Safe temps for vid card and CPU in heatwave

I have a high-performance gaming PC and have programmed Everest to alert me and suspend the offending program when the GPU temp hits 80 degrees C. A few gfx-intensive games occasionally trigger the alarm although I try not to overtax my PC during a SoCal Summer heatwave with no a/c. Obviously I would prefer to err on the side of caution but is 80 degrees over-cautious?

The CPU is water-cooled and does not get up into the 80s but what do you think I should set the CPU temp alert for?

Many thanks, as always.

It wouldn't hurt if you mentioned which cpu you have;)

Sorry Steve, here are CPU and GPU specs:

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core): Factory o/c between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz

1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 2GB (Includes PhysX Technology)

The book says 67.9C is max for your CPU. Forgot max temp for your GPU. Good case ventilation? Will need a fan blowing directly on the vidcard most likely.

Yup, good case ventilation, it's a purpose-built, ventilated case with plentiful fans and it is not enclosed in an alcove, or other closed-in space.

If anyone can advise re. GPU max temp, I'd be very grateful.

for GFX: 80C is a good spot for a warning, maybe 85. It should function up to mid 90s, and start artifacting before any permanent damage is done. However, if temps are getting this high then there *is* an airflow problem, most easily solved by ramping up the fan on the gpu. Spec is idle at 40% which is really not very adequate; i suggest a minimum of 60% if ambient temps are anything over 80F.

CPU temp alert should be utterly irrelevant if the water cooling is worth a damn at all. Max is most certainly higher than 67.9C (not sure where you dug up that number Oz)

Great information, Fluffmonster, many thanks.

I'll need to do a little research on how to change fan settings; I don't even know where the user interface might be found or if it's a hardware or software setting. Must be some kind of firmware, right?

Thanks for letting me know that 80C (not F, surely?) is a good ballpark number for the warning. Most games do not even trouble it, and never on non-Summer days. In a Summer heatwave,however, the un-taxed daytime GPU temp goes to about 51-55C; in those circumstances, I see most games pushing the GPU from there to about 75-78C, with the most graphically intense ones occasionally triggering the alarm.

Yup, the water-cooling is very effective. I have a temp alert set for that, too, but it never gets anywhere near it.

There are apps that will allow control of the fan speed. I use eVGA Precision which is derived from Rivatuner. I'm sure a google search will turn up several options.

I didn't get my Cs and Fs crossed....80C on the card is a good warning trigger, and I bump up the fan when *ambient* temps get above 80F.