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How hot is too hot?

S

sixwings

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 13, 2010
26
0
So, I have the new macbook pro 15". Playing WoW the temperature tends to be in the mid 70 celcius range, for the CPU, I'm casual and don't raid or anything like that. I have a cooling pad that it sits on. Most of the time I play sitting on the coach with it in my lap using the track pad (yeah it works fine when you get used to it).

Is this temperature range abnormal? I used to play on an old 2006 macbook, so actually having the settings on anything but minimum is awesome. It's a real treat, but it seems to run hotter than I remember (haven't played in a year, WoTLK was unplayable on the macbook). The settings are set to blizzard recommended performance guide.
 
70 degrees celcious is crazy hot!!

how can you bear that heat on your thighs if your on the bus!!

also i think 70 degrees is quite dangerous for your components, correct me if im wrong but 60 degrees will start to damage your hard drive.
 
70º is no problem.

running maxed out with fans max speed you should be around 85ºC

the CPU has a max operating temperature of 105ºC and most of the components can run that hot too... ones that can't are well away from the CPU and not getting that hot.
 
doh123 said:
70º is no problem.

running maxed out with fans max speed you should be around 85ºC

the CPU has a max operating temperature of 105ºC and most of the components can run that hot too... ones that can't are well away from the CPU and not getting that hot.
Click to expand...

Ok cool, I don't have everything maxed out so that makes me feel better about it. I want to treat this computer well.

At the poster above: THe computer sits on a comfortable pad on the lab so the laptop isn't directly on my thighs.
 
sleyeu said:
70 degrees celcious is crazy hot!!

how can you bear that heat on your thighs if your on the bus!!

also i think 70 degrees is quite dangerous for your components, correct me if im wrong but 60 degrees will start to damage your hard drive.
Click to expand...

Okay you're getting this all wrong.

70 deg C is the diode temperature, not the surround component temperatures or the surrounding motherboard.

The heat on the thighs are the enclosure base temperature. Its close to 30-35 deg C, which is normal body temperature.
 
oh, but still 70 degrees seems like a temperature which might induce thermal decomposition?

oh well you seem to know more but i wouldnt like to know

this is what i think should be the normal temperatures for a laptop, even though this is a screnie from an imac :3
3YNi


wait, i just realised this is fro when its not running anything interesting, ill get a screenie from running a game brb! :D

or maybe a cmd+a , cmd+o on the applications folder? :)
 
While doing any CPU intensive tasks -- like gaming, transcoding videos, rendering, or even watching web video -- I frequently see my 17" MBPs 3.06GHZ C2D running at 100-109C... according to smc, anyway.
 
gødspeed said:
While doing any CPU intensive tasks -- like gaming, transcoding videos, rendering, or even watching web video -- I frequently see my 17" MBPs 3.06GHZ C2D running at 100-109C... according to smc, anyway.
Click to expand...

make sure your not on a surface thats soft and retains heat.... and that your fans are spinning 6200rpm ... thats a bit too hot. The CPU is considered in failure range by intel if it gets over 105.

It really shouldn't get much past 90 in sustain usage with the fans at 6200 RPM
 
70 for a laptop running a cpu intensive app is normal. The fan should be kicking in at over 6,000 rpms at that temperature, meaning you should have no trouble hearing them spinning. CPU temperatures are lower on desktops and should stay cooler than laptops, because laptops are designed to be more power efficient and in order to do that, they have to allow a higher threshold for heat.

My sentences look like run-ons, but it's early for me and I'm tired.
 
Around 85C (I think) is where OS X begins to scale the clock back so you will see a very sudden and very noticeable drop in your frame rate. I have a chill pad (don't recall the exact brand) that I use when gaming to help keep the temp down. Another tip, if you are playing WoW, is to use the maxfps chat command to keep your frame rate lower. Currently, I have mine set to 25 which keeps the CPU/GPU temps down to 55-60C. Sure, I notice the difference but I know I won't burn anything out and the game is very playable.
 
oneeach said:
Around 85C (I think) is where OS X begins to scale the clock back so you will see a very sudden and very noticeable drop in your frame rate.
Click to expand...

Just reading this on a 15" MBP5,1 with Firefox (Facebook, Gmail, this page and some python.org pages) and Thunderbird running I get around 80˙C as diode temp. The laptop is on my lap and since it is a chilly day it is quite comfortable. The fan is hardly making any noise at all. But then again, the lap is a great heatsink ;)
 
I'm probably wrong as to the temp where it happens, but the OS will slow things down if they are getting too hot.
 
Running a MBP 15" (2.53Ghz NV9600 512MB) sat on an aluminium desk stand some apps open but CPU idling right now (between 75 and 95% free CPU). Took a quick screenshot of my temperatures for comparison.

2959ztj.png
 
how do you check what your temp is? is there an app that does that
 
I have a macbook, it gets hot when I play WoW too, but the second i get off, the temp actually goes down.:D
 
Is it too hot???

Hi, I have MacBook OS X 10.5 13"

I don't play any games on it. I usually browse, do some work while having 6 tabs open. Right now it's at




and I just don't understand all the info given. Remember, 'knew2mack'....I am not kidding in the least bit. Actually I guess I'm basically new to computers. So in your response, please write in layman's terms.

Thank you so much
dawn
 

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Your temps look just fine, however it seems your fans are going at jet engine speed! Something is not right.
 
Is it too hot??

I adjusted the fan speeds because the temp was just getting up there. I mean average, 140 F.

I don't know enough to know exactly how to cool it or even why it is getting so hot!! I'm hardly doing anything on it.

At most, I have 8 tabs open maybe in 2 separate windows. No music, no downloading, no video or games......what could possibly make it this hot??
 
sixwings said:
So, I have the new macbook pro 15". Playing WoW the temperature tends to be in the mid 70 celcius range, for the CPU, I'm casual and don't raid or anything like that. I have a cooling pad that it sits on. Most of the time I play sitting on the coach with it in my lap using the track pad (yeah it works fine when you get used to it).

Is this temperature range abnormal? I used to play on an old 2006 macbook, so actually having the settings on anything but minimum is awesome. It's a real treat, but it seems to run hotter than I remember (haven't played in a year, WoTLK was unplayable on the macbook). The settings are set to blizzard recommended performance guide.
Click to expand...

I have a 2010 MBP 13. I play WoW with an external 1920x1200 monitor. When I 25-man raid in ICC I see the temps go as high as 80 degrees. I make sure the MBP is open, I hear the fan running high but I haven't had a problem yet... with my smok'n 20 FPS :)
 
knew2mack said:
I adjusted the fan speeds because the temp was just getting up there. I mean average, 140 F.

I don't know enough to know exactly how to cool it or even why it is getting so hot!! I'm hardly doing anything on it.

At most, I have 8 tabs open maybe in 2 separate windows. No music, no downloading, no video or games......what could possibly make it this hot??
Click to expand...

Flash adverts and embedded content is my first guess :)

Download and install click to flash if you are using Safari and watch your CPU usage (and your machine temperatures) drop.

Edwin
 
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