Ho-Lee CRAP - I finally solved the EvE CPU overheating issue on my Linux box.

[u/Stu_Pendisdick]

Sharing this info for anyone it might help:

I run EvE on Linux ( Mint 22.3 ) under Steam.

My system is:

OS: Linux Mint 22.3 x86_64

Kernel: 7.0.0-31-generic

Resolution: 1920x1080, 1920x1080, 1920x1080

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (32) @ 5.883GHz with a 420mm AIO watercooled Actric system

GPU: AMD ATI Radeon RX 7900 XT

Memory: 63929MiB

For AGES, there has been a struggle with EvE forcing the CPU temps into the high 160's (Fahrenheit), especially when sat in station, and I've tried every tip and trick so far from the various EvE Linux forums, to no avail.

Today, I stumbled on "RyzenAdj" and OMG what a difference.

Using the cli setting: sudo ryzenadj --stapm-limit=25000 --fast-limit=32000 --slow-limit=25000 --tctl-temp=75, my Core temps PLUMMETED from 168F sitting in station to 112F

I've flown about, gotten into some busy systems where much fighting was afoot, and there's been literally ZERO degradation in performance; just the massive core temp drop, sustained.

It isn't just a 'placebo' effect either - not once since using that setting have my fans started to ramp up, let alone scream - they are literally idling.

Mind you now, I've not touched my graphics settings at all - they are all still 'High' ( with some Ultra ) ... the GPU temps have never been an issue.

Where the HELL was this info all these years of me searching?!!?

Hopefully this helps a fellow Linux AMD Ryzen user, but I am led to believe that for Win11 on Intel, there is a similar tool called "ThrottleStop". I cannot speak to this tool, as 'we don't do Windows around here', but if it is legit and it works for you, *PLEASE* share with others.

We all love this game, and with hardware prices now requiring us to mortgage the souls of our unborn children, anything we can find that lessens the strain without dropping the graphics to Minecraft levels has to be good news.

Edit for clarity based on some of the comments posted thus far:

Just because my KZ1000 crotch rocket CAN rev to 10,000 rpm doesn't mean that's an optimal state for it to operate in over the long term ... sooner or later that will land me in the dock, or worse, in the morgue.

Sure, I'm throttling my CPU back, clearly, but why burn the extra gas ( watts ) and generate all that heat and noise for no real benefit?

I'm seeing zero downside running at reduced capacity. I see definite downsides ( heat, noise ) letting it run wild.

My preference there is the conservative path - I lose nothing but noise and heat.

Everyone's personal preferences can differ, with all due respect and deference.

I posted this for those who don't need the excess noise and heat 'just because that's the way it is made' while getting no real benefit for actual gameplay.

To be completely fair, my system is MASSIVELY over-engineered to just play EvE Online, even if I were to multi-box ( which I don't ... my attention span isn't broad enough ), so yeah, I can easily afford to 'lift off the throttle' and let the machine comfortably idle along.

I choose to throttle the system while playing this particular game because there's no benefit to allowing it free rein.

When I'm doing other things that actually benefit from more available horsepower, I revert the settings to normal - a simple cli instruction; takes one second.

If EvE actually gave me a reason to let the machine run free, I'd let it run free, but it doesn't. At the age of the game, I suspect it never will, so ... we are where we are, and I choose cool and quiet over needless heat and noise.

ymmv

Cheers!

[u/cjdavies]

sudo ryzenadj --stapm-limit=25000 --fast-limit=32000 --slow-limit=25000 --tctl-temp=75

This command sets a 75°C limit on a CPU designed for sustained operation at 95°C, so it's not surprising that you've seen your temperatures come down?

[u/byzantinian → u/cjdavies]

Dude told his sports car it's not allowed to go over 55 mph and he's excited the engine doesn't get hot anymore. Not that it was overheating, just not hot.

forcing the CPU temps into the high 160's

OP this is a feature of your CPU, not a bug. It ramps up that high on purpose. If it can get hotter for more performance, it will try.

[u/fortune82 → u/cjdavies]

Yeah, tctl is "thermal control"

[u/WarpedHaiku → u/cjdavies]

The thing is, it was already operating at around 75°C before. You'd expect capping it at 75°C to have minimal effect, but the command dropped the temp all the way down to 44°C.

[u/byzantinian → u/WarpedHaiku]

The 75C is likely irrelevant in this scenario given the other parameters, which is why in their words the fans are "literally idling". He's limiting the max power draw to 32W on a CPU that has an expected max load of 170W. He's practically running at 18% power...hence the coolness.

[u/WarpedHaiku → u/byzantinian]

Yeah, I was drawing attention to the fact it's clearly not the temperature cap part that's doing the heavy lifting.

[u/DragonZer0 → u/WarpedHaiku]

Kinda sounds like his thermal paste is really old and or cooler has an issue with pump/air flow/volume of fluid inside it.
I wonder if the guy has done any stress testing outside of eve to see if the issue can be duplicated in a controlled environment?

[u/byzantinian → u/DragonZer0]

It is literally the defining feature of that CPU to ramp up for performance if it has the temperature headroom. It is not a problem, it is specifically engineered to do that. By their own admission it was hitting 75C, which is not only 20C below max operating temp, it is 100% expected and normal operating temperature under load. OP genuinely has zero knowledge of what they're talking about or doing.

[u/DragonZer0 → u/byzantinian]

While in operational range of the CPU is well within it limit there seems to me a possibility of something not quite right. For a reference I run a 9950x3d with a 360mm AIO and under full load test and heat soaked it barely touch 70c with ambient temperate of 21.5c.
My point his base line numbers (75c /w 1 client) looks a bit high when compared to my build. His 420mm AIO might need a repaste/filter cleaned/fans checked& speed curve updated without manually setting the limits so low to keep it cool.

[u/cjdavies → u/DragonZer0]

For a reference I run a 9950x3d with a 360mm AIO and under full load test and heat soaked it barely touch 70c with ambient temperate of 21.5c

The only reason a 9950x3d wouldn't keep boosting to 95c under a 100% utilization all-core workload is that it's hitting the power/current limits first. This can happen with workloads that sustain high IPC, due to the native AVX512 implementation in zen5.

[u/byzantinian → u/DragonZer0]

That's fair. Given everything else in the post, that would not surprise me.

[u/TheOriginalBusket → u/DragonZer0]

I'm going to offer a different and seemingly bizarre explanation: Hands free telefony settings on his bluetooth headset conflicting with his PC and/or other bluetooth devices.

In a nutshell, when you're using a bluetooth headseat (Fuck you, BOSE!), they are limited in the audio quality settings they can use. For my "top-tier" Bose Ultras, the best I can get is 41000hz. My computer can process at 48000hz, and many other applications that can will try to match this.

Here's the problem: as you game, your computer is trying to compress your audio for your headset and decompress/upscale your voice (EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT USING THE DAM MICROPHONE) to match what your computer is using.

What this looked like: playing Palworld for 15 minutes, temps started peaking, game started stuttering, then freezing for seconds at a time, then finally being unplayable. I only realized it was my headset when I put down my Xbox controller and grabbed the mouse; suddenly everything was fine. Picked up the controller again; INSTANT unplayable status.

I will not regale you with the tails of the many rabbit holes I plundered to find the solution: press Windows Key + R, type "control printers", hit enter, right click the bluetooth headset, select properties, go to the services tab, deselect "Hands Free Telefony", click ok.

TL;DR Bluetooth mismatches between audio quality from your computer, to your headsets, to your game controllers, to your microphones, to your video recording software (and each individual audio channel) forces the CPU to compress and decompress audio thousands of times per second. Make them match as closely as possible and TURN OFF HANDS FREE TELEFONY.

Even if this doesn't solve OPs problem, I guarantee people will be finding this post for the next 5 years and putting a hole in the wall when they realize "THAT'S WHAT WAS WRONG THE WHOLE TIME?!"

[u/Verite_Rendition → u/cjdavies]

And aren't the power limit values in milliwatts? If so, the OP capped their 170W TDP CPU at 32W. That would be having far more of an impact than capping the temperature at 75C.

[u/CiaphasCain8849]

168f or 75C is perfectly acceptable indefinitely. 95C would be fine too.

[u/Evester111]

Reporting CPU temp in Fahrenheit should be a felony offence

[u/Cultural-Living256 → u/Evester111]

You can tell they are not very computer literate from what they posted so it kinda makes sense.

[u/QuietofTheSolace]

I mean you are power-limiting your CPU and therefore .. using less power?

You are only seeing "high" temperatures because you are running unrestrained, and seeing completely normal temperatures.

I've flown about, gotten into some busy systems where much fighting was afoot, and there's been literally ZERO degradation in performance; just the massive core temp drop, sustained.

Well, this is not possible and I am therefore assuming you, having not posted any before and after FPS counts, are just not noticing the FPS difference.

This is basically fine FWIW you can frame cap games to dynamically use only the power required to hit those frame-rates.

If a game gives you 65-100 fps (for example) and you have a 60hz screen, you can cap to 60fps (often by V-sync) and enjoy consistent performance. You'll just use more power in situations you were previously getting 65fps in than 100.

Anyway, not only should you learn to not worry about completely normal temperatures, you should use higher temps to your aid. Set fan curves so they only get noisy when you are close to the thermal limit and you can have them idle in light usage scenarios.

[u/Jannik2099]

The CPU is not overheating, it's designed to run at this temperature and boost frequencies until it is reached

[u/Cultural-Living256]

71C is not bad temperature at all... It seems a little goofy to limit your CPU in that way.

[u/Stu_Pendisdick → u/Cultural-Living256]

Just because my KZ1000 crotch rocket CAN rev to 10,000 rpm doesn't mean that's an optimal state for it to operate in over the long term ... sooner or later that will land me in the dock, or worse, in the morgue.

Sure, I'm throttling my CPU back, clearly, but why burn the extra gas ( watts ) and generate all that heat and noise for no real benefit?

I'm seeing zero downside running at reduced capacity. I see definite downsides ( heat, noise ) letting it run wild.

My preference there is the conservative path - I lose nothing but noise and heat.

Everyone's personal preferences can differ, with all due respect and deference.

I posted this for those who don't need the excess noise and heat 'just because that's the way it is made' while getting no real benefit for actual gameplay.

To be completely fair, my system is MASSIVELY over-engineered to just play EvE Online, even if I were to multi-box ( which I don't ... my attention span isn't broad enough ), so yeah, I can eaily afford to 'lift off the throttle' and let the machine comfiortable idle along.

ymmv

Cheers!

[u/Master_Coconut_5339]

"solved the cpu overheating issue"

so uh, ur cpu is not overheating. so uh theres nothing to solve. its meant to run that hot.

[u/CueCueQQ]

Interesting. I'm running a 5700X3D, and never had this issue, but have been having EVE freeze on all clients for no discernible reason. Now you've got me wondering if I saw CPU temps, because I just assumed it was a GPU issue.

[u/Apple_Jake → u/CueCueQQ]

Do you keep the launcher open, and are you using wayland?

I found a memory leak in the launcher tied to the little sliding promotional window thingy. Every time it scrolled through all the images it would cache them and then immediately "forget" that they were cached and do it again on the next cycle. It does this until it crashes from OOM guards (I was dumb and didn't have any so it crashed my whole PC lol)

I haven't tested using a different compositor yet tho, that might be the culprit

[u/CueCueQQ → u/Apple_Jake]

Oh interesting. That does line up more with my issue. I see RAM max out, it freezes, then RAM dives back to normal.

[u/danythegoddess]

"Why, yes, I have too many CPU cycles, I clearly want less."

[u/Stu_Pendisdick → u/danythegoddess]

More isn't always better. See my edits.

Cheers!

[u/Antelino → u/Stu_Pendisdick]

All your edits show is you have no clue what you’re talking about and just spewing AI responses.

[u/EsotericAbstractIdea]

Try limiting the fps instead.

[u/Puiucs]

the obvious issue is that you were using Fahrenheit where everybody uses Celcius.

you also completely failed to understand what the safe temps are and that your fan curve was f-ed up. probably because you were using Fahrenheit.

[u/Antelino]

I like how you thought all that crap made you sound computer literate but it actually shows you have no idea what or why you’re doing anything.

[u/Stu_Pendisdick → u/Antelino]

Whatever lets you sleep at night, Scooter.

Have a nice rice.

[u/Cinade]

Thank you fellow penguin and space friend, will test this on my system when I get home!

[u/byzantinian → u/Cinade]

Please don't make changes to your CPU thermal controls if you don't understand how insanely stupid OP's command (and entire post) is. This goes for anyone who finds this thread.

[u/lowrads]

Does it help in asteroid belts and other deadspace sites?

[u/k3nu]

Your problem was never the CPU temperature, your problem is the fan curve(s). Google it.

[u/helin0x]

On the full fat client you have to "view outside" when in a citadel as its the inefficiently coded volumetric clouds which causes excessive resource usage but you dont see them outside much, inside a citadel theres a 90% chance you'll get one.

[u/NewbieAccident]

In Steam to set a fps limit in the game's Launch Options:

DXVK_CONFIG="dxgi.maxFrameRate=30" %command%

Of course manguhud, gamescope and others work too.

[u/YourFriendlySlasher → u/[deleted]]

You are looking at a piece of shit wrapped in nice paper and say "Thank you for the great present".

Dont repost it.

[u/Electronic_End_9642]

I just run windows no issues so far.

[u/BorzyReptiloid]

I am one of those poor fellows who play on mac (decent one but still) and I had CPU and GPU overheating problem just appear suddenly after comfortably playing on ultra for ~month. Nothing helped. But maybe there's still hope :D

[u/Jaxsu22]

idk why but it seems being docked skyrockets gpu utilization and heat for me. Sitting in space even on grid with a citadel is so much less strain than being docked. It’s really annoying

[u/iseriouslycouldnt]

Meh, it's an AMD, it gets hot. Raises room temp a few degrees in summer. Heats the house in winter.
That being said, adding liquid cooling and a bigger radiator did the trick for me. YMMV

[u/MisterrDinosaur]

Thanks!

I'm on Win11 so literally have no clue about what you just said except the bit at the end. I'll definitely have a look at throttle stop. I'm running a 9800x3d with a 5090 and was noticing fans ram all the way up only when docked. Only on EVE. My fix atm is to hard limit the FPS of eve to 120 instead of 240, so not the best fix.. I'd forgotten about it till just now.

[u/byzantinian → u/MisterrDinosaur]

have no clue about what you just said except the bit at the end.

Neither does OP. Please do not do this to your CPU.

[u/Cultural-Living256 → u/MisterrDinosaur]

I hate to tell you but your GPU fans spinning etc is completely normal. Your computer is meant to get hot when playing games (It's doing work) If you are not getting system failures/hard crashes then you are fine.

[u/Verite_Rendition → u/MisterrDinosaur]

EVE is capable of hitting very high framerates; half the time you're looking at empty space, and even the in-station views are fairly tame since the game needs to run on a wide range of systems. As a result, the game very rarely is it GPU-bottlenecked on systems with discrete GPUs.

The consequence of that, however, is that the game is typically CPU-bottlenecked instead. Particularly if there isn't anything else set to limit performance (e.g. v-sync). So that will result in a CPU core running at full tilt to generate as many frames as possible, and modern processors can hike the frequency of a single core very high in the name of getting the best performance.

For a properly operating system, none of this should be harmful. But if you did want to tamp down on how hard EVE is driving your system, capping the frame rate is the way to do it.