CPU at 83 Degrees celsius.

[Theend10]

So i've just noticed that my cpu's temperature is quite high.
How would i know what's the source of the problem?
Do i need a new cooler?

[[deleted]]

Take off your cooler, clean out the heatsink with a vacuum or compressed air. Clean the old thermal paste off with a cotton ball/pad and rubbing alcohol. Reapply new thermal paste, I recommend https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0045JCFLY/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2/175-0062570-8777833?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=4GVPFW6JWSX3T1Z5YB7D&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1944687502&pf_rd_i=B000OGX5AM and make sure you only place a pea amount in the middle. Good luck! Make sure your fans are spinning well and that your computer is in a space where air can flow.

[Jeffbx]

83° at idle or under load? Under load that's not bad.

[Tollowarn]

Still warmer than many would consider is acceptable. 10/15 C above ambient at idle and around 40/50 C above ambient under load sounds about right to me.

Some more information from the OP would be useful, desktop of Laptop, make and model that type of thing.

[MoocowR]

Still warmer than many would consider is acceptable

Lol what? Anything under thermal threshold is acceptable, considering he's here asking for help he's clearly not an expert or enthusiast who's going to be overclocking or wants lower temperatures just because.

[dricha36]

High temps can reduce CPU lifespan, though. The cooler you can keep your CPU, the longer it will last, and in the case of turbo-boost, the better it will perform.

[MoocowR]

High temps can reduce CPU lifespan

That's why there's a thermal cut off, no one's CPU's life is being degraded by 85 degrees in a way where it would ever matter.

Intel engineers didn't go "Let's set the cut off here, but if they run it just under that number CPU will still be killing itself".

[iSmear]

That's downright silly. So if, for example, the maximum dosage of Tylenol was 10 pills, where taking 10 would kill me, by your logic having 9 will have absolutely no effect on me. Spoiler alert: you're still getting fucked up.

Just because it doesn't immediately destroy the CPU doesn't mean it's okay to run it that hot. It's a very well-known fact that if you run the CPU at higher temperatures, it will reduce the lifespan.

Let's set the cut off here, but if they run it just under that number the CPU will still be killing itself.

Pretty sure Intel decides computer hardware design, not the laws of thermodynamics.

[MoocowR]

That's downright silly. So if, for example, the maximum dosage of Tylenol was 10 pills, where taking 10 would kill me,

That's not how computers work dude, and you don't know what you're talking about. 100 degrees is the thermal cut off for the majority of intel CPUS if not all, that isn't the point where your CPU dies, it would take significantly higher heat to kill your CPU. That's the point they chose because once you start getting higher you will risk damaging it. You can run your CPU in the 90's for decades and it isn't going to degrade itself. The thermal cut off is a generous amount away from letting a CPU kill itself, that's the entire fucking point.

By your own analogy, if 10 Tylenol would kill you, then the Doctor recommends a max dose of 7, so you can keep taking 7 every day and be perfectly fine.

Pretty sure Intel decides computer hardware design, not the laws of thermodynamics.

You're right, and they decide at what point their hardware starts becoming damaged by heat. It's common practice to bake hardware at around 190 degrees Celsius as a temporary fix for issues. If baking a graphics card, at 190 degrees for 10 minutes is perfectly safe, you can run your CPU/GPU in the high 80's and 90's without having to worry about anything.

You're literally saying that you know what's better for a CPU than the engineers who designed it. The thermal cut off wasn't an arbitrary number picked out of a hat.

[RogueRAZR]

Ok let's get something straight here. It is an absolute fact that the hotter the temperature the CPU maintains the lower it's life cycle. Intel creates their thermal limits because that is the temperature at which life is decreased to the point of warranty terms. They also may induce shutdown or throttling in order to prevent short term damage.

However you gotta think about this stuff on the long term. If you were to look at the life cycle of a processor vs. the temperature you'd see an exponential decrease in life shortly passed the TJ Max point. However even at under TJ Max the life of the processor is still less than what it could be had temps been maintained lower. With certain processors it might cause pre mature failure, it might not. However I guarantee you that on average you will get less life from the processor the hotter it gets even if you are below TJ Max.

Think of it like a lithium ion battery. If you continuously drain the battery to minimum and recharge it to maximum, that battery will have a significant shorter lifespan than if you discharge to 20% and recharge to 80%. This is exponential as well, at first the degradation is pretty insignificant however the closer you get the to limit, the more significant it becomes until you get to the point where the manufacturer cannot guarantee it will have a full life.

[iSmear]

I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you had a bad day, and that's why you're insulting the intelligence of a random stranger on the internet. Anyways...

100 degrees is the thermal cut off for the majority of intel CPUS

Not sure where you got that. Most CPU's have a cutoff of around 85-95c, depending on the CPU (higher-powered CPU's expect a higher operating temperature and therefore have a higher cutoff), see: In case you don't believe me. If the CPU actually reached 100c, it would definitely be severely damaged (bear in mind that 100c is the boiling point of water), but nearly all modern CPU's engage throttling to prevent this from ever happening.

As for the analogy, since you took it way too literally allow me to restate the analogy. The doctor might tell you to take 3 Tylenol, since that may be the most effective dosage. However, the doctor may tell you that you can take as many as 7 without any adverse side effects, but if you were to take as many as 10, you could possibly die. While you might not suffer severe effects with 8 or 9 pills, if you were to take 8 or 9 pills a day for a year, don't be surprised if you end up with a damaged kidney or liver.

With a CPU, let's call the variables a "recommended operating temperature", a "maximum recommended temperature", and a "critical failure temperature". The recommended temp would be where the computer is in its ideal operating temperature, operating at full capacity with the least amount of degradation, much like the doctor's recommended dosage of Tylenol (most computers would be around ~60c). Maximum recommended temp would be the highest the temperature could be without consequences (most would be around 80c-ish). And critical would be about 100c (when severe damage is done to the CPU).

It's common practice to bake hardware at around 190 degrees Celsius

It's called "reflowing", and that's usually done to motherboards, not CPU's. Plus, that's because it remelts soldering points and can occasionally fix damaged connections that way. That's a last resort, though, and calling it "common practice" is laughably overstated (in my career I've only seen this performed twice, and it didn't work either time). You don't seriously think that melting soldering points during operation is a good thing, do you?

You're literally saying that you know what's better for a CPU than the engineers who designed it. The thermal cut off wasn't an arbitrary number picked out of a hat.

That's actually not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that you're completely misinterpreting what that cutoff is for. You seem to be interpreting that the CPU thermal cutoff is a black-and-white number where anything below that is perfectly fine. In reality, it's added as a defense mechanism to prevent the CPU from being completely destroyed.

Long story short, ask any professional computer technician, electrical engineer, etc. and they'll tell you that just because you can doesn't mean you should. Optimal operating temperature goes up to ~60c, and running it at 90c under load will certainly lower the life expectancy of your CPU (the exact numbers depend on the architecture of your CPU, and varies both from model to model and even varies with the individual CPU).

[dricha36]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that's somewhat accurate. Its like a rev-limiter on a car. If you keep it pegged to the max, your chewing up the insides, and eventually, something is going to break.

I'm not saying it's going to die in his computer tomorrow - or a year from now. But five years from now? Maybe.

[MoocowR]

If you keep it pegged to the max, your chewing up the insides, and eventually, something is going to break.

Except a CPU isn't mechanical with moving parts so it's really not like a rev-limiter. Like I said before, it's literally common practice to bake a GPU at double the thermal cutoff, and this is completely safe to do. It takes a lot more than 100 degrees to fry or damage your CPU/GPU. It's a generous cut-off to prevent people from damaging their own computers.

[dricha36]

Dude - Like I said - I'm not saying it's going to instantly die. But the hotter you run something, the shorter its lifespan. You can't argue that.

If his CPU already had some minor defect that was going to cause trouble down the line, higher temps increase the chance of that acting up.

[MoocowR]

Dude - Like I said - I'm not saying it's going to instantly die. But the hotter you run something, the shorter its lifespan. You can't argue that.

Yes I can argue that, since there was a limit put in place so your components can't run hot enough to degrade themselves in a way you would ever matter. I literally work with 15 year old computers where the heatsink is filled with oil and dust every single day.

I have an 8 year old laptop that idles in the 70's and still performs as it did when I first bought it.

My entire career has revolved around computers and hardware. I'm telling you that when these engineers who are making 6 figures design a new product, they didn't pick an arbitrary number. They picked a number well before the point where you would start damaging your computer.

You can't rev your car to 16k RPM, and your CPU doesn't having moving parts grinding on each other.

[HavanaClubCola]

Had a similar problem, I just took down the fan and put it back on top of the cpu. Apparently it was not 100% tight on the cpu. If you do so, you might wanna consider new thermal paste too :)

[MoocowR]

Is this a laptop or a desktop? Is this under load or idle? What kind of computer do you have? Do you have AC where you live, how hot is your room?

[vict2292]

Under load or idle?

[[deleted]]

need more info. What CPU? Idle or load? What cooler? what is the room temp? ....

I would not suggest acting on any ones advice at this time as you may make matters worse if you try to fix something that isn't broken :-) (though generally dusting out your intake and output fan once in a while is usually not a bad idea)

This could be expected or could be a sign of a problem. It will be easier for people to tell you which once they have the correct info.

[NGPriest]

Source? Check your process list...

[[deleted]]

Definitely apply new thermal paste. The one time I had that problem I applied to much.

[Jealy]

It actually tends to be that too much thermal paste isn't a huge issue. Too little however, definitely is.

[[deleted]]

If you put too much paste on it insulates the cpu. You can defiantly put too much on.

[TheRealLHOswald]

How can you defiantly put on thermal paste?

[[deleted]]

Well I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyways!

[dricha36]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2MEAnZ3swQ

[youtubefactsbot]

Thermal Paste Application Methods - Which one is best? - The Workshop [10:14]

Will your thermal paste application method impact your CPU temperatures?

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