CPU Throttling

[THERESONATOR]

I'm not sure this is a feature on most motherboards, it could just be on DFI ones (eg my SLI-DR Expert), I don't know. But what is this CPU throttling, and should it be modified from stock 50% in conjunction with doing any overclocking of the CPU? If so, is it better to have it lower or higher if you want to achieve the best potential OC? What's the purpose of CPU throttling and why would you want to change the motherboard's default setting?

 

[lyssword]

As far as I know, cpu throttling will slow down the cpu if it's too hot, so that it won't melt..

 

[THERESONATOR]

So its a safety mechanism - if I OC it too much it will reset the settings?

 

[BrownTown]

It won't reset the settings, but what it will do is start skipping clockcycles and such. So you might be running at 4G, but it will throttle down so that its only effectively running 3G operations out of those clockcycles. Basically once you reach the point that it is throttling increasing speed or voltage anymore wil make it get SLOWER not faster.

 

[Regalk]

Some or all of what was said - Most modern cpus have built in throttling instructons (used to be known as the halt command) for AMD it is cool & quiet.
Once the processor is in idle state the hlt command is issued and starts to down throttle the cpu speeds. When the cpu is on load it will revert back to normal speed e.g. running a 3D game. This way it can use less power (wattage) when on idle - the save your environment thing.
Most boards have this setting in Bios - Intel has the speedstep command (CIE or EIST in BIOS). It can be disabled if causing instability.