Eli5, Why does heat slow down a computer?

Question

Eli5, Why does heat slow down a computer?

In: 0

Answer 1

Heat doesn’t slow down a computer.

A computer slows down in response when there’s heat.

If it keeps running at full power and gets too hot, things will simply melt or catch fire inside the computer.

In that, heat will simply stop a computer. Full stop. Forever. If the computer doesn’t slow down and reduce heat to avoid damage.

Someone *could* bypass the thermal throttling. They could tamper with heat detection and reaction to trick the computer into thinking everything is perfectly fine. Then, the computer would carry on at full speed until it destroys itself.