For a long time, I couldn't figure out why my CPU was running at temperature 60°C, with usage spiking to 50%, even when no heavy applications were running (idle). I tried everything: changing the thermal paste, tweaking the voltage, playing with the frequencies, and setting PBO, but nothing seemed to work.

After countless experiments and deliberations, I finally discovered that the culprit was my live wallpaper from Wallpaper Engine. It was an animation of raindrops! Who would have thought that such a simple wallpaper could put such a strain on the system? Now my ryzen 5600x is back to normal at 45°C while idle.