my macbook pro 17inch gets hot with the sims 3

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Hello all,

Ive recently purchased the sims 3 for my mbp 17'. After playing this game for a few minutes, I notice the laptop getting really hot on the top left corner near the keyboard.

Ive got iStat Menus (to monitor CPU temperature) installed and it indicates my CPU heat temperature to be 80-85 Celsius when the game is on.

Ive asked around and some have mentioned that anything above 70 Celsius is quite critical. However, I have a feeling, since this is a laptop, it should be capable of handling anything above 70. Or am I wrong?

Although the game runs very smoothly, should I be concerned that this may cause permanent damage to my mbp?

Ive mostly played this game on the better graphics card setting (i.e. system preferences - energy saver - Graphics: higher performance)

What are your thoughts about this?
 

pigoo3

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What are your thoughts about this?

Yupp...that will happen when you do computer tasks that increase CPU & GPU demands.

Go to Youtube as well...and watch some videos. You will find that your MacBook Pro will also warm up quite a bit.

Par for the course!

- Nick
 
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Should i be concerned that temperature is hitting 80-85 Celsius?

Does this mean I should stop playing the game? Should I be worried that this may cause some kind of internal damage in the laptop?
 
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Should i be concerned that temperature is hitting 80-85 Celsius?

Does this mean I should stop playing the game? Should I be worried that this may cause some kind of internal damage in the laptop?
No, your laptop will be perfectly fine. That is why there are fans inside of your laptop.
=)
 
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Also if you are THAT concerned, you can always get the chill pads that plug in via usb and that will cool it quite well.
 
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Hmm im not sure about this. I put the sims3 back on. Temperature still reach 95 Celsius, sometimes.

Ive read mixed reviews about this. Some say that the mbp should handle temperatures this high, otherwise the software / hardware will shut down.

Others have mentioned that 95 Celsius is a bit too high. To come to think of it 95 Celsius is equivalent to hot boiling water. Is this even healthy for the macbook pro?

I'll give smcFanControl a try and crank up the fan speeds to see if this does any difference.
 
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Using smcfancontrol will cool the temperatures down depending on how high you crank the fans up but 95 Celsius isn't a problem for the MBP. I mean, if you had it constantly at this temperature for days then yea, I can imagine something happening.

I regularly exceed 90 Celsius during video editing and encoding. Like you said, smcfancontrol is helpful when you're getting a bit worried about the temperature.
 

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Using smcfancontrol will cool the temperatures down depending on how high you crank the fans up but 95 Celsius isn't a problem for the MBP. I mean, if you had it constantly at this temperature for days then yea, I can imagine something happening.

I regularly exceed 90 Celsius during video editing and encoding. Like you said, smcfancontrol is helpful when you're getting a bit worried about the temperature.

But it should be mentioned that the fans are thermostatically controlled, rendering smcFanControl relatively useless. If you were running it at those kinds of temperatures for days on end, it might be worthwhile. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it and let your MacBook Pro do what it's designed to do and not try to second-guess those who designed your machine.
 
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Yes, that's true. We should consider that the technicians who designed the MBP know what they are doing and have designed it accordingly. I only ever use smcfancontrol when I'm doing some seriously heavy CPU work.
 
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If you're worried about your computer's temperature, just keep in mind that there are safety nets in place that will shut down your computer long before any damage is done.

Enjoy your game, and don't worry about your computers temperature. It will be totally ok.
 
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Thanks for the helpful input. I set smcFanControl to have my fans run at 5000 rpm and CPU temp goes up to 70-80 Celsius. Moreover, the laptop does not feel as hot as before. Big improvement here. The game also runs very smoothly without any problems.

Many of you have also pointed that the mbp is also engineered to handle critical points. I guess this is a more than capable laptop. Im more than quite happy with it, thanks again.
 
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By the way. My iStatMenus reports my CPU temp to be at 55 Celsius. iStatMenus also reports both fans speeds at ~2000 rpm. Is this normal?

I was guessing that the mbp would have increased the fan speeds by now. When does the mbp increase the fan speeds automatically? Just curious.
 

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