Core i5 running at 90C without me knowing

ReaperDecapod

Junior Member
Sep 17, 2010
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hello. I just wanna ask whether prolonged high temperatures could really shorten the CPU life. It is a Core i5 760. I use it for gaming. Previously my gameplay has been smooth (battlefield 3) but it was only today i noticed the frame rate dropped by half and was really very laggy. I didn't know why and so I restarted my com and for the first time during boot-up , there was an error message saying "High CPU temperature error. " So I played again but it didn't help. Previously my FPS during gaming had been 50FPS or so but today all of a sudden it went down to 15FPS. It was this that prompted me to download the CPU temp monitor and I found out it was 98C during gaming and 50C at idle!

I thought it was dust built-up so I used compressed pneumatizer to clean everything. But the problem remained. So I searched the net for advice and the worst scenario came to mind - my heatsink was not installed properly. And so I opened up the casing and sure the heat sink was loose. I didn't know for how long I had been running my CPU under high temps. My question is could the high temperatures that i have been stressing my CPU (without even me knowing) with shorten its lifespan? It yes by how much? Luckily it was just average gaming CPU. I could have cried if it was i7 or something. Anyone with advice pls help. Thanks.
 

Ferzerp

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
6,438
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Yes it will have a shorter lifespan because of that.

It will still likely last 5-10 years though.
 

ReaperDecapod

Junior Member
Sep 17, 2010
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Thanks. But i am not so sure what you meant. I supposed the throttle means slowing down clock speeds when it is nearly overheating? If that FPS drop today didn't happen, i wouldn't have known about that loose sink. i know laptop processors like Pentium M 2.0 Sonoma can withstand high temps. But i am not sure about this desktop quadcore. Lucky that chip did not burn or melt :)
 

Ferzerp

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
6,438
107
106
The proc will clock itself down to use less power to cool down is what he meant. As long as you can cool it in the lowest power state (keep it under around 100C), it will keep functioning even at that temp, and keep itself from heating up more by running slower.
 

ReaperDecapod

Junior Member
Sep 17, 2010
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i see.. How would you know if ift would last for 5-10 years? What about the motherboard socket for the processor? Will the socket be damaged too? I didn't Overclock before( no voltage increase.) I have seen melted GPUs/chips because of high temps. i hope there won't be any problems with the processor.
 

notty22

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2010
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I would not be worried, as long as it seems fine , everything worked like it was supposed to. The chip down-clocks/goes to the lowest power states to stop the heat from cascading beyond what you saw 95=98.
The sockets in 1156 boards sometimes suffered from high voltage o/c's that burnt pins. Which was rare. That was arcing from socket pin pressure and bios's that could be upgraded to help stop that. fixed things.
Just getting hot, for the most part should not hurt anything. The power system , VRM heat sinks were not actually hotter, for they weren't pushing more power, to cause the heat. It was the heatsink falling off , causing all the heat.
 

BallaTheFeared

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 2010
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I wouldn't worry about it, I work on OEM dell box Pent 4's all the time from 10 years ago with dust covering everything including the HS.

They still run :)
 

aaksheytalwar

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2012
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Isn't 80+ too high for that CPU, enough to kill in months or weeks if near 100c. I can't believe nobody said that
 

BallaTheFeared

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 2010
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It's never going to run so hot it will kill itself, they throttle long before they reach "killing it" temps.

That's why there is thermal throttling, it doesn't wait until it dying to throttle, it does it well before damage could occur.
 

chimaxi83

Diamond Member
May 18, 2003
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Pretty much what Balla said. The throttle circuit will kick in and downclock before the chip can really burn itself out.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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I used to run my E2140 @ 3.2Ghz CPUs at 80-86C, for two years straight, they were fine.
I also ran my Q9300 @ 3.0Ghz CPUs at 75-80C for a while with 24/7 load as well. No issues.

Intel chips can take higher temps than AMD chips can. (One might argue that their process is better-engineered, and thus has more tolerance.)
 
Dec 30, 2004
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Isn't 80+ too high for that CPU, enough to kill in months or weeks if near 100c. I can't believe nobody said that

depends on voltage. When the throttling kicks in it probably went down to lowest speed and absolute lowest volts possible or something. It does no processing when in this thermal protection stage, that's why your FPS took a dive.
 

chimaxi83

Diamond Member
May 18, 2003
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depends on voltage. When the throttling kicks in it probably went down to lowest speed and absolute lowest volts possible or something. It does no processing when in this thermal protection stage, that's why your FPS took a dive.

Heh, it doesn't stop being a CPU. It still operates, just at a lower speed and voltage.