Thinkpads Forum

Hi
Im playing some battlefield bad company 2 on my Thinkpad W500, and i am afraid it is a little too hot

The CPU is 88C
The GPU is 95C

When is the temperature crtitical?

I'd suggest you buy a desktop or Xbox or Playstation for gaming, and leave the laptop for serious WORK.

It will shut down before the temperatures get critical.

If you leave it like this 24/7, over time the high heat will cause high wear and tear on the components.

However if it's only every once in a while - there is no harm.

I think it is in acceptable range assuming you are not playing 24/7. But of course it causes excessive wear, specially on BGA chips with "modern" and "green" RoHS solder .
I would clean heatsinks (disassemble and clean or just blow it out with compressed air if you don't want to open your laptop.) and probably replace thermal compound between GPU, CPU and main heatsink (if you are not affraid to crack it open)
And btw I totally agree that laptops are for work and not playing

Hi, thanks for the replies.

I know it will shut down, if overheating - but i dont want to wear it down too quickly.

However, i wont replace my laptop with a desktop or a console, since it wouldnt be very portable and i prefer to use only one computer.

And it is a workstation.. It should be able to withstand a little pressure

I'm not familiar with this game (how resource demanding) or w500 and its temperatures, but ~90 degrees is IMO high.
Check heatsink and fan, remove dust, replace thermal grease if needed. Additional option is to use cooling pad while playing, this helps keep temperatures lower too.

... and yeah, as said before- laptops aren't really for games. At least not older thikpads for newer games.