Laptop cooling disaster

SirDarknight · October 31, 2020

I've been a PC gamer for as long as I can remember but due to unavoidable circumstances I had to sell my desktop and settle for a laptop. Gaming laptops aren't widely available in my country. Acer Nitro 5 (2020) was the only viable option within my budget. Now, I know that the Nitro series is notorious for its overheating tendencies but a lot of people assured me that the cooling was significantly improved in the 2020 model but my experience says otherwise.

When I first got it, the idle temps hovered around 65-70C (plugged in, HP mode, normal fan speed). During gaming, the temps would spike to 92C and thermal throttle the CPU. I compared a lot of benchmarks and figured out that I was getting way less performance than I should, due to the throttling. Undervolting isn't allowed on 10th gen chips either (Some laptops can still do it, but not Acer). For some reason, getting a laptop cooler didn't make any difference as well. The peak temps would still be 92-93C. Some YouTube videos showed significant temp drops after repasting the CPU and GPU so I opted for that. I had some leftover Arctic MX-4 from my desktop gaming days. I opened up the laptop and repasted. Initially, I saw 2-3C drop in the temps, specially in the first few days. After a week or so, it was just as before. The same temps as before, the same performance drop. But, the main issue started after a month or so. The temps got worse than ever before. Now, during gaming, the temps go up to 94-95C and throttle like crazy.

I don't even get 110 FPS in Valorant, or 65-70 FPS in GTA V while other 1660ti benchmarks show 250+ FPS in Valorant and 80-90 in GTA V.

The lag is so crazy that I can't run Discord alongside any other game. I have to close everything running in the background to get a seemingly smooth experience in FPS games. If I keep the laptop running for more than 8-9 hours, even Windows animations start lagging.

Spec:

Acer Nitro 5 (2020)

i7-10750H

16GB DDR4 - 2133

GTX 1660ti

512GB NVMe

1080p 144Hz panel

Note: All the temps I mentioned are on HP mode, max fan speed.

Note: Throttlestop or Intel XTU don't make any difference. Those are disabled on the 10th gen chips. The Throttlestop speedshift helps the temps but the performance doesn't improve at all.

Note: Should I try repasting again? The paste I applied first time was pretty old (more than a year or so), could that be the reason for temp spikes again?

Note: The vendor I got it from said I wouldn't be eligible for warranty if I repasted. So, that's not an option either.

genexis_x · October 31, 2020

50 minutes ago, SirDarknight said:

idle temps hovered around 65-70C

you got a lemon, send back for warranty service (don't tell them you repasted of course)

SirDarknight · October 31, 2020

8 minutes ago, genexis_x said:

you got a lemon, send back for warranty service (don't tell them you repasted of course)

That's the thing. Sending something to warranty is a nightmare in my country. It'd take around 1.5-2 months for the whole procedure to end and I have heard people receiving "Warranty not eligible" notice after waiting that long and getting the same lemon back. So, I was trying to avoid that.