Overheating in game

Hey all,

I'm having some issues with my notebook overheating when gaming. Idle temps are generally around 50-55*C, but once I start gaming it will kick up to 80*C and cause my frames to drop (not to mention the problems of running that hot for long). So far I've been mindful to quit the application and let it cool down, but it's getting to be a pain playing for 25 or so minutes before having to exit out before the computer locks up/shuts down.

I have a cooling pad to elevate and cool it down, and I just cleaned out some dust with compressed air, but that doesn't seem to have solved my problems all together. My next guess is to get some new thermal paste, but I honestly do not have the money nor expertise to do that on my own comfortably just yet.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

 

80C degrees is usually a safe temp.

danger temp is usually above 90-100C.

a videocard would usually not lockup or downclock until it floats near 100C.

have you also checked your CPU temp?

and which program are you using to monitor your temps?

I recommend RivaTuner for GPUs.

Also, if it does downclock at 80C, you can modify the danger temp (with GPU-Z and Nibitor) to 100C.

P.S. the re-application of thermal compound may be a very good idea as well, its not very hard to do at all.

 

undervolt your cpu. Undervolting it will decrease its heat signature. Sharing a single common heat pipe among the cpu and gpu, decreasing the temperature of any of these 2 will decrease the temperature of the laptop.

 

Thanks for the quick response, Gophn.

I'm using Rivatuner to monitor the temps for the GPU. I haven't used anything for the CPU yet, but I'll be sure to fix that soon.

Right now it's hovering around 54*C with a video playing and firefox open. My main example of stress has been from Bioshock, which I finally got around to installing and playing (couple years behind, hah). I can begin gaming around 60* for a short bit, but after a good 20 minutes of playing it spikes to 80* and begins to downclock. Nothing tremendous, but enough that I can notice it and start checking the sides to see how much heat is being emitted. Unfortunately I have not had the luck to check the temps right as it was getting locked up, but I'd venture to say it's right around 90-95 or so.

I'll have to go check some stores for thermal paste then, it's my understanding that that usually helps cool down the CPU by a good 10 degrees when done properly. I've had this computer for roughly two years now so it's probably time to do that.

Will undervolting decrease my performance? Not that it isn't a good trade-off, just curious.

 

If 80C was your max temp then you should be fine. Lot of gaming laptops go higher than that. And no, under voltage won't decrease your performance.

 

Use cpuid hwmonitor to see the max temps reached while running a game. It really shouldn't downclock at 80c....maybe if it was 20c.

 

Thanks everyone, I'll run a game soon and log the temps and come back with the results.

 

I can tell you I play at 92C for a couple hours on end every once and a while (L4D session) and no downclocking or crashing occurs.

I did have my OC on before and it hit summer here and the ambient temps went up about 25C so I was hitting over 102C in L4D after about a hour and it would crash, but OC off and its fine at 92C!

 

I was just mid-game in L4D and was hitting between 87-90. My notebook probably can't handle such heat since it is, in fact, a notebook and not a desktop with bigger fans/cooling. Even with a cooling pad and fresh cleaning it still doesn't take kindly to such heat.

I didn't create a log file though, so I'll do that next time around for a more accurate look.

 

Here's a log from the 10 or so minutes of Bioshock I could play before it started to stutter.

 

Hmm very odd, what drivers are you using, i've seen multiple complaints that the new drivers have been heating more then they should (strange i know but still).

What about your hard drive, get some temps for thta to .

 

Search for the undervolting guide, Your performance will not decrease but you will see a drastic decrease in temperatures.

 

Absolutely...

I just undervolted over the weekend which shaved about 10 C off my CPU under full load...GPU has two heat pipes and shares one with the CPU...so dropping CPU temp dropped GPU temp about 3 C...not much, but it didn't cost me anything to do it...I wasn't very agressive with undervolting so you might be able to do better than 10 C...but no lock ups since undervolting although I did lock the machine up a couple of time while stress testing it because I forced voltage too low...and the other benefit is extended battery time...win-win-win...

On a separate note, I also recommend keeping your fans and vents clean...

I'm also a big fan of keeping with graphics drivers approved by your laptop OEM...newer unapproved drivers which squeak out 3-5 fps more aren't worth the risk, in my opinion...before the OEM releases the driver, they've tested it for stability, tested it for compatibility with OEM specific functions including power-saving options, and tested it for thermal performance with their specific cooling design...that's (sticking with OEM approved drivers) heresy in this forum, but I burned myself on my last laptop with laptopvideo2go drivers (not laptopvideo2go's fault...and it's an excellent site) trying to get my machine to play Far Cry and UT2004...

And finally, I have a Dell and run ik8fangui to monitor temps...when I bought my new laptop, it ran much hotter than my previous one, and I was very concerned...I poked around here and my laptop seemed to be running about 10 C hotter than other's identical laptops...so I set up my own fan program in ik8fangui and began talking with Dell...they told me, in no uncertain terms, that my temps were within their design specs (and true enough, I've never had high temp shutdowns...and only a rare case of downclocking), and more importantly, that messing with their bios-based fan strategy was dangerous...it's not just heat that damages the components but cyclic heat stresses...the XPS support guy told me either I needed to run my fans on high all the time (which would lead to premature fan failure) or let them run as Dell programmed them to prevent rapid temperature transients on the components...he told me that my GPU was designed to idle at a higher temp (almost 20 C higher than the CPU) to prevent heat-up stress cycles when it went under load...be careful...

Obviously, if your machine is routinely downclocking, there might be a problem...if you're uncomfortable with thermal paste and your laptop is out of warranty, I would recommend finding a decent laptop repair guy...Toshiba will tell you who they are (my last computer was a Toshiba and I used CompUSA before they closed up shop)...

 

this problem just happened to me i also have a toshiba
one thing to note is that you should use real temp to monitor ur cpu temps as it uses the real tmax of c2d mobile processors which is 100c since its probobly your cpu thats downclocking at 95c not 80c

i had cleaned my vents before but it didnt solve my problem but then i tried doing some deep heavy duty vent cleaning and it worked

id advise you to see if u can do the same since clean vents made about 15c of difference in my case.

 

I play alot of demanding games in my vaio and the max temp I have reached is at the GPU at 86c, I know that it is ok but I will try the undervolting guied.

 

I am currently testing CPU Genie for undervolting. I am running the voltage wizard. Estimated time is a stability test of 20 mins per voltage and an estimated 7+ hours to test all voltages to find the best ones.