Dual core use and excessive heat

[Siskiyou]

<p>I've read on the internet a bit but still don't understand -</p><p>How coming when gaming with a dual core machine, one CPU sees more activity then the other? Is there/should there be a way to even the load?</p><p>Why is it my video games massively overheat the CPU .. normal idle temp is like 40C and when running EQ2 it can get as high as 70C - that just doesn't seem right. None of my regular programs heat things up that much. Has anyone got a solution for this? (this is a laptop, so don't think I can use a water cooler)</p>

[MurFalad]

<p><cite>Siskiyou wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I've read on the internet a bit but still don't understand -</p><p>How coming when gaming with a dual core machine, one CPU sees more activity then the other? Is there/should there be a way to even the load?</p></blockquote><p>Most software (EQ2 included) is written to use only one CPU so what you are normally seeing here is the operating system putting itself onto one CPU and EQ2 onto the other CPU.  For that reason you won't see much benefit from running a quad core CPU, yet.</p><p>Now EQ2 does use a technique called threading which allows the operating system to take these threads and run them on the least active CPU, but I think this only has been implemented for animations.  Its a lot of work to take a serial langauge that EQ2 (and most other software) has been written in and convert it to work in a parallel way, even worse it adds an overhead for people who don't have multiple CPU's. </p><p>In the future as dual core becomes more of the standard I expect we'll see more software taking advantage of multiple CPU's.</p><p><cite>Siskiyou wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why is it my video games massively overheat the CPU .. normal idle temp is like 40C and when running EQ2 it can get as high as 70C - that just doesn't seem right. None of my regular programs heat things up that much. Has anyone got a solution for this? (this is a laptop, so don't think I can use a water cooler)</p></blockquote><p>EQ2 puts a lot of load on the CPU, if the CPU is getting too hot though that's a failure of the cooling and not EQ2.</p><p>Really not sure there, 70C seems a bit hot, but maybe its what the laptop was designed for though, all I can suggest is to make sure the fans on the underside are not covered up (obvious though) but not so obviously to make sure that there is plenty of airflow along the entire underside of the laptop if possible.</p><p>My laptop (1.5Ghz core 2 duo with a HD2600 graphics card) would actually overheat if I had it on my lap even with both fan vents unobstructed because my thighs where in contact and stopping airflow along the middle of the laptop.  But it didn't overheat when I had a book wedged at the back of it to lift most of it away from contacting my lap, these days its on a desk with plenty of space all around and has no problems with heat.</p><p>The other thing I'd check is dust, defintely clean what you can from the outside, if its out of warranty (and therefore been around a while to collect dust) then you could open it up (obviously only proceed as far as you can work out how to put it back together!).  Dust tends to get trapped in the heatsink vanes depending on the enviroment its been in, I had this problem on a 3870 graphics card, it looked clean from the outside, but had a 2cm thick layer of dust inside causing it to overheat.</p>

[RafaelSmith]

<p>EQ2 is just old.</p><p>I can play Age of Conan which is light years ahead in terms of visual quality and my CPU usage will be around 70% on 1 core and 15-30% on each of the other cores depending on what else I might be running........my Video card usage will be pegged in the 95+% range.</p><p>EQ2.....Core one is pegged at 99%, other cores barely get used.......video card usage barely gets over 30%.</p><p>EQ2 looks and runs worse than what in theory should be a more demanding game.</p><p>It just hasnt kept up and in fact is so far behind its actually running worse on new hardware.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>Siskiyou wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why is it my video games massively overheat the CPU .. normal idle temp is like 40C and when running EQ2 it can get as high as 70C - that just doesn't seem right. None of my regular programs heat things up that much.</p></blockquote><p>Unless you do serious video editing or 3d rendering, games will always cause more heat than a regular program.  That is not unusual.</p><p>If you are using a laptop then the best you can do is make sure the computer vents aren't blocked and that the fans are spinning correctly.  Using the computer on a completely flat and level surface will help quite a bit.  Something like a table or desk would be good, while something like your bed/lap will block any ventilation through the bottom of the computer.</p>

[Siskiyou]

<p>At home I use one of those raised fan tables with it's own power supply. On the road I just have one of those fold-up rigid decks that lift the computer up off of the table and has vent holes and ridges (without this I've had it come nearly to doing damage to woodwork) As for the actual system, I have to regularly blow it out and once even took it appart to clean it (wasn't as bad as I thought except more dust on the memory than expected) I have dogs and other pets, so I have to really be aware of dust.</p><p>Thanks for the explainations so far.</p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><em>(( ed. I always see something I've forgotten after I post ))</em></span></p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>Siskiyou wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>At home I use one of those raised fan tables with it's own power supply. On the road I just have one of those fold-up rigid decks that lift the computer up off of the table and has vent holes and ridges (without this I've had it come nearly to doing damage to woodwork) As for the actual system, I have to regularly blow it out and once even took it appart to clean it (wasn't as bad as I thought except more dust on the memory than expected) I have dogs and other pets, so I have to really be aware of dust.</p><p>Thanks for the explainations so far.</p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><em>(( ed. I always see something I've forgotten after I post ))</em></span></p></blockquote><p>What kind of laptop are you running?  Your laptop should not be getting hot enough to cause damage to the wood it is sitting on.</p>

[Siskiyou]

<p>It's never actually damaged, but things have gotten so hot it is uncomfortable to keep my hands on. So I err on the side of caution and keep the thing off of the counter. This has happened with both my laptops - both stock HP laptops, the current one a much better for gaming than the original.  Doesn't seem to matter if I have just cleaned the fan or not.  I have never been able to comfortably hold either on my lap for extended periods of time.</p>

[PsycoApocalipse]

<p>As the thermal limits inside the formfactor of a laptop are very tight, the parts are naturally going to run hotter than in a desktop.  This is normal, and while you said you have a fan base, the part that usually is under the wrist rest (at least in the case of the laptop's I've had) is the hard drive, and EQ tends to slam the hard drive quite a bit while zoning and it gets very warm too.  Best suggestion I can give is for on the road get one of the fan bases that has a USB plug to power it, I use one of those for mine and at home keep it clean since you mentioned pets. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /> </p><p>Of course, if your a nutcase like me, I'd open up the case, feed the 5v USB lead from one of the sockets to the fan and stick a small switch on the outside to run the fan at full speed.  The small wires inside phone/network cables are perfect for this type of insane application mind you.</p>