• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Post the idle temperature of your CPU

Why do you care about idle temp tho?
 
It is generally advised that idle CPU temperatures should remain well below 45 degrees Celsius for optimal longevity and efficiency.
I mean, CPUs withstand 100% usage at almost +100C for decades without any sign of deterioration*. Being about +40 on idle isn't a problem at all.

*unless voltage is inadequate
 
  • Like
Reactions: las
I mean, CPUs withstand 100% usage at almost +100C for decades without any sign of deterioration*. Being about +40 on idle isn't a problem at all.

1. http://www.ti.com/lit/an/sprabx4/sprabx4.pdf
2. https://books.google.com/books?id=8...RAhWc0YMKHRhcCywQ6AEIITAC#v=onepage&q&f=false

They observed roughly 2x failure rate per 10°C increase in temperature.

The CPU doesn't idle completely, the load is 3%.

I had mentioned that I saw a difference between top and systat in terms of idle values.
Maybe this can be explained by different network traffic at the time I did the tests.

I retested with the following workload in bspwm on OpenBSD.
workspace 1: lightweight image viewer
workspace 2: lightweight file manager + lightweight text editor
workspace 3: browser with 5 different webpage tabs open
workspace 4: terminal emulator with CPU monitoring tool
workspace 5: Krita with a large image file (= Photoshop alternative)
I also have several extra daemons running but they don't use CPU when I'm not using them.
This time, however, I deactivated the internet before looking at the CPU values.

Result: systat and top say it is mostly 100% idle, and <10% of the time it switches to 99.9% idle.

From the moment you put a workload on the apps, the CPU is no longer going to be 100% idle of course.
But this test illustrates that OpenBSD can actually easily keep more than 7 apps open while keeping the CPU 100% idle.
 
They observed roughly 2x failure rate per 10°C increase in temperature.
Still, hunting borderline negative temperatures at idle is like shooting rats with an RPG. It works but it's a complete overkill. Factory defects are much more dangerous than anything below +100C.
 
Still, hunting borderline negative temperatures at idle is like shooting rats with an RPG. It works but it's a complete overkill. Factory defects are much more dangerous than anything below +100C.

I have actually never had a factory defect on a PC I build myself or on computers I bought either.
I have seen it many times when other people's computers suddenly stop working. But this is often to do with the way they handle them.

I have seen high idle temperatures in small mini-towers and over 10-year-old cheap laptops.
I have several old laptops that with some operating systems just overheat and shut down as a safeguard.

It is also just an indication of your cooling. Many people almost never see 100% CPU utilisation (on all cores) when using a recent high-end CPU.

If I play e.g. 0 A.D. on this OpenBSD computer, and I leave the FPS unlimited, my CPU is 32° C hot.
The difference between idle and the most ‘taxing tasks’ that I do is often not that big in reality.

I mean, in real life, I'm not going to let 0 A.D. generate unlimited FPS, I'm going to set a 60 FPS limit.
It won't get much warmer than my idle temperature then.

You can also use this test that way, keeping in mind that your PC will probably not frequently get more than 10°C warmer than this idle temperature.
Most persons are not running rendering or heavy multi-core apps.

Then again, gaming is popular, but the majority of games are lightweight on the CPU.

Idle temperatures are also an indication of how much heat the CPU generates in idle.
More heat means more power draw. It also directly heats up the climate of course. But the extra power it draws also causes climate warming.
So it has a two-fold effect.

And solar panels are not green by the way. In Germany had the highest percentages the contribution to total energy consumption was laughably low.
Batteries and panels are a gigantic mass of toxic material.
Many countries are too poor to recycle, and recycling, like standard production, is an indurstial process that often generates a lot of extra pollution and extra emissions.
 
gaming is popular, but the majority of games are lightweight on the CPU.
Yeah, majority but not every one of them. Especially if we take into consideration the competitive games which are supposed to run at hundreds upon hundreds FPS with no vsync, no nothing. This is almost always CPU 100% loaded.

My CPU heats to about 77 to 86 degrees whilst playing Cyberpunk 2077 for the whole day on the hottest day ever, the most CPU intensive game I have. Some of this heat is due to GPU, too, since it's a 250 W monster.

I don't use this PC for heavy workloads so having these numbers for worst case scenario gaming is fine by me. High idle temperatures don't kill CPUs mostly because the voltage and current are abysmal.
 
Yeah, majority but not every one of them. Especially if we take into consideration the competitive games which are supposed to run at hundreds upon hundreds FPS with no vsync, no nothing. This is almost always CPU 100% loaded.

The percentage of gamers who are so good that they need that high fps to reach the top is maybe 1% of gamers.
Looking at the people around me who play games, I think they all have 60Hz or 75Hz panels.

In Dota 2, I can easily reach 240 FPS on the highest settings with my RX 7600, but I didn't get the impression that it was demanding a lot of CPU at 240 FPS.
If I then think a bit further, what percentage of people are going to run this game at 240 FPS. I think more like around 90% are going to use 60/75/144Hz monitors.
Over 160 Hz seems more niche to me.

Dota 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, PUBG, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Valorant, War Thunder, Counter Strike, Overwatch, FIFA, The Finals, Wold of Tanks, AoE.
The above games are a big part of competitive games. More than 90% of those games are games that I think achieve around 144 FPS on one core of my 12700KF CPU.

I mean these are not demanding games that on a new high-end CPU are going to be able to get the temperature heavily above idle temps.
 
My i7-11700 is idling at 40-45-ish (23C room temp) with a Noctua NH-D15 and Fan Stop until 50C.

With the fans running at 175 RPM i get about 32C, but i don't see the point in that. You also get less die flexing when the temps stay higher.
 
81*F ambient
all on NH-D15s

5800X - 36*c almost 45m of uptime
5800X3D - 38*c idle temps after about 20m of gaming
9700X - 41*c Seems like it's the iod that's causing the high readings, the Core temps are around 27*c while the iod is pushing 42*c
 
Last edited:
The percentage of gamers who are so good that they need that high fps to reach the top is maybe 1% of gamers.
Looking at the people around me who play games, I think they all have 60Hz or 75Hz panels.

In Dota 2, I can easily reach 240 FPS on the highest settings with my RX 7600, but I didn't get the impression that it was demanding a lot of CPU at 240 FPS.
If I then think a bit further, what percentage of people are going to run this game at 240 FPS. I think more like around 90% are going to use 60/75/144Hz monitors.
Over 160 Hz seems more niche to me.

Dota 2, Rocket League, Fortnite, PUBG, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Valorant, War Thunder, Counter Strike, Overwatch, FIFA, The Finals, Wold of Tanks, AoE.
The above games are a big part of competitive games. More than 90% of those games are games that I think achieve around 144 FPS on one core of my 12700KF CPU.

I mean these are not demanding games that on a new high-end CPU are going to be able to get the temperature heavily above idle temps.
Even if someone is not a pro gamer there is no reason aside from cost that they wouldn’t want hundreds of fps vs being able to get away with significantly less. A hobby is an hobby right? And hey. There are always aspiring pro gamers.

I’m horrible at games. Laughably bad, especially at those competitive games. When the mood strikes me I wish to be bad at games at 200 fps vs being equally bad at 60 fps. I want to see my player’s body rag doll into a wall from getting sniped with absolute smoothness.
 
Here is mine, air cooled... showing 20c in my space, and the side panels are on my case..


Screenshot 2024-09-12 213118.png
 
People, there is an option in HWinfo to just show temps, please use it and spare us all the volts, speeds, and other nonsense
 
5600 under a ML240R
about 40-45 idle
(30c ambient, aka summer)
 
People, there is an option in HWinfo to just show temps, please use it and spare us all the volts, speeds, and other nonsense

Sure. You can reorganize the sensors anyway you want, and then hide the others.

However, I just post what I have mine set up for.

And there is useful info within the volts, amps, clocks, etc.
 
5800X3D at -30CO
idle at 35-37 degrees but only if I close most of the icons on the taskbar like viber, razer synapse etc.
Practically at 40s with these on.
 
Ambient 20-22C, water temp 22-24C, Prime95 to hit tjmax:


1726229586943.png
 
People, there is an option in HWinfo to just show temps, please use it and spare us all the volts, speeds, and other nonsense
That nonsense is for me, not for you. No one told you to look at it.
 
HP Z400
Intel Xeon x5687
Stock High Performance Cooler


************@debian-x5687:~$ sensors
nvme-pci-0300
Adapter: PCI adapter
Composite: +34.9°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +89.8°C)
(crit = +94.8°C)
Sensor 1: +34.9°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)
Sensor 2: +28.9°C (low = -273.1°C, high = +65261.8°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +31.0°C (high = +82.0°C, crit = +102.0°C)
Core 1: +34.0°C (high = +82.0°C, crit = +102.0°C)
Core 9: +29.0°C (high = +82.0°C, crit = +102.0°C)
Core 10: +35.0°C (high = +82.0°C, crit = +102.0°C)


nouveau-pci-0f00
Adapter: PCI adapter
GPU core: 987.00 mV (min = +0.82 V, max = +1.21 V)
fan1: 1890 RPM
temp1: +42.0°C (high = +95.0°C, hyst = +3.0°C)
(crit = +105.0°C, hyst = +5.0°C)
(emerg = +135.0°C, hyst = +5.0°C)
power1: 21.49 W (crit = 87.00 mW)
 
1726268956587.png


Package is jumping around between 28-31 with most apps closed right now. In the winter its a little less. Like can get down to 26-27. I do keep my aios fans spinning pretty fast even on idle. like 2200rpm. Just so I don't have to hear them ramp up and down all the time, that annoys me. But if temps hit 79 then they'll instantly jump to 100% (3200rpm) which is loud af. Luckily it doesn't happen very often.
 
After an hour & half with two browsers & video playbacks with my lapped 7600X using only the iGPU in a closed up MSI Sekira 100R case using Cooler Master MA620P tower cooler that was modded to fit the unorthodox mounting. I think this is pretty good considering the default think IHS on Zen 4, only lapped off about a 1mm of the IHS.
Included Zentimings to give an idea of nearest component & its voltages that will affect idle temps or at least temps with very little use of CPU. All this under up to date vanilla windows 11.

26.6 C being the idle temp.
Temps - Copy.jpg
 
I mean, CPUs withstand 100% usage at almost +100C for decades without any sign of deterioration*. Being about +40 on idle isn't a problem at all.

*unless voltage is inadequate

Confused... over-voltage can cause degradation, but under-voltage?
 
Back
Top