So I recently obtained a Dell Precision M4400 Laptop, equipped with a Core 2 Duo and an Nvidia quadro FX 770M, which is apparently quite capable of playing many games. However, I noticed that while in game, the GPU has gotten all the way up to 90 Degrees Celsius, which seems a bit worrying to me. The laptop has lots of ventilation room, so nothing is blocking the way of the fans and such. The CPU temperatures are fine, but I didn't know if that is getting to the point where something might be damaged from the heat.

Can anyone who owns a laptop and games on it shed some light on this for me? It'd be much appreciated.

Did you steal it?

Fell of the back of a truck perhaps?

I joke I joke :-P

I don't own a laptop, but I know that more heat = not good. I also don't know the specifics, but some components can run pretty hot, especially if it's "quite capable of playing many games". If the component is liable to run hot by default, then I wouldn't worry too much, since such things are (usually) taken into account when assembling a laptop. If you realise that such components don't normally run hot, then something might be wrong with the card or the cooling system (insufficient, disconnected, full of dust...).

As with most newer (cheaper) laptops these days, they all have horrible ventilation and shit components :(.
My own laptop idles around 60-70C, 80-90+C when gaming none taxing games (like minecraft) :p.

One thing that might be causing your high temperature is a damaged motherboard and or the GPU itself, might want to check that out.

(note that the laptop should turn off by itself when going above (around) 100C)

It was the reverse for me - my CPU was blazing hot, around 75C while gaming, and 60 on idle. The GPU was a constant 50-60. (Witcher 2 turned my comp off, though!)

Turns out it was collecting dust inside - just because I had it on my bed once or twice - went over the vent shaft with a vacuum hose and idle temp was 50C, and it never reached 70 at all again.

I have a Toshiba with a nVidia 7900gtx and high temperatures are a constant problem with such high end cards. Mine could work at 107°C, but performance issues were visible at 95°C.

Your 90°C is also too much, you should open it, clean your fans and heat sinks and appy new thermal paste on your GPU.
After doing this my GPU is 55°C idle and doesn't go over 80°C on max load even after 3 hours of gaming.

Well, a Dell Precision configured like that is neither new nor cheap, nor does it use "shit" components. However, no laptop is really up to full-time GPU computing; others report that the 770M goes over temp and fails when running apps like Folding@Home. Games, especially games that chew up and spit out mid-range GPUs like TW2 does, are almost as hard on the GPU.

Actually, if it doesn't go into thermal limiting (you can tell, everything will slow down dramatically), it's OK. nVidia GPUs running at 90C are not unusual. Just make sure that all that hot air has somewhere to go.

@Reaver894 Graduation present, actually. :P

@Cjrgreen Nope, nothing ever slowed down, always played fine, and I always make sure that when I game it's on a hard table with plenty of room.

I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure the fine engineers at Dell know exactly what they are doing.

As long as it is below the temp that burns the balls, it is good. The laptop can be replaced:)

Lol your lucky with 90c

I have a laptop with C2D 2ghz and GTX260M and when playing metro it will go to 98C and the fan will be on 100% all the time after that.

keep in mind that anything over 95 degrees isn't going to be comfortable on the lap, and much over 80 probably shouldn't be sitting on the lap for very long.

Needless to say that gaming laptops are sort of odd.

It may be that the heatsink was poorly placed but if its new you'd probably not want to be pulling it apart to reposition components quite this fast. I'd suggest a laptop cooler, I've got a cooler master notepal a2 for my netbook. Before I got it, it got uncomfortably warm, now its cooler than room temperature.

It may not make as significant a difference for a gaming laptop but even if it takes the temperature down 10 degrees its still helping it

I don't put it on my lap when gaming, so that's not an issue.

That's getting pretty hot but many Nvidia cards can function fine up to 100C. Anything reaching or above that though and you better start looking into cooling options. Gaming laptops are tricky as it's hard to keeps temps down when you have such powerful hardware crammed in limited space. And that's not even mentioning over clocking any of the hardware. A laptop cooler may not be a bad idea. Not sure if 90C is high enough to reduce the lifetime of your GPU but anything above that certainly will, let alone any fans running constantly trying to keep that air moving.