SpeedFan! That's the one I was using. I just tried it again now. Temps are fine. I also use RivaTuner, and the temps are fine too, nice and low.
Here's a little "before" and "after" of my temps and system load. This is from a fresh reboot, then playing 10 mins of Counterstrike (at 10fps
) then quitting Counterstrike.
-The process list is the same. No extra processes are left.
Load and temps Before
Load and temps 5 mins After
Processes Before (same processes as After, and similar memory and CPU loads for each...)
As you can see from all this, once I've run Counterstrike, one of the cores never stops going at near 100%. Funny thing is no process in the Task Manager claims to be using even 1%. (that's why I mistakenly blamed System Idle Process).
...this is why this is so odd. I really have no answer. I will do those memory stress tests tomorrow. Hopefully they will reveal something.
Are there any CPU stress tests? Hot CPU Tester Pro 4?
I should also check all this with other games. I think Supreme Commander did something similar but I should double check.
grr this is spoiling my funs
CoreTemp and Everest? I'll give those a try too some time.
Thanks again!