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User profile for user: zstan101
zstan101 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

iMac temperature

good day. i have iMac 27 and it usually operates between 31 and 43 degrees C, but when i play starcraft2 game iMac starts heating like crazy, temperature rises up to 60 degrees C in two hours and the back of my iMac is very hot. i don't know if it's normal, so after 2 hours of play i usually turn off SC2 and get iMac in sleep mode in order to cool it down. the program i use to control temperature is HDD Fan Control.

am i too nervous or there might be something wrong with the computer? any suggestions? thanks

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 6, 2019 4:09 PM

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User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
111,737 points

Posted on Mar 6, 2019 4:58 PM

Excess heat is the killer of motherboard components, and given time, your penchant for game play and cooking your Mac will leave you very disappointed. You are taxing the CPU, GPU, and storage in that iMac and that is bound to drive the temperature to dangerous (for the machine) levels. The normal hardware operating temperature for example, of a 27 inch iMac retina 5K is in the range of 10° - 35° C (or 50° - 95° F). So 60° C is an iMac killing temperature. Shorten your game play to 1 hour, and see what the temperature has risen too.


I do not know if that fan control software is actually interfering with the normal ability of the iMac to cool itself. You might consider an external fan blowing across the back of the iMac to move radiated heat away from it — and you. However, this may not lower the temperature sufficiently under extreme usage.

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User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
111,737 points

Mar 6, 2019 4:58 PM in response to zstan101

Excess heat is the killer of motherboard components, and given time, your penchant for game play and cooking your Mac will leave you very disappointed. You are taxing the CPU, GPU, and storage in that iMac and that is bound to drive the temperature to dangerous (for the machine) levels. The normal hardware operating temperature for example, of a 27 inch iMac retina 5K is in the range of 10° - 35° C (or 50° - 95° F). So 60° C is an iMac killing temperature. Shorten your game play to 1 hour, and see what the temperature has risen too.


I do not know if that fan control software is actually interfering with the normal ability of the iMac to cool itself. You might consider an external fan blowing across the back of the iMac to move radiated heat away from it — and you. However, this may not lower the temperature sufficiently under extreme usage.

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iMac temperature

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