ZBook Fury Throttling Enigma
ZBook Fury Throttling Enigma
I upgraded my ZBook Fury 16 G9 with an i7-12800HX and it’s been running smoothly for two months. Initially, I ran Cinebench R23 and achieved solid scores without overheating, keeping temps around 89°C. Recently, the CPU has been getting too hot, often reaching 96-100°C, which causes throttling and drops my scores to the 14k range. The fans seem fine, but I’ve had to use ThrottleStop to manage temperatures since I can’t lower the voltage. No changes in software or hardware have been made. Any suggestions on what could be causing this issue?
Download hwinfo to understand the throttling issue. Heat levels clearly indicate thermal limits, which is why performance isn't improving or lasting as expected.
I'm glad you brought it up. The data from hwinfo confirms thermal throttling on some of the p-cores.
Are you placing it on a flat surface or lifting it up? Was it originally used as a preowned device? In reviews, it scored around 75c during a top-tier 95 test and 71c under performance mode on Cinebench. This suggests it likely isn’t functioning properly compared to an i9 12950. It could also be a faulty laptop—especially if the early temperatures aren’t normal for its environment.
It sits on a flat wooden surface with a small raised area from a wedge-shaped USB-C dock, placed there since the beginning. It’s brand new. The i9-12950 is a higher-end version with vapor chamber cooling, which naturally leads to those high temperatures. My unit uses heat pipes and the 89C has been seen in the OOTB, so it makes sense. I live in a hotter climate, but I’m lucky to have air conditioning, keeping things cooler indoors.
@shahaan Thermal pastes often lose effectiveness after application, causing CPU temps to rise. People are seeing steady improvements with Genuine Honeywell PTM 7950.
That's possible. I'll think about re-pasting later when I have more time.