How to fix VRM overheating on Soyo B550M in Cities Skylines II?
It's actually insane that Cities Skylines II can push a motherboard's VRM to 102℃; it's basically a stress test for your cooling. This overheating caused the CPU to tank from 4.2GHz down to 0.9GHz, turning the game into a slideshow before the whole system just rebooted. I tried jamming two 12cm fans in my case to blast the board, but that only dropped temps by 8℃—still crashed under load. It was a total band-aid solution. I eventually went into the BIOS, capped the long-term power limit (PL1) at 85W, and killed all auto-boost settings to force a lower, stable clock. HWiNFO showed the VRM finally settling between 80-88℃. I lost about 12% performance, but at least I can actually play for 5 hours straight. I tried 65W first, but the simulation speed was painfully slow. Now, CPU temps are 68-75℃ and the board is at 82℃. I exported the BIOS profile so I don't have to do this again, and the response time is finally crisp.
