Recording my PC temprature while playing KSP

[NSEP]

As some people might have already known, some time ago, i got problems with my PC. It overheated too much and it shut down. So i downloaded a simple PC GPU temprature detection program and i researched a bit of data about my GPU. Turns out my GPU can handle 105 degrees celsius. (It also took about 20 minutes to find out all the data i got here, just saying) The Maximum temprature i recorded is 103 degrees while playing, here is some more data:

-While starting at the space center: 89C

-While in the VAB: 93-96C

-While flying: 100C

-In map view: 97C

-Minimum outside the game: 63C

-Avarage Temp inside my room: 28C (pretty hot!)

-Temp outside: 23C (This means that the room temp is about 5C hotter than outside)

-Max: 103C

Im not a temprature specialist though. My room might be 5C hotter, even though i know temprature does not really work like that. But i think i should wait for the outside temp to be about 15C

I checked the temprature estimates of this week and it says that it is going to be 26C next week. Sigh.

[Gaarst]

I don't know a lot about PC hardware, but I know for sure that's too hot. Most laptops (including mine) cap at 80-85°C (that's CPU temp though) even in summer and start slowing down when going over this limit. And desktops are supposed to be cooler than laptops.

I'll say the usual stuff: clean your fans, check/update your drivers... or even start to think about changing your cooling system if it doesn't work.

Edited September 1, 2016 by Gaarst

[NSEP]

12 minutes ago, Gaarst said:

I don't know a lot about PC hardware, but I know for sure that's too hot. Most laptops (including mine) cap at 80-85°C (that's CPU temp though) even in summer and start slowing down when going over this limit. And desktops are supposed to be cooler than laptops.

I'll say the usual stuff: clean your fans, check/update your drivers... or even start to think about changing your cooling system if it doesn't work.

I think waiting for the summer te be over is the best option. But i have tried adding some ice in front of my GPU fans, wich works. That is currently the only thing i can do.

[worir4]

2 hours ago, NSEP said:

I think waiting for the summer te be over is the best option. But i have tried adding some ice in front of my GPU fans, wich works. That is currently the only thing i can do.

Just wondering what card you you have?

You could try open your case and clean dust off. 

I don't thing the graphics card will get any higher because it will throttle down so you may notice performance decrease once it gets to a higher tempreture.

Also does this only happen with KSP?

[NSEP]

5 minutes ago, worir4 said:

Just wondering what card you you have?

You could try open your case and clean dust off. 

I don't thing the graphics card will get any higher because it will throttle down so you may notice performance decrease once it gets to a higher tempreture.

Also does this only happen with KSP?

I have a GT320.

I opened the case, cleaned the dust, not much of a difference.

I (luckily) did not notice a preformance drop. But it could be handy since it has more time to cool down.

Idk, i havent tried it with other games yet. But i think it does.

[worir4]

2 hours ago, NSEP said:

I have a GT320.

I opened the case, cleaned the dust, not much of a difference.

I (luckily) did not notice a preformance drop. But it could be handy since it has more time to cool down.

Idk, i havent tried it with other games yet. But i think it does.

Hmm, do the fans on the card work? Like do they get to 100% when the temperatures get high? 

Apart from that I am not sure. Sorry.

[NSEP]

Just now, worir4 said:

Hmm, do the fans on the card work? Like do they get to 100% when the temperatures get high? 

Apart from that I am not sure. Sorry.

When the fans are working at its hardest. It does not generate temps higher than 105C the Maximum it can handle. They work fine. Im installing something called ''SpeedFan'' It allows me to control my fans. That could most deffinitly help.

[worir4]

I think it is not going over 105 due to throttling of the clock speed. My old card used to do the same after about 10 mins of playing a game. To fix it i just underclocked the card by about 100MHz. It decreased performance slightly but it stopped the throttling whic halved the clock speed.

 

[kerbiloid]

You can put a steam boiler atop - and produce electricity.

First powerstation using pure Kerbal energy.

[Randox]

105C is the throttling point for your GPU. The temperature isn't rising any higher only because your graphics card is automatically taking steps such as lowering the internal clock rate to reduce power consumption and heat output. There is a second thermal limit, probably a couple of degrees hotter, that if reached should cause the GPU to immediately shut down to prevent permanent damage (this usually only happens in cases like the GPU fan failing). While running computer hardware against the thermal limit should not cause any permanent damage that would cause the hardware to malfunction, you will cause the transistors on the circuit board to degrade much faster than normal, shortening the lifespan of your computer.

To be clear, all computer hardware will eventually fail. Running at excessively high temperatures will only cause hardware to fail sooner; at least in the case of printed circuit boards.

For interest, the generally agreed upon safe maximum temperature to run computer processors (CPU and GPU) at seems to be around 80C. Above 80, the damage to the lifetime of your computer can become noticeable.

At the end of the day, if your computer is getting that hot, something is wrong with your computer. Fans failed or being blocked, dust caked into the heat sinks, a bad thermal paste job, whatever. Waiting for your room to be a little cooler isn't likely to help, since you don't know what the actual equilibrium temperature is now (since your computer is throttling to artificially lower it). Even if it is maxing out naturally at 103, cooler weather is only going to bring that down to what? 98? You need to fix the underlying issue, whatever it may be.

[cantab]

Desktop PC? Yeah, I'm saying first clean the dust out probably with some canned air. And be thorough about it, getting into the gaps between the cooling fans. My old CPU was hitting 95+ C when playing KSP, after getting rid of three years worth of dust the temperatures dropped to never above 50.

If that doesn't help, it could be perished thermal paste between the cooler and the chip. Replacing that on the CPU would be easy, on the GPU it's a bit trickier. Or it could be a faulty fan.

There's a way to tell whether the problem is poor thermal contact between chip and heatsink (ie bad thermal paste), or poor cooling of the heatsink to the air (dust or broken fans). When you first start a demanding program like KSP, preferable from a cold boot of the PC, if the temperature rises nearly instantly to an excessive value then it's poor contact between chip and heatsink, but if it rises somewhat slowly and also falls somewhat slowly when KSP is closed then the heatsink is in good contact with the chip so it soaks up the heat at first, but can't cool itself to the air properly so eventually it gets too hot.