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Worrying temperatures in Sandy Bridge mobile processors

JDoe10
Novice
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Hi everyone!

Lately I've been noticing that people are reporting extremely high temperatures in notebooks equipped with Sandy Bridge processors, as well as the previous generation.

The culprits are often Core i5 25x0M and Core i7 models, with users reporting temperatures of up to and around 95°C with full CPU load and/or moderate CPU and GPU load. The last generation of Core2Duo mobile processors maxed out right around 70°C, with 75°C making unwelcome appearances in not so superbly cooled notebooks, and actually had a higher T.Junction than Sandy Bridge.

So apparently, the max. specified temperature (I'm going by the only specification I was able to readily find: T.Junction) is sinking, and the actual full load temperature is rising... before we were "allowed" a max. temperature of 105°C (for instance, T.Junction Core2Duo P8400: http://ark.intel.com/products/35569/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-P8400-%283M-Cache-2_26-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB%29 http://ark.intel.com/products/35569/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-P8400-%283M-Cache-2_26-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB%29), and had about 30°C of "headroom" to play with.

Now we have a T.Junction of 100°C, and processors regularly running at 95°C - just 5° below it! And these aren't cheapo products either - top of the line Thinkpads and other high-dollar devices are most definitely exhibiting these same insane temperatures.

Am I the only one who sees this as a problem? I'm still running a Core 2 Duo laptop myself, and as it runs at about 70°C at full load, I'm expecting it to continue working for a long time. If I bought a Sandy Bridge based laptop today, I probably wouldn't expect it to last much longer than the laptop warranty.

Maybe it's just planned obsolescence.

Anyone with more knowledge care to chime in?

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Adolfo_S_Intel2
Employee
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If the CPU runs at 95 degrees Celsius under full load, and the maximum recommended temperature for the processor is 100 degrees Celsius, the processor will be running under thermal specifications. So no issues would be expected.

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