I've recently encountered a serious issue with my ASUS TUF A15 laptop, which has a Ryzen 5 4600H processor and an NVIDIA GTX 1650 graphics card. While gaming, the CPU suddenly throttles down to 400MHz, leading to significant performance drops. For example, I was playing Valorant and my average FPS went from around 90 to just 5-10 FPS. This isn't something I've experienced before, and I'm puzzled as to why it's happening now. The laptop's fans were cleaned about two months ago, and the thermal paste was replaced a year ago. I really need some help figuring out what's causing this and how to fix it. Here are some current statistics from my gaming:
- GPU: 43°C at 33% usage
- CPU: 47°C at 94%, currently at 400MHz
- FPS: 10-15
Is this a hardware issue or could it be a software problem? Also, I've updated my BIOS and drivers just to be safe.
2 Answers
From what you've described, there might be a few things causing the throttling. If the thermal paste was replaced a year ago, it might still be good, but consider checking that again or ensuring your cooling system is working as intended. Additionally, even with updated BIOS and drivers, there could still be some software conflicts. It might be helpful to uninstall and reinstall any graphics drivers you have, just to be safe. It's also a good idea to close any background applications before gaming to free up resources.
It sounds like you're dealing with a throttling issue that might be a result of your CPU overheating, even if the temperatures seem okay. Your CPU temp is 47°C, which isn't too bad, but throttling to 400MHz usually suggests that a thermal protection mode might be activating. You could try using a tool like Open Hardware Monitor to get more detailed temperature readings. If the CPU temperatures are staying low, it's possible it's a software issue instead. Keep an eye on the usage stats too; if the CPU is running close to 100%, that could also be part of your troubles. Make sure to monitor both CPU and GPU usage while gaming.
I just used Open Hardware Monitor, and it shows CPU temperatures at 42°C currently and a max of 44.4°C. The GPU seems fine too at 38-40°C. The temps all look normal, but I'm still experiencing lag.