler, so for now it is a last resort, as I'd have you guys at MC do that. But what do you make of the PSU clicking after shut down? I don't notice it while the computer is running, only after a full shut down. Even hours after shut down, it will still be clicking.

Ian

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/32446#Comment_32446

Is it a constant clicking, or just a once in awhile noise?

Aster

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/32453#Comment_32453

It is constant and rather quiet; I have to put my ear next to the case. It clicks whether the PC is plugged into my APC adapter or in the wall socket. Once unplugged, there is no noise.

Ian

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/32458#Comment_32458

Does it sound like the fan inside the power supply is turning on when it does this?

Aster

https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/comment/32503#Comment_32503

I can't say that it does; just a faint clicking noise like a randomized picker machine. It could be the PSU fan, but I am by no means an expert on electrical noises. I'm reluctant to bring it in because I can't parse any power-related issues beyond the boost being on previously.

Edit - went ahead and shut the pc down and listened closely to the process - there are some weird noises that might be normal power-down things, and then the final "off" click with the case lights going out. The faint clicking starts immediately afterwards and doesn't seem to change speed. The clicking stops at some point in startup, but it's hard to pinpoint exactly when.

Lmk if I should open a separate thread or support ticket from here - this is a little off topic from the cpu. Hoping this might be a normal PSU fan thing I never noticed before because I need this pc for work.

Ian

Unfortunately for us to verify the issue with the power supply, we would really need to see this in store. Based on what you are describing most likely it is something with the fan, but we would need to see this in person to verify.