I know this is the wrong thing to ask on April Fools Day, but do me a favour and please don't joke about this. ._.

I bought a latop (ASUS ROG GL552VW-DH71 Gaming Laptop 6th Generation Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz) 16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2 GB GDDR5 15.6" Windows 10 Home 64-Bit) a while back and it has been running pretty well lately, but I recently reinstalled Splinter Cell: Blacklist on my computer.

I found that, regardless of what settings I use, regardless of what FPS I limit it to (I set them all to 30 just to stay safe) the comp's temperature blasts right up from 40 degrees celcius straight 70 in less than five minutes of play. Given that it's such an old game running on an old engine and all, I thought that something probably wasn't right, but then again, I don't know what's the standard GPU temperature for playing games on a laptop. Most of the other games rarely push past 60 degrees celcius, this is the only one that seemed to jump so high up.

Is this normal? If anybody has played Blacklist before, have you noticed an abnormal increase in temperature as well?

Additionally: I have considered that it might be dust in my PC. I was considering using the compressed air dust remover in the fans to alleviate the possible issue, but my friend told me a while back that I should never do that on a laptop, though I can't find any concrete evidence for or against this practice. Thoughts?

Some (poorly written) games waste CPU/GPU power.

I had my computer overheat when playing La Mulana (remake), even though that game shouldn't be that demanding. The fix was to underclock the CPU.

In any case, try setting your laptop to power saving mode and run the game in that mode. Does it still run well?

Also, if integrated graphics are an option, try disabling the NVIDIA dedicated graphics and see whether the game runs fine on integrated,

GPUs have a higher limit for temperature than CPUs. Even 90C is ok'ish (though not recommended).

Try enabling vsync. No it's not a joke.

Well, below 60 is the ideal, but even slightly above 80 is not a problem. Above 90 is not recommended.

First question: Is the 70 degrees the CPU or the GPU? Older games do tend to use a single core, thus may raise the temperature more than newer multithreaded games, and there's also the possibility of algorithms (like pathing ones) to use as many resources as they can find, which does lead to problems.
No idea about Blacklist though, since I haven't had any experiences with it. I have used compressed air to clean my laptop before, though I did usually open it before doing so. The advice I recall was to make sure the fans cannot spin while you blow air in them, since that could cause them to spin too fast and fry the circuits. A toothpick or knife should be slim and sturdy enough to prevent the fans from spinning, unless you'd prefer to fully open the laptop for a thorough cleaning, but best not to do that unless you are certain of what you are doing (and you don't mind losing the laptop's guarantee).

GPU. I'm using NVidia Inspector, which if I'm not mistaken only measures GPU but not CPU.
I'll try that about the fan, thanks!

PS: Aw, I can't give multiple solutions a "Solution" anymore.

Every GPU should have a spec which should contain maximal temperature and, ideally, also optimal one. Maximum is all you really need tho - GPU routinely closing in on it = bad

Edit: Looking at 960M spec that I found, it contains no such information. Well... Thanks NVidia I guess?

Heh, I always do. :P But if I'm not mistaken, all that does is limit framerate, which I do already. It runs well in Power Saver, but not integrated graphics. The former continues to get hot, the latter stays at around 55.

@Everybody who said 70 is fine
Thanks for that, I'm just worrying because my fan starts to spin abnormally crazy and loud in these cases so I'm thinking maybe I'm damaging my computer somehow. I have really bad luck with electronics. XD

While GPUs can tolerate a higher temperature than CPU's, I'd still limit it to mid 70's at most. I haven't played SC: Blacklist but as dtgreene said, there are games that waste GPU power, Aarklash Legacy for example is one of them, brought my GPU to 70 degrees at some point.

well i heat mine up to 600 C°, its the perfect temp to grill some wieners

Yeah, that can happen sometimes, when you place the computer on your lap.

Happens when I place strippers on my lap. :D