How does a computer overheating make it perform worse actively?

Question

I understand the increased degradation of parts over time, but what is the heat doing to make a computer perform worse in real time?

In: 13

Answer 1

The heat doesn’t affect performance directly, but processors are programmed to throttle their own activity if they get too hot to avoid damaging themselves. After all, when there’s not enough ventilation, you’d probably prefer a slower computer than the CPU burning out.