it cant make your processor work harder then its capable of, so if you do encounter a dead cpu then its most likely from insufficient cooling for it or something.

increasing cpu cycles above what your cpu can handle only has a negative effect on the performance of dosbox.

Well I've just had 10 minutes on magic carpet 2. My starting temp was about 30c and when I finished the session the CPU was around 75c. I'd say that was very hot and not really worth stressing my CPU for a single game. Shame really as MC2 looked really good.

Any other CPU-demanding application will heat it up too.

Sounds like you have cool n' quite power management running on your machine. 75 sounds about right for that processor when it's being stressed.

boom_boom wrote:

Well I've just had 10 minutes on magic carpet 2. My starting temp was about 30c and when I finished the session the CPU was around 75c. I'd say that was very hot and not really worth stressing my CPU for a single game. Shame really as MC2 looked really good.

Dear Lord that's running hot for an Athlon 64! Idles at 30c (C&Q) and maxes out at 75c. 😳 I have a middle-of-the-road 'notoriously hot' running Pentium 4 model 640 HT (3.2GHz) with 2GB RAM. It idles at 50c and under full load it hits 65c with the stock Intel cooling fan. This is in a 71f (21.6c) room.

I ran a few NTVDMs to max out the Intel hyperthreading core for about 15 minutes to really heat things up. I don't go above 65c under any load. You may need to check your CPU fan/heatsink/thermal material. Your Athlon should run much cooler than the Pentium 4...

Attached is a screen-shot of my P4 system under load after 15 minutes...

dvwjr

boom_boom wrote:

Well I've just had 10 minutes on magic carpet 2. My starting temp was about 30c and when I finished the session the CPU was around 75c.

That isn't the fault of DOSBox. It will happen with any CPU intense program (like any game out there)

You should, however, get better cooling for your CPU. 75°C is a bit high. I have a 3500+ and never go above 52°C during max workload. And this with the default bad cooling.

Indeed - you should always stress test your CPU when you buy or build a new computer. In some (rare) cases, the cooling is not enough and may damage or shut down your system - in other (less rare) cases, after time, cooling starts to deteriorate - dust in the fans, bad airflow in the case because of dust or extra hardware/cables blocking air. 75°C is definately too high. I get 38°C stressed on my Conroe E6600 - that's half that!

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to put the game on the shelf for a bit, its was only £2 off ebay anyway.

My computer is 1 1/2 years old and there is a bit of dust in the case, nothing major, so heat sink could need resetting and some thermal paste being re-applied. I was thinking about getting a new fan for it, but I don't feel its worth shelling out £25 just to play MC2, however great it is.

Cheers all.

uhhh, the problem is not MC2. Run your processor monitoring program while you perform other CPU intensive activities.

What like? I don't really play games.

I'm tempted to get an artic cooler as there only £6, and jam it on.

Just seen your previous post about coolnquiet, yeah I've got that running. Could that be a problem.

use some compressed air to clean out the dust in your computer.
After 6 months of dust buildup with a Pentium 4, I was idling at 52C and reaching 67C at full load.
After dusting its now 41C idle and 53C under load.

This is with the stock cooler but quality thermal paste in a 22C environment.

Sometimes I got greedy and used up too much cpu on Dosbox myself, had to restart the machine because it took so long to exit dosbox after overclocking.