I have a serious problem with my CPU.

I was doing some stress test the CPU to see the temps and to see if theCPU is to blame for FPS drops ingames.

The frequency varies horribly,  I get 3.6GHz at 54*C and after a couple of minutes the freq drops to 1.4 (multiplier drop to 7 from 18) and the temperatures jumps (according to hardware monitor) to 206*C.

After 10-15 secs the freq goes back up to 3.6 and the process repeats after couple of minutes. And all this happens with al the power saving options disabled (windows and bios)

I have a MSi 760GM-P21 FX motherboard

any solutions or reason why i get this decrease in performance?

whats your cooling? And what PSU exactly? Did you made overclock or not? What software for temperatures do you use?

AMD FX-8350, FX-8320, FX-8150, FX-8120, FX-8120 95W, FX-6300, FX-4300, PII x4 1100T BE, PII x6 1090T BE, PII x4 980 BE, PII x4 975 BE, PII x4 970 BE, PII x4 965BE C3, PII x4 965 BE C2, A10-5800K, A10-5600K, A8-3870K, A8-3850, P x4 9850, P x3 8650, etc

I use the standard cooling that comes with the CPU, the PSU is smoething that came with the case (500w).

I didn't overclocked the CPU, actually I 'underclocked' it at 3.4 Ghz to see if i get the same problem and it's still there.

I used Hardware Monitor to view the temperature.

After some more tiresome research i found this:

"The 760gm-p23 being a low-end board with weak power design uses too high (false) temp readings to allow throttling down for preventing damage beacuse of too high power draw under load. Despite other informations on the product site the very most it can do under load are the 95W TDP an FX6100 is at stock."

The guy had the same problem as me but with a different model of mobo and another FX CPU

My mobo tops at 95W also, but even when i get the sudden drop the power doesn't go beyond 64W.

you can try cooling VRM area of motherboard, Im thinking VRM at lowend MSI is overheating. You can use some 120/140mm fan for it.

At this photo is some smaller fan for it

AMD FX-8350, FX-8320, FX-8150, FX-8120, FX-8120 95W, FX-6300, FX-4300, PII x4 1100T BE, PII x6 1090T BE, PII x4 980 BE, PII x4 975 BE, PII x4 970 BE, PII x4 965BE C3, PII x4 965 BE C2, A10-5800K, A10-5600K, A8-3870K, A8-3850, P x4 9850, P x3 8650, etc

I don't realy have a way to cool the VRM, I don't have the space/way to put a cooler there. How did you fix yours there ?

This a pic with the Mobo and a CPU on it:

I use something as this as contact between fan and motherboard:

http://translate.google.cz/translate?sl=cs&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=cs&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.manutan.cz%2Fmontazni-oboustranna-penova-paska-interierova_M169621.html

You can use example this fan http://www.alfacomp.cz/php/product.php?eid=10514007N0BU0CI16WE (depends at size between CPU cooler and Inputs/Outputs of motherboard.

There is my example of contact (one at side of CPU heatsink and second at side of USB ports, or it can refer to USB ports). The black color is fan and red color are contacts.

AMD FX-8350, FX-8320, FX-8150, FX-8120, FX-8120 95W, FX-6300, FX-4300, PII x4 1100T BE, PII x6 1090T BE, PII x4 980 BE, PII x4 975 BE, PII x4 970 BE, PII x4 965BE C3, PII x4 965 BE C2, A10-5800K, A10-5600K, A8-3870K, A8-3850, P x4 9850, P x3 8650, etc

ok, that's smart

*but does it stand the vibration+heat from the CPU heatsink?

*do you also have a MSi mobo and AMD FX combo?

*how sure you are that will fix the VRM overheating?

the weird thing is that my CPU dosen't go past 65W, i dosen't even reach the max 95W that the mobo supports

Are these any good ?

I have Crosshair V Formula and Crosshair V Formula-Z from Asus. But for high OC I need cool VRM too (around 5 GHz with FX-8350). But cheap boards use not much VRM, because every cent is important for vendors . And lowend boards use not much good PWM (mosfestst, capacitors etc). So overheating of VRM area seems possible, after is current lower than CPU need and CPU clocks down (thermal throtling).

And yes, this passivs seems as good alternative

AMD FX-8350, FX-8320, FX-8150, FX-8120, FX-8120 95W, FX-6300, FX-4300, PII x4 1100T BE, PII x6 1090T BE, PII x4 980 BE, PII x4 975 BE, PII x4 970 BE, PII x4 965BE C3, PII x4 965 BE C2, A10-5800K, A10-5600K, A8-3870K, A8-3850, P x4 9850, P x3 8650, etc

a proper dust clean-up of the system sorted things out, there wasn't a proper cooling of the system