Ideal laptop temps

[ramo55]

There seems to be so much confusion on the internet around what temperatures laptop components should reach. The sheer amount of different blogs as well with each giving their own idea of what the right temps your laptop should be reaching doesn't help so I came to ask here. What temps should my laptop be running at? I have a dell xps L502x, it idles at 50 degrees celcius for the cpu and around 55 for the gpu. During gaming or heavy photo editing/video editing it reaches around 80's and 90's so I can't really tell is that normal? I've read somewhere that some laptop fans only start when the laptop reaches temps of around 60 so I don't really know who's right and who's wrong anymore?

I'm also in the processes of buying a new laptop, what temps should I expect from that laptop? Assuming it has let's say an i7 and a gtx 960m or gtx 1050?

 

Thanks.

[RadiatingLight]

If you want a laptop for gaming, don't get a 960M, get the 1050. please.

 

Anyway, laptops tend to run hot. anything that's below thermal throttling is fine by me personally, but everyone has their own safety buffer they want to build in.

 

those temps are high, but not immidately dangerous. (although they may lower lifespan a bit if you really are worried about keeping your laptop for 10 years.

 

[ramo55]

Just now, RadiatingLight said:

If you want a laptop for gaming, don't get a 960M, get the 1050. please.

 

Anyway, laptops tend to run hot. anything that's below thermal throttling is fine by me personally, but everyone has their own safety buffer they want to build in.

 

those temps are high, but not immidately dangerous. (although they may lower lifespan a bit if you really are worried about keeping your laptop for 10 years.

 

 

I won't get into too much details about the 960m vs the 1080 but you're definitely not the first person to tell me that. Just need to justify the price difference.

 

I understand that laptops tend to run hot, it makes sense from a physics point of view because of the small form and power and heat dissipation and so on which is fine, but at the same time there are laptops out there that run cool and if they don't, they have very good cooling systems so I really don't know what to do. And to add more to the confusion you said that laptops generally run hot and then you went on to say that my temps were generally high so what's a "generally" high and a "generally" okay figure? My only concern with the whole temperature thing is that I don't want my gpu to melt the solder between it and the motherboard or for the cpu to fry.

[ramo55]

10 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

If you want a laptop for gaming, don't get a 960M, get the 1050. please.

 

Anyway, laptops tend to run hot. anything that's below thermal throttling is fine by me personally, but everyone has their own safety buffer they want to build in.

 

those temps are high, but not immidately dangerous. (although they may lower lifespan a bit if you really are worried about keeping your laptop for 10 years.

 

 

Also you can't really expect a laptop to last or run for 10 years. If you think about it, what laptop is being used right now that's from 2007? And if they do exist let's be honest, you're not going to be doing anything productive on them except from maybe the casual facebook and youtube since they will most likely no longer be up for the job. A lot happens in the computing industry in 10 years.

[Daniel644]

I let my Asus G750JM-DS71 loop on the Heaven Benchmark for a while, it got to the low  to mid 60's after like 10 or 20 minutes on the GPU according to Heaven's info display. and based on the heat being shot out the back thats about what my CPU peaks at too, but I have not really tested it.

[ramo55]

2 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

I let my Asus G750JM-DS71 loop on the Heaven Benchmark for a while, it got to the low  to mid 60's after like 10 or 20 minutes on the GPU according to Heaven's info display. and based on the heat being shot out the back thats about what my CPU peaks at too, but I have not really tested it.

 

See I would love a laptop stays at those temps instead of the typical 80's/90's. I've actually yet to find a laptop that does this so I'm going to have a look at your laptop now. Ironically I was told that asus are bad at cooling lol

[vorticalbox]

also remeber that the way they cool the laptop is also important a lot of manufartures run a heat pipe form the GPU to CPU to heak sink. You end up having one heatsink to deal with both in terms on cooling. I know some newer laptops have seperate heat pipes and heat sinks. 

 

just a quick google search and you can see what I mean

 

 

[Daniel644]

Just now, ramo55 said:

See I would love a laptop stays at those temps instead of the typical 80's/90's. I've actually yet to find a laptop that does this so I'm going to have a look at your laptop now. Ironically I was told that asus are bad at cooling lol

give me a minute to get a render started and I'll get you a CPU temp, with just my browsers open and barely running fan I bouncing around the 50C on the CPU.

[ramo55]

1 minute ago, vorticalbox said:

also remeber that the way they cool the laptop is also important a lot of manufartures run a heat pipe form the GPU to CPU to heak sink. You end up having one heatsink to deal with both in terms on cooling. I know some newer laptops have seperate heat pipes and heat sinks. 

 

Yeah most of the laptops I've seen have a heat pipe connected to both the cpu and gpu which are connected to 2 seperate fans. I'm not sure if this is good or not? If it was good, why don't they just not connect them together if they already have 2 fans?

[ramo55]

Just now, Daniel644 said:

give me a minute to get a render started and I'll get you a CPU temp, with just my browsers open and barely running fan I bouncing around the 50C on the CPU.

 

Thanks man! Just had a quick amazon search and sadly I don't think your laptop is available here in the UK. Although if most of the new asus laptops are like this I'm more than happy to purchase one. By the way, is your's the old version or the newer version?

[Daniel644]

1 minute ago, ramo55 said:

Thanks man! Just had a quick amazon search and sadly I don't think your laptop is available here in the UK. Although if most of the new asus laptops are like this I'm more than happy to purchase one. By the way, is your's the old version or the newer version?

it's from like 2014, it's long since discontinued. peak CPU temps after several minutes (it's stabilized) 84, 84, 81 and 89 with a package temp of 89 but for the most part running low 80's and this type of render maxes the CPU to the point the computer is nearly unusable so it's safe to say these are peak temps and I haven't dusted the machine out in a while, I can tell by the fan speed this is also much harder then any gaming will push the CPU, i've gamed on this before and never hear the fans get this loud when gaming.

[ramo55]

2 minutes ago, Daniel644 said:

it's from like 2014, it's long since discontinued. peak CPU temps after several minutes (it's stabilized) 84, 84, 81 and 89 with a package temp of 89 but for the most part running low 80's and this type of render maxes the CPU to the point the computer is nearly unusable so it's safe to say these are peak temps and I haven't dusted the machine out in a while, I can tell by the fan speed this is also much harder then any gaming will push the CPU, i've gamed on this before and never hear the fans get this loud when gaming.

 

Yeah, gaming (well at least most games anyway) will never max out your cpu. I guess those temps are actually pretty good I guess then? Considering the age of the machine and not cleaning it and so on. Would you recommend me an asus then? (one of the new strix ones?)

[Daniel644]

1 minute ago, ramo55 said:

Yeah, gaming (well at least most games anyway) will never max out your cpu. I guess those temps are actually pretty good I guess then? Considering the age of the machine and not cleaning it and so on. Would you recommend me an asus then? (one of the new strix ones?)

my biggest complaint is the screen, it's got this crappy cable connecting it to the motherboard (I'm not the only one to experience it in this model), started around the 1 year mark (so out of warranty) where depending on the angle of the display the screen will flicker and do other weird crap and I have to keep opening it up and jiggling the cable to get it to stop.

 

honestly what I would suggest is looking at the cooling solutions for laptops that interest you and make sure they have 2 separate heatsink systems so you don't get bleed over from the other component, also remember better cooling typically means more bulk, so be prepared to handle some weight, don't try to go with some ultra-thin crap, that's when you get in trouble with heat.

[ramo55]

1 minute ago, Daniel644 said:

my biggest complaint is the screen, it's got this crappy cable connecting it to the motherboard (I'm not the only one to experience it in this model), started around the 1 year mark (so out of warranty) where depending on the angle of the display the screen will flicker and do other weird crap and I have to keep opening it up and jiggling the cable to get it to stop.

 

honestly what I would suggest is looking at the cooling solutions for laptops that interest you and make sure they have 2 separate heatsink systems so you don't get bleed over from the other component, also remember better cooling typically means more bulk, so be prepared to handle some weight, don't try to go with some ultra-thin crap, that's when you get in trouble with heat.

 

Yeah I've heard about that screen thing but I wasn't concerned since it's the old model. I've also heard of people having their keyboard keys breaking off randomly and stuff like that. And yeah I guess you are right about researching the laptop I want and it's cooling. When you say separate heat sinks, do you mean not connected? Because all the laptop reviews I've seen, the cpu and gpu are connected to each other by some heat pipes, then these pipes are connected to 2 separate fans? Finally, since thin laptops aren't that good for cooling, what do you think of the xps 15?

[Daniel644]

22 minutes ago, ramo55 said:

Yeah I've heard about that screen thing but I wasn't concerned since it's the old model. I've also heard of people having their keyboard keys breaking off randomly and stuff like that. And yeah I guess you are right about researching the laptop I want and it's cooling. When you say separate heat sinks, do you mean not connected? Because all the laptop reviews I've seen, the cpu and gpu are connected to each other by some heat pipes, then these pipes are connected to 2 separate fans? Finally, since thin laptops aren't that good for cooling, what do you think of the xps 15?

seams to vary with the form factor, with a 17" laptop like mine the have the room for heat sinks (where the fans are) large enough to handle the heat from the component, where smaller machines have heat pipes connecting both due to the need for heat sink dissipation, like for example on my laptop the heatpipes for the CPU go tot he heatsink on the left side and the heatpipes for the GPU to the heatsink on the right, the fan on the right will NEVER spin up until I do something that causes the GPU to switch on (as under normal conditions it's running off the intel HD Graphics instead of the Nvidia GPU, because the heatsink on the right is not connected in anyway to the CPU, it's a purely GPU cooling heatsink, as far as new stuff goes you'll have to rely on what reviews you can find, I personally won't do the gaming laptop route again, performance for the dollar is SO much better on a desktop you could buy a cheap laptop for online access on the go and use the rest of the budget on a desktop rig that would equal or PULVERIZE the performance of the laptop and Cooling is much easier, but maybe I'm just getting to old and I never really gamed on the go, I always gamed at home in my living room.

[Pendragon]

Temps that are fine are non thermally throttling temps for the CPU and GPU die. HOWEVER, the parts around them are not rated anywhere near those temps. Alot of issues arise from hitting near 90s and running your laptop all day. Not from the dies specifically, but all surrounding parts. Which is why most Razer Blades die so often. Because the surrounding parts can't handle the peripheral heat. I always say 85C. But it honestly depends. On laptops with alot of space and properly designed heatsinks and routing locations, it doesn't really matter, just dont throttle. On ultrathins, keep it as LOW as possible. 

 

Laptop fan curves are entirely laptop to laptop. And also manufacturer dependent. I could get custom fan curves on my Macbook Pro, but for god knows what reason you can't control fan curves on my AW or Clevo. Makes 0 sense. This is literally laptop to laptop. 

 

Other issues surround the quality of parts used in surroundings. mosfets, capacitors, adapters etc. Hence why it's never a bad reason to keep laptop temps as low as you can. 

[ramo55]

16 hours ago, Pendragon said:

Temps that are fine are non thermally throttling temps for the CPU and GPU die. HOWEVER, the parts around them are not rated anywhere near those temps. Alot of issues arise from hitting near 90s and running your laptop all day. Not from the dies specifically, but all surrounding parts. Which is why most Razer Blades die so often. Because the surrounding parts can't handle the peripheral heat. I always say 85C. But it honestly depends. On laptops with alot of space and properly designed heatsinks and routing locations, it doesn't really matter, just dont throttle. On ultrathins, keep it as LOW as possible. 

 

Laptop fan curves are entirely laptop to laptop. And also manufacturer dependent. I could get custom fan curves on my Macbook Pro, but for god knows what reason you can't control fan curves on my AW or Clevo. Makes 0 sense. This is literally laptop to laptop. 

 

Other issues surround the quality of parts used in surroundings. mosfets, capacitors, adapters etc. Hence why it's never a bad reason to keep laptop temps as low as you can. 

 

Yeah I guess that makes sense but I don't know how manufacturers would tackle something like this? I mean would their best option be insulating everything that's close to the hot cpu and gpu? As I'm not planning on getting an ultrathin I don't think I'll have an issue then? If I look at reviews for the laptop and they say it doesn't thermal throttle then I should be good right?

 

I don't think i've ever managed to control the fans on any laptop i've ever owned except from the really old dells.

[Guest lilbman]

On 2/27/2017 at 2:09 PM, ramo55 said:

See I would love a laptop stays at those temps instead of the typical 80's/90's. I've actually yet to find a laptop that does this so I'm going to have a look at your laptop now. Ironically I was told that asus are bad at cooling lol

I undervolted my 15 R3(6700HQ and 1060 6GB) and it never gets about 60 when stress testing and never rises about 80 when gaming.  It runs cooler when it has room to breath(my desk has a wall thing so it blocks the hot air from going anyhwere) but still, that's better than 90 which is what it was at.

[ramo55]

5 minutes ago, lilbman said:

I undervolted my 15 R3(6700HQ and 1060 6GB) and it never gets about 60 when stress testing and never rises about 80 when gaming.  It runs cooler when it has room to breath(my desk has a wall thing so it blocks the hot air from going anyhwere) but still, that's better than 90 which is what it was at.

 

I'm a little bit confused about what under volting actually does, but doesn't under volting also decrease performance since there's less power going to the chip?

[Pendragon]

2 hours ago, ramo55 said:

I'm a little bit confused about what under volting actually does, but doesn't under volting also decrease performance since there's less power going to the chip?

no. most chips can operate with less voltage than what it's shipped with. it increases efficiency and lowers temps. 

[ramo55]

7 hours ago, Pendragon said:

no. most chips can operate with less voltage than what it's shipped with. it increases efficiency and lowers temps. 

So how come manufacturers ship the chips with higher voltage than needed? Sorry I'm a newbie to this

[Pendragon]

13 hours ago, ramo55 said:

So how come manufacturers ship the chips with higher voltage than needed? Sorry I'm a newbie to this

It's the same reason why some chips can OC better than others. Silicon lottery. They up the voltage on chips across the board to make sure they all work. Some chips might only be capable of like -20mv where others are capable of like -120mv. Intel ups voltages on all of them to account for the worse ones. 

[ramo55]

1 minute ago, Pendragon said:

It's the same reason why some chips can OC better than others. Silicon lottery. They up the voltage on chips across the board to make sure they all work. Some chips might only be capable of like -20mv where others are capable of like -120mv. Intel ups voltages on all of them to account for the worse ones. 

 

Ahhh that makes sense now! So technically in a way, the luckier you are, the more under voltage you can apply to your card while it still performs at the same performance?