Temps from 71C to 86C while gaming

Is this something to be concerned about?

I can physically feel the performance of the laptop drop after gaming for a little bit. Once the temps go up the computer becomes pretty useless for games.

Currently playing Borderlands 2, should I really have to run this game on minimum settings with?

i5 - 2.3GHz
GeForce - GTX260M
RAM - 3GB

I honestly thought this machine should be able to run borderlands 2 pretty well. Am I wrong? Is temperature the issue?

I recently brought the machine up to BIOS A09 because I read the GTX260M machines benefit a lot from it, unfortunately it didn't fix this issue.

Do I need to open up the case and clean out? Is there a guide for this somewhere?

Thanks for any help.

 

I know from a different post you didnt do the ec flash, i posted the manual command for you in that thread. Do that first, cuz when i had the 260m i saw a massive improvement after the proper bios/ec update. After that check normal things like repaste/thermal pads and dust out laptop. I never had any issues with that gpu with extended hours of gaming (always medium-high settings at least).

 

yeah blow out the fans in the back with some compressed air. then check temps again if still high maybe a repaste is needed.

edit: got some guides in my sig if you need something for reference.

 

Hey folks, I fixed the EC, have both EC and Bios updated now so A09 with 1.18 EC.

Still getting the lag, usually comes about 10 minutes after starting gaming. Seems like throttling, possibly due to heating. Cleared fans out, now see max of 71C, is this still too high? I'm a little nervous of trying to redo the thermal paste... even with inap's awesome guide.

 

That was about the same max temp i would see with m 260m wat driver are you on? Repasting is really quite simple when you get down to it, just have patience and be careful.

Edit: the best driver i found was the 280.26, one word perfect!

 

Thanks for the info. I will try 280.26, I'm also gonna do some research on GPU throttling as I'm almost certain now that is the cause.

Simply playing you watch a flawless framerate for the first 5-10 minutes, and then like the flick of a switch it suddenly goes to crap and will only recovered if turned off and allowed to chill for a bit.

 

Actually those temps are fine while gaming, you can try repasting or getting a cooling pad though. It will lower the temps a bit. Here is a link to an article about this.