CPU high temperature 12.10 while high CPU usage

Question

I have a problem with high temperature of processor while running applications that use all 8 cores of processor with load of close to 100% during the all running time. And the running time for those applications can be sometimes several hours or days...I have DELL XPS 17 laptop with i7 processor that has 8 emulated cores.

For example, if I am using all 8 cores by running some independent treads, the temperature reaches very fast 90(C) degrees and it stays like that. If I reduce the number of independent threads to 4, so only 4 cores are busy, the temperature is reduced to around 80(C) degrees. Just for a reference, average temperature of processor while idle is around 55(C).

Some suggestion how to avoid so high temperatures while using all processing power (100% of all 8 cores)?

Answer 1

I had the same issue with the same OS on the same Machine...

I presume you have the ATI raedon Video Card in there, like i do... And the problem actualy reside in the GPU heating up, not the CPU..

From experience, if you use the Open-source Drivers, you will have a smoother GUI (gnome) but the card tends to over heat. The solution i found, that works for me is to install Jupiter and set the power setting to LOW.

You can alternatively insert a line to some file throught the CLI but i don't rember it. Maybe can someone help with that.. it starts with

echo low > some_config_file.here

On the other side, you can alos install the Proprietary Driver, But ,again, from experience the Gnome-shell desktop become laggy/choppy. (May not be the case with UNITY, i don't know, never used UNITY).

I went from 83+°C to about 60-63°C.

An usefull tools in this case is sensors. You can install it using

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors

and then run it using

sensors

Hope this helps, you and others, cause i've been looking a long time for an adequat solution.

Answer 2

My icore5 under full load never ever goes over 60c and this is in a laptop, if its a desktop, it should run even cooler. Check your fans, make sure that your heatsink is properly seated.