Question Normal CPU Temperature when gaming?

PerfectBlue97

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For an i7 4700K @3.5ghz without overclocking, what kind of temperature is considered "normal" during gaming?

I'm trying to make an older PC quieter.

It was brought by somebody who fancied themselves as a gamer, and put in as many fans in as they possibly could to keep an over clocked machine cool.

It's mostly not used for gaming any more, but it sounds like a jet engine that's just flown through a flock of pelicans because of all of the fans.

I'm trying to figure out how many fans I can remove, or swap for quieter fans, while still leaving it capable of gaming. It's currently at it's stock speed. But I don't really have a benchmark of what is normal for this CPU during gaming. So I don't know how hot I can let it get\how much cooling I can remove.

For example, after 1 hour of Fallout 4, at maximum settings, what would be a reasonable temperature, and what would be considered too hot?

Right now, I'm only looking at case fans and the CPU. The GPU has it enough cooling to keep it running nicely even if no other fans are running and it's by far not the loudest component (Did I mention that the owner fancied themselves as a gamer and went overboard on the cooling).

Water cooling is not an option because the owner is an idiot.
 
I would recommend an all in one water cooler. That is, a self contained ready to rock system, just install the fan/radiator and fit the pump/waterblock to the CPU. Very easy to fit and quiet. Performance is usually very good compared to fans on their own.

Should get you around 50/60 degrees when gaming with minimal noise.
 
I would recommend an all in one water cooler. That is, a self contained ready to rock system, just install the fan/radiator and fit the pump/waterblock to the CPU. Very easy to fit and quiet. Performance is usually very good compared to fans on their own.

Should get you around 50/60 degrees when gaming with minimal noise.

Owner is an idiot. Can't keep their fingers out of the case, can't keep them from tinkering.

Can a water cooler function if somebody sees a video on youtube that says you get better cooling if you fill the cooler with your own urine?

If not, not worth the hassle.
 
Even a village idiot could fit one! :rotfl:

It's a sealed (pre-filled) system so no need to pee into the pipes - and they do work.
 
Even a village idiot could fit one! :rotfl:

It's a sealed (pre-filled) system so no need to pee into the pipes - and they do work.

Right now, the system has too much cooling, so I'm looking at removing some of it rather than adding in any more. So I need to know what temperatures I should be looking at.

It's the easiest and cheapest option.
 
Well in that case, remove everything (just disconnect the fans before removing while you experiment) except the CPU cooler and the front case fan.

I would be looking at running CPU below 60 degrees for gaming if it not overclocked. Intel CPU's have built in thermal throttling and reduce their clocks automatically if they over-heat to prevent self-destruct, so you should be safe for testing.
 
disconnect all fans apart from cpu cooler and run some games to see what the temps are like and just take it from there.

4th gen machine likely if built when cpu was released so fans might be getting on a bit and probably a lot louder than when first installed.

my main machine has a corsair all h100 water cooler system for the cpu but still have 2 exhaust fans to pull heat out the case. I use noctua fans which are pretty quiet. im overclocked to 5ghz and never see over 75c on my cpu regardless what im doing. gaming i average around 65c

personally i'd run at least

1 intake fan 120-140mm
1 exhaust fan 120mm-140mm

This will help keep other components cool too.
 
I have an all in one cooler for my unclocked 4770K, but it is old (5 years old) and full of dust, so my CPU tends to hit low 70's for cpu bound games.
 
What Cooler is on the CPU now ? stock intel one or an after market one ?
what PC case is it ?

temps should be around about 60/65 while gaming with a decent aftermarket AIR cooler if not lower , but their shouldn't be any higher than that ..

as others have said disconnect all fans baring the front intake ones and have one ( maybe two as exhausts ) one on the rear and ( maybe one on top of the case )

and do some testing , and see how you get on with it ..
 
You say it has a decent CPU cooler on it and not intending to remove that. You also say that you don’t want a hard overclocked gaming machine.

I’d say that two case fans would be enough - one drawing air in at tge front and one exhausting air out at the back.

Use 120cm or 140cm fans and they will be quiet. Get the PWM type and connect them to the correct headers on the motherboard and their speed will be controlled to meet the demand, so most of the time will be turning slowly or not at all.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
You say it has a decent CPU cooler on it and not intending to remove that. You also say that you don’t want a hard overclocked gaming machine.

Not really, I have nothing against replacing it. But the question that I was asking was how hot should it be getting.

If I can throttle the fans to bring the noise down it would be convenient. But I may have to replace the cooler anyway as it's blocking 2 of the RAM slots.
 
What Cooler is on the CPU now ? stock intel one or an after market one ?
what PC case is it ?

temps should be around about 60/65 while gaming with a decent aftermarket AIR cooler if not lower , but their shouldn't be any higher than that ..

as others have said disconnect all fans baring the front intake ones and have one ( maybe two as exhausts ) one on the rear and ( maybe one on top of the case )

and do some testing , and see how you get on with it ..

It's a Fractal R4, with an Akasa venom voodoo cooler with twin fans. It's supposed be quiet, but the fans don't seem to be throttling back fully. CAM has them idling at between 700 and 800rpm when the manual says that they should idle at about 600rpm. This is with the CPU running at around 25 deg and the fan header set to silent mode in the Bios.

They are supposed to be about 8db at this speed, but they are much louder. I'm going to give the internals a good servicing as I don't think that it's been cleaned properly since the day that it was brought.
 
There are 4 pwm case fans, but they don't seem to be responding to fan speed settings. I've got them all set to silent mode in the bios, but it doesn't seem to reduce their speed.

So there might be other problems, or just poor configuration.

The CPU cooler is far louder than the specs say it should be. I'm going to give it a good clean.
 
Not really, I have nothing against replacing it. But the question that I was asking was how hot should it be getting.

If I can throttle the fans to bring the noise down it would be convenient. But I may have to replace the cooler anyway as it's blocking 2 of the RAM slots.

Around 60 degC I would say.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
mainly depends on the tech specs, loading stage, and exact game you play, but should floating around 60-70 degC for most modern PCs
 
I had a 4770K until a month ago (I'm assuming this is what you mean as I don't think Intel ever made a 4700K, although they did make a series of mobile/laptop processors with the 4700MQ/EC/EQ or HQ name).

Generally the 4770K actually ran pretty cool. On mine I would expect idle temps of 30-35 degrees and load temps of 45 degrees. The TjMax was around 95 degrees... but the processor NEVER got anywhere near to that. The highest I ever saw mine was at 60 degrees and that was doing intensive blender-3D rendering (for hours at a time) using the CPU, back in the days before blender supported GPU rendering.

If the fans are loud it might actually be because they are just old. Dust gets into them, the lubricant gets dry over time and the bearings wear down - that creates the turbo-jet noise.

If it were me I would;
  • Remove the CPU cooler, clean out any dust thoroughly and reapply a new layer of thermal paste.
  • Replace the CPU cooler fans.
  • Remove the case fans and replace them with 3 new good 120mm or 140mm (whichever your case can support) ones... probably 2 at the front and 1 at the back or top (if its meshed).
  • 140mm's will generally be a little more pleasant/less screechy sounding, although it's marginal.
  • If money is an issue have a look on places like eBay/classifieds/facebook marketplace etc as quite often when people buy a new gaming PC they replace their stock case fans and sell them on eBay for cheap. Phanteks/coolermaster/corsair stock fans are actually pretty damn good for what you need.
Doing that should make the system much quieter without spending more than £30.
 
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