100% cpu usage with heat while playing pc games, even for old games like aoe1

[SkyLab]

SYSTEM-Intel D915GVWBL,P4 2.66ghz,512mb(dual channel),intel 82915 express chipset with intel 900 gma
no virus and spyware found, HD defragmented regularly.

what could be causing this problem?
1. RAM ;- adding more RAM will solve this problem?
2. Integrated audio/video problem:- adding graphics card and sound card will solve this problem?
my board only has 2 pci slots and one pci-e 1x slot, but no pci-e16x slot or agp slot
As i dont have slot for pci-e 16x, are pci or pci-e 1x graphic cards better than onboard intel 82915 express chipset? is there a graphics card for pci-e 1x slot?

Bios Setup only has options to disable onboard lan and audio, so if i add the new graphics card how to disable the onboard graphics, or does it automatically gets disabled if drivers for new card are installed?

Game Compatibilty List (http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/intel915g/) (click on game compatibilty list link after this page load)
The list contains suport for more 3d intensive games like doom3, AOE 2 etc(i dont play this games). so i cant understand why is there problem with old games like AOE1 and nfs4

[mjc]

First...what BRAND computer is this?

If this is not a custom build, then the Intel game list doesn't really matter, especially if you aren't using the Intel drivers.

As to the auto disable for the onboard graphics...maybe.

There should be a BIOS option as to which is used first for the graphics and hopefully there is some means to limit the amount of memory used. But 'proprietary' machines often limit or remove those options from the BIOS.

[SkyLab]

well the system is Intel Boxed motherBoard D915gvwbl with Intel pentium 4 processor 2.66Ghz as recomended in the manual provided by boxed motherboard, this motherboard has intel 82915 gaphics chipset with intel 900 graphics media accelerator. I think a computer consisting boxed motherboard from intel with appropriate proccesor is not at all "proprietary", every thing is intel, only input output devices like monitor keyboard and mouse are added extra

as for drivers, all drivers are intel, i personally downloaded latest drivers from intel site

[mjc]

The description and the BIOS options sure made it sound like an HP or Dell or something...

Usually 100% CPU usage like that indicates a driver or DirectX problem. If you are fairly sure about the drivers the next thing would be to run dxdiag from the Run box on the Start Menu.

[SkyLab]

The question i asked was this why is the cpu usage 100 % when i play games, old games like aoe1. after a few moments of 100 % cpu usage the cpu heats up and the cpu fan speeds up making lot of noise. Although i must add that other than the cpu usage problem the game works fine, with no problem in graphics and sound. I fear that constant 100 % usage of cpu while playing games will damage my cpu.
I would like to know wether by adding addon cards for graphics and/or sound will reduce the processing load of cpu and solve the problem of 100 % cpu usage. and i want some help to choose the best graphics card for my system. As i have already stated this board has no agp slot no pcie 16x slot, only 2 pci slots and one pcie 1x slot.

[saphalline]

2D games always use 100% of your CPU, no matter what CPU you have. Unless it's dual-core, in which case it will use up 100% of just one core. 2D game engines are designed that way - they use the CPU to process as many frames per second as possible. On an older 233MHz CPU, AOE 1 might only get up to 50fps. But on your P4 2.66GHz, it's probably pushing several hundred fps! :eek:

But yes, 2D games use up all your CPU cycles. That's just the nature of 2D engines because they have no throttling. 3D games, however, will often go easier on the CPU and work the vid card(s) at 100% all the time.

Don't be worried about your CPU being damaged by working at 100% load while gaming. Even with 3D games, this will happen quite often. When gaming, you want as much speed and power as you can get, so having your hardware working at its full capacity is guaranteed to occur. That's what you want. You don't want sucky gaming performance just because your CPU is lazy and wants to work at only 70% load. :rolleyes: