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That during heavy loading periods like in a brawl, my system's heat actually soar just like my mech's heat is soaring! Yes, that "Heat Level Critical" you heard while brawling is talking about your PC heat temp too!
When temp goes above something like 85 degrees celcius, a protective mechanism steps in called "Throttling". This is when your CPU will jam the emergency brake and cuts its power to its minimum in order to bring down system temperature as quickly as possible before an automatic shutdown (yes, your computer does that too!). I run a 2,5ghz system and my monitors are telling me that my CPU temperature goes above 85 degrees celcius in a brawl (not during other times in the game) and instantly, CPU clock drops to a mere 0.7 ghz! At that instant, not only my PC emergency brakes, my mech emergency brakes too at the worst possible time, slowing down to a crawl with enemy mechs circling and pounding me with death.
Good news is, I managed to solve this problem and now my brawls are SMOOTH with no slow downs at all!
I did this by UNDERCLOCKING (yes, most people will resort to overclocking when they experience slow downs like this, right?) from 2.5ghz to 2.0ghz. This shaved my fps peak from 40+ to 30+ but now, instead of slowing down to 8fps in a brawl due to throttling, heavy brawling only bring my FPS down to about 20, which is totally playable! and without watching the FPS meter, the whole gaming experience is smooth throughout!
How do I underclock?
This is NOT an ad... ok? I am just telling you guys what worked for me...
I downloaded a program called "ThrottleStop" by techinferno (please google for it). This program allows you to set your clock speed and also displays your core temperatures and allows you to turn off throttling.
Turning off throttling is very dangerous if you are running your PC at its factory spec. This can lead to your PC shutting down when temperature rise above 85 to 90ish. As such, what I do is clock down to the nearest whole number, which is from 2.5ghz to 2.0ghz in my case, and then play the game for like 30 mins. After that, check the software. It will tell you the max temperature hit during that period. If it is less than 85 degrees, then you can hit it up by another 0.1 ghz. The idea is to reach the maximum point where your PC hit a max temperature of about 85 degrees without exceeding it because you no longer have the system "throttling" to protect your system from shutting down.
After you reach a satisfactory level, simply play the game for as long as you usually play it and then see if the max temperature exceed 85 during that period. If not, you have yourself the most stable optimum config without overheating. Then you simply save the profile. The good thing is, the software allows you to run that clock speed only when you want to. Other times, you can simply turn the software off and let your system run as normal, which is what I do.
That said, you need to make sure your cooling fans are grime free so that you can get as close to stock frequency as possible by 85 degrees.
I hope this clears up some misunderstanding about heavy loading during brawling causing sudden FPS drops and helps some of you achieve a smoother play experience.
Happy hunting mechwarriors!
P/S I am not going to lie to you, this procedure can be risky when done incorrectly and may lead to system meltdowns. Perform at your own risk!
Edited by Pr8Dator, 17 December 2012 - 05:51 AM.
