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iMac's Fan's and Hot

MartinAppleGuy

MartinAppleGuy

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 27, 2013
2,247
889
Was playing X-Plane for a 2 hours there and I noticed the fans were reving up when I paused it. Once I quit it they dropped back to being silent in a few seconds but the back was still a little warm (not burning). I guess this is normal with games, but is it bad for the iMac?
 
Last edited:
Intell said:
That is completely normal and not at all bad for the iMac in any way.
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So it really won't lower the lifespan of the Mac? I really want my iMac to be one of those computers that stays with me forever and when it is no longer capable of heavy video editing and I get a new one, I still use this one for basic tasks. And I'm talking about 7-10 years away.
 
MartinAppleGuy said:
Was playing X-Plane for a 2 hours there and I noticed the fans were reving up when I paused it. Once I quit it they dropped back to being silent in a few seconds but the back was still a little warm (not burning). I guess this is normal with games, but is it bad for the iMac?

I was getting around 30fps while it was happening, so should I lower the settings to stop it from getting hot?
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I use Macs Fan Control (http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control) when I stress my iMac. I don't mind fan noise, but I do mind seeing 130-140 (f) degree CPU temps, so I set MFC to keep the temps down.
 
Intell said:
It won't impact the iMac's lifespan in any measurable way.
Click to expand...

Thanks, just wanted to know.

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Does anyone play games on their 'now several years old iMac' and have any issues with heat or fans?
 
It's a 20" 2007 iMac with a 2.8Ghz non-OEM CPU. It gets pushed CPU-wise fairly often, hitting 210F for extended periods of time. It's older ATI 2400 gets pushed with games in Boot Camp and regularly goes over 160F when playing for extended lengths of time. When doing this, its fans will rev a bit more than idle, but quickly drop off again as it cools itself.
 
Intell said:
It's a 20" 2007 iMac with a 2.8Ghz non-OEM CPU. It gets pushed CPU-wise fairly often, hitting 210F for extended periods of time. It's older ATI 2400 gets pushed with games in Boot Camp and regularly goes over 160F when playing for extended lengths of time. When doing this, its fans will rev a bit more than idle, but quickly drop off again as it cools itself.
Click to expand...

210F? Seriously? That's way beyond the thermal limit for most CPUs and HDDs. That's almost 100C. Intel's published specs for CPU limits are in the 60-70 mark.

I'm surprised your computer is still around to be honest.
 
Most Intell CPUs starting with the Core2Duo models can safely reach 100-105C without a problem and still be within their thermal design limit. Your source link carriers very little creditability as it doesn't cite either CPU OEM. The particular CPU in my iMac, the Intell X7900, has a maximum thermal limit of 100C, source: http://ark.intel.com/products/31730...Processor-X7900-4M-Cache-2_80-GHz-800-MHz-FSB Here's the spec sheet for the Haswell CPU, the Intell 4850HQ, used in the current generation Macbook Pro and its maximum temperature of 100C: http://ark.intel.com/products/76086/Intel-Core-i7-4850HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_50-GHz
 
Serban said:
what will happen with haswell i5 if he passed 72C?
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It depends on the CPU. Most of the time it would continue to work without a problem. If the CPU has Turbo Boost, it would start to limit its maximum frequency to reduce the amount of heat that is created.
 
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