Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

IMAC 27 inch Quad core i7 HD 4850 temperature?

elchipino

elchipino

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 17, 2009
5
0
Hi guys, I just wanted to share what's been going on with my i7 which I received last Friday. Immediately I was curious about what sort of temps I was going to be running so I installed Temperature Monitor. At idle my graphics readings hover around 40C. However, when playing Warcraft 3 my Graphics Processor Temperature Diode reaches up to 84C.
I don't really know what temps are acceptable, I was just wondering what other i7 HD4850s out there are running. To deal with this seemingly high temperature I installed smcFanControl and boosted all fan speeds by 50%. Noise doesn't seem to be proportional to fan speed at these levels so no probs there. Now I run at 64C at load and I am at peace with that.
Shouldn't the OS be increasing fan speed on its own?
Would like to know what you guys think and observe in your i7 machines
thanks
 
I don't know about the mobility 4850. But desktop graphics cards can reach temperatures of 100C without problems AFAIK, 84C certainly sounds reasonable. Plus, 40C is pretty cold for idle. My desktop GPU idles at around 50C IIRC.

They have quite different heat specifications to CPUs.
 
Well I'd like to keep this iMac for a while, I would prefer not to be running my graphics card at 100C (and thanks to the boosts to fan speed i am not). Anyone out there have any numbers on their i7s?
 
elchipino said:
Well I'd like to keep this iMac for a while, I would prefer not to be running my graphics card at 100C (and thanks to the boosts to fan speed i am not). Anyone out there have any numbers on their i7s?
Click to expand...

Mine was at around 80C when playing COD.
 
84°C isnt really high, for a mobility GPU its considered about middle of the range i guess. 64°C with the fans is a god-send, you will never see that temperature when playing games on a mac lol!

i wouldnt worry, the heatsync is more then capable of moving the heat away.
 
I got an i7, tried WoW with every setting on max in fullscreen for a few hours (very playable btw), and my CPU heatsink peaked at 79C. Not too bad imo.

EDIT: I mean GPU temperature ofc. CPU temp was lower.
 
Received my i7/4850 yesterday. Most of my temps seem okay, even while playing WoW, with the exception of the hard drive. It gets up to 60, maybe even higher (iStat Pro shows 60, Temperature Monitor shows 60 then eventually changes to ---), which is a concern since the max operating temp for the HD is supposed to be 65, and I've heard from several sources that HD temp shouldn't go above 50. Even while the computer is idling, the HD temp is right at 50. The GPU temps stay in the mid-80s while gaming, and I've seen the power supply temp at 70-72, and I wonder if the residual heat from those are affecting the HD.

The HD fan does spin up slightly when the temp is near 60, but it doesn't go above 2000-2200 RPM. If I use smcFanControl to max the HD fan, the HD temp goes down to high 40s, low 50s. However, I don't like that because 1) I don't know how good it is to max the fans, particularly for several hours straight while gaming, and 2) I don't like that I have to use smcFanControl in the first place because I would think the computer should know enough to handle the fans itself.

I'm thinking of calling Apple support. I really don't want to be replacing my HD every year...
 
What I'm wondering is if smcFancontrol interferes somehow with the OS doing its thing upping the fan speed on its own.
MacGyv I'll check to see what my HDD runs at, haven't even considered that temp yet.
Anyone know if increasing fan speed drastically cuts their lifespan? I'd rather replace a fan than a GPU but most of all I'd rather not replace either:eek:
 
My new i7 iMac is extremely hot to the touch. Is this normal? I've never had an all in one before, always ran a Mac Pro.
 
If it's really hot to the touch, then that most likely means it's doing its job properly of radiating heat away from the internal components.
 
DoFoT9 said:
+1 thus why all macs are hot to the touch lol! the metal attracts the heat.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree. It always confused me when people touch the iMac and say it is hot too the touch and it runs too hot without even looking at iStat. It is like going to buy a new car, kick the tires and say it isn't a good car without taking it for a test drive. :p Just because the iMac is warm to the touch doesn't mean it is outside the safe operating temp.
 
53x12 said:
Yeah I agree. It always confused me when people touch the iMac and say it is hot too the touch and it runs too hot without even looking at iStat. It is like going to buy a new car, kick the tires and say it isn't a good car without taking it for a test drive. :p Just because the iMac is warm to the touch doesn't mean it is outside the safe operating temp.
Click to expand...

nice analogy! totally true. it does annoy me that its so warm, i cant keep it on my laptop.. but what can you do?! (my mbp im talking about haha).
 
im playing Aion in bootcamp 64bit W7 with near maxed graphics settings and it gets hot! the gpu goes into the 90-96 degrees range before i hear the fans kick on, but still it feels like the fans aren't going very fast at all, just a slight increase in speed. After the fans my temps are around 85-89 degrees, still a tad hot to me. Does anyone know for certain if this is normal on the new 27 imac i7, 8 gig ram, with the ati 4850? And if it is too hot, which program in bootcamp do u use to remedy this? thx for the help/input.

PS: Aion looks fantastic!!
 
Why worry about temps? Let Apple Care worry.

The hot air can be recycled. I have my green 24" Imac piped to a cauldron of water which I use to bathe my dog with, and she loves it! Forget fixing this with fancontrol or Istat. Get real, you paid premium/undiscounted prices for these computers! Instead of "fixing" this yourself, have Apple Care replace everything under warranty that their "genius" designers sacrifice on the altar of sleekness and modernity. Maybe if they have to replace CPUs, HDs, power supplies, fans, heat sensors regularly they will consider a recall of these extremely poor heat dissipating machines.
 
My GPU Diode under OS X is 59c when idling... fans are spinning at ~1000 RPM. In games under OS X I've seen it hit 84c (I.E, portal) and under Windows a little further.
 
call up apple and get them to take a look at it, mine felt hot to the touch while idling, they put a new HDD in and its a lot cooler now.
 
Hi just wondering

Fiolu said:
im playing Aion in bootcamp 64bit W7 with near maxed graphics settings and it gets hot! the gpu goes into the 90-96 degrees range before i hear the fans kick on, but still it feels like the fans aren't going very fast at all, just a slight increase in speed. After the fans my temps are around 85-89 degrees, still a tad hot to me. Does anyone know for certain if this is normal on the new 27 imac i7, 8 gig ram, with the ati 4850? And if it is too hot, which program in bootcamp do u use to remedy this? thx for the help/input.

PS: Aion looks fantastic!!
Click to expand...

Hi I have the i5 27 mac and I also play Aion it looks great runs pretty good but I was wondering if you have some of the same issues as me

1 I regulary get the microsoft memory dump might be as often as 5 times in an hour or might not get it for a few days

2 I also get a graphic lock up is the only way I can describe it the cursor turns into a black square then the screen locks up

Both cases end up the same way with me having to restart the computer
and thats very annoying when your knee deep in the Abyss. So in closing it would be great to hear wether your having the same issue's or did I let the salesman talk me into the wrong Imac thanks K
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back