Someone explain Thermal Margin to me.

[Private_Ops]

Got an 880K on an Asrock A88M-G/3.1 .

Using AMD Overdrive. At idle I get between 50C and 55C. Is this my actual temp?

 

[LigTasm]

No, that is the distance between your temp and the maximum temp. If you start seeing less than 10C margin you're very hot.

 

[Private_Ops]

No, that is the distance between your temp and the maximum temp. If you start seeing less than 10C margin you're very hot.

Ok thanks.

I was thinking that was correct but, wasn't entirely sure. Google just turns up a bunch of rubbish searching.

 

[LigTasm]

Ok thanks.

I was thinking that was correct but, wasn't entirely sure. Google just turns up a bunch of rubbish searching.

Yeah, in that board particularly I found HWinfo to be very accurate (not all AMD boards - especially FM2- work with other programs than AOD) as well if you prefer the normal temp reading, but margin is just fine, its basically distance to "too hot".

 

[Pieter3dnow]

If you are overclocking ...
Some people say 10% margin I would suggest you never go there. And go between 15%-20% (load) unless you know what you are doing ...