CPU temperature issue

Technical Support
1

Over the past several weeks, players have reported experiencing unusual, periodic CPU temperature spikes during gameplay. The temperature spikes seem to occur entirely irrespective of what the player is doing in the game, as they have been reported happening even within instanced locations when standing completely still[1].

The problem has been reported with both Intel[7,8,9] and AMD[1,3,4,5,6,10,11] processors, although I have personally noticed that the issue does seem somewhat more prevalent with AMD, with some Intel users reporting exceptionally low temperatures in the 40-50°C range.

The problem has been reported on both air-cooled[4,5,6] and water-cooled[3,7] units.

Players consistently report that Diablo IV is the only game where they experience issues with CPU temperatures[1,2,3,4,8,10,11], which makes the issue unlikely to be on the user’s end.

Description of the issue

The issue is characterized by periodic CPU temperature spikes that cause temperatures to rise quickly above 80°C[4,6,10,11], sometimes up to 90°C[1,9] or higher[2,3,5,7,8], after which they quickly fall back down (within seconds) to a more average temperature between 60°C to 70°C. This happens seemingly “at random” every few seconds, up to every few minutes, irrespective of the content the player is presently engaged in.

Solutions

Several potential solutions have been proposed by players, such as turning off NVIDIA Reflex, locking Foreground FPS to a lower number, or lowering graphics settings. In my own case, none of these have worked to reduce the temperature spikes, but some have reported minimal improvements with certain solutions.

Conclusion

CPU temperature spikes remain an issue with Diablo IV and deserve to be investigated by the developers. Maxing out a user’s CPU temperatures to this degree, this regularly, cannot be good for the overall health of a system.

I attached a few sources to this post to demonstrate that this issue is unique to Diablo IV and experienced by other players, but this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these complaints. One only needs to perform a search for “diablo 4 cpu temperatures” on Google to see how far down this rabbit hole goes.

I’m personally averse to playing the game at the moment, even though I want to, as I don’t wish to put unnecessary strain on my system due to what appears to be a software bug within the game.

Sources

Reddit

  1. Anyone else getting CPU temp spikes? - Reddit
  2. CPU temps crazy high. - Reddit
  3. Major CPU Temp Issues (New 7800X3D Build) - Reddit
    • Link: /r/diablo4/comments/13gydht/major_cpu_temp_issues_new_7800x3d_build/ *
  4. CPU Temps Fluctuating - Reddit
    • Link: /r/diablo4/comments/13zxg0j/cpu_temps_fluctuating/ *
  5. Overheating problem - Reddit
    • Link: /r/diablo4/comments/143837i/overheating_problem/ *
  6. Random cpu usage - Reddit
    • Link: /r/diablo4/comments/14462yo/random_cpu_usage/ *
  7. 13900k reaches temps of 95c during diablo 4, is that normal? - Reddit
    • Link: /r/pcmasterrace/comments/144mrtz/13900k_reaches_temps_of_95c_during_diablo_4_is/ *
  8. Diablo 4 temperatures - Reddit
    • Link: /r/GamingLaptops/comments/1414ds2/diablo_4_temperatures/ *
  9. they need to fix performance issues - Reddit
    • Link: /r/diablo4/comments/13zvv97/they_need_to_fix_performance_issues/ *

Diablo Forums

  1. CPU Temps Randomly Fluctuating - US Forums
    • Link: /en/d4/t/cpu-temps-randomly-fluctuating/27928 *
  2. Random CPU Temperature Spikes Still An Issue - US Forums
    • Link: /en/d4/t/random-cpu-temperature-spikes-still-an-issue/38779 *

* I had to remove most of the hyperlinks as new users are not allowed more than 2 links in a singular post.

9 Likes
2

Diablo is bricking CPUs now? :rofl::rofl::rofl:

1 Like
3

I wouldn’t say “bricking”, but there is an ongoing problem with odd temperature fluctuations.

The strangest part about these fluctuations is that they can happen even when you’re standing inside a dungeon and not doing anything. It’s like the game is constantly loading massive amounts of data that it then immediately discards and has to load again a minute later, resulting in this kind of cycling between low and high temperatures.

Whatever the game is doing is not evident based on what’s happening on the monitor, so I’d be very curious to know what exactly it needs to be constantly updating in the background.

2 Likes
5

He’s a troll.
Look at his player messaging activity. Mostly negative comments.
Just report him.

6

Me and my friend both also suffering with this problem. Brand new mashines. I swear this started to appear few days after early launch by some of their update. Server slam and first day release my CPU cooler was ded silent.
FIX THIS BUG

4 Likes
7

Same problem here.
I have a i7 13700K (not overclocked or anything - idle ~35-40°C) + 4080 (chilling ingame with ~50°C).
When I play at a locked 240 fps, my CPU burns at around 95°C.

I have found a good way to compensate for this by locking my fps to 120 and also using the “balance” power plan from windows. Now I have temps around 60-70°C.

Still higher than any other game, but better for me. Oh it also reduced micro lags and stutters in my gameplay.

€dit: A friend of mine has similar problems, he is currently playing with 90-120°C. Unfortunately, I don’t know which CPU he has.

TLTR: Try the “balance” power plan from windows.

1 Like
8

I’ve played with my FPS locked to 100 since the beginning (even though my computer would be capable of higher frames) and I even tried going down all the way to 60, but it seems to make no difference in terms of these fluctuations.

Sadly, my power plan is already set to “Balanced” as well.

9

Same problem with 3080 TI and 5900x.
Noctua NHD-15

Spikes to 20-30 % sometimes , and core goest to 75Âş.
Even when not playing… i have the game now at 1 background fps and is spiking the cpu.

1 Like
10

Ans how this is a problem, again? Your CPU the thermal limit is exactly 90 C, why are you worried?

11

Definately not 120° or his CPU would be dead alredy :smiley:

12

go play some Crisis and then come back whining …
its completely normal,… if your worried your cpus die will go up in flames then you have other issues, not only config related.

1 Like
13

Its not normal a game doing “nothing” , gets cpu spikes without any reason.

This same problem happened to Diablo 3 in the first month , and when they patched, it was like 4-5% cpu ussage with no spikes.

There is something bad with the game. I tested all I could.

1 Like
15

TEMP SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM
100% WORKING AND NO MORE HEAT OR SPIKES.
40Âş AFTER 5 HOURS PLAYING

MY MACHINE:
5900x + Noctua NHD153080 TI capped at 60 fps + Gsync

EXPLANATION:
There is some bug or strange code in the game, which forces every few minutes even if you are not doing any task (without moving from the village and at 1 fps) , to put the cpu to the maximum possible…
I’ve been playing all afternoon 100% stable, no lag, no crashes, nothing strange.

METHOD:
Power Manager > Balanced > Max CPU State = 80%.This in my case (5900x) , leaves the CPU at max 3ghz.CPU is about 20% when the game needs to use it. (spikes), but not problem at all at 3ghz :slight_smile: (5900x can go up to 4,7 ghz)

RESULT:
40Âş after playing for more than 5 hours straight.No crashes, no problems at all.

1 Like
16

So your “solution” works by reducing maximum performance and power output of the CPU.

Glad that you learned your hardware is overheating and figured out how to reduce power draw of your CPU… Next step learn what is BIOS and what power tuning options you can find there to reduce temperatures on air cooling, you need it…
Anyway, good luck finding more exciting solutions to this “strange bug” in the game! :laughing: :laughing:

17

Oh my god thank you so much, didn’t realised the solution can be that simple!

My machine is 5600x + 6800 XT and capped at 144fps.

18

Doesn’t this only work for players who are having issues with CPU usage being high? Because for my CPU usage doesn’t go anywhere above 25% and it tends to be around 5-10% most of the time.

19

My cpu , as yours, only goes up to 20-30%.

The problem is that , he does at 4,7 ghz for 3-4 seconds … (dont know whats doing the game in that moments) , and cpu gets heavily stressed to 70-75º (fan spining like crazy) …

Getting cpu to about 3ghz is perfect, the game is smooth, and never goes up from 40-45 in my case.

do you have intel or amd?

20

If your fans are spinning like crazy at 70° then you probably need a better cooler :slight_smile:

3Ghz != 3Ghz, it depends on the CPU-Architecture and Generation.
Also it depends on what your target framerate is, for 60 it will be fine, but maybe not for 120+.

21

I have a solution, tested and it actually works. So yea i am one of us milions that have cpu issues for no reason. Am using Ryzen 7 5800x3d, spikes were insane from 65 to 85 in a split second. Vents were going insanly loud, and then i did this:
1.Go to you power plan options.
2.Depends on which setup you are using. Am using AMD Ryzen high perfomance, click on change power plan for the setup/plan you are using.
3.Chose powerplan setup for your processor Set maxmim processor state to 90 % and Minimum to 80% (type it) then accept/apply the changes.
Boom you are done =) i was peaking around 85 temp now am bearly gettin over 51 =)
Oh and yea am using the highest game settings and i still got no issues. Hope this helps =)

1 Like
22

Sorry to disappoint you but it’s only you and few other uneducated guys who don’t understand how modern processor works, to get you maximum performance at all costs, even increased temperature and maximum power draw even beyond TDP number. This is what you (and your software) demand and that’s what processor deliver.

Minimum of 80%? 2.72 GHz? That’s waste of energy, normally the processor goes lower to save electricity. And maximum 90% of processor base, meaning 3.06 GHz, and max boost 4.5 GHz is also prohibited? This solution is cutting off all PBO boosting isn’t? Why not limit PBO in the BIOS?

Why buying 5800X3D processor if you can’t use it properly?

1 Like