… You don't need to be too concerned about the latter if the core temperature is fine, but this goes to show that the "GPU temperature" you usually monitor is just one part of the thermal spectrum of your GPU. The GPU die isn't the only thing that can overheat on your graphics card. …
… Of course, I myself noticed my GPU temperatures rising by a few degrees when I mount it facing up, but the fact of the matter is that those temperatures are nowhere near the thermal limit of my GPU. …
… Once your SSD climbs above that, the chances of thermal throttling increase rapidly. The exact throtlling temperature, the point where the drive limits performance to protect itself, varies across PCIe generations, but you should be concerned if your SSD runs hotter than 70℃ for sustained periods. …
… As far as gaming PCs are concerned, even budget air coolers like Thermalright's Peerless Assassin and Phantom Spirit will suffice for Core i5, Ryzen 5, and Ryzen 7 processors. …
… Thermalright has been absolutely killing it, offering quality towers with enough heat pipes and thermal capacity to handle basically any consumer chip at stock speeds, and I've used their Peerless Assassin in a couple of builds to great effect. …
… But for the average PC, the GPU and other parts do much of the heavy lifting. The CPU is barely pushed hard and is really one of the parts where thermal concern is almost nonexistent. …
… Sign in to your XDA account Thermal interface materials seldom get a mention in the PC building discourse , but it's an essential catalyst for effective CPU and GPU cooling . …
… Sometimes your GPU really is the problem VRAM limits and thermals are genuine concerns, but they're rarely the culprit I'm not going to pretend poor balance is always the reason your PC feels slower than it should. …
… There's also concern around thermals, as the compact chassis of mini PCs doesn't usually have much room for cooling. …
… A cheap, strong aftermarket cooler like the Thermalright Peerless Assassin can be found for around $30. …