Acceptable Temperature Range for Mobile GPUs

[KillBitz]

Hola,

Got a new laptop a few weeks ago and and am slowing getting things sorted, tweaked and optimized. It was an OCZ DIY rig so a little more work than just logging on to dell.com and waiting for the Fed Ex truck. :)

During my setup and configuring I've been watching my temps on my GPU and it seems fairly high to me... starts around 61 degree C on boot and during plugged-in normal use floats around 74-78 degree range. I haven't quiet decided that a mod to the heat sink and some Arctic Silver are the way to go yet, but from some articles I've seen about people doing such mods... their old thermal pads look suspiciously like the one I just installed in my laptop.

I've been reading up on recent NVidia heat problems in the news around the net and although some suspect that it's going to be the 8400 series of chips that NVidia is referring to... I'm a bit paranoid that when they reveal which chips are having problems mine will be included as well.

I have look on NVidia's site and done several Google searches, but have yet to find anything that states the acceptable temperature range for this chipset? Does anyone know what it is or could point me towards some reference docs online somewhere?

Thanks!

[Cain]

NVIDIA MOBILE GRAPHICS CARDS - Which ones affected by the latest nVidia hiccup?

I have the 8600M GT with 256 MB GDDR3.

My Laptops is ASUS G1S - X3/A3.

My boot up temp is 58 c ~ 61 c, and my idle is 68 ~ 74 c.

Gaming temps is varied and is actually dependent on my drivers, settings in the game (how hard it has to work) and the type of game.

I used RivaTuner to monitor MHz/GPU Temps/ and my Dual Core temps.

Hardcore gaming with a little OC drives my temp easily to the 97 ~ 103 C Range <- Dangerous

Hardcore gaming with no OC drives my temp easily between 88 ~ 95 C Range <- Unacceptable

Hardcore gaming with external cooling pad for my laptop is 80 ~ 85 C <- Threshold for degrading performance.

Minimal Gaming/OS/Office Use with external cooling pad gives 75 ~ 85 C <- 75 c Is optimal performance.

Recommend down clocking your card from 50 MHz - 100 MHz <- The lower clock speed takes a hit in benchmarks but if you play Counter-Strike Source/ WoW/ CoD 4 (medium - low settings) you get performance easily of 125 FPS. The temperature is the only thing that holds back the 8600M GT. If I could figure a way to run 600 MHz/1200MHz/780MHz and keep the temperature between 75 ~ 80 C I believe it would out perform the 8700M GT and perform almost on par with 8800M.

IMO I believe the Design of the 15.4" Laptop with its shared CPU/GPU heatsink/pipes and only one case fan causes severe performance degredation in the 8600M GT. I believe the 8600M GT is one of the chipsets that is affected by the temperature as everyone I have communicated with my laptop model reports the same performance/temperature issues. This is NOT a matter of Vista downclocking the card. The downclock occurs at 103-110 c temperature range for my laptop.

IF ANYONE HAS A STUTTER for 3 to 4 seconds I believe with recurring frequency in games, I believe they are having heat related issues as once I lowered my temps while playing... it solved the stutter.

I am using the latest pre-PhysX drivers.

[damstachizz]

Surprise, Surprise..my laptop ISN'T a lemon.

Yeah, i've pretty much accepted i will be killing my GPU and disabled underclocking at high temps, running about 96c average..

I get the stutter as well.

The only thing i can think of possibly doing is replacing the fan with a faster 12v one, while keeping the case open, while in a 16c room..

I'm currently working on a new project with some smaller fans, and will have 1 small fan running 12v blowing DIRECTLY onto the CPU, so the GPU can hog the heatsink?

that MIGHT drop the temps down on this hot-a$$ laptop enough to let you run the clocks ( <-to the left ) for more than 5 minute bursts.

Edited July 9, 2008 by ®®®
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