What is the safe temperature range for a Core-i5 processor?

Question

I have an HP laptop with with a Core-i5 450m processor and an ATI Radeon 5650 1GB graphics card. When I played crysis warhead on my system its temprature went up to 82° c. Is it safe to play games up to this temperature level?

Answer 1

The the absolute max temperature for the Intel Core i5 mobile processor is 105°C.
Source: Intel's datasheet for Intel Core (i3 i5 i7) processors.

Answer 2

I have run my Intel i5-460M at over 91C and had no problems. I have an application running in the background at startup Core temp which will turn off my laptop if it reaches 103C. You can change settings so when it reaches any temp above X it will slow down the CPU clock speed.

While playing games I haven't gotten the CPU temp past 80C, Even with maxed out graphics and background stuff running. I used Prime95 to get the temp that high.

Answer 3

HP DV4-2170us i5 430m (integrated graphics) running Ubuntu 10.04 . using for 9 months, idle at 55 C and heavy video export / conversion using openshot 80 C.

Cleaned CPU and common heat sinked chip (not sure if its the graphic), and added shim to unknown chip since the thermal pad seemed to be loose (most likely my only temperature reading is from the Cpu it self). mixed a drop of synthetic motorcycle oil with white silicon thermal compound. Resulting mixure was very thin and I applied only a small thin drop. CPU now idles at 41 C. and peaks at 70 C for heavy video conversion.

P.S. I previously spilled liquid on my laptop and killed it. I had to clean the motherboard with a toothbrush and replace input power MOSFET 4405.

Answer 4

Intels will shut down or get slower if they get too hot. That's one of the nice things about CPUs. There was another thread on here earlier today about a MacBook reaching 90+ degrees while encoding video.

So I would make the staggering assumption that you're fine, so long as your heatsink has the correct contact with your CPU, your fans are all operational, and your case (or laptop) has good airflow.

EDIT:

Here's an article about a Core i5 reaching 91.

Answer 5

You have to look at you CPU Detail Specification which can found at ark.intel.com for example you have an Intel i5-2467M CPU, got to the table with heading "Formatspezifikationen" (German) or "Package Specifications" (Englisch). There you find the parameter "TJUNCTION" with the maximum tempature value for your cpu.

Description of the T-Junction Parameter: (German): „T JUNCTION“ bezeichnet die maximal zugelassene Temperatur beim Prozessor-Chip. (Englisch): Junction Temperature is the maximum temperature allowed at the processor die.

Answer 6

My opinion about the question "safe" would rather concern to CPU estimated lifetime as a function of temperature.

I don't about statistics nor serious studies (if someone does, please report) about it. So, even when SuperUser is not a opinion site, I would say this question has no answer but the subjective ones.

As a Technology Engineer, here are all details about mine, for those interested.