100C might be concerning, depends on your case airflow and ambient temperature. The bigger issue is the crashing. Modern CPU's should throttle when they get hot, not crash. I would recommend running OCCT in CPU mode with the instruction set on SSE and AVX for an hour each. Repeat with the Memory mode, it also has an SSE and AVX option. Then do 3D Standard for an hour and VRAM for an hour. This should help you find which component is causing instability. PS, 218 watts under load is fairly high for a 13600K. Either your chip is overclocked or you are running an old BIOS version which uses too much voltage. This is known to damage 13th/14th gen chips. Answer from DZCreeper on reddit.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/buildapc › 100 degrees c temps in occt cpu stress test, should i be concerned?
r/buildapc on Reddit: 100 degrees C temps in OCCT CPU stress test, should I be concerned?
May 10, 2025 -

Troubleshooting Help:

What is your parts list? Consider formatting your parts list.

CPU: i5-13600KF

CPU cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin

RAM: 32GB DDR5

Motherboard: MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI

GPU: XFX RX 6950 XT

PSU: Corsair 850x (2021) 80 plus gold certified

Storage: Samsung 980 2TB NVMe SSD, Samsung 850 evo 500GB SSD, 1TB 7200 RPM HDD

OS: Windows 11

System BIOS: A. 70

Describe your problem. List any error messages and symptoms. Be descriptive.

I was playing Deadlock on the recent patch and at some point, after about 5 minutes in game, my PC crashed to a blank screen. I still had sound, but my fan (I believe GPU fan) was on full blast and I had to manually restart the PC. After restarting, my second monitor would not be recognized. I fixed this by disabling and re-enabling my graphics driver in windows settings. Now I'm running some tests to find out what happened, and while running OCCT I noticed some high temps under the load from the test. I have screenshot here of the test while it was running. I ran it for a little over 15 minutes with no crashing or issues. What could be causing the crashes? And are these temps cause for concern?

List anything you've done in attempt to diagnose or fix the problem.

Furmark and OCCT tests

Post relevant photos of build/parts here.

Provide any additional details you wish below.

Top answer
1 of 4
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I agree with the other posters! ^ It's very possible it's a cooler issue. Although your cooler is rated for 150w, your CPU has a TDP of 125w (at base clocks), it draws much more than 150w at boost speeds, and whilst stressing. In fact it can draw up to 251w (PL2). It's very possible the cooler just isn't adequate enough at high clocks/load. Which Noctua paste are you using? H1/H2 have optimum operating temps between 70-120c, so that paste is good enough. As @hotaru.hino and @dorsai suggested, check cooler is seated correctly. You will obviously have to re-paste. Noctua's instructions suggest best method is to put a pea sized blob in centre of CPU. 2-3mm in diameter. Then seat the cooler. If the cooler has 4 screws, then tighten them in a criss-cross pattern from one corner to the opposite diagonal. This will ensure as you tighten down, you get an even spread of paste.
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Yeah I have an old GPU I can try if needs be. I'll see what happens when I remove the RTX from the system entirely and go from there. Haha to be honest, I decided to build this PC not because I needed anything in particular but because I fancied a bit of a project so now I have the means to fiddle with things I may well get obsessed with thermal paste soon too! Yeah, I will definitely get you posted! Thank you so much for your help so far, I've really appreciated having someone to throw ideas at me! No worries, glad to offer help. That's the best thing about TH forum. Everyone bouncing ideas around, learning lot of good stuff as we go along! Love it!
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Linus Tech Tips
linustechtips.com › the workbench › troubleshooting
OCCT power stress test yields 100C cpu temps - Troubleshooting - Linus Tech Tips
July 9, 2021 - https://linustechtips.com/topic/1354935-occt-power-stress-test-yields-100c-cpu-temps/ More sharing options... Followers 1 · Go to topic listing Troubleshooting · Buying a Fairphone charger · Didaka · 1 hour ago Posted in Phones and Tablets · 5 · Persistent BSODs almost exclusively during cold boot - extensive testing completed ·
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/buildapc › 100c cpu temp in stress tests, should i be concerned?
r/buildapc on Reddit: 100C CPU temp in stress tests, should I be concerned?
January 26, 2024 -

I've had my PC for a little over a year (current build list) and performance has been pretty good, hasn't blown me away and I haven't done any OCing (in fact undervolted at one point), but it's been alright. A couple of weeks ago I decided to add a second fan to my CPU cooler (NZXT T120) just to help with cooling a bit and also reapply thermal paste. Shortly after I played the game The Finals for the first time and at some point I noticed it was COOKING my CPU (core temp reaching 100C) and at some point, my PC just shut off because I guess it got too hot. Other games I've played since then haven't given me issues (max temp I've seen is 85C) but they haven't been too intensive of games (ex: Farm Sim, TF2, and Golf It). Also, idle temps are completely normal, around 45C. I decided to run a stress test on OCCT to see if it was just a problem with The Finals or a larger issue. My knowledge of PCs is fairly surface-level, I know how to build them and that's about it, so I'm not sure how to interpret the results. I ran a 5-minute test and the whole time temps were about 100C, power draw was around 180W, P-core clock speed of around 5000Mhz, and E-core clock of around 3900Mhz. Once the test was finished temps immediately went down to around 55C. Are these results indicative of a problem? And if so, should I reapply thermal paste or try a new cooler? One thing I'm a little confused about is why the P-core clock speed showing 5000Mhz while my CPU has a base clock of 3500Mhz, does that mean it's OCed or am I just fundamentally misunderstanding what these speeds mean? Here are some pics of my PC in case it helps to see my flow (pretty sure my case flow is pretty standard):

https://imgur.com/D5uEVDi

https://imgur.com/1x3EW7W

https://imgur.com/MygOuEl

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/occt › is it normal during cpu test duration the temperature to be at 100c?!
r/OCCT on Reddit: Is it normal during cpu test duration the temperature to be at 100c?!
September 8, 2024 -

hi , first of all im new in overclocking and stress testing . Secondly I'd like to know if its normal that cpu/cpu package to be at 100c for the whole duration i have set?! .

P.s : If it helps I have starforge voyager elite 2 , and set the cpu fan profile to MSI ultimate and cpu core to be 5.7 GHz with 1.45 voltage overwrite mode .

Thank you

Find elsewhere
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/overclocking › sos. why is my cpu over heating to 100°c?
r/overclocking on Reddit: SOS. Why is my CPU over heating to 100°C?
May 16, 2020 -

Even after overclocking my 3.5ghz i5 4960k to a "safe" clock speed of 4.2ghz at 1.2 volts, the temperature just bolts up to 100°C while running a stress test (OCCT) with a CPU monitor (HWMonitor). Nothing else was running in the background.

I then turned off any form of overclocking, including Intel's "turbo". I redid the test and the results were exactly the same, the temperature hit 100°C after roughly 1:30 mins of a OCCT small data set test.

I've tried:

  • Opening the side of my case completely.

  • Cleaning all the dust out from the inside of my PC.

  • Replacing thermal paste and making sure of a correct application. (It was actually thermal grease, does that make a difference? On the packet it's stated use was for a CPU.)

  • Making sure the heat sink is firmly attached to the CPU, yet not over tightened.

However, I am still facing this stressful problem of an unusually high CPU temperature even without being under load . If anyone has any idea whatsoever for how I might go about fixing this problem I would greatly appreciate the input :)

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/buildapc › 13900k-water cooled 100c in occt cpu stress test
r/buildapc on Reddit: 13900k-Water cooled 100C in OCCT CPU stress test
September 18, 2024 -

Hello all, I recently purchased an open box 13900kf/4090 Bitspower water cooled gaming pc from microcenter for $1900 USD. I was planning on building on the am5 platform but the deal was too good to pass up.

In order to make sure my CPU is a healthy 13900kf I’m in the process of running a stress test on OCCT. Immediately upon starting my temps jumped to 100c and then settled around 90c. No errors are detected. I’m coming from a 7800x3d which was a cool 75c in the same test. Is this just how hot the 13900k runs or is there a larger issue at hand here? Thanks in advance for the help!

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Intel Community
community.intel.com › t5 › Processors › 4790k-heats-up-to-100-degrees-after-2-seconds › td-p › 513549
4790k heats up to 100 degrees after 2 seconds - Intel Community
May 16, 2017 - If your chip is hitting the UEFI-defined throttle point (which in your case seems to be 100C), OCCT is designed to stop the test due to this. Since you have checked the proper installation of your cooling assembly, it is likely this is not the cause. I would suggest you check the amount of ...
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Linus Tech Tips
linustechtips.com › computer hardware › cooling
R9 9900x 100c during OCCT Power Test - Cooling - Linus Tech Tips
May 21, 2025 - I just completed my new build. Did a little gaming. Went to bed. Got constant memory error messages when I woke up the system the next morning. Cold booted and everything worked fine. I decided to do a few stress tests to try to identify any issues. Ran OCCT CPU + RAM test for 1 hour. No problem....
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Quora
quora.com › Should-I-upgrade-my-water-cooler-CPU-fan-OCCT-test-when-errors-temps-up-to-85-90-C-and-it-crashes-every-time
Should I upgrade my water cooler CPU fan OCCT test when errors temps up to 85-90°C and it crashes every time? - Quora
Answer (1 of 4): Maybe. Are you overclocking? While your temps are quite high when you stress test, they’re not reaching a point where many CPUs will throttle. Of course this will vary from CPU to CPU, but still your problem might be that your just being too aggressive with your OC.
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Asus
rog-forum.asus.com › t5 › rog-gaming-notebooks › g750jm-overheating-cores-during-occt-test-bad-processor › td-p › 697160
G750jm overheating cores during OCCT test = bad pr... - Republic of Gamers Forum - 697160
March 6, 2024 - Remember, that processor has a max temperature of 100c, which means it is tested to run continuously AT 100c, it will throttle or power off if the temperature runs away, so don't worry about damage to your laptop running these tests.
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Overclock.net
overclock.net › home › forums › graphics cards › nvidia
Very High Temps on OCCT Test. | Overclock.net
Originally Posted by Blameless;14568722 It's not unusual for OCCT to be a few degrees warmer than FurMark and ~20C warmer than almost any game.
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H|ard|Forum
hardforum.com › [h]ard|ware › intel processors
OCCT stress hits 99C 4770K 4.5ghz 1.29v and asus z87-pro with h80i | [H]ard|Forum
December 10, 2013 - **the 28.1 prime95 blend can still hit 100c after 22 minutes.. so while for most stress tests the temps are lower.. she still heats up pretty good with prime95 (with OCCT and AVX max temps didnt go above 82 over 1 hour) I used painters tape to cover the VRMs just in case i started twitching and got CLU all over the place Here are the pics from the delid:
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Overclock.net
overclock.net › home › forums › graphics cards › graphics cards - general
OCCT GPU test temps 20c+ higher than anything else. Normal? | Overclock.net
June 20, 2011 - My card would easily hit 100c in a minute or two of doing that testing when I had it air-cooled. Now that it's water-cooled I can actually go through an entire test (assuming my OC is stable) that's 5 minutes long, but I don't bother doing any more than that. ... That's completely unnecessary and a waste. OCCT/Furmark is good to test your cooling and that is it.
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OCBASE
ocbase.com › download
OCBASE/OCCT : Free, all-in-one stability, stress test, benchmark and monitoring tool for your PC
Ocbase is the home of OCCT, the most popular all-in-one stability / stress testing / benchmarking / monitoring tool available for PC
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GameFAQs
gamefaqs.gamespot.com › pc › hardware › console
While stress testing a new CPU the temp went up to 100c, Any damage ? - PC
December 28, 2018 - For PC on the PC, a GameFAQs message board topic titled "While stress testing a new CPU the temp went up to 100c, Any damage ?".