VRM throttling due to overheating?

[Lazar_99]

Hi, i have an MSI 970A-G46 motherboard that i think is throttling my CPU due to VRM overheating.
The CPU is an AMD Athlon II X3 445 which has an unlocked 4th core.
Now, i think the VRM's are overheating because judging by the HWmonitor, it uses 142W and i feel it throttle in games and i have a few pics of its performance in prime95 with and without the unlocked core (the core is stable).
http://postimg.org/image/49oywbs45/[/img]
http://postimg.org/image/lbhsyf6z9/
http://postimg.org/image/ytopapj4l/
http://postimg.org/image/8mnier0ut/

You can clearly see that with the 4th core under load, it shows inconsistent clocks and power usage while the X3 has completely consistent clocks and power draw. This issue doesn't seem to happen when the room temp is lower than it is in the summer and i didn't seem to notice this problem until this year. The warranty for the board ends this Novermber so do you think the board is failing and if yes, is it going to be covered by warranty and should i continue using like i did and let it fail so i could get a better board?

 

[maddogfargo]

Could just be that core is defective/unstable. That's likely why they sold it disabled as an x3.

 

[Lazar_99]

Could just be that core is defective/unstable. That's likely why they sold it disabled as an x3.

Then how would you explain that it was working fine for 5 years (used on this board since 2012, i had the gigabyte GA-770 UD3 before the 970A-G46)