CPU throttling

[Maximilian]

Ive heard the term "CPU throttling" umpteen times and googled it but all google came up with was stuff about intel cpu's etc. I cant find a definition of it, whats it mean?

 

[interchange]

It means varying the CPU clock speed to save power and reduce heat when it is not in heavy use.

 

[monster64]

When a cpu "throttles" it gets too hot and it significantly lowers its voltage/clock speed to reduce the heat. This happens when a cpu reaches its maximum temperature, which for AMDs is around 60-70C and Intel cpus around 80-85C.

 

[stevty2889]

Basicly throttling kicks in at a set temp. When the CPU reaches this temp it starts to duty cycle. It's not technicaly chaning the clock speed like speed stepping or cool and quiet would do while the cpu is idle or doesn't need full speed. If you have 33% throttling, it's basicly pausing the CPU every 3rd clock cycle to try and cool it down, it's still running at the same clock speed, but has the same effect as if it were running at a 33% slower clock speed.

Prior to going to water cooling, my 3.4 was throttling. I was getting poor performance, and benchmarks were showing my scores way lower than they should have been. I ran throttlewatch and sure enough it was throttling. Now that it's got water cooling, it runs just as it should, but the heat some of these prescotts can generate is rediculous.

 

[Maximilian]

Kewl, ta guys.