Koolsk8boarder@excite.com

On Nov 23, 8:53 pm, kony <s...@spam.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:05:12 -0800 (PST),
>
> Koolsk8boar...@excite.com wrote:
> >> 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.
>
> 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.

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 Koolsk8boarder@excite.com typed:
> On Nov 23, 8:04 pm, "~misfit~" <misfit6...@yahoot.com.au> wrote:
>> 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.
>
> 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
--
Shaun.

Koolsk8boarder@excite.com

On Nov 23, 10:07 pm, "~misfit~" <misfit6...@yahoot.com.au> wrote:
> Somewhere on teh interweb Koolsk8boar...@excite.com typed:
>
> > On Nov 23, 8:04 pm, "~misfit~" <misfit6...@yahoot.com.au> wrote:
> >> 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.
>
> > 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
> --
> Shaun.

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

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:05:12 -0800, Koolsk8boarder thoughfully wrote:

> On Nov 23, 7:10 pm, kony <s...@spam.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:58:16 -0800 (PST),
>>
>>
>>
>> Koolsk8boar...@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.
>
> 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

<Koolsk8boarder@excite.com> wrote in message
news:c9faa8cb-e88d-4a6f-b770-acf649f8e907@g21g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> On Nov 23, 4:50 pm, Koolsk8boar...@excite.com wrote:
>> On Nov 23, 5:23 am, "GT" <ContactGT_remo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> > <Koolsk8boar...@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.
>>
>> 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

"jaster" <jaster@home.net> wrote in message
news:iwN1j.23372$lD6.21872@newssvr27.news.prodigy. net...
> On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:05:12 -0800, Koolsk8boarder thoughfully wrote:
>
>> On Nov 23, 7:10 pm, kony <s...@spam.com> wrote:
>>> On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 13:58:16 -0800 (PST),
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Koolsk8boar...@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.
>>
>> 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

<Koolsk8boarder@excite.com> wrote in message
news:2b6cf678-5071-411e-a50f-4b4bbbb659d4@w34g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> On Nov 23, 10:07 pm, "~misfit~" <misfit6...@yahoot.com.au> wrote:
>> Somewhere on teh interweb Koolsk8boar...@excite.com typed:
>>
>> > On Nov 23, 8:04 pm, "~misfit~" <misfit6...@yahoot.com.au> wrote:
>> >> 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.
>>
>> > 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
>> --
>> Shaun.
>
> 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@excite.com

On Nov 26, 6:43 am, "GT" <ContactGT_remo...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> <Koolsk8boar...@excite.com> wrote in message
>
> news:2b6cf678-5071-411e-a50f-4b4bbbb659d4@w34g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> > On Nov 23, 10:07 pm, "~misfit~" <misfit6...@yahoot.com.au> wrote:
> >> Somewhere on teh interweb Koolsk8boar...@excite.com typed:
>
> >> > On Nov 23, 8:04 pm, "~misfit~" <misfit6...@yahoot.com.au> wrote:
> >> >> 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.
>
> >> > 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
> >> --
> >> Shaun.
>
> > 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.