CPU throttling issue, struggling to find reason behind it.

[Koolsk8boarder]

Hello, I am looking for any kind of insight on an issue I am having.
My cpu seems to be throttling very often when playing a game, world of
warcraft, but I cannot figure out what the cause is. My system specs
are as follows:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(tm)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320mb
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI ATX12V 600W Power Supply
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB
Cache Serial ATA150
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel
Motherboard
Operating System: Windows XP Professional 32 bit

My cpu runs at 34 C idle, and about 40 when gaming. It is surely not
an overheating issue, and I do not have speedstep or anything of the
likes turned on in the BIOS. I will have stuttering type lag, causing
the game to freeze for a second basically, and it happens often. My
fps is also being cut by this. By monitoring my CPU with rightmark, I
have noticed that both cores of the cpu are throttling a bit,
basically whenever a pause occurs. It throttles from 2.4 to maybe
2.2, but its enough to cause the lag. Sometimes it will spike as low
as 1400 and return right back to normal. I am looking for any insight
on what else could cause something like this, as I am clueless and
unaware on how to treat this. The only thing I can think of now is
replacing the cpu :/

 

[kony]

On Thu, 22 Nov 2007 22:12:23 -0800 (PST),

Hello, I am looking for any kind of insight on an issue I am having.
My cpu seems to be throttling very often when playing a game, world of
warcraft, but I cannot figure out what the cause is.

If it is actually CPU throttling, there is only one cause:
overheating. IF that is the cause, look at CPU:heatsink
interface, case cooling, ambient temps, and (less common)
whether CPU is running a the right vCore.

My system specs
are as follows:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(tm)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320mb

Since you have modern GPU, I should ask if it's possible
only your video card is overheating? What exactly is the
evidence of the problem?

Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI ATX12V 600W Power Supply
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB
Cache Serial ATA150
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel
Motherboard
Operating System: Windows XP Professional 32 bit

My cpu runs at 34 C idle, and about 40 when gaming. It is surely not
an overheating issue, and I do not have speedstep or anything of the
likes turned on in the BIOS. I will have stuttering type lag, causing
the game to freeze for a second basically, and it happens often.

Does it happen at regular intervals? You might need to
rerun the game to check this. If so, suspect hardware
monitoring and/or software utils. checking this (and disable
those temporarily to see if it makes a difference).

My
fps is also being cut by this. By monitoring my CPU with rightmark, I
have noticed that both cores of the cpu are throttling a bit,
basically whenever a pause occurs. It throttles from 2.4 to maybe
2.2, but its enough to cause the lag.

Nevertheless, you should attack all weaknesses to eliminate
variables. Get the CPU cooling tot the point where it
doesn't happen, deal with the known issues and THEN deal
with what remains. The odd part is the CPU temp is only 40,
but it still throttles. I would suspect a bios bug in
reporting temp and seek a bios update hoping it addresses
this issue (not necessarily a resolution but at least to
have accurate CPU temp report).

Sometimes it will spike as low
as 1400 and return right back to normal. I am looking for any insight
on what else could cause something like this, as I am clueless and
unaware on how to treat this. The only thing I can think of now is
replacing the cpu :/

That is not a likey resolution. Check CPU vCore. Check
that heatsink doesn't have a mounting problem like a stud
not gripping in the motherboard hole. Take heatsink off and
reapply a thin layer of grease if necessary. I suggest you
ignore games for the moment and run a CPU stress test like
Prime95's Torture test, while watching and refreshing CPU-Z.
IF there are every errors OR the CPU speed drops, you should
look at CPU cooling problems first.

 

[GT]

Hello, I am looking for any kind of insight on an issue I am having.
My cpu seems to be throttling very often when playing a game, world of
warcraft, but I cannot figure out what the cause is. My system specs
are as follows:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(tm)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 320mb
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI ATX12V 600W Power Supply
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB
Cache Serial ATA150
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel
Motherboard
Operating System: Windows XP Professional 32 bit

My cpu runs at 34 C idle, and about 40 when gaming. It is surely not
an overheating issue, and I do not have speedstep or anything of the
likes turned on in the BIOS. I will have stuttering type lag, causing
the game to freeze for a second basically, and it happens often. My
fps is also being cut by this. By monitoring my CPU with rightmark, I
have noticed that both cores of the cpu are throttling a bit,
basically whenever a pause occurs. It throttles from 2.4 to maybe
2.2, but its enough to cause the lag. Sometimes it will spike as low
as 1400 and return right back to normal.

Your problem has to be heat. There are several temperature values for the
Core 2 CPUs. Each core has a temperature sensor and there is a sensor in the
middle of the 'gap' (I forget what this 'gap' sensor is called). If you are
seeing 34C idle and 40C under load as the 'CPU' temperature, then this might
be the 'gap' temperature, for which 34-40 is quite high.

With a 'gap' temperature of 31C, I get both cores around the 40C mark. When
my 'gap' temperature rises to mid-high 30s, the core temperatures go to the
low 50s, so if your 'gap' temperature is reaching 40C, then your core
temperatures could be reaching mid-high 50s which, I guess, must be in the
throttle zone.

Download Speedfan or Everest (both free) and look at the temperatures in
there. You will find you get temperatures for your Hard disks, a temperature
for each CPU core and 2 other temperatures. One of these other temperatures
is your CPU 'gap' temperature and the other one is probably the motherboard
chipset temperature. You may of course have other temperatures in there, but
they are not labelled helpfully, so you have to figure out which is which
yourself - when the CPU moves from idle to load, the temperature that
changes by several degrees, quickly is your 'gap' temperature.

That graphics card will generate plenty of heat too, so your case is
probably pretty warm, so one thing you could try immediately, is remove the
case/side from your computer and make sure there is a fan or some airflow
pointing into the case, then see if it overheats. If it still overheats and
throttles down the CPU, then your CPU fan/heatsink is not fixed on or
perhaps not working properly. Check the fan and heatsink for dust - perhaps
it has all become clogged.

 

[Koolsk8boarder]

Your problem has to be heat. There are several temperature values for the
Core 2 CPUs. Each core has a temperature sensor and there is a sensor in the
middle of the 'gap' (I forget what this 'gap' sensor is called). If you are
seeing 34C idle and 40C under load as the 'CPU' temperature, then this might
be the 'gap' temperature, for which 34-40 is quite high.

With a 'gap' temperature of 31C, I get both cores around the 40C mark. When
my 'gap' temperature rises to mid-high 30s, the core temperatures go to the
low 50s, so if your 'gap' temperature is reaching 40C, then your core
temperatures could be reaching mid-high 50s which, I guess, must be in the
throttle zone.

Download Speedfan or Everest (both free) and look at the temperatures in
there. You will find you get temperatures for your Hard disks, a temperature
for each CPU core and 2 other temperatures. One of these other temperatures
is your CPU 'gap' temperature and the other one is probably the motherboard
chipset temperature. You may of course have other temperatures in there, but
they are not labelled helpfully, so you have to figure out which is which
yourself - when the CPU moves from idle to load, the temperature that
changes by several degrees, quickly is your 'gap' temperature.

That graphics card will generate plenty of heat too, so your case is
probably pretty warm, so one thing you could try immediately, is remove the
case/side from your computer and make sure there is a fan or some airflow
pointing into the case, then see if it overheats. If it still overheats and
throttles down the CPU, then your CPU fan/heatsink is not fixed on or
perhaps not working properly. Check the fan and heatsink for dust - perhaps
it has all become clogged.

Hey, thanks for the advice. I have downloaded speed fan, and after
looking at the temps, I have found it displaying both my cpu cores at
about 33 C, but there is Core 0, Core 1, and then just plain Core.
The plain core, which I assume may be the gap temp you speak of, is
sitting at 53 C. So assuming that this in fact is the gap temp, I
suppose this needs to be looked in to. I just find it odd, as I use a
Zalmans fan/heat sink on my cpu, it has a good deal of fans in it too,
so overheating hasn't been a problem. There isn't much dust either,
as I regularly clean it out with compressed air. I suppose the best
thing I could do is remount the zalman fan?

 

[Koolsk8boarder]

Hey, thanks for the advice. I have downloaded speed fan, and after
looking at the temps, I have found it displaying both my cpu cores at
about 33 C, but there is Core 0, Core 1, and then just plain Core.
The plain core, which I assume may be the gap temp you speak of, is
sitting at 53 C. So assuming that this in fact is the gap temp, I
suppose this needs to be looked in to. I just find it odd, as I use a
Zalmans fan/heat sink on my cpu, it has a good deal of fans in it too,
so overheating hasn't been a problem. There isn't much dust either,
as I regularly clean it out with compressed air. I suppose the best
thing I could do is remount the zalman fan?

Hmm, forget what I said That is actually my video card, and thats a
pretty normal temp for this card. I actually can't exactly see a temp
that would be the gap temp. The only other temp thats somewhat high
is the one labeled as Temp 1, part of the ISA bus, at 41 C. Other
then that, the only thing that strikes me as odd is the Vcore
voltages. I noticed Vcore 1 and Vcore 2, with vcore 1 having a 1.22V,
and vcore 2 having 1.90V. Just curious why the 2nd one is so much
higher, as I don't know what it pertains to. Just from looking at
this, it really doesn't seem like an overheating problem, even tho the
cpu is throttling :[

 

[kony]

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:58:16 -0800 (PST),

Hmm, forget what I said That is actually my video card, and thats a
pretty normal temp for this card. I actually can't exactly see a temp
that would be the gap temp. The only other temp thats somewhat high
is the one labeled as Temp 1, part of the ISA bus, at 41 C. Other
then that, the only thing that strikes me as odd is the Vcore
voltages. I noticed Vcore 1 and Vcore 2, with vcore 1 having a 1.22V,
and vcore 2 having 1.90V. Just curious why the 2nd one is so much
higher, as I don't know what it pertains to. Just from looking at
this, it really doesn't seem like an overheating problem, even tho the
cpu is throttling :[

41C or even 50-something C is not high enough to cause a
problem. However, you need to know your video card temp
while gaming, it is not relevant to gaming freezes to know
the video card temp when not gaming as the gaming 3D mode
switch can cause a higher GPU voltage to be set, as well as
the GPU doing more work to produce more heat.

A video card may cause a freeze momentarily due to
instability, whether that instability be caused by
overheating, poor power to it, video card degradation (like
bad capacitors on it). If the processor were getting too
hot and it throttled down to a lower speed, the game would
then run much slower, instead of freezing.

If it freezes instead of just running slower, it is far more
likely a video card issue, not CPU.

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh interweb kony typed:

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:58:16 -0800 (PST),

Hmm, forget what I said That is actually my video card, and thats
a pretty normal temp for this card. I actually can't exactly see a
temp that would be the gap temp. The only other temp thats somewhat
high is the one labeled as Temp 1, part of the ISA bus, at 41 C.
Other then that, the only thing that strikes me as odd is the Vcore
voltages. I noticed Vcore 1 and Vcore 2, with vcore 1 having a
1.22V, and vcore 2 having 1.90V. Just curious why the 2nd one is so
much higher, as I don't know what it pertains to. Just from looking
at this, it really doesn't seem like an overheating problem, even
tho the cpu is throttling :[

41C or even 50-something C is not high enough to cause a
problem. However, you need to know your video card temp
while gaming, it is not relevant to gaming freezes to know
the video card temp when not gaming as the gaming 3D mode
switch can cause a higher GPU voltage to be set, as well as
the GPU doing more work to produce more heat.

A video card may cause a freeze momentarily due to
instability, whether that instability be caused by
overheating, poor power to it, video card degradation (like
bad capacitors on it). If the processor were getting too
hot and it throttled down to a lower speed, the game would
then run much slower, instead of freezing.

If it freezes instead of just running slower, it is far more
likely a video card issue, not CPU.

Sk8, on Speedfan's "Chart" tab, set it to monitor "core". Do a bit of
hard-out gaming then exit to Windows and see what the GPU temp went up to.
You'll have to be quick as it will only retain the last minute or two of
temps. You can also do this with the CPU core temps.

Luck,

 

[Koolsk8boarder]

Hmm, forget what I said That is actually my video card, and thats a
pretty normal temp for this card. I actually can't exactly see a temp
that would be the gap temp. The only other temp thats somewhat high
is the one labeled as Temp 1, part of the ISA bus, at 41 C. Other
then that, the only thing that strikes me as odd is the Vcore
voltages. I noticed Vcore 1 and Vcore 2, with vcore 1 having a 1.22V,
and vcore 2 having 1.90V. Just curious why the 2nd one is so much
higher, as I don't know what it pertains to. Just from looking at
this, it really doesn't seem like an overheating problem, even tho the
cpu is throttling :[

41C or even 50-something C is not high enough to cause a
problem. However, you need to know your video card temp
while gaming, it is not relevant to gaming freezes to know
the video card temp when not gaming as the gaming 3D mode
switch can cause a higher GPU voltage to be set, as well as
the GPU doing more work to produce more heat.

A video card may cause a freeze momentarily due to
instability, whether that instability be caused by
overheating, poor power to it, video card degradation (like
bad capacitors on it). If the processor were getting too
hot and it throttled down to a lower speed, the game would
then run much slower, instead of freezing.

If it freezes instead of just running slower, it is far more
likely a video card issue, not CPU.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

The only reason I did not consider that is because for awhile now the
GPU has run at about 61 C when gaming, and it had never been a
problem. I even read that the 8800 GTS usually runs that hot, or
hotter, and shows no signs of problem. I just suspect the cpu due to
the fact that it seems to throttle a lot for no apparent reason. The
power supply used on the card is substantial so I don't see that being
an issue. I suppose I could look into installing a new fan on the gpu
to help cool it, but I have trouble believing it is the source of the
problem as it is fairly new (1 month old). Aside from a benchmark, is
there any reliable stress test or something that I could run for the
video card, to help narrow down the problem?

 

[Koolsk8boarder]

Somewhere on teh interweb kony typed:

@excite.com wrote:

My cpu runs at 34 C idle, and about 40 when gaming. It is surely
not an overheating issue, and I do not have speedstep or anything
of the likes turned on in the BIOS. I will have stuttering type
lag, causing the game to freeze for a second basically, and it
happens often. My fps is also being cut by this. By monitoring
my CPU with rightmark, I have noticed that both cores of the cpu
are throttling a bit, basically whenever a pause occurs. It
throttles from 2.4 to maybe
2.2, but its enough to cause the lag. Sometimes it will spike as
low as 1400 and return right back to normal.
Hmm, forget what I said That is actually my video card, and thats
a pretty normal temp for this card. I actually can't exactly see a
temp that would be the gap temp. The only other temp thats somewhat
high is the one labeled as Temp 1, part of the ISA bus, at 41 C.
Other then that, the only thing that strikes me as odd is the Vcore
voltages. I noticed Vcore 1 and Vcore 2, with vcore 1 having a
1.22V, and vcore 2 having 1.90V. Just curious why the 2nd one is so
much higher, as I don't know what it pertains to. Just from looking
at this, it really doesn't seem like an overheating problem, even
tho the cpu is throttling :[

41C or even 50-something C is not high enough to cause a
problem. However, you need to know your video card temp
while gaming, it is not relevant to gaming freezes to know
the video card temp when not gaming as the gaming 3D mode
switch can cause a higher GPU voltage to be set, as well as
the GPU doing more work to produce more heat.

A video card may cause a freeze momentarily due to
instability, whether that instability be caused by
overheating, poor power to it, video card degradation (like
bad capacitors on it). If the processor were getting too
hot and it throttled down to a lower speed, the game would
then run much slower, instead of freezing.

If it freezes instead of just running slower, it is far more
likely a video card issue, not CPU.

Sk8, on Speedfan's "Chart" tab, set it to monitor "core". Do a bit of
hard-out gaming then exit to Windows and see what the GPU temp went up to.
You'll have to be quick as it will only retain the last minute or two of
temps. You can also do this with the CPU core temps.

Luck,

Hi, misfit, thanks for that. I usually run the temp monitor provided
by Nvidia, and when gaming it never exceeds 61 C. When idle, it is
around 55 C. Seems a bit on the high end, but from experience the GPU
normally tends to run pretty hot. Like I previously said, this has
not been an issue before, so I am not sure why it would be now.

 

[kony]

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:05:12 -0800 (PST),

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

The only reason I did not consider that is because for awhile now the
GPU has run at about 61 C when gaming, and it had never been a
problem. I even read that the 8800 GTS usually runs that hot, or
hotter, and shows no signs of problem. I just suspect the cpu due to
the fact that it seems to throttle a lot for no apparent reason.

What is "it" in the above sentence, do you mean system
freezes or games freeze or you have direct evidence that the
CPU frequency is reduced?

Overheating CPU does not generally cause freezing when it
has a throttling capability. Overheating CPU generally
causes crashing, errors, rebooting, or complete system
shutoff if temp continues to climb. There are rare cases
where a very instable CPU will cause freezing but this is
such a narrow opportunity that it tends to happen outside of
games, typically a system in this state wouldn't even be
able to boot windows at all.


Try running Prime95's torture test, large in-place FFTs
setting. See if errors are produced, and load up a realtime
CPU frequency monitoring utility (Google will find some).

If the Prime95 test doesn't cause errors or change in clock
speed, it would seem you don't have a CPU overheating
problem.

The
power supply used on the card is substantial so I don't see that being
an issue.

If you mean the card's onboard power circuitry, that is
exactly why it is more likely a problem, that there is more
to go wrong, more power used, more heat. The power
subcircuit on a cheap low end card is very simple and hardly
ever has problems unless overclocked a lot, or defective
capacitors are used (or someone tries to make it passive in
a badly cooled system which overheats it).

I suppose I could look into installing a new fan on the gpu
to help cool it, but I have trouble believing it is the source of the
problem as it is fairly new (1 month old).

You would expect it to wait until it's older to overheat?
That seems unlikely to me, unless it was the result of a fan
failure or dust buildup.

On the other hand, maybe this new addition to the system has
strained your PSU, is it a trustworthy brand of adequate 12V
current rating for the system? You might measure voltage
with a multimeter while reproducing the freezing,
preferribly taking the measurement at the video card
connector instead of an unused connector.

Aside from a benchmark, is
there any reliable stress test or something that I could run for the
video card, to help narrow down the problem?

Why not go ahead and run benchmarks to see if it reproduces
the problem?

Anything that causes the freezing would narrow down the
problem, depending on whether that cause is stressing the
video card. Opening the case and pointing a strong fan
directly at the video card while running a test or game that
causes freezing, then comparing the frequency of the
freezing would tend to suggest overheating video card. It
produces a lot of heat, perhaps the temp monitor for it is
wrong and it is not at 61C. Since it takes a little while
for heat to build up, the sooner it freezes when gaming the
more likely it is power instead of heat to blame.

Again I suggest that momentary freezing during gaming is
usually (almost always) a video card problem of some sort,
of it's hardware state (not driver related, usually, but
perhaps if it only happened in a single game then drivers or
a game patch might also be looked into, except that some
games stress different parts of the GPU to a greater or
lesser extent so even trying a few games isn't a direct
indicator of this unless you know if each relatively
stresses the card the same).

If all else fails you might try the card in another system
or another card in that system.

 

[Koolsk8boarder]

What is "it" in the above sentence, do you mean system
freezes or games freeze or you have direct evidence that the
CPU frequency is reduced?

Overheating CPU does not generally cause freezing when it
has a throttling capability. Overheating CPU generally
causes crashing, errors, rebooting, or complete system
shutoff if temp continues to climb. There are rare cases
where a very instable CPU will cause freezing but this is
such a narrow opportunity that it tends to happen outside of
games, typically a system in this state wouldn't even be
able to boot windows at all.

Try running Prime95's torture test, large in-place FFTs
setting. See if errors are produced, and load up a realtime
CPU frequency monitoring utility (Google will find some).

If the Prime95 test doesn't cause errors or change in clock
speed, it would seem you don't have a CPU overheating
problem.


If you mean the card's onboard power circuitry, that is
exactly why it is more likely a problem, that there is more
to go wrong, more power used, more heat. The power
subcircuit on a cheap low end card is very simple and hardly
ever has problems unless overclocked a lot, or defective
capacitors are used (or someone tries to make it passive in
a badly cooled system which overheats it).


You would expect it to wait until it's older to overheat?
That seems unlikely to me, unless it was the result of a fan
failure or dust buildup.

On the other hand, maybe this new addition to the system has
strained your PSU, is it a trustworthy brand of adequate 12V
current rating for the system? You might measure voltage
with a multimeter while reproducing the freezing,
preferribly taking the measurement at the video card
connector instead of an unused connector.


Why not go ahead and run benchmarks to see if it reproduces
the problem?

Anything that causes the freezing would narrow down the
problem, depending on whether that cause is stressing the
video card. Opening the case and pointing a strong fan
directly at the video card while running a test or game that
causes freezing, then comparing the frequency of the
freezing would tend to suggest overheating video card. It
produces a lot of heat, perhaps the temp monitor for it is
wrong and it is not at 61C. Since it takes a little while
for heat to build up, the sooner it freezes when gaming the
more likely it is power instead of heat to blame.

Again I suggest that momentary freezing during gaming is
usually (almost always) a video card problem of some sort,
of it's hardware state (not driver related, usually, but
perhaps if it only happened in a single game then drivers or
a game patch might also be looked into, except that some
games stress different parts of the GPU to a greater or
lesser extent so even trying a few games isn't a direct
indicator of this unless you know if each relatively
stresses the card the same).

If all else fails you might try the card in another system
or another card in that system.

When referring to it, I mean the game freezes. Basically, I run it
with vert sync on and triple buffering, so the FPS is capped at 60.
When the freezes occur, its kind of like a stuttering lag. The fps
will shoot from 60 to 40ish instantly, causing a momentary pause so to
speak. I mention it may be the cause of the CPU because when running
RightMark clock utility, I notice a lot of small throttles which I
thought might be a cause.

The PSU I use is OCZ GameXStream 600W, and the 12V rails are more then
enough for the 8800 GTS. I have used it for nearly 2 months now, and
it has been good so far. I have been monitoring the temp with
SpeedFan and I noticed it has spiked from 61 C to 67 C at times. The
only reason I find it hard to believe it was the card is because it
has always run at this temp, and I am just recently having these
issues. Just from what I have read about the card, it is normally
this hot, and most of all, GPU's tend to run hotter in some
instances. I will look more into it tho, monitoring voltages and
seeing what I come up with after benchmarking. Thanks.

 

[~misfit~]

Somewhere on teh interweb (e-mail address removed) typed:

Hi, misfit, thanks for that. I usually run the temp monitor provided
by Nvidia, and when gaming it never exceeds 61 C. When idle, it is
around 55 C. Seems a bit on the high end, but from experience the GPU
normally tends to run pretty hot. Like I previously said, this has
not been an issue before, so I am not sure why it would be now.

Hey there, from reading Kony's suggestions (always good) and your replies
I'm beginning to think it could be software related. RightMark's CPU Clock
Utility will always show 'spikes' unless the CPU is under 100% load. I'd
leave that out of the equation for now. One further check you could do if
your CPU temps are good, and they seem to be, is raise your vcore in BIOS a
tad, then re-test (remember to put it back after). Some mobos undervolt C2Ds
on default.

However, from where I'm sitting, all hardware appears fine.

Luck

 

[Koolsk8boarder]

Somewhere on teh interweb (e-mail address removed) typed:



Hey there, from reading Kony's suggestions (always good) and your replies
I'm beginning to think it could be software related. RightMark's CPU Clock
Utility will always show 'spikes' unless the CPU is under 100% load. I'd
leave that out of the equation for now. One further check you could do if
your CPU temps are good, and they seem to be, is raise your vcore in BIOS a
tad, then re-test (remember to put it back after). Some mobos undervolt C2Ds
on default.

However, from where I'm sitting, all hardware appears fine.

Luck

Oh okay, thanks for the info. I did run Prime95 last night when I
went to sleep, after 10 hours it was still going with no errors, so I
suppose the CPU is pretty solid. I don't think cpu temps are an issue
at all, with the zalman's and arctic silver 5, it has been solid temp
wise. I guess I will look further into the video card and see if I
can get it running cooler to check for a difference. It is possible
that it's the game, as with the latest patch there have been numerous
complaints, but that seems to happen with every new patch release.
They have not acknowledged a known issue tho, and most people are
having no trouble. With a system like mine, I don't expect it to have
trouble in something like World of Warcraft. I will look into testing
my video card and seeing what I can find. I really hope if it is the
issue, its only temp, and not some kind of damage to it :[

 

[jaster]

My cpu runs at 34 C idle, and about 40 when gaming. It is
surely not an overheating issue, and I do not have speedstep or
anything of the likes turned on in the BIOS. I will have
stuttering type lag, causing the game to freeze for a second
basically, and it happens often. My fps is also being cut by
this. By monitoring my CPU with rightmark, I have noticed that
both cores of the cpu are throttling a bit, basically whenever a
pause occurs. It throttles from 2.4 to maybe 2.2, but its
enough to cause the lag. Sometimes it will spike as low as 1400
and return right back to normal.

Hmm, forget what I said That is actually my video card, and thats a
pretty normal temp for this card. I actually can't exactly see a temp
that would be the gap temp. The only other temp thats somewhat high
is the one labeled as Temp 1, part of the ISA bus, at 41 C. Other
then that, the only thing that strikes me as odd is the Vcore
voltages. I noticed Vcore 1 and Vcore 2, with vcore 1 having a 1.22V,
and vcore 2 having 1.90V. Just curious why the 2nd one is so much
higher, as I don't know what it pertains to. Just from looking at
this, it really doesn't seem like an overheating problem, even tho the
cpu is throttling :[

41C or even 50-something C is not high enough to cause a problem.
However, you need to know your video card temp while gaming, it is not
relevant to gaming freezes to know the video card temp when not gaming
as the gaming 3D mode switch can cause a higher GPU voltage to be set,
as well as the GPU doing more work to produce more heat.

A video card may cause a freeze momentarily due to instability, whether
that instability be caused by overheating, poor power to it, video card
degradation (like bad capacitors on it). If the processor were getting
too hot and it throttled down to a lower speed, the game would then run
much slower, instead of freezing.

If it freezes instead of just running slower, it is far more likely a
video card issue, not CPU.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

The only reason I did not consider that is because for awhile now the
GPU has run at about 61 C when gaming, and it had never been a problem.
I even read that the 8800 GTS usually runs that hot, or hotter, and
shows no signs of problem. I just suspect the cpu due to the fact that
it seems to throttle a lot for no apparent reason. The power supply
used on the card is substantial so I don't see that being an issue. I
suppose I could look into installing a new fan on the gpu to help cool
it, but I have trouble believing it is the source of the problem as it
is fairly new (1 month old). Aside from a benchmark, is there any
reliable stress test or something that I could run for the video card,
to help narrow down the problem?

I'm experiencing similiar problems to you. Since about 3 months ago
after an OS crash, all 3D games seem to studder when played when they
played normally before. Other programs take a long time to boot, anti-
virus, anti-spyware, memtest86 and Hijack programs do not show any
malware or problems.

My HD seems to run and sporadically, so that's suspect, and since I have
a 3gb SATA running on 1.5gb SATA motherboard I think I need to throttle
back the SATA to 1.5gb. As soon as I clean up some space I'll do a full
backup and low level format the drive.

Other suspects are my CPU and motherboard next on my list, brand new PSU
didn't fix the problem.

 

[GT]

Hey, thanks for the advice. I have downloaded speed fan, and after
looking at the temps, I have found it displaying both my cpu cores at
about 33 C, but there is Core 0, Core 1, and then just plain Core.
The plain core, which I assume may be the gap temp you speak of, is
sitting at 53 C. So assuming that this in fact is the gap temp, I
suppose this needs to be looked in to. I just find it odd, as I use a
Zalmans fan/heat sink on my cpu, it has a good deal of fans in it too,
so overheating hasn't been a problem. There isn't much dust either,
as I regularly clean it out with compressed air. I suppose the best
thing I could do is remount the zalman fan?

Hmm, forget what I said That is actually my video card, and thats a
pretty normal temp for this card. I actually can't exactly see a temp
that would be the gap temp. The only other temp thats somewhat high
is the one labeled as Temp 1, part of the ISA bus, at 41 C. Other
then that, the only thing that strikes me as odd is the Vcore
voltages. I noticed Vcore 1 and Vcore 2, with vcore 1 having a 1.22V,
and vcore 2 having 1.90V. Just curious why the 2nd one is so much
higher, as I don't know what it pertains to. Just from looking at
this, it really doesn't seem like an overheating problem, even tho the
cpu is throttling :[

That makes more sense - the 'gap' temperature is lower than the core
temperatures. (that was my original point). Try Everest for temperature
readings too - you can compare and contrast with Speedfan and sometimes
figure out which temp is which more easily.

The voltage readings do seem strange and worrying. I would have thought that
the voltages should be the same on both cores, however, my Speedfan only
gives me 1 VCORE voltage, so where are you getting 2 individual core
voltages from? If this second voltage reading is correct, then that could be
your problem as the Core 2 Duo is only specced up to 1.35v!

 

[GT]

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:58:16 -0800 (PST),



(e-mail address removed) wrote:
My cpu runs at 34 C idle, and about 40 when gaming. It is
surely not an overheating issue, and I do not have speedstep or
anything of the likes turned on in the BIOS. I will have
stuttering type lag, causing the game to freeze for a second
basically, and it happens often. My fps is also being cut by
this. By monitoring my CPU with rightmark, I have noticed that
both cores of the cpu are throttling a bit, basically whenever a
pause occurs. It throttles from 2.4 to maybe 2.2, but its
enough to cause the lag. Sometimes it will spike as low as 1400
and return right back to normal.

Hmm, forget what I said That is actually my video card, and thats a
pretty normal temp for this card. I actually can't exactly see a temp
that would be the gap temp. The only other temp thats somewhat high
is the one labeled as Temp 1, part of the ISA bus, at 41 C. Other
then that, the only thing that strikes me as odd is the Vcore
voltages. I noticed Vcore 1 and Vcore 2, with vcore 1 having a 1.22V,
and vcore 2 having 1.90V. Just curious why the 2nd one is so much
higher, as I don't know what it pertains to. Just from looking at
this, it really doesn't seem like an overheating problem, even tho the
cpu is throttling :[

41C or even 50-something C is not high enough to cause a problem.
However, you need to know your video card temp while gaming, it is not
relevant to gaming freezes to know the video card temp when not gaming
as the gaming 3D mode switch can cause a higher GPU voltage to be set,
as well as the GPU doing more work to produce more heat.

A video card may cause a freeze momentarily due to instability, whether
that instability be caused by overheating, poor power to it, video card
degradation (like bad capacitors on it). If the processor were getting
too hot and it throttled down to a lower speed, the game would then run
much slower, instead of freezing.

If it freezes instead of just running slower, it is far more likely a
video card issue, not CPU.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

The only reason I did not consider that is because for awhile now the
GPU has run at about 61 C when gaming, and it had never been a problem.
I even read that the 8800 GTS usually runs that hot, or hotter, and
shows no signs of problem. I just suspect the cpu due to the fact that
it seems to throttle a lot for no apparent reason. The power supply
used on the card is substantial so I don't see that being an issue. I
suppose I could look into installing a new fan on the gpu to help cool
it, but I have trouble believing it is the source of the problem as it
is fairly new (1 month old). Aside from a benchmark, is there any
reliable stress test or something that I could run for the video card,
to help narrow down the problem?

I'm experiencing similiar problems to you. Since about 3 months ago
after an OS crash, all 3D games seem to studder when played when they
played normally before. Other programs take a long time to boot, anti-
virus, anti-spyware, memtest86 and Hijack programs do not show any
malware or problems.

My HD seems to run and sporadically, so that's suspect, and since I have
a 3gb SATA running on 1.5gb SATA motherboard I think I need to throttle
back the SATA to 1.5gb. As soon as I clean up some space I'll do a full
backup and low level format the drive.

A SATA II drive will run on a SATA I controller without problem. It will
automatically run at the lower speed and shouldn't cause you any problems.
You don't have to do anything to 'throttle back the SATA'. Besides, the hard
disk is probably only capable of 60-70MBs transfer rates, so moving from
150MBs (SATA) to 300MBs (SATA II) bus won't make any real world difference.

 

[GT]

Somewhere on teh interweb (e-mail address removed) typed:



Hey there, from reading Kony's suggestions (always good) and your replies
I'm beginning to think it could be software related. RightMark's CPU
Clock
Utility will always show 'spikes' unless the CPU is under 100% load. I'd
leave that out of the equation for now. One further check you could do if
your CPU temps are good, and they seem to be, is raise your vcore in BIOS
a
tad, then re-test (remember to put it back after). Some mobos undervolt
C2Ds
on default.

However, from where I'm sitting, all hardware appears fine.

Luck

Oh okay, thanks for the info. I did run Prime95 last night when I
went to sleep, after 10 hours it was still going with no errors, so I
suppose the CPU is pretty solid. I don't think cpu temps are an issue
at all, with the zalman's and arctic silver 5, it has been solid temp
wise. I guess I will look further into the video card and see if I
can get it running cooler to check for a difference. It is possible
that it's the game, as with the latest patch there have been numerous
complaints, but that seems to happen with every new patch release.
They have not acknowledged a known issue tho, and most people are
having no trouble. With a system like mine, I don't expect it to have
trouble in something like World of Warcraft. I will look into testing
my video card and seeing what I can find. I really hope if it is the
issue, its only temp, and not some kind of damage to it :[

See if you can find any overclocking software for your graphics card and
actually underclock it. Obviously performance will be hit slightly, but if
you can lower voltage and speeds (for testing), then you will lower heat
output automatically. Also, try running with the side off the computer and a
deskfan blowing directly at the graphics card (not too close!) and see if
that makes a difference.

 

[Koolsk8boarder]

Oh okay, thanks for the info. I did run Prime95 last night when I
went to sleep, after 10 hours it was still going with no errors, so I
suppose the CPU is pretty solid. I don't think cpu temps are an issue
at all, with the zalman's and arctic silver 5, it has been solid temp
wise. I guess I will look further into the video card and see if I
can get it running cooler to check for a difference. It is possible
that it's the game, as with the latest patch there have been numerous
complaints, but that seems to happen with every new patch release.
They have not acknowledged a known issue tho, and most people are
having no trouble. With a system like mine, I don't expect it to have
trouble in something like World of Warcraft. I will look into testing
my video card and seeing what I can find. I really hope if it is the
issue, its only temp, and not some kind of damage to it :[

See if you can find any overclocking software for your graphics card and
actually underclock it. Obviously performance will be hit slightly, but if
you can lower voltage and speeds (for testing), then you will lower heat
output automatically. Also, try running with the side off the computer and a
deskfan blowing directly at the graphics card (not too close!) and see if
that makes a difference.

Hi GT, thanks for the responses. I have used RivaTuner to increase
the fan speed on my graphics card, bringing it down to 48 C idle, and
a max of 55 C when gaming. I would think this is good enough for a
GPU, and it hasn't made much of a difference so far. I had found that
the Vcore 2 reading does not refer to my cpu, but my ram. It seems
this is a normal voltage for it. Both of my CPU cores voltages are at
1.263v. After running benchmarks, the only thing I see is FPS drops
when it becomes graphicly intense. If the temps are fine on the GPU,
I really don't know what more I can do for it, other then suspect it
is somehow damaged. I am not sure what step to take next, as it seems
everything runs at good temps, should be in good condition, etc etc. /
boggle.