[SOLVED] CPU Underclocking itself to reduce the temperature

[ZitZaR]

Hello, I have a problem with my CPU.

When I'm playing games (more demanding games) my CPU slowly underclocks itself. I like to play CS:GO and I've noticed that when I start the game my CPU clock is like 3,4 to 3,5 GHz.
When I'm playing CS:GO it goes down to 3,3 GHz and sometime later, it suddenly drops to 1,5 GHz for like 10 seconds and then goes back to 3,3 GHz and continues to do that.
Now, I've noticed that when that happens, my CPU temps are going up. For instance, when it's 3,4 to 3,5 GHz, my temps are like 55 °C , when it's 3,3 GHZ my temps are like 67-69 °C and when the temps hit 73-74 °C, my CPU underclocks itself to 1,5 GHz until it gets to 60 °C, when it hits 60 °C it goes back to 3,3 GHz.

Now, this is really annoying because when it underclocks itself, my FPS drops to 20-40.

Fixes I tried but didn't work:

1. Bought a new motherboard (from some old lenovo mobo to a Intel DH67CL)
2. Bought a new CPU cooler (some old Lenovo stock CPU cooler to Cooler Master X Dream i117)
3. Added a new case fan
4. Re-applied thermal paste (Arctic MX-2 Thermal Paste)
5. Used SpeedFan to manually adjust the fans (this works sometimes)
6. Cleaned the dust from the whole damn PC

I am aware that CS:GO is a CPU intensive game but come on, i7-2600 should be able to handle it without any problems, I mean, I played and finished Resident Evil: Village and Far Cry 6 with this CPU and it didn't underclock itself once...

My question is: WHY is the CPU underclocking under load on 72-73 °C IF that's it's optimal temperature?

I also record benchmarks with this PC for my youtube channel, you can check it out: [Moderator deleted link.]

My Setup:

● CPU: Intel i7-2600 (Cooler: Cooler Master X Dream i117)
● RAM: 4x4GB DDR3 PC3-12800U 666 MHz
● GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SSC 2GB GAMING ACX 2.0+
● HDD: 1x500GB Western Digital WDC
● SSD: Kingston SHFS37A/120G 120GB SATA (Windows Installed)
● OS: Windows 10 Professional 64-bit
● MotherBoard: Intel DH67CL
● PSU: BeQuiet Straight Power 10 700W 80+ GOLD (Model E10-CM)
● PC Housing: MS Industrial FIGHTER Case

 

[Darkbreeze]

No offense, but I'm going to give it to you straight. You bought a POS CPU cooler. In fact, I've pulled one of those off a client's build because it performed WORSE than the stock Intel cooler did. If you can return it, I would do so. If you can't, I'd try to sell it to at least recoup some of your investment. This is a particularly terrible cooler. You need something much better.

Your case is a VERY old design, with a top mounted power supply and no way for heat to get out of the case other than through the power supply, which is not very efficient, or out the rear exhaust fan location.

So primarily your problem is cooling, but also, given the age of these components and regardless that you've replaced the motherboard with another board, the board you replaced it with is not particularly good either. It's designed for use with much lighter processors. Pentium, i3, even i5, and while it technically CAN handle an i7-2600, under any kind of continuous gaming situation the (probably) not terrific VRMs on the motherboard are almost certainly where your thermal throttling is coming from and about the only way you are going to fix that is with a much better motherboard, IF you can even find one with a decent VRM configuration, used, that's worth buying since this hardware is all so old, or dramatically improving the internal airflow with a different case and some additional case fans plus a better CPU cooler.

Those are pretty much your options, point blank.

 

[ZitZaR]

No offense, but I'm going to give it to you straight. You bought a POS CPU cooler. In fact, I've pulled one of those off a client's build because it performed WORSE than the stock Intel cooler did. If you can return it, I would do so. If you can't, I'd try to sell it to at least recoup some of your investment. This is a particularly terrible cooler. You need something much better.

Your case is a VERY old design, with a top mounted power supply and no way for heat to get out of the case other than through the power supply, which is not very efficient, or out the rear exhaust fan location.

So primarily your problem is cooling, but also, given the age of these components and regardless that you've replaced the motherboard with another board, the board you replaced it with is not particularly good either. It's designed for use with much lighter processors. Pentium, i3, even i5, and while it technically CAN handle an i7-2600, under any kind of continuous gaming situation the (probably) not terrific VRMs on the motherboard are almost certainly where your thermal throttling is coming from and about the only way you are going to fix that is with a much better motherboard, IF you can even find one with a decent VRM configuration, used, that's worth buying since this hardware is all so old, or dramatically improving the internal airflow with a different case and some additional case fans plus a better CPU cooler.

Those are pretty much your options, point blank.

Thank you very much, you just said what I suspected, at the cooling and at the mobo, unfortunatelly I'm not in a position to upgrade ( if I was, I would have upgraded it long ago ).
I am aware that this is a very old PC but it's the best I have. I just wanted to know why is this happening and I couldn't find an answer online. I'll probably stick with it and try to make a better airflow or something until I buy a better PC.

As for the cooler, I'm pretty sure that this cooler is better than the old one, because the old one was running at like 1300 RPM and this one is running at 2000 RPM. I can't refund it or sell it because I don't have a replacement, I barely managed to find this one because there aren't many left where I live (Bosnia). Everything here is way overpriced and our salary is terrible, so I'm stuck with this PC.. I can't buy from eBay or Amazon or something because it's not worth it, I have to add like 100 more euros just for the shipping.

Again, thank you for the reply, it helped a lot

 

[Darkbreeze]

Try to get some airflow going directly over the VRM section, that might help. Even taking off the side panel and just pointing a room fan directly at the motherboard in the area between the CPU and power supply, might make enough of a difference to notice.