Hey there.

I'm Tori, here again for help from knowledgeable gamers who actually know how to use computers and computer graphics properly. To be honest, which I've stated in other threads, I'm not only a total gaming noob, but I'm really paranoid.

My first two graphic cards burnt out because I had no idea what I was doing. This was several years ago; but I'm still paranoid that my gaming PC might die, or I'll kill my graphics card again, so I've never really 'played' games rather than installed mods and fiddled around once and a while and then escaped back to desktop in fear of destroying my pc. But I want to be able to game and mod in an appropriate manner, so I thought I might ask a simple question- How do I mediate performance with graphics and not overheat my system? I've heard from various sources that 70-80C is getting too hot, and at times, even with settings not completely at max in Sims 3, this happens.

Nitromon has been helpful in adjusting settings for amazing Sims 3 graphics; [like holy cow!]but I'm still really terrified of destroying another card by taking it TOO FAR, and I haven't seriously gamed in forever. I'd love even more to play Skyrim without hardcore destroying my pc even more.

Would some kind individual be willing to explain to me what to look out for, what to avoid, and what my pc would be capable of? There's so many articles online on which is 'good' or 'better' or 'safe' but I really have no idea how to decipher any of it and use it personally. I've included my deviceconfig below, which might help? [I should also mention I have already limited my FPS in the majority of the games I play [I always do that first in Nvidia Inspector] so that's taken care of already.]

Any expertise you guys could give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hey Nitromon! Thanks for stopping by to help out again! Sorry this took a bit to get to. I was delving into some research after reading your post, as it reminded me of an app I had discovered around a year ago, but uninstalled.

The temperature of the room- that's good to know. Thankfully the office I'm located in runs nice and cool, but I have a few desktop-fans that I can put to good use if ever necessary. I'm going to take a stab and say it's the fact I have a handful [in other words, too many] of tabs open at all times. Sometimes too many, so I'll cut that out [I also just installed ad-block again; I'll try and figure out some chrome app that helps with tabs in the near future] Alright, good to know that 70-80 is safe. That makes me feel much better. I had no idea about the bitcoin-mining bullcrap, good to know that's something to look out for!

Alright, I'll get rid of all the auto-run stuff too- that seems to irritate me anyways; I don't like that clutter either way.

As for the fans- after I reply to this, I'll get the air-canister out and give it a good cleaning. We have cats and the vents in our house are a bit shot; so I think it'd probably be better if I did it every two weeks or so, just to be safe. I just had the thermal paste replaced around last December; and that fixed a lot of problems. But I'm just glad to know that things aren't as out of control as I originally thought. Thanks again!

I bought the pc through a manufacturer; and they've always been on top of things if something goes awry. I really need to work on my trust issues. xD

Also, a tidbit learned from my research-
There's a program I came across a while back, I think it's called 'Rainmeter' and after a bit of research it apparently has an add-on [they call them skins?] to redesign your desktop. Strangely enough, they have a small cpu/ram/etc bar that monitors on your desktop [and is always there.] After a bit of digging, I found a skin that also monitors all the other aspects I need to look out for- gpu usage, temp, cpu usage, temp- it's really kind of cool. So now that I have a 'safety' net so to speak, I'm going to go do a bit of research with settings and what not.

Again, thanks for your expertise; it is very much appreciated!

there're a bunch of little programs for monitoring, personally I use Real Temp 'cause is small, light and do not install any service. Running a little monitoring from time to time and reading logs after never hurts, and it's more reliable than just peeking into Task Monitor. Also - cleaning the machine from numerous (including installed by system and defult running) garbage is useful too. It may be not really noticeable at first (it shall be later) if the machine is not particulary weak, but bit there, and there adds to the burden. On Win7 it's quite possible to get to about 70 processess running (with AVir, without the game), if you disconnect from the Internet, you also may disable AVir, but in such case of course you cannot benevolently mine ccurrency for someone while watching movies, nor browsing for additional CC (because there's never "too much").

The particular temperature's tolerance varies from machine to machine (and model to model ofc); for example normal numbers shown by Nitromon I'd reconise as seriously alarming, but in my case it's a laptop - a different story (my machine while running the game never excess 72/70'C for CPU/GPU respectivelly).

which is as I believe, if not literally, than to significant degree just what I wrote Maybe just wording then.

Anyway, the thing which we discussed some time ago and is often omitted: it's rather rare case to just "burn" the GPU/CPU nowadays. Well - 'till you really, I mean *really* mess up overclocking. Modern, like even 15 years old modern machines are provided with multiple layers of security. On the chip, on the board (these are in fact "last lines of defence"), and on the multiple software levels (BIOS, drivers, system - I'm trying to be simple). In working reality, what may kill average user machine because of thermal damage, is prolonged overheating below the critical values, not isolated events (like suddenly spiking temperature). In such circumstances particular parts - and there're a lot of little dimmers, capacitors, etc. on the board, on the memory sticks, on the drives etc - forced to work in uncomfortable (but still "within a range") conditions deteriorates quicker than expected. Most of the users shall switch the machine for newer before even noticing that, well - they maybe notice lower efficiency and sporadic errors.

Laptops, or in broader sense: any mobile machine, are more prone to that because of technical limitations and design preferences. Desktops build (OP case) is much more relaxed. For example: common for laptops bottleneck is shared heat pipe extension (CPU/GPU) and only one heat extinguisher, effectively it means that cooling system is impaired by design limitation (I won't discuss there any of the Apple's engineering atrocities, that's another topic), a problem which does not exists, until extremally rare circumstances in the "desktop" case. High class and 'pro' constructions are without that flaw, but well, you need to paid for that accordingly.

I'm working on the old laptop (about 10 years old construction) so I prefer to be careful. Double careful, while machine is getting older. I'd prefer to keep this laptop working for a while more, for financial reasons and also because it's really hard to find now something not tailored for and shipped without Windows 10 Malignant Edition.



you can always try to fry your machine with some ENB or other filtering software layer Though in S3 case most heat produced is from CPU anyway and GPU rather start to throttle than just "burn".

And so to be clear: I do not argue (and that disagree is not mine), I merely emphasize "case by case" point. Some things are obvious (theoretically) like renewing thermal paste, keep cat's piss, coffee and meals out of the machine (until you want to keep busy little creatures inside), clearing the dust and, from time to time, giving it some serious inside cleaning routine. Some are not so (like construction limitations, design problems, even suppousedly elementary thermodynamics etc.). And As I suppouse, we shall see such topics and questions again.

Wow! All this information is great to know. So far, I've been able to manage my temperatures and everything else thanks to a widget for rainmeter I found on Deviantart. It basically sits on the bottom of my taskbar so I can monitor it easily. Then, there's another widget that overlays with whatever game I'm playing that helps as well.

It's good to know that 70-80c isn't running too hot. Sometimes when it creeps past 60 I freak out. We don't have to worry about humidity because our house is typically cool [even in the winter] and the room I operate in has a air vent right above my desk. I guess that's what I get for living in the Midwest. xD

Again, thank you all who posted. I've learned a lot just from reading your comments. I think I'll be good from here on out! :D