Hey,

I’m seeing a counter-intuitive behavior with my AMD 9950X3D and I’m trying to understand what’s actually happening. Really hope I can get some help.

For comparison, sharing two videos from two different points in time (check top left corner for MSI Afterburner graphs:

• Earlier video: https://youtu.be/N2q1_97NkGc?si=msmnFcDfs7AENiQv
  • ~115–120 W package power
  • ~5.5 GHz boost
  • ~58–60 °C during Genshin Impact
• Later video: https://youtu.be/PZyCHehEKJQ?si=tNuvbNTJhRedkbYd
  • ~100–105 W package power
  • ~5.5 GHz boost (same)
  • ~61–63 °C during the same game

So the difference essentially: lower power, same clocks, but higher temps.

Cooling upgrades made between the two videos

• Thermal paste: stock vendor paste –> Noctua NT-H2
• AIO: Deepcool LE360 V2 (360mm) –> Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 420mm
• Case airflow: 3 intake + 1 exhaust –> 4× Noctua NF-A12 G2 intake + 1× NF-A14 exhaust
• All fans + AIO are now run aggressively via FanControl, scaling to ~100% once CPU Tdie > 55 °C. I believe I had a similar aggressive fan curve set in the earlier video as well but it was configured via the BIOS.

Mounting pressure and paste application have been checked multiple times by a technician.

Other differences

• Added 2× Samsung 990 Pro Gen4 SSDs in the M2_3 / M2_4 slots of my MSI X870E-Tomahawk WiFi Motherboard
• Scheduler changes:
  • Older video: CPPC Dynamic Preferred Cores = Driver
  • Newer video: CPPC = Auto, Windows Game Mode = Off**. Process Lasso** used to pin Genshin Impact to CCD0 only (via the CPU Sets option)
• PBO (newer video):
  • Boost override: None
  • Overdrive Scalar: Auto
  • Curve Optimizer: CCD0 −20 / CCD1 −15
  • Temp limit: 100 °C
• (Not 100% sure if I used Auto PBO or similar manual settings in the older video)

Core question

With:

• significantly better cooling,
• lower package power,
• identical boost clocks,

Why am I seeing higher sustained temperatures than before?
Is this simply increased heat density / CCD0 concentration due to scheduler + CO behavior, or is there something else I should be looking at?

Any insights from people familiar with X3D thermals, CPPC vs Process Lasso, or PBO/CO behavior would be appreciated.