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Author Topic: A weird issue that I've noticed happening with my system  (Read 610 times)

Unknown-J

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A weird issue that I've noticed happening with my system
« on: November 25, 2021, 04:19:33 PM »

First off, my laptop's specs:
CPU: Intel i7-6820HK
RAM: 16GB
GPU: Radeon RX 580
VRAM: 8GB
SSD: Samsung 860 EVO
OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)

I know Starsector has trouble with AMD cards due to their bad OpenGL drivers, but my issue comes from my CPU when my AMD GPU is being used for Starsector. Whenever I'm flying around in Hyperspace, or get into battles, the game will stutter/freeze and my fps will drop below 20 fps, sometimes even as low as 10 fps, but this isn't being caused by my GPU rather my CPU seems to be to blame for this because every time I experience these massive fps drops my CPU starts Thermal Throttling because its temp has reached nearly 100c which is pretty damn scary and I'm worried about frying my CPU.

The strange part happens when I use the integrated graphics of my CPU instead of my AMD GPU, which runs Starsector just fine normally, my CPU never goes anywhere near 70c and certainly not even close to the 100c it almost reaches when my AMD GPU is being used for Starsector, and the game runs at a steady 60 fps in Hyperspace to around 28 fps in massive battles. Now I don't mind using Integrated graphics to run Starsector but this is without mods and my AMD GPU usually does better when it's working properly in Starsector compared to my integrated graphics.

So if anyone knows why my CPU is suddenly getting so overloaded when my AMD GPU is used for Starsector, please help me out cuz this has got me stumped.

(Edit): The only thing that's changed recently before this started is I updated my AMD GPU's driver to the latest version, but even after rolling back the sudden thermal throttles still happen when my AMD GPU is used.
« Last Edit: November 25, 2021, 04:23:52 PM by Unknown-J »
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Alex

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Re: A weird issue that I've noticed happening with my system
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2021, 07:44:22 PM »

Hmm. Honestly, I have no idea why that would be - my apologies! I'd be worried about the temp getting that high, too, wow.
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Unknown-J

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Re: A weird issue that I've noticed happening with my system
« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2021, 08:56:54 PM »

Hmm. Honestly, I have no idea why that would be - my apologies! I'd be worried about the temp getting that high, too, wow.
So after testing it out multiple times, and watching what's happening in the background of my system, I'm assuming that for some reason when my AMD GPU is used for Starsector my CPU suddenly ramps up usage and even Intel's Turbo Boost turns on making my CPU's max clock speed go from 2.70ghz to over 3.40ghz. And this loop just keeps happening in this order from what I can see:
Game loads > CPU usage and clock speed begin to increase > Core temperature begins to rise  > Core reaches 95c > maximum junction temperature is reached and heavy thermal throttle occurs > now it repeats again after CPU temp has gone down.

I really have no idea why it's happening but I have gone into BIOS and turned my fans to maximum at all times just to see if it could stop it and it does work for a while but eventually, the core temperature still reaches 95c, and thermal throttles because the intel turbo boost stays on permanently and keeps the clock speed at, or almost, max clock speed of 3.60ghz.
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Alex

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Re: A weird issue that I've noticed happening with my system
« Reply #3 on: November 26, 2021, 10:03:26 AM »

Hmm - with the caveat that my hardware expertise is extremely limited, this sounds like some kind of configuration issue with turbo boost etc? Like something is automatically deciding to overclock your CPU and it's very much a bad call.
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Unknown-J

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Re: A weird issue that I've noticed happening with my system
« Reply #4 on: November 26, 2021, 10:26:00 AM »

Hmm - with the caveat that my hardware expertise is extremely limited, this sounds like some kind of configuration issue with turbo boost etc? Like something is automatically deciding to overclock your CPU and it's very much a bad call.
I think I figured out what was happening since I managed to stop my CPU from doing its loop, and yeah it had nothing to do with Starsector itself, but it was weird how these settings that were reset only had a negative effect in Starsector out of the dozen games I tried to figure this out. For now, it seems to be fixed after I restored my old settings and profiles.
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Alex

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Re: A weird issue that I've noticed happening with my system
« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2021, 10:54:46 AM »

Whew :)
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