FPS and Heat

[Guest meekal]

Hi,Not a strictly PMDG issue since it happens with all my add-on's. My Dual Core Dell XPS 1730 with nVidia working in SLI runs hot. Indeed, some time I cannot put my hand on the vents or metal surrounding various ports. The vents blow hot air. My question is, does a hot PC affect FPS?Recently, it seems that my FPS starts out fine (around 24-36fpm) and then slows down to around 6fpm which is unflyable.If the answer is in the positive, is there anything one can do about it?If I need to go somewhere else to ask this question, let me know!Thanks,Meekal

[MrSpeaker 122]

Hi,Not a strictly PMDG issue since it happens with all my add-on's. My Dual Core Dell XPS 1730 with nVidia working in SLI runs hot. Indeed, some time I cannot put my hand on the vents or metal surrounding various ports. The vents blow hot air. My question is, does a hot PC affect FPS?Recently, it seems that my FPS starts out fine (around 24-36fpm) and then slows down to around 6fpm which is unflyable.If the answer is in the positive, is there anything one can do about it?If I need to go somewhere else to ask this question, let me know!Thanks,Meekal

If your pc is getting so hot you can't touch it you got some serious issues, I suggest you download HWMonitor and post some temps your getting, heat is defiantly not your friend.

[downscc 1,327]

Too hot to touch is pretty subjective. The video cards today have their own blowers and tend to run around 80-90C, which is definitely too hot to touch. My ATI provides a console that provides a simple user display of temps and video loading... I am not familiar with current nVidia but you should have same feature.Most of the work done in MSFS is in the CPU, and the Intel chips will start unclocking as they reach threshold temps but when this happens you have bigger problems than decreased framerates. I think where I am going with this is to use available tools to judge if you have a heat problem, not a hand on the exhaust vent of the SLI cards.

[stevenp 1]

Hi,Not a strictly PMDG issue since it happens with all my add-on's. My Dual Core Dell XPS 1730 with nVidia working in SLI runs hot. Indeed, some time I cannot put my hand on the vents or metal surrounding various ports. The vents blow hot air. My question is, does a hot PC affect FPS?Recently, it seems that my FPS starts out fine (around 24-36fpm) and then slows down to around 6fpm which is unflyable.If the answer is in the positive, is there anything one can do about it?If I need to go somewhere else to ask this question, let me know!Thanks,Meekal

Its going to be very hot depending on the card and the fan speed. Its probably normal.

[MELKOR 5]

My question is, does a hot PC affect FPS?Recently, it seems that my FPS starts out fine (around 24-36fpm) and then slows down to around 6fpm which is unflyable.

This has happened to me in the past. Some BIOSes allow you to configure the behavior of your PC when the CPU "gets too hot" (for example, "Shutdown", or "Throttle back speed"). I had a PC whose CPU fan and heatsink got so choked with dust that the temperature started getting "too hot", my BIOS was configured for "Throttle back speed", and I would notice a significant performance drop after some time of doing anything that was CPU intensive.My solution was to clean out the CPU fan and heatsink, and reapply new "thermal grease" between the CPU and the heatsink. Worked a beaut!

[louiseSEUK 2]

Meekal,Do your FPS improve at all if you take the case side off? You may have bad circulation, which in addition to dust build up, can cause heat build up. As the other posters have said though, expecting anything upto 90 during high load is not terribly unusual or necessarily bad.Check for good venting around the PC - unfortunately, I have to have both sitting next to each other, and its quite a little heatwave at the back :)HTH,Leo

[aentwis 61]

Turn off the PC, disconnect the power supply...Open it up and check for dust on all fans, particularly exhaust fans from the case, and any fans on the mainboard itself. Check the CPU cooler for dust and clogging (that restricts airflow through the fins) and clean the main CPU cooler fan blade edges of dust. Reconnect the power and boot up without replacing the case cover and check the fans for correct operation. Find a hardware monitor of your choice off the Internet and check the fan speeds as well...Heat is a killer for all hardware. High temperatures for the hard drives seriously reduce the MTBF...A poorly ventilated PC is an unhappy one... :(Andrew

[Guest meekal]

Turn off the PC, disconnect the power supply...Open it up and check for dust on all fans, particularly exhaust fans from the case, and any fans on the mainboard itself. Check the CPU cooler for dust and clogging (that restricts airflow through the fins) and clean the main CPU cooler fan blade edges of dust. Reconnect the power and boot up without replacing the case cover and check the fans for correct operation. Find a hardware monitor of your choice off the Internet and check the fan speeds as well...Heat is a killer for all hardware. High temperatures for the hard drives seriously reduce the MTBF...A poorly ventilated PC is an unhappy one... :(Andrew

Thanks a lot guys for this very useful information. However, it has made me more nervious than I was before!I think most of you recall the fires Dell had some time ago. I keep thinking of that.I have a little table fan which I have started directing at the vents in the back. Let's see if that helps some.My XPS will shut down if it becomes too hot. So there is some sort of in-built safety valve.I will check the fan vents for blockage and dust. Thanks again,Meekal