Hey. When I play a game, at first the FPS is at an acceptable rate, but over time, it lowers itself to 20-30 FPS, or something unplayable. I'll use an example.

Say I'm playing Counter-Strike:Source. With settings on high, and resolution at 1024x768, I get 60+ FPS easily at most times. Problem is, say after... 10 minutes of playing, the frame rate drops to 20-40 and stays there from then on. I can close the game, open it up and start a game again, but it'll start at 20-40 FPS again instead of the original 60+ FPS, even with lower settings. Anyone know why this happens and what I could do to fix it?

Also, it's not only CS:S that this happens in.

My Graphics card is a Geforce 6800 128 MB AGP.

P4's throttle down their speed when they're overheating. Check your CPU temps while playing, especially when you first start.

Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina...err...Rita. Starting to lose track...

www.redcross.org

Okay. I used Hmonitor to monitor my CPU temperature. This is how it went down.

Start of the game: 57
A little while in: 62
A little more in: 69
Even more in: 71
That's when the frame rate dropped, the CPU temperature stayed at round 71 only moving up or down 1 degree every so often until I quit the game.

I'm guessing this is too high. The time at which this started happening was after I installed a Geforce 6800. Could this be what's causing the overheating, and how would I go about remedying it? Thank you.

Installing a Geforce 6800 video card should not cause any CPU to overheat if it hasn't been doing that prior, regardless of the card you've paired your P4 with it'll still throttle down, the throttling is a protective feature implemented to prevent the P4's from "frying".

The temp figures you posted are not unusual for the P4's under load. Now the kicker is, if your case cooling is inadequate or improperly setup then I can see how your video card may come into the picture.

List of lists

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

Installing a 6800 could very well have driven your temperatures too high. It is undoubtedly a hotter card than your prior video card. Also, if your PSU is maxed out, it will run hotter, causing your system temps to rise. Improving your case's cooling could be the solution.

If the temp does not rise at 71C it could be the throttling taking effect to keep the temp from going any higher. It could also be the system's peak temperature and totally coincidental.

My suggestion is take the side off your computer and try again. This will increase the air flow temporarily to cool your system down. Post back if it slows down when you do this.

Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

www.redcross.org

The other option is that it could be the Graphics Card overheating under load. Check the fan / fans on the card to check they haven't got dusted up or clogged.

Do the same with the CPU fan, to check it is working properly. Installing the new card could well have affected the CPU if your case cooling isn't good enough... My friend had a similar problem when he changed to a 5950 about a year ago. The card ran very hot, and, due to a cramped case on his computer, pumped out tons of hot air straight over the cpu fan.

His CPU overheated as soon as he started a 3D game and the card started to work.

So, if you can find nothgin wrong with the GC or CPU fans, try running the game with the case open to allow better cooling of your CPU. If that helps, you'll need to think about getting case fans to get a proper through-flow of air to keep your case cool, or a new CPU cooler fan which is mroe effective.

Hey. Thanks for the replies. I opened up my case and cleaned out the fan for the CPU. It was really dusty. Everything is running fine now and the temp doesn't go higher then around 30. Thanks for the help everyone.

Ahh, so it was throttling down. :-)

Help survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Please donate to the American Red Cross.

www.redcross.org

You have got the right solution in removing the case of yoru cabinet.
I had to do the same thing with my 6600GT.
However, I didnt like the idea of exposing my computer by removing the case.
So what I did was remove the floppy drive (which is pretty much useless to me) and leave the floppy bay open. I find that it creates a straight path for with my system fan. I can look at my system fan through the floppy bay. After I have done this the computer never heats up and the max temp I have recorded of my 6600Gt is about 69 and as soon as I pause the game it drops to about 54 in less than a minute.

Sarosh

This is exactly what is happening on my system. I got two 7800GTX in SLI and running an A64 X2 4400+ with 2GB of OCZ Platinums. My CPU and GPUs are all watercooled. The temps on the CPU never go over 48C Load and the GPUs never goes over 50C Load. After 20 minutes of gaming, my frames starts to become choppy. Even exiting and reentering the game doesn't help. I have to reboot the computer to get it back to buttery smooth. Did the stutter bug come back? Something is not right here.