So I've been playing a ton of Deus Ex: HR recently - love it to death - but I notice that unlike most other games I own it sends the CPU temperature in my laptop particularly high - so far peaking at about 65 degrees C. Should I be worried about serious hardware degradation from such temps? Is there anything I can do to keep it cooler?
Safe CPU temperatures?
- Thread starter Deepblue
- Start date
tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
If you got a intel cpu (and amd probably as well) you can easily look up what intel thinks is the maximum allowable temperature on their website. Though the cpu can probably run quite a bit hotter than what intel recommands before really getting damaged.
Even if it gets to 100C it won't die. It will throttle CPU speed to cool down so you will experience uneven performance during that period of time.
Long gone are days of CPU's burning out itself and everything close by. BTW what laptop do you have?
As Lightman described, the chip will not die, or burn, or otherwise damage itself at even 100*c. That TJunction indicator is where the chip will begin enabling throttling, but isn't the point where it's borderline smoking.
Keep in mind that silicon doesn't burn for several hundred more degrees
Keep in mind that silicon doesn't burn for several hundred more degrees
Small trick if you haven't tried it yet and your lappy is is good few months old. Get compressed air or powerful blower and clean air intake/exits from dust. You can easily gain 10C-20C better temperatures under load if there is a problem with air circulation
BTW classic transistors will die depending on class anywhere above 150C-250C but modern CPU's are more sensitive than that due to doped silicon, strainers, etc. I'm not microchip designer, so can't say for sure, but going to 120C will shorten CPU life dramatically over even short period of time or kill it altogether.
My old AMD Duron 600 survived a week of 110C+ (bad radiator mount) at the socket diode and worked fine for years. I'm sure internal temperature went close to 150C because all warranty stickers underneath CPU burnt to ashes.
Anyway, I would not worry about CPU too much, worry about your family jewels if you're playing with laptop on your lap :smile:
whats wrong with underclocking it? (of course slower speed but most likely good enuf for the applications)
IMO (*) the benifits (esp for a laptop) outweigh the slight speed lose
wiki
When a single-core Intel CPU was 20% underclocked, the PC’s performance was down only 13% with a 49% power reduction.[3]
*Reduced heat generation, which is exactly proportional to the power consumption.
*Less noise because the cooling fans may be slowed down, or even eliminated. A cooling fan’s efficiency is proportional to its rotation speed, but it noise grows much more.
*Longer hardware lifespan.
*Increased stability.
*Reduced noise from cooling parts due to reduced heat dissipation requirements.
*Increased battery life.
(*) then again to me Ive unlike back in the old days, where getting a new faster CPU I could see instantly, everything was zippier, for the last few years I cant tell the difference (outside of benchmarks)
IMO (*) the benifits (esp for a laptop) outweigh the slight speed lose
wiki
When a single-core Intel CPU was 20% underclocked, the PC’s performance was down only 13% with a 49% power reduction.[3]
*Reduced heat generation, which is exactly proportional to the power consumption.
*Less noise because the cooling fans may be slowed down, or even eliminated. A cooling fan’s efficiency is proportional to its rotation speed, but it noise grows much more.
*Longer hardware lifespan.
*Increased stability.
*Reduced noise from cooling parts due to reduced heat dissipation requirements.
*Increased battery life.
(*) then again to me Ive unlike back in the old days, where getting a new faster CPU I could see instantly, everything was zippier, for the last few years I cant tell the difference (outside of benchmarks)
I won't recommend testing your cpu's ability of how much hotter it can get.. lol.. I mean my computer had same issue and as a result it automatically shuts itself down. Plus it gets real slow and the speed is greatly effected. Mine heats up a lot too but I make sure the air vents out properly to avoid any issues
Blazkowicz
Legend
Small trick if you haven't tried it yet and your lappy is is good few months old. Get compressed air or powerful blower and clean air intake/exits from dust. You can easily gain 10C-20C better temperatures under load if there is a problem with air circulation
You mean, without even opening the laptop up?
That's a nice trick, to do with a spray can of dry air (I had trouble with these cans, people will waste them spraying into themselves, it gives a Vader voice for a few seconds)
For older laptops I've thought of dismantling and going as far as changing the thermal compound (maybe need the sticky kind) you would need time and patience for that. On desktop CPUs esp. AMD ones this can be a huge deal.
Yes, spray can do the job quite nicely without opening laptop, at least for most of them where air duct is straightforward. Some of them have nice and easy access to get to radiator/fan assembly and after cleaning it makes huge difference to temps.
Grearlacte
Newcomer
Since I live in a tropical country, the temperature is often hot and humid. Definitely not the kind of temperature that our computer needs. Aside from installing additional fan, I make sure that the electric fan is right in front of the CPU tower. There are even instances when I have to remove the cover of the case to make sure that it won't overheat.
