cpu unnecessary throttling

[landorona]

hello

i'm experiencing thermal throttling in my cpu when it's only running at about 60 degrees
it clocks down to 1.32 ghz when it usually runs at 4
usually happens during the more intensive moments during gaming
any idea how to fix this?

cpu: AMD FX-8350
motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. M5A97 LE R2.0

 

[jimmysmitty]

What cooler are you using?

What are you using to ascertain the temperature?

60c is very close to the top limits of most AMD CPUs which is 61.10c, per AMDs website:

http://products.amd.com/en-us/search/CPU/AMD-FX-Series/AMD-FX-8-Core-Black-Edition/FX-8370-with-Wraith-cooler/131

So I could see it throttling to keep it cool.

 

[landorona]

What cooler are you using?

What are you using to ascertain the temperature?

60c is very close to the top limits of most AMD CPUs which is 61.10c, per AMDs website:

http://products.amd.com/en-us/search/CPU/AMD-FX-Series/AMD-FX-8-Core-Black-Edition/FX-8370-with-Wraith-cooler/131

So I could see it throttling to keep it cool.

ARCTIC Freezer 13 Limited Edition is what i'm using
is there anything i could do to fix this? i'm pretty sure that it does go a bit above the max listed on the site, but not by much and it doesn't seem that hot either. i just dusted my computer yesterday

 

[jimmysmitty]

Oh it is that cooler. Never was a fan of that coolers mounting system but I would check to make sure it is seated properly.

As well is the fan facing the front, down or up?

 

[landorona]

Oh it is that cooler. Never was a fan of that coolers mounting system but I would check to make sure it is seated properly.

As well is the fan facing the front, down or up?

the fan on the cooler is facing frontwards. how would i check to see that it's mounted properly?

 

[jimmysmitty]

Oh it is that cooler. Never was a fan of that coolers mounting system but I would check to make sure it is seated properly.

As well is the fan facing the front, down or up?

the fan on the cooler is facing frontwards. how would i check to see that it's mounted properly?

Well make sure it is not loose, if you can twist the heatsink or if it moves at all then it is not mounted properly.

 

[ShadyHamster]

It could be the VRMs on the motherboard getting to hot which is causing the thermal throttling.
Since that board has no heatsink on the VRMs and it's only a 4 phase power design, i'd be guessing that's your issue.

 

[landorona]

It could be the VRMs on the motherboard getting to hot which is causing the thermal throttling.
Since that board has no heatsink on the VRMs and it's only a 4 phase power design, i'd be guessing that's your issue.

any idea how to mitigate this?

 

[weberdarren97]

Is that 60 degrees on a core temperature, or 60 degrees on the socket (sometimes referred to as "CPU" or "CPU Package"). This is something that you need to know because BIOS will start to throttle the CPU when the socket gets over 55 degrees.

 

[ShadyHamster]

It could be the VRMs on the motherboard getting to hot which is causing the thermal throttling.
Since that board has no heatsink on the VRMs and it's only a 4 phase power design, i'd be guessing that's your issue.

any idea how to mitigate this?

Get a downward blower cooler and/or add your own little heatsinks to the VRMs like this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/100113d1236233611-heatsink-motherboard-mosfets-mosfet-cooling-2-jpg.62294/

 

[Themastererr]

It could be the VRMs on the motherboard getting to hot which is causing the thermal throttling.
Since that board has no heatsink on the VRMs and it's only a 4 phase power design, i'd be guessing that's your issue.

any idea how to mitigate this?

Get a downward blower cooler and/or add your own little heatsinks to the VRMs like this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/100113d1236233611-heatsink-motherboard-mosfets-mosfet-cooling-2-jpg.62294/

I agree on the VRM's thottling. I added a small CPU fan to my VRM's to prevent this problem too.

 

[weberdarren97]

I also agree on VRM throttling, I didn't realize that that motherboard only had a 4 phase power delivery system...

I didn't even know that a 125 watt CPU would be stable with a 4 phase power delivery system. Seems like it would be getting dirty power with that setup, even if you could keep the VRMs cool.

 

[ShadyHamster]

I didn't even know that a 125 watt CPU would be stable with a 4 phase power delivery system. Seems like it would be getting dirty power with that setup, even if you could keep the VRMs cool.

Yep.
Just because the CPU compatibility list shows the boards compatible with a certain CPU doesn't mean you should run that CPU.

I had the same issue with an 8320 and an Asrock 970 Extreme4 board, that board even has a heatsink on the VRMs.
Only way around the throttling issues for me was to undervolt the CPU and disable turbo boost.

 

[landorona]

I didn't even know that a 125 watt CPU would be stable with a 4 phase power delivery system. Seems like it would be getting dirty power with that setup, even if you could keep the VRMs cool.

Yep.
Just because the CPU compatibility list shows the boards compatible with a certain CPU doesn't mean you should run that CPU.

I had the same issue with an 8320 and an Asrock 970 Extreme4 board, that board even has a heatsink on the VRMs.
Only way around the throttling issues for me was to undervolt the CPU and disable turbo boost.

hey, sorry for the late reply
how do i undervolt the cpu?