Overheating Comp - Turning down FPS?

VegJed

VegJed

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2006

My computer has an overheating problem, which I am looking into getting fixed. However, until I can get it fixed, playing Guild Wars or any game is a pain in the neck. Here's a typical GW session for me:

(1) 3-5 minutes of me playing the game with 30 FPS(actually, recently I've gotten 40+ FPS)
(2) My GPU heats up from 80 degrees(what it's at when idle, way to hot for that) to 99(the slowdown threshold).
(3) The temperature goes down from 99 to 80-85
(4) When it gets to that 80-85 range, massive CPU spike for 1-2 minutes, FPS gets reduced to 1(really, it's less than that, but when the frame resets itself, it tells me it's at 1 FPS).
Rinse and repeat, until I decide I'm more annoyed than entertained and give up.

What I've always found really odd is that the CPU spikes happen after my GPU temp has gone down, since it seems to me that the computer would slow down when the emergency procedures were being taken to cool it down, not afterwards. Anyway, I recently played a few minutes where the FPS was between 15-20, and my GPU core temp didn't go up. I'd prefer playing with a constant 15-20 FPS rather than a few minutes of 30 (or 40+, who needs that?) followed by huge CPU spikes. Is there any way to set it so the FPS doesn't go above 20?

Yanman.be

Yanman.be

Banned

Join Date: Dec 2005

Belgium

[ROSE]

A/

GW will always use 100% ( or 50% or 25% on multicore ) CPU power. You might be able to lower that by lowering the priority with taskmanager( NOT RECOMMENDED, DO NOT TRY, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE )
Can you list your hardware? I hope you have intell..AMD would just melt down....
To limit the fps (I don't think this prevent the GPU from overheating ): "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\gw.exe" -fps xx
(where xx is a numeric value such as 30 that specifies the frame rate limit.)
(guildwiki FTW )

Dust out your pc, open the case...make sure all fans are working...

eremos

Academy Page

Join Date: Dec 2006

South Africa

W/

80 is way too hot, methinks you need to get some proper thermal paste.

That said, you may be able to underclock your GPU, but fiddling with clocks can cause lockups or even damage to your card.

Mineria

Mineria

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2007

Denmark

Dragonslayers Of The [Mist]

W/Mo

As already mentioned, blow the dust out of your case, check cpu, chipset and case fans.
If they don't work like they should get new ones before turning your pc on again! (its like driving a car with the oil lamp alerting)
I suppose that your system isn't overclocked?

PS. AMD getting hot belongs to the old Athlons, not the case with newer AMD cpu's.

Yanman.be

Yanman.be

Banned

Join Date: Dec 2005

Belgium

[ROSE]

A/

Mineria, do the new AMD's have cpu temp throttle?

VegJed

VegJed

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2006

Thanks for the helpful replies, this overheating thing is way too annoying now, I'm getting it fixed as soon as possible.

My comp is a Latitude D620, Intel Core Duo, 998 MHz, 2 gig ram, with a Nvidia Quadro NVS 110M video card, Guild Wars and every other game played great on it until recently. My computer's got dust, but I'm kinda wary about opening my laptop up myself to check the fans.

FlameoutAlchemist

FlameoutAlchemist

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Join Date: Jan 2007

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Quote:
Originally Posted by VegJed
Thanks for the helpful replies, this overheating thing is way too annoying now, I'm getting it fixed as soon as possible.

My comp is a Latitude D620, Intel Core Duo, 998 MHz, 2 gig ram, with a Nvidia Quadro NVS 110M video card, Guild Wars and every other game played great on it until recently. My computer's got dust, but I'm kinda wary about opening my laptop up myself to check the fans.
Eesh. With a laptop, you're kinda stuck then. You'll have to contact Dell and send it in to have it fixed. When it comes to laptops, NEVER OPEN THE CASE UNLESS INSTRUCTED TO BY THE MANUFACTURER TO AVOID VIOLATING ANY WARRANTIES ON IT!

VegJed

VegJed

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameoutAlchemist
Eesh. With a laptop, you're kinda stuck then. You'll have to contact Dell and send it in to have it fixed. When it comes to laptops, NEVER OPEN THE CASE UNLESS INSTRUCTED TO BY THE MANUFACTURER TO AVOID VIOLATING ANY WARRANTIES ON IT!
Yeah, that's what I figured. Fortunately, I probably won't have to send it to Dell, since I'm still at school and my campus has a computer repair shop which is Dell affiliated. I'm getting it looked at tomorrow.

Yukito Kunisaki

Yukito Kunisaki

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

Chicago, IL

W/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yanman.be
Mineria, do the new AMD's have cpu temp throttle?
I'm the proud owner of an Opteron Dual Core 165 [939] cpu and though it's not new [curse your uselessness AM2], it does have thermal throttling and is NEVER a hot runner.

One time, I forgot to plug in my cooling cpu fan [doh], and the system shutdown after attempting to install windows xp MCE. A fine catch...

Smelled liked burnt Arctic Silver 5, but after plugging it back in, everything worked fine.

bhavv

bhavv

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2006

Get one of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EW-Link-FANS.../dp/B000O5U6SC

FlameoutAlchemist

FlameoutAlchemist

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Join Date: Jan 2007

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Quote:
Originally Posted by VegJed
Yeah, that's what I figured. Fortunately, I probably won't have to send it to Dell, since I'm still at school and my campus has a computer repair shop which is Dell affiliated. I'm getting it looked at tomorrow.
Back up everything that you'd want saved in case of a disaster before you turn it over. You wouldn't want anything that you need for school to be stuck only on that computer incase there's a problem or you can't get to it.

cebalrai

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2007

Mature Gaming Association

Me/E

Why are you even forcing your sick computer to do this? Even if it's under full warranty, you're probably really reducing the life of your machine.

Mineria

Mineria

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Apr 2007

Denmark

Dragonslayers Of The [Mist]

W/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Yanman.be
Mineria, do the new AMD's have cpu temp throttle?
AMD Cool & Quiet
My X2 as example doesn't get near as hot as my old P4.
I'm running a passive cooled system (got some big slow case fans though), and it never gets real hot.
If your Intel starts to throttle because of to much heat, you got a cooling problem anyway.
But like I said, "AMD gets to hot" is a myth for some years now.
Donit forget Intel had a P4 overheat problem as well (NB 800HT socket 478), but with some proper cooling it just runs fine as well.

VegJed

VegJed

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2006

Well, as I said before, I had dust.
30 seconds with some compressed air, the guy runs a few diagnostics then hands it back to me, telling me to come back if it still overheats, but it doesn't anymore. I probably should improve upon the ventilation for this thing, but I ordered an XPad, which supposedly increases air flow to the fans (if this XPad thing is a scam, tell me so I can take advantage of it's 30 day guarantee).

FlameoutAlchemist

FlameoutAlchemist

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Join Date: Jan 2007

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Go figure, I suppose.
You could also try a notebook stand. I use one whenever I game on my notebook to help the fans get rid of the mad amount of heat this thing can generate.

Ozric

Ozric

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: May 2005

Texas

Phoolz Like Us

E/Me

I could fry eggs over my old Athlon XP 2000+ if I didn't keep things clean under the hood, so when I got my Opteron 170 last year I bought a Thermalright XP-120 heatsink to top it off, but it turned out it didn't need it at all even though I overclock it to 2.6Ghz. Doesn't need the 'Cool-n-Quiet' on as the thing always stays barely above room temperature. The nVidia GPU's, however, are another matter!

Kudos on the 30-second resolution! Compressed air FTW!!

Dex

Dex

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Dec 2005

Chicago, IL

Black Belt Jones

R/Me

Glad you got the problem fixed. On a side-note, if you know that your computer is overheating it's best not to use it at all until the problem is fixed. The heat will eventually damage your components, and a few hours of GW fun isn't worth that IMHO.