Temperature Concerns

**TestudoAubreii** · April 24, 2011, 08:09 PM

Hey everyone,

I know that this has probably been asked a million times, so I am sorry if it is somewhere in these threads. Anyhow, I just wanted to know what a good temperature is for CPU's and GPU's. My GPU is a ASUS hd 6950 1GB DCUII and the temp has not gone above 73 degrees and my CPU is a n i7 920 @ 2.66 OC'd @ 3.33 and it has not gone over 63 degrees on any of the cores. I have been playing some pretty taxing games for a few hours just to monitor the temps on everything and I want to know if those temps are in a good range. Better yet, what is a good temp range that I should be looking for? I certainly do not want to fry anything I have. I guess why I ask is because of the overclocking. I am kind of paranoid about that, but, of course, I did it anyway

.

Again, sorry if this has been brought up.

Thanks in advance for all help, advice and patience.

Testudo

**Bolkonsky** · April 24, 2011, 08:17 PM

You're fine. You could go a little bit lower, but it's not going to change much of anything.

Anyways, since you probably want more than one opinion on this, why not look up your cards temp ratings? Most new cards are made to shut-down at 90 anyways.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · April 24, 2011, 09:22 PM

temps are fine on average heavily overclocked systems of enthusiasts using the i7 line are hitting 80c on the CPU at max load, and gpus are fine up to 100c but keeping them under 85c tends to be preferable so in both cases your perfectly fine with your system, reference 6950s tend to hit 83-87;c yours is 10c cooler then average due to a better heatsink so be happy in GPU terms your card is sexy with its cooling

**TestudoAubreii** · April 25, 2011, 08:30 AM

Cool. Thanks for the input, fellas

. I just tend to get a little freaked out when I see things and I am not exactly sure what is going on

. I will look around for some temp charts, like Bolkonsky suggested. The fan speed on my GPU only runs at about 40% when fully loaded, so perhaps I will try to up it a bit to get cooler temps. However, if they are fine where they are, I might just leave it if there is no benefit to running a few degrees cooler.

Thanks again,
Testudo

**Bolkonsky** · April 25, 2011, 09:34 AM

Keep in mind that, roughly stated, a processor is a bunch of microscopic switches turning on and off, at whatever the frequency is. I believe that a gigahertz is something like 1000000000 (10 to the 9th) times per interval. That's a lot of friction.

**fdk** · April 25, 2011, 09:51 AM

Wow, you can make every electronic engineer you meet die a litle by telling him that sentence.

**Bolkonsky** · April 25, 2011, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by fdk

Wow, you can make every electronic engineer you meet die a litle by telling him that sentence.

Why? That's what most computer parts are - switches. You used to be able to program in punch cards.

**TestudoAubreii** · April 25, 2011, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by Bolkonsky

Keep in mind that, roughly stated, a processor is a bunch of microscopic switches turning on and off, at whatever the frequency is. I believe that a gigahertz is something like 1000000000 (10 to the 9th) times per interval. That's a lot of friction.

So, should I not overclock the processor? Does that mean that is not a good idea to overclock because the temperature may rise eventually and cause some type of damage? Forgive my ignorance, but I am trying to learn all that I can.

Thanks,
Testudo

**Crazyeyesreaper** · April 25, 2011, 01:29 PM

your I7 920 depending on your CPU Cooler,

Run Intel burn test for 15 runs
http://downloads.guru3d.com/IntelBur...load-2047.html

Its perfectly safe to use on AMD cpus AND Intel cpus

when runnings IBT, set the ram amount to the maximum selection at 15 runs, keep a temp monitor open and watch the temps keep the max aka highest temp on the CPU under 80'c normal usage will never hit 80c IBT uses linpack to stress the cpu about 15 runs of maximum ram = 12hrs-20hrs of Prime 95. but 15 runs will only take 30-60mins. eitherway long as the CPU stays under 80c your fine and can overclock higher if you wish just rinse repeat and use IBT to test stability

if at any time you hit more then 85'c turn off IBT and lower your overclock till you can keep it under 80c

if your on the stock intel cooler dont bother overclocking, something like an OCZ vendetta 2, Xigmatek s1283, Coolermaster hyper 212+ you can safely get to 3.6ghz without much issue depending on ambient temps in your home. Prolimatech Megahalems, Noctua D14, TT FRIO, Corsair H70, etc you can easily get to 3.8ghz more then that is usually luck of the draw.

as for the GPU, for reference my 6970s on stock fan profile hit about 90c when gaming due to them being sandwiched together, thats still perfectly fine, your cards are at 70c or so its extremely cool. for testing GPUs, dont bother with Furmark or anything of that nature, best games to test gpu stability with

are Battlefield Bad Company 2, *great for CPU and GPU overclock testing and stability* and if you need to test with a repeatable benchmark aka just set it forget it and walk away for a bit

Unigine Heaven Bench 2.5, and 3dmark 11 can be looped to run to test gpu clocks etc for stability, as for the 6900 series memory overclocking dosent do a whole lot for performance, so leaving your 6950s memory at stock is fine, *they have error checking go to high on ram and it out corrects itself but it causes performance loss thus push the memory hard on the 6900 series is rather pointless. the core on the other hand you can probably max it within Catalyst Control Center, with the default overclocking tools included, and just set it and forget it. run the tests keep the gpu under 85'c and your fine

**TestudoAubreii** · April 25, 2011, 01:57 PM

Originally Posted by Crazyeyesreaper

your I7 920 depending on your CPU Cooler,

Run Intel burn test for 15 runs
http://downloads.guru3d.com/IntelBur...load-2047.html

Its perfectly safe to use on AMD cpus AND Intel cpus

when runnings IBT, set the ram amount to the maximum selection at 15 runs, keep a temp monitor open and watch the temps keep the max aka highest temp on the CPU under 80'c normal usage will never hit 80c IBT uses linpack to stress the cpu about 15 runs of maximum ram = 12hrs-20hrs of Prime 95. but 15 runs will only take 30-60mins. eitherway long as the CPU stays under 80c your fine and can overclock higher if you wish just rinse repeat and use IBT to test stability

if at any time you hit more then 85'c turn off IBT and lower your overclock till you can keep it under 80c

if your on the stock intel cooler dont bother overclocking, something like an OCZ vendetta 2, Xigmatek s1283, Coolermaster hyper 212+ you can safely get to 3.6ghz without much issue depending on ambient temps in your home. Prolimatech Megahalems, Noctua D14, TT FRIO, Corsair H70, etc you can easily get to 3.8ghz more then that is usually luck of the draw.

as for the GPU, for reference my 6970s on stock fan profile hit about 90c when gaming due to them being sandwiched together, thats still perfectly fine, your cards are at 70c or so its extremely cool. for testing GPUs, dont bother with Furmark or anything of that nature, best games to test gpu stability with

are Battlefield Bad Company 2, *great for CPU and GPU overclock testing and stability* and if you need to test with a repeatable benchmark aka just set it forget it and walk away for a bit

Unigine Heaven Bench 2.5, and 3dmark 11 can be looped to run to test gpu clocks etc for stability, as for the 6900 series memory overclocking dosent do a whole lot for performance, so leaving your 6950s memory at stock is fine, *they have error checking go to high on ram and it out corrects itself but it causes performance loss thus push the memory hard on the 6900 series is rather pointless. the core on the other hand you can probably max it within Catalyst Control Center, with the default overclocking tools included, and just set it and forget it. run the tests keep the gpu under 85'c and your fine

Thanks for that

.

I have a stock cooler on my i7 and I just bought my graphics card, so I will not be purchasing anything else until my Department of Appropriations approves my budget

. I will try the test that you recommended and see how far I can get on a stock CPU cooler. Here is my tower. I certainly do not want to fry anything, so I will take it easy. Like I stated previously, I am a little paranoid, almost to the point where I want to set it back to the default settings.

I was playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Shogun II yesterday for quite a while and I reached the temps that I originally posted. I will play BFBC2 when I get home tonight and test it out on there, as well as in addition to the IBT.

I would like to try and maybe overclock my GPU. It actually shipped with a factory overclock @ 810Mhz. I see that in ATI's CCC that I can overclock in there, so perhaps I will try that, but if overclocking the GPU does not make that much of a difference I don't know if it would be worth it.

Again, I appreciate you time, help and input and I will try to mess around and see what happens. I really want to know if it will be worth it if I do all of this.

Thanks,
Testudo

**Crazyeyesreaper** · April 25, 2011, 02:01 PM

every bit of performance gain you get from overclocking is worth it to an extent because its free performance, example that i7 920 is say $200 for 2.67 at 3.33 its clock speed and performance is around 960 which was $700 or so as you can see you just got $500 worth of performance for nothing which is definetly worth it

thats what overclocking is actually about its about getting the most from your hardware that you can in the most cost effective way.

**Totalheadache** · April 25, 2011, 02:09 PM

Yeah i'd go for the noctua d14 or the corsair h50/70.

With the noctua you can also replace the stock fans for more powerfull ones. I use ys-tech ones which are beasts. Ideally you want around 100cfm and under 50dcbels (higher the cfm the more air moved)

Corsair being the best most likely as less cleaning (less dust) needed and will be quieter. (well i cant see it being louder than an air cooler).

p.s like the tower. am tempted to ditch my haf932 for a corsair obsidian800d.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · April 25, 2011, 02:14 PM

performance among all those coolers is only a few degrees difference, so its basically price first then performance cheapest price performance of the high end tends to be the ThermalTake Frio since it already has 2 fans that push around 90 cfm and have rheostat fan speed controllers on each. granted i replaced the fans on mine i just dont like white fans.... anyway. almost all of them will allow 3.8ghz with the noctua allowing 4ghz same with the megahalems if equiped with 2 fans.. the corsair h50 isnt bad but it needs another fan to work properly and that said all of them tend to be $30 more expensive then a TT FRIO for 1-4 degree C difference. altho if i had the cash id take the noctua as well... its large and in charge haha

**Totalheadache** · April 25, 2011, 02:18 PM

Originally Posted by Crazyeyesreaper

performance among all those coolers is only a few degrees difference, so its basically price first then performance cheapest price performance of the high end tends to be the ThermalTake Frio since it already has 2 fans that push around 90 cfm and have rheostat fan speed controllers on each. granted i replaced the fans on mine i just dont like white fans.... anyway. almost all of them will allow 3.8ghz with the noctua allowing 4ghz same with the megahalems if equiped with 2 fans.. the corsair h50 isnt bad but it needs another fan to work properly and that said all of them tend to be $30 more expensive then a TT FRIO for 1-4 degree C difference. altho if i had the case id take the noctua as well... its large and in charge haha

you can always sell the stock fans that come with the cooler. i did and the ys-tech ones were less than £15 i recall. i hope i dont ever get my finger stuck in one. ouch.

(own the noctua and installation is a breeze. really recommended).

**Syntax** · April 25, 2011, 02:20 PM

I'm very happy with the Frio Air-cooler - has two fans - you may also change to whatever fan you like - its just a question of noise mate....
but anyway there are really many good and cheap air-cooler on the market just look a bit in the test results in the tech information sites...Anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/ is a very cool site (Tom's Hardware - but not my favorite at all but not bad either...) - some have to be always careful with all this results and comparisons in the web sites as many are sponsored from the big tycoons.....so??? you know.....

**Crazyeyesreaper** · April 25, 2011, 03:19 PM

for GPU reviews i stick to Techpowerup! largest gpu data base period in terms of cards tested and the largest suite of games tested. along with power heat and overclocking, no ones really more in depth then W1zzard who runs TPU in terms of gpu info. after all the man is responsible for GPU Tool, Sapphire TRiXX overclocking software, and gpu-z

for CPU reviews i tend to stick with Anandtech.

as for coolers it depends alot of coolers have easy installation on Intel with the choice of orientation etc AMD users are seldom as lucky, that said Frio has been the easiest cooler to mount so far that ive had the pleasure of using.

as for best price performance in terms of cooling.

Coolermaster Hyper 212+ at $30 use the 120mm fan thats included with it as a case fan and replace it with 2x yate loon mediums for about $5 each for $40 you get a cooler that tends to compete with $75-80 coolers when compared out of box, I just dont like the mounting hardware that much.

**TestudoAubreii** · April 25, 2011, 08:14 PM

Alrighty, so I ran BFBC2 for quite a while and the highest CPU core temp that I reached was 67 degrees and the highest GPU temp that I reached was 78 degrees. I suppose that is alright, correct? Perhaps, tomorrow I will try the IBT and see what that produces, but I thought, judging by the responses thus far, that those are pretty descent temperatures for the two components.

Testudo

**Crazyeyesreaper** · April 25, 2011, 10:36 PM

yea your fine again stay under 80c on the CPU and keep the GPU under 85c and your fine in reality the upper zone the items are ment to handle are 90c on the cpu and 100c on the gpus. so 5c gives you cushion room and staying under 80 85 keeps your pc happier longer.