Folding Forum

Hey Guys,

No assistance required here, this is mainly out of curiousity.

All of my GPU's are in the 50's for the vast majority of the time with occasional dips into the high 40's and jumps into low 60's which is well within specification. My Core i7-2600K and OC'ed Core i5-4690K are in the high 50's to low 60's with my OC'ed Core i7-5820K is mostly high 60's and has hit low 70's with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 (will be upgrading the cooler at some point).

I want my temps as low as I can get and fan noise doesn't bother me but I have known people who are comfortable with the CPU's constantly in the mid to high 70's and their GPUs high 70's right into mid 80's. Now I know they are designed to with stand those temps but personally I feel that for prolonged use those numbers are a little too high. There was one guy who had an MSI GeForce GTX 480 which for years was in the high 80's and very low 90's and despite those temperatures was perfectly reliable for years (he was anal with it though, dusted it out often and replaced thermal paste and pads with better quality ones).

Anyway, where are you comfortable running your hardware.

GPUs with boost clocks like low temperatures in 70's for full boost clock. If CPU or GPU run at 90°C then this will degenerate the chips after many years. So an overclocked CPU at 5 Ghz running stable for many years at 90°C will then fail at that overclock and only reach stable 4.5 Ghz again. Which may still be good enough or you buy a new PC after 10 years anyway.

I prefer silent PC so I run full load CPU and GPU at max 80°C but lower fan speed. If it would hit more than 85°C then I would improve cooling.

GPUs start throttling around 83C; but generally leaving them below 70 is good.
I usually run them between 40 and 65C. I power cap them, and run them on an open bench suspended in the air, so their stock air cooling system is very efficient.
For CPUs, the latest Intel CPUs run up to 100C before throttling, but I try to keep them under 80C. With a good cooler they usually don't go over 75C.
AMD CPUs have been more sensitive to temperature. They start throttling at 95C. So I try to keep them below 80C, 75C if I can.
With a water cooling system they sometimes run 60C under an all core load.

The CPU specs from the vendors will let you know what they consider the maximum temperatures their CPUs should be run at … You will find these tend to be higher than most people feel happy to run their kit at - and this is fine - people should use their kit in a manner they are happy with.

Running consistently just below max temperature is actually "less wearing" on CPUs than variable loads that rapidly heat cycle (cool/heat/cool/etc.) the silicon and surrounding components - so a reasonable case could be put forward that running slightly below TJMax for the CPU on a relatively consistent load such as FAH will extend the life of the CPU compared to consistently running much spikier workloads that rapidly heat/cool the CPU … If however the only way the system is keeping the temperature below the TJMax is by throttling the CPU heavily then there probably is a cooling issue (or a weak cooling system as may be the case with many laptops) and some form of adjustments need to be made .. Beyond the CPU failing factor there are considerations as to the thermal impact on other parts of the system (especially if a laptop) not least that they get uncomfortable on the lap !! .. and noise impact also plays into this.

Having said that it all comes down to ones expectations … A modern CPU in a properly configured system managing cooling/CPU speed the way it is intended to should last for years whatever the load type … An heavily OC'd/Boosted CPU in a system where the BIOS/Configuration/Cooling don't work as they should may well stress the CPU and shorten its lifespan (again whatever the load) … CPUs do fail sooner than might be expected if treated badly - or just for the hell of it !! - running the CPU within its manufacturers specs is not treating it badly.

Again, just to restate the base principle though … One should run kit where one is happy to (I know people who work on 40C being "way too hot") not where other people might say it should be

Indeed, it just depends on the thermal limits for the hardware concerned as to what is sensible or not. There's no general figure to apply as there are components with vastly differing TDP on the market.

NRT_AntiKytherA wrote:Indeed, it just depends on the thermal limits for the hardware concerned as to what is sensible or not. There's no general figure to apply as there are components with vastly differing TDP on the market.

Where are you comfortable running your hardware?

My CPU stays at 89ºC.

Within a few degrees of thermal throttling values, so as of yet I have a good 7 or 8C before hitting that with regards the GPU temperature and it's 26C outside with 30C ambient in the room the machine is in. That to me says it would be alright on the hottest day in Summer too but I will keep an eye and have been looking into more efficient fans and water cooling. At present, installing water cooling is not really a worthwhile exercise but I may do that if I upgrade to a Zen2.

For long-term loads, I'm comfortable with 20° below the limit temp specified for the CPU/GPU.

TjMax for the Ryzen 3700X is 95°C, so anything below 75°C is good for me; 97°C for the 1050ti, so 77°C max continuous.

NBR wrote:My CPU stays at 89ºC.

Jesus, what CPU is it and what cooling solution do you have?

Amusingly it's hotter here in North Wales today than it is in Brasilia, I only looked because of that Core i5's temperature. However, it's an iMac (all-in-one?) according to NBR's profile so no doubt has a laptop processor and cooling system.

Cooling upgrade options I have:

Cheapest - Swap all factory installed Fractal Dynamic GP-14 1000rpm fans for PWM ones with marginally higher rpm and noise level BUT much better cubic metre airflow

Three times more expensive - sealed system water cooling for the CPU

Twice to three times as much again as the water cooling option - a portable aircon for the room so I get cooled too

I was going to answer the OPs question of "Where are comfortable running your hardware?" by saying "sitting in front of the aircon I have turned on to cool the kit/ambient temp"

Neil-B wrote:I was going to answer the OPs question of "Where are comfortable running your hardware?" by saying "sitting in front of the aircon I have turned on to cool the kit/ambient temp"

Haha brilliant and yea, that would be nice so long as you don't drop below the dew point.

FireFox-89 wrote:

NBR wrote:My CPU stays at 89ºC.

Jesus, what CPU is it and what cooling solution do you have?

Sounds like a Ryzen with stock cooler, idle.

hehe, my Ryzen 5 1600 with stock cooler never goes above 70C when fully loaded but it is a 65W TDP model