Memory Temp?

[WonkyPanda]

Is there something wrong with my memory temp? I recently installed 8gb of ram, and I never had paid attention to the temperature. When I glanced today, I was kind of shocked it was so high and I am not sure it is supposed to be so high.

http://cl.ly/3F0o320B2w1t1B292D2f

 

[dusk007]

Ingnore it or is it something else but <=1.5V RAM?
And clean that list. The only important temp readings are CPU and GPU the rest never gets too hot. The ampere and all that stuff is also entirely useless to know. Battery power draw and fan speeds might be interesting but the rest is just useless.

Memory temps is never a problem and it is only a bad read out especially with 40C CPU temps 61 is extermely unlikely. Unless you put in some high voltage ultra fast nonsense RAM it is almost impossible to have heat problems with ram.

 

[WonkyPanda]

Ingnore it or is it something else but <=1.5V RAM?
And clean that list. The only important temp readings are CPU and GPU the rest never gets too hot. The ampere and all that stuff is also entirely useless to know. Battery power draw and fan speeds might be interesting but the rest is just useless.

Memory temps is never a problem and it is only a bad read out especially with 40C CPU temps 61 is extermely unlikely. Unless you put in some high voltage ultra fast nonsense RAM it is almost impossible to have heat problems with ram.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by: "but <=1.5V RAM?"

Is it possible that the ram IS defective though? it isn't fancy ram and it's pretty typical crucial ram that isn't special in any way. It seems like my battery has been getting sapped quicker than usual lately and then I noticed that temp which seemed excessively high to me.

 

[MaxBurn]

He means is the memory rated above 1.5 volts? That should be the max for spec memory.

 

[WonkyPanda]

Yes, the ram is rated 1.5v.

So, does iStat show a similar temp for other people then?

 

[heisenberg123]

Yes, the rame is rated 1.5v.

So, does iStat show a similar temp for other people then?

i have the same temps, is your computer doing anything to make you thing its an issue?

 

[WonkyPanda]

i have the same temps, is your computer doing anything to make you thing its an issue?

I can't put my finger on it, but my battery life has seriously taken a hit. At class, I use to be able to get a consistent 5-6 hours on a normal day. Now, I am struggling to cross 4 hours.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I can't put my finger on it, but my battery life has seriously taken a hit. At class, I use to be able to get a consistent 5-6 hours on a normal day. Now, I am struggling to cross 4 hours.

______________________________________________________
Have a look at Activity Monitor (Applications / Utilities /) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.
Also check the "System Memory" tab to see what your "Page ins:", "Page outs:" and "Swap used:" are.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

Further reading:

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Making The Most of Activity Monitor
What Is Activity Monitor (or How to Take Your Mac's Pulse)​

______________________________________________________​

 

[thundersteele]

I also have a 60 C reading on the memory module, even though the laptop is mostly idle right now and every other temperature, including the CPU, is below 50 C. The memory controller is around 40 C.

I'm not sure if the reading is correct if you have non-Apple RAM installed.

My machine doesn't feel hot on the bottom in the area where the memory is located, while I can feel a small amount of heat near the CPU heat sink and in the exhaust region. If the RAM was really sitting at 60 C I would expect the bottom of the case to be hotter in this area, since it is very close to the bottom case.

 

[ObuckiO]

I also have a 60 C reading on the memory module, even though the laptop is mostly idle right now and every other temperature, including the CPU, is below 50 C. The memory controller is around 40 C.

I'm not sure if the reading is correct if you have non-Apple RAM installed.

My machine doesn't feel hot on the bottom in the area where the memory is located, while I can feel a small amount of heat near the CPU heat sink and in the exhaust region. If the RAM was really sitting at 60 C I would expect the bottom of the case to be hotter in this area, since it is very close to the bottom case.

Where are you reading that 60 C?
I put 8GB RAM in recently on late'08 15'' and it is HOT by the battery charging area (back left of MBP), with no fan noise's, no activity monitor problem, charger is OK, not swollen.
It's like putting your hand on the side of toaster in a way.

 

[dusk007]

I have never heard of a chip that gets too hot because it is defective. It gets hot because it runs on too high clock speeds or too much voltage. How else is it going to produce enough heat? If you are worried just share power draw of the battery under a very specific load with people who have the same notebook(like 10 min idle after a fresh restart at min brightness, with no running app, OR running prime95 or same mac equivalent and nothing else)
If it was defective RAM you should have some stability problems. Run some RAM testing software like memtest, prime95 ...

The difference in power consumption between 4 and 8 GB is some few hunderd milliWatts on idle and some 2W under load. Which means 5% difference at the worst and possible less and more in the no difference at all or even less power consumption.
Considering you exchanged quite old RAM with a rather new one, and new DRAM on a newer process node usually sucks a lot less power, which makes up for the higher capacity. The 5% worst case is only if you compare them of the same generation.

 

[thundersteele]

Where are you reading that 60 C?
I put 8GB RAM in recently on late'08 15'' and it is HOT by the battery charging area (back left of MBP), with no fan noise's, no activity monitor problem, charger is OK, not swollen.
It's like putting your hand on the side of toaster in a way.

See screenshot below.

On my 15'', with light use, the only slightly warm area is the upper left corner, i.e. from the esc key down to an area near the d,e,f keys. That's more or less where the CPU is located, and the heat sinks transport that heat to the back.

Essentially I can feel the 45 C of the CPU, although the logic board sits between the CPU and the bottom plate. On the other hand I can't feel the 60 C that the memory sensor shows, although there is nothing between the memory and the bottom plate. That is why I don't trust the value that iStat shows for the memory temperature.

 

[ObuckiO]

See screenshot below.

On my 15'', with light use, the only slightly warm area is the upper left corner, i.e. from the esc key down to an area near the d,e,f keys. That's more or less where the CPU is located, and the heat sinks transport that heat to the back.

Essentially I can feel the 45 C of the CPU, although the logic board sits between the CPU and the bottom plate. On the other hand I can't feel the 60 C that the memory sensor shows, although there is nothing between the memory and the bottom plate. That is why I don't trust the value that iStat shows for the memory temperature.

screenshot
I think mine is due for a new battery??
Thanks; Thundersteele i was looking for how you knew the temp.
I finally seen it was a widget.

 

[grahamnp]

Most RAM sticks do not have temperature probes installed and even then, they probably are not supported by the logic board so a reading would not be possible. I think the temperatures are from a sensor outside of the memory.

 

[jon08]

I have the same temps on my Crucial 8GB RAM - 61C. It was similar with Corsair 8GB, too.

And I remember the default 4GB RAM that came with this MBP even had temps like 63C...

 

[thundersteele]

I think iStat Pro shows some number there that has nothing to do with the memory temperature.

Neither Temperature Monitor nor iStat Menus show a memory temperature sensor.