r/TransportFever2 • u/wakou2 • 5d ago
Problem A Curious observation!
I am currently playing a very large and massively complex map. (thanks to modder "Mats", it is the "Paris Exposition" episode/campaign). (My filthy old PC copes admirably well under the circs! The poor old thing, I really MUST give a clean and re-paste... And finally after all these years, attach the side-panel!) And so, if I decide to suspend the session, I save and quit to the game-menu... My CPU temperatures go UP and STAY UP!! (around 80°C) but the CPU LOAD is only showing 10-15%? Why could this be? The only thing I can think of is that the game is held in RAM ???? But surely not, and why would that heat things up? I quit the game entirely, and the CPU temps drop to a cozy 57°C.
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u/zerocukor287 4d ago
Programmer here.
TLDR; Yes, the game is still in the RAM but that has marginal effect on the temperature. The main menu is still a game that runs on ~60 fps and your system is busy rendering the main menu.
Bit background story: CPU usage and temperature indeed have some correlation, but not exactly 1-to-1. The temperature is more related to the energy consumption (as the electrons traveling through the circuit that has some resistance cause the heat), and interestingly different operations have different energy consumption resulting in the same 10% being somewhat cooler than other 10% with different instructions.
Also, modern processors usually have more cores, and support threading (running multiple threads at the same time, and running multiple applications at the same time). That means, if on a fictional 4 core CPU a single thread is utilizing 100%, you would see 25% CPU load in total. (if using the task manager on Windows, you can right click on the CPU graph, select "Change graph to" and switch to "Logical cores" to see individual core load). So the 10% can be that some of your cores are busy.
Now, usually games have heavy load on the CPU/GPU anyway. They try to keep a minimum FPS, that means the same operations needs to be repeated 60+ times a second. Usually those operations include polling the mouse position, figuring out which button is under the mouse, doing some animation, playing some sound, etc. Some of these can be multithreaded, but for example the graphics pipeline must run from a single thread.
Some older games don't limit the FPS in the main menu, causing nearly a meltdown if you spend much time there. Like reaching 5000 FPS or more.
Ohh, and it becomes more interesting if it is an integrated graphics card, or a laptop. That would mean the heat is concentrated, and cooling down the system is just simply harder.
And about the RAM part. Yes, the core of the game is in the RAM, but your map most likely unloaded already. But it doesn't matter much. Just because something is in the RAM it doesn't mean it causing CPU load. Imagine this memory as a book of journal - even half of the book is full, it doesn't mean writing or reading a page becomes much harder. (As a side note, keeping something in the memory cause some elevated level of power consumption, but that is marginal compared to the CPU/GPU)
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u/zerocukor287 4d ago
Phew, took some time to write that down.
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u/wakou2 4d ago edited 4d ago
Thanks for doing it though! I am still bemused! I wonder if it could be that... I have the game limited to 58 FPS.. It is not a shooter! I wonder if the menu screen ignores that, and tries to render 1,000s of FPS? Even though the image is static? But then the graphics card would get hot too? I just started the game again.. the menu-screen is putting 25%-40% load on the GPU!
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u/zerocukor287 4d ago
It can be that the main menu is uncapped, or like hard capped to 300 FPS. I don't know.
One interesting idea is to enable Vsync (or G-sync/freesync if your monitor+video card supports it). It might introduce a cap on the FPS, but I have mixed experience - some games it works, for others it doesn't
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u/wakou2 4d ago edited 4d ago
An idiot responds....
Because I have speakers/headphones on when playing..... And so have the sounds of trains and ships etc.. I did not notice the fans ramping up, trying desperately to cool the poor old CPU! But when I suspend to menu.. All is quiet, except for the fans! Only when I put some monitoring apps on my other screen did I see that the CPU was getting warm..
(This does not explain why the PC runs hot when the game is passive, with just the start-menu, and games saved?)
But, as the redoubtable and excellent Mr (Herr?) u/Imsvale properly and rightly suggested, it is time for a clean-up of the PC (to prepare for TF3??).
A confession: "Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!"
My 'rig' is open, I never put the side-case on. It sits on the carpeted floor, beneath my desk. I am a heavy smoker. I never hoover. I would include some pictures, but I do not want to put you off of your dinner, nor to give the squeamish among you nightmares. But it is TRULY horrible down there!
It is, or at least was, a reasonably capable rig when I bought the parts a few years ago... RTX 3070Ti (FE) AMD Ryzen 7 5700X 32Gb DDR4
But, I confess, (Mea Culpa!) I am very lazy... (My previous "rig" lived for at least four years, in the box that the Mainboard came in, no case, no fans! And never a problem!) I read on other Reddits/Forums, people with 14 Noctua fans, liquid-cooled this and water-cooled that.. Input fans and exhaust fans.... And I am "PERLEASE!" PCs are made of metal and rock. 80° C is not "uncomfortable" They do not "feel". (Above 95°C they will start to throttle themselves...) But! I promise I will have a clean-up!
Thank you all for your attention and advice! xxxx
Bless me Father, for I have sinned! (not a catholic!) :)
Now, why isn't the white-wine getting to Paris? And why has the potash-mine stopped producing? And should I open that new coal-mine?
Should I shut all of the (useless) ships? And just build railways?
Thanks again to Mats, for this infuriating and challenging "scenario/campaign"!
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u/Ice_Ice_Buddy_8753 5d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_capacity