CPU throttling messing up game speed on Dell Inspiron 5150

[jgreen]

Hello, I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 with a 3.06 GHz CPU running Gentoo and Kernel 2.6.8 using the speedstep-ich module. When playing 3D intensive games at 3.06GHz the game play will alternate between normal speed and really really slow at about 4 second intervals. Looking at /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/throttling shows that the CPU is toggling between different thermal throttling states. At max CPU load (what most games push it to) this laptop will heat up to 74 degrees C.

Is it normal behavior for a game to speed up and slow down when CPU throttling kicks in? How about on other operating systems? It seems my laptop is likely overheating, but I'm not sure if that is normal behavior for this laptop model or not (anyone have the same or similar setup that I do?). I can run the system at 1.6GHz and things run a lot better in games, but I have still noticed slight speed changes, although much less noticeable.

Is there something I can do to fix this so changes in throttling don't affect game speed, or is the answer that CPU throttling should be prevented altogether?

[karatefish]

This speed change in the game is pretty normal - it happens to everyone I've talked to, regardless of OS.

I will usually disable cpu throttling for playing games - although I set it to the highest speed without the laptop overheating (with the fan on high). 5150s have overheating problems without a little maintenance - see http://www.geocities.com/i5100dustproblem/. It's well worth taking a little time to do this each fortnight or so - it makes a big difference.

I'm not sure what could cause the less noticeable speed changes when locking the cpu frequency, sorry.

[thecrazyperson_ws]

You said that this is a Pentium 4-3.06GhZ ? If that's the case, you have either a desktop chip or a mobile p4 that i haven't heard about. Regardless, any pentium 4 (desktop, notebook, xeon, you name it) will scale the processor speed back due to overheating, regardless of what your throttling settings are. Desktops do this too when overheated.
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Bevelle: Dual Athlon MP 2000+, 1.25G ram, 120G HD, Gentoo 2005.1-r1, Kernel 2.6.15-gentoo-r5

Gagazet: Pentium 2-266, 288M ram, 240G HD, currently installing gentoo

Besaid: p-150, 80M ram, win2k pro