IMac 27, i5/i7 - Fan speed / temperatures during gaming?

Hi all!
This is my first post in this forum. I have searched a lot in the internet, but I have not found any reliable information on this topic.
I currently have a MBP (see signature) and I am really happy with it. However, each time I am playing a game (just casually), the fans accelerate to 6200 rpm within a few minutes which is really annoying (= very loud, high frequency noise). Typical games are Sims3 as well as the Steam games TF2, Portal, and Torchlight. Furthermore, I am playing games like Black&White2, Bioshock or Chess using Parallels 5/Win XP.
I am now looking for an additional desktop computer - and I am loving the idea of buying an iMac i5. However, I would really hate to hear this loud fan noise again... (the alternative would be a Dell XPS 7100, but I really love OS X after 20+ years using Windows).
Thus, I am looking for reliable data (fans rpm, cpu/gpu temperature) during gaming (under steam os x, parallels, and boot camp). Also any experience on long-term reliability of iMacs used for gaming is appreciated.
Thank you very much in advance!
P.S.: Hope my english is not too bad, since I am not a native speaker...

It's a simple match - the more power your computer uses, the hotter it gets, and the faster and louder the fans. The graphics card and CPU are the most power-hungry parts, and are used at a high percentage during gaming.
That said, my current iMac is the i5 (27", 4850) and it doesn't spin up the fans at all playing Torchlight at full native resolution. It does start whirring a little playing Bioshock/Portal/HL2, but not so loudly - the fan speeds go from 1100 (normal, nearly silent) to 1450 or so.
Temperatures I've not followed - but they don't actually matter, just the noise that is made to keep them under control.
In Boot Camp, much the same - although I don't have a fan-speed monitor for Windows, again HL2 would just slightly speed up the fans.
But! I would suggest waiting a short while, it's 10 months since the iMac range was last refreshed so it could be just about time for them to be updated.
ps Your english is perfect, I would never have guessed you were not a native speaker.

Similar Messages

Fan speed & temperature

hello guys...
After 8 months before buying my geforce4ti4800se videogard, I began to notice some changes to fan speed & temperature while checking 3d turbo experience...
first of all, when I bough the card (winter season) I cant remember the fan speed but the card's internal temperature was about 39ºc while not playing and 45 ºc playing games... external temperature was around 15 - 20 ºc...
Now , card's temperature stays around 56ºC (without playing games) and jumps to 58 - 59ºc after playing games... Local temperature (32ºC) ...
I cant remember the fan speed at winter but now Im getting a blink message on the driver and the fan speed stays at 3300 rpm....
The increase of the temperature is related to a fan slowdown..? If YES, how can I fix the fan to get more speed? (Its not a source problem)....
Is 58ºC ok for the card or should I get worried about it ?
Help me please!! Thanks a lot,

Without full system specs in your sig line, it's very hard to help. Minimal information gets minimal help. Some people here won't even bother to answer w/o the info, and I can't say that I blame them, especially when the instructions are at the top of the forum.
To me, w/o any other info, it sounds like you have a case ventilation problem.

What is normal fan speed & temperature? (2009 iMac)

I recently bought a 27" iMac used, and I noticed today that the fans seem to run fast even when just looking at articles without video, which I found odd.
Are the below stats normal? I've noticed the Optical Drive fan at around 3300rpm at times.

If these temps are in Celsius, they seem somewhat high to me.
The GPU and GPU diode seem unusually hot to me.
I have the same model IMac as you and purchased used in 2011, my initial temps weren't as high as yours, but I was still uncomfortable with how hot it was running.
I suspect a lot of dust dirt and lint may have built up inside of your iMac.
SInce you cannot break into the iMac to clean out the dust and dirt, I recommend the use of a vacuum cleaner with a hose and crevice tool attachment to suck, instead of blowing, the dirt out of your Mac.
DO NOT USE CANS OF COMPRESSED AIR!!!!!
You will only be pushing the dust, dirt and lint further into the iMac
Power down your iMac, disconnect the power and all your connected peripheral devices, lay your iMac screen down on a soft cloth of heavy toweling and using the vacuum's crevice tool(avoid using the vacuum's brush attachments as this may cause an electrical static discharge issue) and lightly (to avoid scratching your iMac's finish) vacuum out the vents underneath the display. Also, unscrew the RAM compartment cover and vacuum the dust out of the RAM area. Vacuum the long upper vent the is across the back of your iMac. Vacuum out the CD/DVD slot and SD slot. Vacuum out all of the various connection ports on the of your Mac including the vent hole and grille that is visible through the iMac's support stand. Once done, re-setup and reconnect everything and power up your iMac and see if the temps go down.
If no joy in getting the temps down, call an Apple Store or Apple Authorised seller/repair/service center and ask about if they do interior cleaning of IMacs and its cost and schedule an appointment to get your Mac clean and free of interior lint and dust.
If, after a good clean out, you are still uncomfortable with the normal operating temps, as I am, you can do one and/or two things.
The easiest and quickest solution is to run a small desktop fan from behind the iMac and let the fan blow air on the backside aluminum panel to cool down your iMac.
The next thing you can try and use (and you'll get a lot of subjective criticism from others here on what I am about to advise) is to download a software fan controller app, like SMC Fan Control, and manually set all of your iMac's fans RPMs to a speed which gets the temps to a more comfortable level without revving the fans too high, which can act as an internal vacuum, sucking in quicker, more dust, lint and dirt inside your newly cleaned out iMac.
I use a fan control app and do not set the RPMs for any of the fans any higher than 1500-1600 RPMs (the 2009 IMac fans usually default at 1100-1200 RPMs, so I only bring them up enough to keep the highest component temps below 60-65 degrees C.
Good Luck to you!

Help with Fan Speed/Temperature Monitoring - 875P Neo Series 2.0

Hi
My mobo manual doesn't explain the monitoring facilities available on this board and I would like confirmation of the following:
My P4 Northwood CPU Fan as supplied with P4 is connected to CFAN1 and provides monitoring of temperature and fan speed and also permits fan speed control.
My Northbridge Fan as supplied with mobo is connected to NBFAN1 and provides monitoring and control of fan speed. No temperature monitoring available.
My mobo provides monitoring of system temperature but doesn't say how this is measured and at what location.
There are two other 3-pin fan headers on the mobo; one is labelled SFAN1 with Gnd, +12V and the third pin NC and the other is labelled PFAN1 with Gnd, +12V and Sensor pins.
My new Antec 500W SmartPower 2.0 PSU has a monitoring cable that is wired with a black Gnd wire and a blue Sensor wire and, according to the Antec manual, is supposed to provide fan speed monitoring if connected to PFAN1 - I have tried this and get no information showing in either SpeedFan or Sandra. ???
My new Case fan, an Antec SmartCool, also has a monitoring cable but only has the third pin wired, presumably a sensor wire, and presumably could also be attached to PFAN1 instead of the PSU signal connector to provide fan speed monitoring. ??? Obviously I cannot connect both the PSU and Case Fan sensor cables to the mobo because the SFAN1 connection has no sensor pin connected; I presume this one is just a power supply to a fan as an alternative to using a supply line direct from the PSU.
Can anyone advise me on the correct use of the PFAN1 and SFAN1 connectors and what they are capable of.

- System temperature is measured at the Winbond W83627HF sensor chip located in front of your PCI slots.
- PFAN1 does indeed monitor PSU fan speed if the PSU has a fan speed reporting header. Not supported by some monitoring software (if Speedfan can't detect it, it doesn't support it. At least not until Alfredo's next revision).
- SFAN1 provides power only, no monitoring.
- Try a different monitoring software and see if it can detect the sensor monitoring your PFAN1. There are other monitoring software out there you can try, such as the CoreCenter that came with your motherboard, or Motherboard Monitor 5 or PCWizard (though you cannot adjust fan RPM through those programs).

Are my fan speed/temperature normal? Please answer quickly, warranty is expiring!

I have an MSI GF4 TI4200-8X.
I had some problems with my computer, when playing certaing games it freezes after a while, with reboot needed. I think I got down to my graphics card overheating. While using 3D turbo experience, I found out my fan speed was about 2700-2900 RPM (I think it is the minimum!!!) and my temperatures where around 52-55 idle. Today I noticed my fan slowed down, and it wasn't even showing fan activity, I tried pushing the fan a bit and it stopped completely. It has restarted again, with fan speed around 1700, after leaving the computer running for a while it got back to 2700 with slight variations to 2600 +-. The temperature went up to 58º!!! But I think it's "stable" now at 53º. What I'd like to know is if these values are normal for my graphics card. I couldn't find much information about this in this forum, one or two messages mencioned fan speeds around 3900-4000. As my board is still covered by warranty I'd like to know if I have reasons to send it back. So.......do I?

Quote
What does usually happen there when you have a graphics card under warranty, and it has a problem, you send it back right? And in the meanwhile? They give you a replacement until the other one comes back from repair (or even exchanged by a new one) ? I don't really know how these things work in these situations..
Like I said you will be without a card for a while. It could take weeks or posibly a month or more. It is not like a car. Contact the reseller to see if you still have a return possibilty with them, otherwise, you have to go to MSI for an RMA request.
An aftermarket cooler can be found at an online retailer or even at a Consumer Electronics SuperStore but I do not know what you have in your country. Thermaltake http://www.thermaltake.com/ has good products, perhaps you have a reseller in your area that sell their products.

MBP Fans speed up during minor operations

Hi everyone,
Something has happened to my MBP over the last few weeks. It always has been the case that whenever I have my MBP do a heavy operation (compressing HD video, for example) the fan kicks up to 6000rpm, as it should when all the computer's available resources are going to a heavy operation like that.
But now, I can just be browsing through a couple of different Firefox windows or have a few programs like Word or Excel open and the fan will kick up to 6000rpm again. And it won't quit unless I do something about it. I'll either have to close it up for a little while, or take it to the basement in my office where it's about as cool as a fridge. When I take it downstairs and set it on a cool surface, within about two minutes the fans have dropped back to 2000rpm.
Here are my readouts I get from when I have the MBP on my desk and it's up at 6000rpm versus after I've had it downstairs for a few minutes:
Before:
CPU: User 16% System 4% Nice: 0% Idle: 80%
Memory: Wired: 215MB Active: 538MB Inactive: 1.01GB Free: 1.25GB
Temps: HD Macintosh: 108F CPU A: 133F Enclosure Base: 99F GPU: 124F GPU Heatsink: 130F Heatsink A: 124F Heatsink B: 113F Mem Bank A1: 140F
Right Fan: 6001rpm
Left Fan: 5994rpm
After:
CPU: User 8% System 5% Nice: 0% Idle: 87%
Memory: Wired: 215MB Active: 539MB Inactive: 1.02GB Free: 1.25GB
Temps: HD Macintosh: 108F CPU A: 131F Enclosure Base: 97F GPU: 117F GPU Heatsink: 121F Heatsink A: 119F Heatsink B: 101F Mem Bank A1: 133F
Right Fan: 1994rpm
Left Fan: 2003rpm
And just now as I was writing this post, the numbers went back up to where they were before I brought down to the cool room. Any ideas?

That is always a problem--you need your Mac so you can't ship it off for repair because you can't do without it.
I think that Apple has some sort of a program where you pay an annual fee, and as one of the benefits, you can get a loaner if your Mac has to go off for repair. This may be something to consider.
Be sure and at least get a case number to document all the problems that are covered by your warranty, and be sure and send it off before the warranty expires. I still think the genius bar could run the AHT to see if you have a sensor problem or not. If you do, it is something that needs to be fixed at some point.
Good luck!

Qosmio F50-126 - Fan Speed never htting maximum

Hey
This issue been bothering me for a long time but was too lazy to post on it. When I boot up my notebook, you can hear the fan speed hitting its maximum RPM. But during gaming when the laptop is about to reach its maximum temperature to restart, the fan speed never hits its maxium RPM. It always seems to be about 50 percent when it about to hit the overheat threshold.
Can you tell me how to fix this issue so the notebook does us its fan maximum RPM during gaming or some other cpu/gpu intensive process?
I have all the lastest BIOS and drivers installed to date.

Hi
The fan speed is controlled by fan table which is stored in the BIOS.
Usually the fan speed would be set to a higher level only if an certain temperature level has been reached.
Furthermore the notebook would shut down automatically if the temperature level would be too high
If the unit runs stable, I would not be worried about the fan performance.

MSI H81M-P33 Cpu Fan Speed Problem! Urgent

Hi. Bought a H81M-P33 board and got a problem.
I can´t increase my CPU fan Speed to maxium RPM . Tried to use Command Center and Board Bios without any sucess.
This leads to my cpu (i5 4670) getting hot with stock cooler. When I´m encoding a video it reaches 85º. The best solution I had was to connect CPU Fan to Chassis Fan slot on the motherboard and it increased speed, but still it doesn´t increase past a certain value.
What can I do to solve this problem? Tried everything without any luck. The board doesn´t handle CPU fan speed + temperatura increase well. Is not normal to have a CPU stock volts getting hot.
Thanks

I know that for sure XFM. The thing is that the board isn´t increasing CPU fan speed as it should. Ofc a better cooler would do the job, but even with stock cooler it can be cooler. The problem is that the fan is always in slow mode :|

GT72 Domminator PRO Fan speed???

Hi guys ive had my dominator pro for about 1 month now and ive recently changed house now I don't know if im being paranoid but the gt72 CPU Fan speed seems to be running higher than usual constantly
the temperature while typing this 35-36 and CPU only 30 I would show you current fan speed but im not sure where I can view this im just wondering should my gt72 be almost silent??? which I think before it was its worrying me a lot and just would like some information
thanks all
jack

Check the fan speed in Dragon Gaming Center.
Are you running NVIDIA graphics(GPU mode) or the Intel graphics?
*check the GPU light, it'll light on when running NVIDIA graphics.

High fan speeds and high GPU temperature during idle

Hi,
I'm hearing slight similar problems around this subject but this one seems to be obscure.
My iMac 20inch (Early 2008 - 8,1) has just passed by the 3 year mark now and only yesterday just suddenly started haven't this weird gain in fan speeds mainly on the CPU.
Checking the temperature in iStat shows that its coming mainly from the GPU (GPU - 79c / GPU diode - 91c / GPU heatsink - 83c) and that's from looking as I type this.
I've done the SMC reset a few times and the PRAM reset too, but that's only managed to make things worse...occasionally on startup after the resets the screen will blank out and ask me to reset.
Below are screenshots from istats of the state of my iMac during idle:
Hope someone can help and this be of some help to others in the same situation.

I think a SMC reset will handle this for you. If not then also do a PRAM reset.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.
PRAM RESET
Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Fan Speeds and Temperatures 24" iMac 2.8GHz

What are the default fan speeds for a 24" iMac 2.8 GHz?
Also, what are the 'normal' temperatures for this computer?

The default iMac profile is the best for general use. For calibration get a Spyder 3 Pro: http://spyder.datacolor.com/product-mc-s3pro.php
George

IMac (early 2009), 3.06 GHz, ATI 4850 - fan speed and temperature questions

Well, so I downloaded and installed Temperature Monitor and iMac Fan Control - mainly for observational purposes and not for toying around with the fan speeds and I've got some questions. Mind you, I haven't tampered at all with the fan speed settings, just installed Fan Control. Here are my readings (while browsing the internet with Safari and doing a chat via iChat):
Fan Speeds:
CPU fan (desired) 1300 RPM / (current) 1530 RPM
HD fan (desired) 2100 RPM / (current) 2099 RPM
DVD fan (desired) 1300 / 1298 RPM
Temperatures:
CPU Heatsink: 92°F
Internal HD: 108°F
Internal DVD: 95°F
GPU Heatsink: 107°F
Are these, under the circumstances, normal readings?
Thanks in advance for your replies.

Your welcome and no problem. I would say only the Apple engineers can tell you why the fans are set to those speeds however my best guess is the obvious they found those speeds the closest to keeping the temps at an optimum operating temperature. I found when I'm doing graphics intensive work my machine heats up but quickly cools down when I'm done.

What's normal range temperature and fan speed for a 27" iMac?

I have a new iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 8GBs ram, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2048 MB.
Smc fan control reads up to about 131°F and around 1200rpm fan. Is this within normal range? At what point should I be worried?
Thanks

1200 rpm is the minimum fan speed according to iStat Menus and other sources. If your fans are at the minimum that means your system is not concerned about the temperature. On my system currently the fans are at minimum (1199rpm) and the temperature is 104°F. The room ambient temperature is 74°F. Your system looks normal to me. By the way, my system is also a 27-inch late 2013 iMac with the 3.5ghz I7 CPU. The Haswell CPUs are very efficient and low power.

IMac 27 5k (late 2014) fan runs low speed nonstop during sleep mode

Hi,
New to the Mac community. Had the iMac 27 5K for about a month now. I've noticed the fan in the back of the monitor runs on low the entire time it's in Sleep Mode. I need to put my ear up to the vent to hear the fan running but can definitely feel air blowing out of it even after it's been sleeping for a few hours. It runs on low throughout the night. The fan stops completely only when it's shut down. Since this is my first iMac, not sure if this is normal or not? Can anyone confirm or have the same occurrence? Thanks for your input.

UPDATE:
For anyone with the same issue with this model of iMac; the fan running on low when it's in sleep mode is NOT NORMAL. I eventually brought the computer into an Apple store. They ran diagnostics and nothing. This model being so new has not had many logged issues in their database. They were going to reinstall the OS but after I reiterated that the fan runs all throughout the night while in sleep mode they decided to exchange it for another new computer. As an aside I noticed a large spike in my electricity bill in the month I've had the iMac hence noticing the fan ran all the time while in sleep mode. Otherwise, I wouldn't have look into it as an issue. I'm pleased to say that with the new computer, when I put it into sleep mode, the fan stops. Hope this helps others who run into this problem.

Imac high fan speed and goes to sleep 10sec after wake-up

Hi,
Since today my imac's fan speed is high (optical fan and cpu fan speed at: 4000rpm)
Done a hardware test wich gives me 4SNS/1/40000001:IDSR-0.000 indicating something with logic board. According to istat all my temperatures are below 35°C (95°F). istat has readings for the cpu and optical drive temp (both around 26°C)
On top of that if I put my imac to sleep after wakeup (give or take) 10sec later it would go to sleep again. tried the smc reset procedure. no success
Any other tricks to try or just go for an exchange? (imac was bought on 2feb2010)

I've had this problem since replacing the MLB in my iMac a few weeks ago. Initially brought in for repair when the CPU fan came on at 4k rpm and stayed on even after SMC reset and nvram reset. First replacement MLB was a dud, second corrected the fan problems. Now I'm having the sleep issue, I can't tie it to any particular process. Initially I thought it was graphics related as it would go to sleep during graphics intensive work, but yesterday it was doing it when just copying data to an external drive. The temperatures of the CPU and the GPU diode are within spec. I now use a fan controller to keep the CPU fan at 2100rpm and the HD fan at 2100rpm and I don't have the problem. From what I can tell now is that a sensor is incorrectly reporting temperatures intermittently. It may not be the MLB or the graphics card specifically, but the cable connecting the sensor to the board. I ran AHT after the last time it did this and it failed a sensor, but after running ASD on the machine it passed all the hardware. I'm bringing it back into my shop later this month and if i can remember i'll post here with the resolution, not much I can do at home beyond software diagnostics.

IMac 27, i5/i7 - Fan speed / temperatures during gaming?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for