Its dropped like really badly, I used to be able to run Skyrim on high at 40-60 fps but now i'm only able to play it on low with quite a bit of lag at 20-30fps. When I first go into the game and i'm on low I can play fine at 60fps for about half an hour, then it just drops. I think this may have started after the patch but i'm not totally sure.

Specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium
4gb ram
i5-2410m CPU @ 2.3 ghz
Nvidia GeForce GT 525m

Oh yeah and my drivers are up to date.

Sounds like overheating to me. Check your temps.

i had the same problem
SomeWelshGuy right. It is overheating

Not playing the game:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/805/tempnogame.png/

Playing the game:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/16/tempgame.png/

Thats looking pretty hot, my fans a clear so do I need to go out and buy one of those cooling pads or something?

61c at idle? Wow, that's very, very hot. 60 at load is about the highest I will go, if you're reaching 80 just at the start of the game then something's wrong.

I take it this is a laptop? I suggest you clean any dust, and make sure there's ample ventilation between the laptop and the surface.

Yeah its a laptop, I have it sitting on a hard surface, so theres the gap between the bottom of the laptop and the surface. Im pretty sure the fan is working properly.

Open up the fan if you can access it easily enough. Get one of those aerosol spray for getting rid of dust on computers. I use one for my laptop and clean the fan once a month.

btw my CPU cores (at maximum) temperature is 57c. Is it normal?

Laptops have much worse air flow than PC's, this causes temperatures to be much higher. Try cleaning out your laptop if you can (can be quite the hassle) also might want to try lowering the settings.

Yikes, that's very hot for a processor. I'd get worried if mine even reached 60 under load. And I consider 70 flat out dangerous, at least for extended periods of time.

Gee there's a lot of people answering questions they don't know anything about.

To the OP, the operating temp of most modern day cpu's are in the 100c range. You can safely operate up to that without issue. However 80c in a laptop is about as high as I would consider running [and that's by no means a stressful situation for the cpu] for the safety of other component, wiring or electronics that might around it and absorbing that radiant heat.

You're still reducing the life of the CPU by constantly running it at high temperatures. 61c at idle is way too high regardless.

57 degrees is sixy, in other words thats rly good not to worry about that. But ur GPU should be not higher than 80-90 degrees, ofc this depends whihc model u run .

thx for replay
GPU is 70c (nvidia gtx260)

No. 61c idle is not very hot when viewed in context of 100c being the general thermal limit. 70c is far from dangerous. Stop perpetuating the BS.

61c when idle is pretty hot. 100c is, like you said, the thermal LIMIT. His temps hit 81c just launching the game, and that means they will go higher. The limit being the absolute maximum temperature you can operate on without damaging the thing in a short period of time. If you run it close to this limit, you will reduce the life of the CPU over time.

This is true.

Yes it can manage 100c, but it's not designed to hold that temp over long sessions, over periods of time. This will shorten the CPU lifespan. Which is something to try and avoid

*faceplam*

Nevermind. I tried.

http://documents.irevues.inist.fr/bitstream/handle/2042/6579/TMI23.pdf?sequence=1

Seems the action levels internally for the core 2 duo at least are at 65 and 75 C and 95C as a critical temperature. GPUs can survive hotter core temperatures but running anywhere near these max point means your internal case temperature is going to be very elevated. Capacitors and electronics in general last shorter if heated.

If you run at the limit of 100C your going to trigger hard throttling to protect the physical die from damage or letting out the magic smoke.

You just cited a document that has referenced other documents 7 years and older. The OP is using an i5.

Intel doesn't throw out their thermal design work from the P4 era. They build on it and change the specifications. The current action levels inside the CPU for i7 are trade secrets now know so we don't know all the details but hard throttling occurs at 100C. Its illogical to ignore your own work past. There is a reason the thermal monitoring systems have version numbers after them.

Case in point both TM1 and TM2 (From previous generations) are now coupled with ATM (Adaptive Thermal Monitor) to keep the CPU within spec. They don't mention the recommended limits but under the reference profile at max TDP the i7 with a 130W TDP should be at ~70C. This is under test conditions but if you can operate under that its good way over that and your probably using the ATM system to keep it within spec.

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/datasheet/core-i7-900-ee-and-desktop-processor-series-datasheet-vol-1.pdf

Correct, 100c is typically the thermal limit and is prone to errors/corruption and possible throttling.

Under normal circumstances you can run up to 100c without issue.

Running at 100c over long periods of time will not reduce the life expectancy of the cpu BUT AS HAS ALREADY BEEN STATED at 100c things become unstable - if your cpu runs stable at 100c for long periods of time then high-five to you! But it will not reduce the life of your cpu.

Running for weeks on end at 80c will have no adverse effects.

Playing a game with the cpu hovering around 70c will have no long term adverse effects.

These are facts guys! I don't know why you refuse to believe them but they are true [if you are capable of reading them as they have been stated and not out of context].




TCase is not = to core temp. Sorry.

Unless you take courses in physics heat does affect semiconductor reliability or actually many systems have temperature dependent reliability as well. Put to put it more simply lets just look at a standard electrolytic capacitor that cheap motherboards might be using under that heat solution.

http://www.newark.com/pdfs/techarticles/cornell/multipliers.pdf
http://industrial.panasonic.com/www-cgi/jvcr13pz.cgi?E+PZ+3+ABA0012+ECA1HM4R7B+7+WW

Because they contain a liquid electrolyte temperature affects them roughly double for every 10C rise. (If the capacitor has a 2000h lifespan and you operate for 8h a day running at or near the spec of 85C typical or 105C for high quality capacitors will give you less than a year before highly increased failure rates)

Over course this is an oversimplification because the capacitor has self heating and is not in direct contact with the CPU but the closer to ambient you are and the longer the capacitor will last. (See capacitor life multipliers, why computers don't fail in less than a year running under spec temp increases life a lot)

Basically if you want your computer to last a very long time it would be ideal if everything were at room temperature heat is the enemy of electronics. (Hard drives a somewhat unique profile though according to google's research)(In most cases)

I believe the real world testing shows 100C is "stable" no crashing will occur unless there is thermal runaway which will make the processor trip to shut its clock down. But the documents specifically mention operating out of spec will affect lifespan of the parts and just because it can protect itself from imediate damage doesn't mean it is a good idea to sit on it. Its like design a machine with hard stops saying nothing will break when it slams into the stops because the machine will detect this and shut off. (Doing it 1000 times is probably going to wear down the drive train unless its using 100% continuous stall capable type of drive but any precision alignment is going to get screwed though from all the shock loading)

*yawn* and we're back full circle...





All perpetuating BS. So back on track...