What is an acceptable range for my aluminium macbook CPU temp? Is 80 degrees celsius and above considered too high? When i play games, it sometimes reach 85 degrees celsius. Is it normal? Thank you! 
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What is the acceptable range for CPU temp?
- Thread starter misssunshine
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
What is an acceptable range for my aluminium macbook CPU temp? Is 80 degrees celsius and above considered too high? When i play games, it sometimes reach 85 degrees celsius. Is it normal? Thank you!
It's normal for games, but definitely not for idle.
75c for idle and 90c for anything else is where I would put the limit.
That has GOT to be an error. I sometimes use my friends uMBP, looking at the smcFanControl meter, it's never below 35°C.
That means operating temperature as in ambient temperature, not the CPU diode temperature.
Nope, I'm reporting temperatures in Celcius.
So i guess its nothing over 90 degrees celcius?
Nope, I'm reporting temperatures in Celcius.
The CPU is rated to a maximum core temperature of 105*C, but I've never been able to push my UMB past 89C or so even under heavy video encoding as the fan really starts to scream.
i have Fan Control installed and have it set to max fan speed at 70°C. My CPU rarely gets above that, while encoding it will get just above that but nowhere near the 90° that people are reporting.
My base fan speed is 1100 rpm and that is held till the CPU gets to 55°C. Just running safari, mail and messenger currently i have a cpu temp of 43°C
The apple default fan speed curve is set for quietness rather than coolness, I think that unless you are doing heavy work like encoding or gaming then your temps arent going to get higher than 55°C anyway and my profile works silently for most of the time.
Its better to keep the cpu cool rather than hot as it will prolong the life of it and the surrounding components.
Im about to install coolbook so hopefully my temps will go down more and battery life go up.
My base fan speed is 1100 rpm and that is held till the CPU gets to 55°C. Just running safari, mail and messenger currently i have a cpu temp of 43°C
The apple default fan speed curve is set for quietness rather than coolness, I think that unless you are doing heavy work like encoding or gaming then your temps arent going to get higher than 55°C anyway and my profile works silently for most of the time.
Its better to keep the cpu cool rather than hot as it will prolong the life of it and the surrounding components.
Im about to install coolbook so hopefully my temps will go down more and battery life go up.
those are the recommended temps for the room you are in. not the temps of the computer.
my UB macbook runs at an average of 150 to 160 degrees fahrenheit.
On my UMBP under light browsing some music its 58 degrees and if it gets hotter the fans rev up never seen it above 90. However my mini is a different story if i start encoding that thing gets up to 90 and the fans wont rev up till its closer to 100. I ended up installing smcfancontrol and put the min fan speed at 3000 from 1500 now it never gets about 70 no matter what i do to it.
I have a uMB and I keep my minimum fan speed at 3000rpm with smcfancontrol. I can't stand having a hot laptop while typing so I always have to adjust the fans to keep it cool. With the minimum fan speed at 3000, my normal temp (firefox, thunderbird, and itunes running; sometimes other miscellaneous programs), is around 120-130 degrees fahrenheit.