Optimal CPU & GPU Temperature For Gaming

We help you understand what a good CPU & GPU temperature is for your build

Sebastian Kozlowski

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James

Sep 3, 2021 at 9:14 pm

I’m not sure why you have like, 3DFX era CPUs listed.

Your GPU list cuts off at 2013, but you’re including processors as far back as 1995 and don’t have like, Zen, so these “i7” Intel figures are probably from as far back as 2008. Why have a GPU list from 2013 – 2019 and a CPU list from 1995 – 2008/9?
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Chris

Aug 15, 2021 at 3:35 pm

CPU under 80 is great. No probs. I should have said that in GPU post. As an aside people stay away from used mining GPUs BUT if they were not overheated then they are fine. It’s the heating and cooling that causes weld fatigue between solder joints. So a gamer GPU is probably less (since heated then cooled often) reliable than mining GPU that run at constant temp. Am engineer and my opinion.
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Chris

Aug 15, 2021 at 3:19 pm

GTX 1660 like max 80C with fans. Idle like 40C on two displays.
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Chris

Aug 15, 2021 at 3:17 pm

If GPU is under 80C great, if pushing 90C Not too bad, if over 100? time to look at better cooling solution.
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Rod miller

Aug 14, 2021 at 9:33 am

Long term effects of consistently high temperatures?

from cooking the “main” silicon? probably not, at least not for a very long time in a consumer use case.

cooked at max temp 24/7/365 (say for example in a computational cluster or other system that would constantly utilize the GPU at or near 100%)….

You might start to see a standard deviation from day 1 performance at 10-15 years that could be attributed to solid-state diffusion of defects, impurities, GCR or other radiation damage, etc. in the silicon (which could very well include the memory or other microcontrollers on the GPU card and not the GPU itself)

This is almost certainly true, even with the most modern fabrication technology like 3 or 4nm*

Anything faster and it would be widespread enough that it would be common knowledge.

*remember: the whole “process node” thing with regard to the number of nanometers no longer has any relationship to anything like “gate pitch” or “feature size” in reality.

All that means is that the TRANSISTOR DENSITY of the current process node is >6x 45nm (for the case of 7nm) or >15x for 3nm.

There is not a gate, or fin, or metal trace, or whatever that is 7nm… (or half of whatever feature or metric)

Even that is misleading, because what you actually obtain in your commercial product, if you were to grind it and put it in an AFM Or SQUID or whatever would not have anything near the “maximum capability” of the current process node. Those marketing terms…. 7nm or 3nm are more meaningful to the businesses that buy foundry services (eg AMD or Qualcomm) than to a regular person or end user of the packaged silicon.
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Keith Berube

Sep 27, 2020 at 1:24 pm

I have a budget Gaming PC that I am Currently still tampering with lol have a dell optiplex 3020, that was transferred to a Rosewell SCM-01B witch isn’t a actual gaming tower but working for now. Have an i5 4570 4 core processer, a PNY GeForce GTX 1650, and was playing Gears 5 for the first time and was getting Temps like 77-80°c on both the processer and GPU, and was getting nervous cause I’m new to the ocean Gaming world and thought I was overheating, which I do need better air flow and such, and will get in time. Just wondering if my temps were in fact noraml any in site would be Greatly appreciated.
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- Charlie Noon
  
  Sep 28, 2020 at 10:09 am
  
  Those temperatures are perfectly fine. If they start to reach 95%, you should start to get concerned.
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Erik Lute

Feb 28, 2020 at 6:38 pm

This post is kind of weird. So R9 390 max temp while gaming is 66c? Where did you get this data? No joke R9 390s are hot hot hot! It also depends on the model. Windforce G1 390s can easily get into the 80s sometimes if not hotter. Also it speaks of “ideal temps” but shows “max temps”, Where did this data even come from? I really enjoy this article but the temp charts are kind of silly 🙁
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- Moiz
  
  Mar 23, 2020 at 9:32 am
  
  Max temperature of RX 570 4gb?
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Orcadian

Feb 24, 2020 at 10:48 pm

This is all great info, thank you. However, I cannot find any helpful utilities in the Nvidia control panel for my Quadro 2000. There seems to be no info on optimum or actual operating temp, and no info on whether the device is being overclocked. I can hear the Nvidia fan running but the card still reaches c. 75C within a couple of minutes of starting any game – even an undemanding one like Second Life. You mention that Nvidia should have a utility that allows me to check CPU & GPU temperatures.
Any suggestions on how to find the info I need?
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- Charlie Noon
  
  Feb 26, 2020 at 10:10 am
  
  Hi Orcadian, Try using MSI Afterburner. You will see the temp of your card and have the ability to tamper with clock speed and fan profiles.
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Paul

Jun 15, 2019 at 2:24 am

Back home where it was colder, my Predator Helios 500 was getting low 70s. Now I’m in Thailand, I’m getting low 80s with the a/c on. Without A/C I’m getting high 80s to low 90s. This is with the fan on full speed as well! I don’t think this is normal even tho this a high end gaming laptop with graphics on high.
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zach

Apr 27, 2019 at 7:15 pm

Im thinking Daniel needs more pc classes, he does NOT know what hes talking about.
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Mowg

Apr 23, 2019 at 6:34 am

Great source of info, i started worrying because my i5 cpu was running at 53 degrees C and my GTX 960 gpu was running at 60 degrees C while playing games, i now know at these numbers are average or just under, many thanks i can now chillax while playing a game without worrying about temperatures lol.
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Mac

Apr 17, 2019 at 7:14 pm

My RX580 is reaching 80 degrees and is still working fine. 69 degrees is far from reality for a RX580 GPU.
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- Daniel Schmidt
  
  Apr 20, 2019 at 5:11 pm
  
  Totally incorrect, the only Rx 580s that will hit 80c are bad blower style coolers, and old cards with dryer up thermal paste. After 1-3 years of use, most stock thermal paste will dry up, and will provide Very little thermal conductivity, and thus little thermal dissipation. You can get thermal paste for around 5-10 buck on Amazon, and can find a teardown/guide on YouTube for your specific Rx 580 model. My ROG Strix model with it’s beefy cooler stays around 45-55c under full load
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  - Quang Minh
    
    Aug 9, 2020 at 9:42 am
    
    It’s not correct. I have mining bitcoin RX 580 8GB, it alway 70 80 degreee when working with full load. I used it for gaming recently and it work with 70 80 when playing game. So I have new buy one, it is same but fan silence.
    Your data not right.
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jp

Apr 8, 2019 at 12:39 am

I run 6 pcs at 100% 24/7 for sharety. AMD,Intel, and navidea. Do your homwork and keep your temps no more than 65C. My intel i5 was the hardest. I lowerd the total system amps in bios. Finly temps 55-60c.
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Brandon Ruggles

Feb 27, 2019 at 8:11 pm

I would take caution if referring to this list when setting fan curves or anything like that because the information is not even close to accurate. The RX 580 can get up to 90 degrees before it even think about throttling, yet this guide claims the maximum recorded temperature during a FurMark test was 69 degrees? Seems unlikely.
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- Daniel Schmidt
  
  Apr 20, 2019 at 5:16 pm
  
  Umm actually, the Rx 580 throttles at 87c, 69c is perfectly reasonable for furmark on a decent cooler
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- Daniel Schmidt
  
  Apr 20, 2019 at 5:18 pm
  
  The Rx 580 actually throttles at 87c. 70 seems about right for a decent dual fan cooler
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Max

Feb 16, 2019 at 8:42 pm

A very good material in a single place.
Keep updating dude!
Thanks for your work!
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Mehrdad

Nov 22, 2018 at 11:38 am

This is just great information. I also hope you update this page for new hardwares and don’t just forget about it and don’t change URL please, so we can come back here by saved link. Thank you
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John

Sep 22, 2018 at 12:38 pm

Really liked your list. Hope you update it with newer processors and gpu’s
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Optimal CPU & GPU Temperature For Gaming

The Author Who Worked On This Article

Sebastian Kozlowski

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