Hi All,
This is my first post here, so I hope I have the right forum. It's sort of a general subject in that it involves multiple component interaction and general/received wisdom about laptop cooling.
I just finished watching Linus's video on that Intel sample laptop and was extremely intrigued by the letter he received from the Intel engineer who was happy to see high temps on the 11th generation CPU inside. Here's the video in case you want to take a quick look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfd3cO2gVHE - the CPU heat comment begins at 11:30 and is in relation to the XPS review. Apparently Intel engineers feel that running at 100 degrees C is optimal for CPU performance and that CPU heat that high doesn't impact the survival of their CPUs over their lifetimes. The comment mentions "leaving performance on the table" at lower temps. I'd guess AMD engineers would say the same thing.
This is especially relevant to me right now because my old MSI GT70 2PC is, after six solid years, ready for retirement. The i7-4810MQ in it is still great for basic photo, audio, and browsing tasks, but the GTX 870m is not great for newer games. Looking at new laptop reviews and discussion, especially on Reddit, the practice of undervolting new CPUs seems incredibly common, especially on gaming laptops where temps regularly hit 90+ degrees on many models. It seems crazy to me that undervolting would be necessary on these new powerful CPUs, especially since their boost clock speeds are part of the appeal: when needed they can really fly. At the same time, keeping temps below 90 degrees C is something I've always heard is desirable. Get above that temperature and you risk component failure. On top of that, I had to return a Zephyrus G14 because the exterior got hot enough to nearly burn me when I touched some of the function keys. The top side of that thing near the monitor gets HOT HOT HOT.
But is that still the case in 2020? I decided to load up Dark Souls III, which is the last AAA title I could get to work on my MSI machine, and realized that I was regularly peaking at 95 degrees on my CPU and roughly 89 or 90 on my GPU, depending on what part of the game I was in (this after just 20 minutes). I imagine other games have pushed my machine to that level in the past and I just never noticed (even Wasteland 2 gets me into the high 80s). And yet, this thing is six years old and could continue to work for photo editing and audio production with very few issues. Maybe some slow down here and there, but nothing that constitutes component failure. In case anyone is curious, I clean my fan and grills on the regular.
And despite the general consensus about 90 degrees as an upper limit, newer MSI, Asus, Acer, and HP machines seem designed for 90+ temperatures. Even with the newer cooling systems that could push a small motorboat through the swamp.
What do you all think about running your laptops at those temps? Is it time to update our thinking about temp limits and component failure, at least where mobile processors are concerned? Appreciate any and all discussion on the topic, and of course I'd love to see Linus and the team discuss this subject if they happen to read this and feel inspired.
Cheers!