Is it safe for the GPU to play outside in sub-freezing temperatures?

Little non-conventional question here: Is it safe to play gpu/cpu intense games like skyrim on ultra on a laptop outside if it's below freezing (0 degrees Celsius)? Could this drastic temp. difference break anything, is anything at risk of malfunctioning, or will it just keep my laptop nice and cool with no harm? Thanks.

 

Uhh what exactly are you planning on doing? Putting it in the freezer and playing on an external monitor? I wouldn't try it, as I believe the operating temperatures (ambient) for most electronics are like 10C-70C or something like that. I don't think it would be too good for the screen especially. Imagine the temperature gradient from the bottom near the exhaust to the top.

 

Minnesota. 'nuff said

 

i used to live on the St Louis Park side of Cedar Lake. i do recall playing some games in winter on the laptop. Not graphics intensive games of today as it was a work laptop, but old pop cap type games while waiting at the park n ride. I wouldn't recommend it, but I didn't kill the laptop or anything.

 

I don't think the low temperatures are going to affect your CPU or GPU (people do sub-zero runs on parts all the time to OC them), but it might damage some other parts of your computer like the LCD or the HDD.

 

I wouldn't do it. You have to remember, there will be condensation involved.

 

Yup, normal hard drives are generally only rated from 0-60C. For SSDs, I checked the Crucial M4 and it seems to only be rated from 0-70C for "operating temps".

 

as stated, it shouldn't damage the CPU or GPU. other components will almost certainly pose problems, and you do risk permanent damage.

 

As others have stated, other components, condensation and i'll add that polymers will become more brittle with lower temps, maybe not enough to pose a problem in your case, but it's another thing to take into consideration.

 

What about at 5 Celsius?

 

I wouldn't go below the dew point since if there is moisture in the room, it will form condensation. hardcore overclockers tend to only cool certain components to sub zero temperatures and have lots of insulation to prevent liquid damage. It's easier to isolate components and cool in desktops than notebooks.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

Hi, I am from MN.

For the most part, cold weather isn't fatal for computers provided you know what you are doing.

1) Ambient temperature is not really as important as temperature differential. When you first turn on a computer, electricity surges into the laptop and a large differential occurs. When the ambient temperature is lower than normal, this could be cause a catastrophic expansion and damage or destroy your laptop.
-When the laptop has been outside for a period of time, leave it inside and let it warm up for awhile before turning it back on.
-If you must use the laptop outside for whatever reason, boot up inside and bring outside while running. Do NOT allow power saving to turn off drives or the display. As long as power keeps moving through these devices, they will stay warm enough to operate.

2) Condensation isn't really a problem in cold weather... FREEZING is. When it's cold outside, the air is very very dry. This is because the air holds less and less water vapor as it gets colder. The air being pulled through your laptop for cooling will be very cool and very dry. Pretty much perfect for cooling the laptop. It is when the laptop is off and unattended that you have a problem as the laptop will cool to ambient temps and if stored in a car trunk or anywhere unsealed, it might start forming ice crystals. Ice is very very bad for a laptop. Not only because of the whole melt into water thing, but because water expands when it freezes.

3) Batteries of most types are negatively affected by cold. Lithium-Ion is more resilient than most, but it still will have 10-20% less capacity when used in cold below 0C. Note, other batteries (espcially aqueous solution) may be permanently affected/damaged by the cold. Lithium Ion as no negative side-effects from being cold except its reduced capacity while cold. Note, the whole temperature differential thing still applies to the materials the battery is made out of.

4) Most laptop materials become brittle in cold. I don't think I have to explain this much as even the slightest ding can be much more damaging in that the materials shatter. I suppose I should also mention that people aren't quite as coordinated in cold weather either. Cold hands + cold laptop very well might = one very big mess. If you managed to drop it in a snowbank, you now have even more problems. (see #5)

5)Snow is death for a computer. Unless you take precautions (which usually preclude using the laptop) snow in the air gets everywhere. If you bring a laptop out in the snow without protection, expect to have a LOT of bad things happen.
Not only do you have frozen water crystals in your computer, but if you leave them somewhere, they get bigger... if you turn it on, they turn into water and you have the whole water + electricity thing. Even worse is the fact snow is made out of particles in the air. Even if you manage to get the water out and keep it from freezing, you now have a very dirty interior full of fun particles which are much more coarse than dust. Limit all exposure to snow if possible.
Did I mention the air is very cold and doesn't help with evaporation? Snow = very very bad and MN gets LOTS of it.

 

@ OP - Try it and report back.

 

Low temps wont hurt, at worst if cold enough (and way colder than your going to be at) you may get a "coldbug" where it wont post/boot.

Condensation however can/will break things, so you have to make sure that it wont be a factor.

 

It will mostly be the caps and secondary components on the board that you are taking out of operating spec.

 

I've had an LCD screen fail permanently after operating and storing for a few hours in sub zero temperature, about 7 or 8 years ago. I'm not sure if any major changes have occurred in the technology since then that would protect an LCD from the effects of extremely low temperatures. The total exposure time was relatively long (maybe 6-8 hours iirc). I don't remember the exact temperature.

 

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And thus you did two (or three) things wrong.

The actual destruction was likely either ice crystals forming due to unprotected storage, or rapid temperature changes. (or snow helping the process)

 

Indeed. But I also don't think your safe just because you turned on the laptop in advance. It might help for a small range of temperatures where the laptop can keep itself warm enough. However, many components likely have a minimum safe operating temperature that is much higher than their minimum safe storage temperature.

Just a thought.

PS - snow wasn't a factor for that incident.

 

"Safe" is relative I suppose.

My post is from a practical usability point of view. I don't suppose I'd say doing anything outside of the manufacturer's specifications is "safe". (note I said "isn't fatal")

Many of us overclock our laptops, and even a moderate overclock is a risk... but for the most part I'd say that overclocking within reason and while watching your temps "isn't fatal" either.

Honestly, I think you are underestimating today's laptops and their ability to keep themselves warm.

Being outside in 0C isn't really all that cold, and even with colder temperatures doesn't usually result in more than a 10-15C temperature differential for CPU and GPU for the operating temp in laptops I have used and monitored.

For instance, barring some other issue, I really don't think the CPU is going to mind operating at 25-30C, and your GPU isn't going to mind operating at 50-60C. Most of the rest of your laptop will probably be ok too as long as its own heat keeps it relatively warm.

Now, when you turn your laptop off, that's when things become a bit more problematic. However, I cannot tell you the number of really really cold laptops and servers we have pulled out of people's cars or pulled off of delivery trucks and nursed back to working condition.

Honestly, despite the temps here in MN in winter, I have many more laptops which overheat of their own accord at normal ambient temperatures than I do laptops that die of cold/freezing/ice.
This is from someone who lives somewhere that has gotten snow in every month of the year save August.