Have you ever run into issues with your computer game performance?
Have you ever run into issues with your computer game performance?
I own a Gigabyte G5 Gaming Laptop for about two years now and it works pretty much like new. All the games that used to run smoothly have been running fine during this time, but lately there is this strange stuttering or drops in frames per second (fps) that I can't figure out why. Most of the time, most games just work well for maybe a couple minutes at most before they start acting up and freezing almost every second when playing something like Destiny 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, even Doom Eternal if it used to run perfectly fine before. When I checked my performance settings through software, the only thing that happened was that when the fps dropped, my graphics card usage also went down for a split second. I have tried resetting my computer and removing almost all other apps except Steam and my games, but the problem is still there. It feels like it might be a hardware issue since nothing else seems to fix it after cleaning up my PC. I've tried switching to an SSD, turning graphics down to the lowest setting, and running other tests, but none of those things have worked yet. I don't really know what else I could try to get this fixed.
Check how hot things get. Have you ever taken your fans and heat pipes apart to clean them out again or swap out old parts like a new CPU or GPU because it's too warm to live with?
I checked my heat levels while playing heavy graphics games, and they seem to sit in the low 80s. That number popped up when I searched it online. It feels okay to me because it's normal for a laptop. But wait... is that really normal? Is it actually hot or just too cool?
After a bit of time, things get hot fast. Start HWMonitor and check the max temperatures. If you slowed down (throttled), you might see some cores at 100C in red. Maybe Intel's are around 85C. For Ryzen, make sure your fans are spinning well and your air paths aren't blocked. If that doesn't fix it, try repasting the processor.
I tried using HWMoniter and it looks like I was getting what you said which is a red 100c so I'm thinking there is definitely an issue with my temperature so I'm gonna probably re paste my processor and dust out my laptop if there is any in there. But I did find something out that I haven't tested much since you mentioned the thermals. I tried lifting up my laptop since pretty much all the fan and ventilation is on the bottom and it actually seemed like from the little amount I tested it that it somehow fixed it because I tried lifting it up and down and it started when I put it down but seemed to mostly stop when lifting it up which was interesting and I'll test it out more but I'll look into thermals because that seems to be the issue from what I found while testing.
If your fan vents are at the bottom, you might have found the issue. Try moving the laptop up on its stand. You can buy active cooling pads for them; these don't use refrigeration but add fans to push more air toward the vents. Clean out any dust in those paths first. Sometimes re-pasting helps, but it rarely fixes things permanently. The glue should stay wet and work well even after many years of use. Opening up a laptop comes with risks that could cause new problems instead of fixing old ones. Also, 100 degrees Celsius isn't always bad as long as the computer doesn't break down. Modern motherboards try to run fast until they hit their limit, then slow down to stay safe. Laptop coolers need to be small and light because they can't match the cooling power of a big desktop unit.
Yeah, that's what I thought too when I was testing lifting it up yesterday so I ordered something that keeps it elevated that should come tomorrow and if that doesn't work completely then I might try and repaste but hopefully having it elevated works completely like it did yesterday and not just for a while and I'll try to post the results from that tomorrow night.
So I tried a new trick after getting something to lift my laptop up, which made the problem stop. I thought that was enough because it seemed to work better when I play games. But then I realized more airflow might be needed for me too. Thanks to everyone here who helped me out and really appreciate it.