GT

<Koolsk8boarder@excite.com> wrote in message
news:a82fbb77-d315-43e8-8d5a-b994653849a2@s6g2000prc.googlegroups.com...
> 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.