GPU - How hot is too hot???

While monitoring temps last night for MOH Tier 1 my main card (9800m) reached 85. Is that too hot? I have arctic silver on the way so Ill be able to reapply thermal compound in a few days.

Should I just not game until the compound arrives? I back of the resolution and AA to lower temps. Its not a SLI game so the secondary card doesn’t get a big work out.

The system is the legacy M17x with dual 9800m gt’s but I think the topic can stay here due to its general nature. Have a good day all.

 

Oles chiefs,

85 degrees C is fine. That is well around the normal operating temperature for games. If you start hitting the high 90s and 100s then I would suspect something is wrong or needs changing. However your well within the thermal limits.

Once you get the new thermal paste it should be able to drop you max gaming load temps a bit more. Perhaps high 70s next time you play games.

So yeh no worries chiefs. Continue gaming happily while you await your paste delivery.

As to how hot is too hot would be anything over 100 degs C. Then there might be bad heatsink connection or fan failure or the GPU card might be defective. Or the thermal paste has just dried up and the original job wasn't done very well to begin with or the manufacturer used standard cheap stuff.
If you idling around 85 degs C then thats definitely another story and is definitely too hot lol.

Cheers.

 

Great thanks for the info, I was a little concerned because the 9800m gt's were sitting at 68 with crisis warhead maxed at 1280 res.

Now with Tier one the one card is at 85 and the slave is at 62.

Do any of the temp monitor programs sound an alarm when a card hits a predetermined temp?


PS Great game!!!!!!!!

 

It sounds like your on the m17x. Best idea is Clean out the Vents. This basicly means. Pull the GPUs out. Blow them out with a Can of air. Look inside see if there any Lint trapping the Airflow. Clean it out. Put the GPUs back as they where before.

Other Areas to check Becuse the gpus are drawing Air From the top of the Laptop not the bottem. Pull the Keyboard off. Which is easy You need a screw driver. Go on Alienware.com under FAQ and type in m17x keyboard. Blow out the area under the Keyboard.

Then Monitor the temps after your done and let us know.

 

^^ Yeh give your fans and vents a nice clean out when your repasting the GPUs and CPU with the thermal paste. You should see a nice improvement with temps afterwards. I'd say your paste would be close to completely died up by now.

Cheers.

 

Thanks guys, Ive done all of that and she is holding steady at 88 for the master and 66 for the slave. I might try force rendering in the nvidia options to balance the load a bit. Vents are all clear. The arctic silve should be here by friday, Ill report back then.

 

Ah okay cool.

The AS5 should lower your max temps on the master chiefs.

Cheers.

 

Well no AS5 yet but I played MOH maxed out again last night at 1900 res and the master only reached 88, im very happy. Ill report back once the AS5 shows up.

 

Anyone knows what temp is considered ideal?
Meaning heat is the enemy of electronic components, but there's probably a
reasonable temperature where the GPU/CPU run without significant heat damage.

Mike

 

Oles chiefs.

Yeh it really depends on your particular hardware and chip.
However around 60 - 70 degs max for GPUs is very nice temps. Max of 80 would be ideal when gaming. Anything less then your golden. However even anything below 90 is considered to be very safe.

Pretty much the same thing for the CPU in temps. High 70s under full load is very nice. Low 80s are okay however the lower the better of course.

The main thing about wear and tear like Nvidia found out was the large difference range in temps. So for example it is not very good to always say heat up to 80 degs then lower the temp down to 45 degs 50 degs C and then turn off the fan and repeat this process 24/7. It is also very annoying on the users ear lol.
So a more constant temp or smaller max - min range would be better. + it helps keep fan noise down and low.

Heat damage usually is always running your GPU at like high 90s or over 100 degs constantly for a long period of time. Like a few weeks months years even if they last that long. Its def not recommended and should be seen to if temps ever get that hot during normal usage or gaming. Usually high 70s and 80s are reasonable and acceptable depending on your tech. However of course we all here would like and prefer low 70s during gaming.

Cheers.