XPS 1645 GPU Temp 98C while playing games

Probably unrelated to my problems with CPU throttling.. but is a temperature of 98C on a Mobility Radeon 4670 normal after playing a game for 15-20 minutes? This is with an ambient temperature of around 74F, and the laptop on a flat surface, with 9-cell battery. It seems as though somewhere around when the GPU hits 95C the fan lowers it's speed for about a second then functions normally (which concerns me a bit).

My GPU idles around 50C, but the laptop's fan seems to always be running on low (a few months ago the fan was only on some of the time when idle). I read about someone with a high GPU temperature problem on a laptop being fixed by tightening a screw inside the laptop (I guess a GPU heatsink screw), which lowered temps under load for this person from 110C to around 80C. Is this worth me trying this?

 

Sure, you could definitely try. Dell tech's (replaced two motherboards for me) don't always tighten super-tight. You probably can't overtighten, but it's worth a shot.

~Ibrahim~

 

let me know if that works for you

 

Well I opened the bottom of the laptop up, and tried to tighten the 4 screws around the GPU, but they wouldn't turn at all. I then decided to try to tighten nearby screws for the heck of it. The fan screw closest to the vent was pretty loose (I turned it at least 1 full revolution).

It may be wishful thinking, but the laptop seems to be running cooler. I played a full campaign (34 minutes) of Left 4 Dead 1, checking the temps at at each of the 5 chapter ends. By the end, it reached 97C, but it took much longer to reach such a temperature. The most interesting thing is that this was the first time I played for 30+ minutes on A09 with no CPU throttling, but this may be a coincidence. I'll do some other tests later tonight or tomorrow.

 

90-ish for GPU is still high. My GPU gets to 70-ish max on Crysis and stuff. I put AC5 on my CPU/GPU and also used my cooler ... But I also have a 6-cell so there's not as much ventilation as the 9.

Make sure the fan isn't blocked by dust.

 

After comparing temps to my old logs, there was no benefit to tightening the fan screw. I think I saw a noticeable benefit from playing the game after a cold boot, which I almost never do.

I also tried to blow dust out with compressed air, but there was not much in the laptop (the laptop is a little older than 3 months).

Should I try to get a replacement motherboard due to heat? Is there a way to check the thermal paste without having to then redo it? BTW, the CPU temps hit around 85C when gaming, but both CPU and GPU seem to idle around 50C (but the laptop fan is on a lot).

 

98c is way too high, you may have to call dell up to get ur mobo replaced.
although there could be some problems with the game itself, if you play crysis with the highest settings, your computer will be forced to run at full speed which can certainly caused the high temp, but still 98 is way past the safe temp for mobo.
so check the game settings first be4 you call dell.

 

Well I haven't been buying many games lately (I don't have many games to test besides really old ones like UT2003). Here's what I was running:
Left 4 Dead 1
1920x1080
anti-aliasing- none
filter- anisotropic 2x
vertical sync- disabled
multicore rendering- disabled
shader/effect/model- on highest available setting

Averaging ~50fps when not experiencing CPU throttling

You may be right that I'm over-stressing it, but I thought it was alright since the game is from 2007 and wasn't considered a graphically demanding game at the time.

 

I tried out more games: Bioshock Demo, Crysis Demo, and others and also experience overheating (over 92C in every case). The ambient temperature is around 76F and the laptop is being propped up by the 9-cell battery on a flat surface.

When I first got the laptop (BIOS A08 era) it seemed like it took 30 mins to hit 84C, but now it just hits that so fast (I'm on A09 now). Has something gone bad?

 

I just tried Crysis Demo and played it for 50mins. TS shows an average Multi of little over 16, no modulation and CPU temps at 69 and GPU temps at 79. Cooler turned off.

Bare in mind it's Winter here at the moment and I know during the Summer it's worse. But that's where the cooler comes in and I've applied AS5.

 

Sorry for the "newbie" questions, but is there a way to tell if the paste Dell applied was done wrong or ineffectively? If I were to unscrew the heatsink, would it be obvious that something was wrong (if I posted a picture)? And most importantly, if I were to unscrew the heatsink and not re-apply paste, would this cause even more problems?

 

Your idle temps would show a bad job... how are those?

 

Both around 50C when idle, but the fan is pretty much on all the time. Could the fan be compensating for the paste?

 

ehh.. I wouldn't think so... possible though!

 

My CPU maxes out at 74C when just stressing the CPU for an hour with Prime (8 threads, small FFTs).

By comparison, just by running Furmark alone for 10 minutes, my CPU up to at least 78C. Not sure if that's useful, but it's interesting. It's like the heat of the GPU is traveling the wrong way.

 

That is not too hot.. you're fine.

 

If you're getting up to 98 C while gaming, and yet have temps of 50C idle, I say you talk to Dell about a mobo replacement. I've had three mobos replaced by Dell due to the heat issue, to the point where they're finally giving me a replacement on my laptop.

In my experience, the culprit mostly is thermal paste though. Try AS5, lowers temps by a good bit, but even with the stock thermal pads, I think the consensus on these forums is that the max temps shouldn't go above 90 deg C (for me, CPU throttling starts to occur if GPU goes over 93 deg C).

 

I might have to take that route.

It's just weird how much my temps change from idle to load. With a room temp of 75F, I hit an idle low of 43C on the CPU and 46C on the GPU.

Is it normal that my GPU temps also go down very fast? My GPU temp goes from 80C to 63C in about 2 seconds after closing Furmark. Then it takes 5 more seconds to go from 63C to 60C.

By comparison the GPU goes from 55C to 80C when running Furmark, in 1 minute.

 

Yeah, closing FurMark or P95 should lower temps dramatically within a few seconds. Going back to pre-test temperatures, however, takes a bit longer: better coolers get there faster.

Heating up should be similar. The first few seconds will cause a big jump, but then it should a few degrees every few seconds.

Very normal.

Putting on some new TIM (thermal interface material) helped my temps about 5C.

~Ibrahim~

 

5C is dramatic! I just my XPS this month so i dont think i need to put in new paste. how frequently should i reapply it?

 

My temps reach up to 90c on my overclocked 4670 and that is after about an hour or more playing GTAIV. I have the 6-cell batt. with it on a flat surface. One thing I can suggest is make sure the fan is set to active in the power options of your laptop. Other than that I think 98c on a non-overclocked 4670 is way too high.

 

Mhh after removing the dust filter from teh fan intake i still get high temps with left 4 dead 2 and other games.

check my throttlestop log with throttlestop deactivated, check picture: