how do i fix gpu throttling on a laptop ? :,(

[Narcisisa]

my laptop (asus rog zephyrus g14) has been on and off with gpu throttling for like 2 months now :,(

i got this laptop in december 2021 but never used it or opened it until early february. it was working completely fine until around mid june when it started throttling for the first time, and i fixed that issue super easily, all i did was reinstall and update my drivers i think. it happened again around a few weeks later, which took a lot longer to fix. it fixed around early-mid july and i believe the reason it stopped was because i left it off for around 4 days due to me being busy. and now its doing it again  . ive got a lot of different suggestions such as replacing the thermal paste to my cpu, not replacing it, cleaning the dust out of my fans (done already), returning the laptop, etc. i dont want to repaste the cpu because im afraid id mess something up & i dont wanna take apart the whole laptop. 

even while idle, the gpu usage is always at 100%, this has been an issue with the previous times its happened but the gpu usage seems to be a little bit lower this time. it spikes to 100% but sometimes it drops to 0% for a couple seconds and usually is at around 80-90%.

 

this issue has bugged me every time it happens because the frames drop SO HARD. before this started happening id get at least 60 fps on every game with the highest being around 150 and now it drops to like 8 and the most i can get is around 40. :,( pls help me

[Dukesilver27-]

There may be a malware, I'm not sure, check what software/app is using your GPU when not gaming, try the task manager. Honestly, if I were you, I'd reinstall windows and see if it fixed the problem, the easier solution, but you might have to back up a lot of things first.

 

I have an ROG laptop myself, not as powerful as yours, but a bit older so the cooling solution is not as good.

But do you not use Turbo mode?

Turbo mode allows better cooling with higher fan curve, therefore noisier, in my experience this helped quite a bit.

 

Anyway, do you use a laptop cooling pad, or at least prop up your laptop with anything (other than the built in one)?

This helps quite a bit, the higher and steeper, the better.

 

If you still experience high temps, try undervolting your CPU, believe it or not, your CPU high heat output also affects your GPU high heat output, because the laptop's heat pipes/vapor chambers are inter-connected, therefore sharing the same cooling fins and fans. Here's a guide for ryzen cpu u dervolting.

Undervolting my CPU did it for me, truly helped the temps for both CPU and GPU.

 

Last resort, a very janky solution, I'm not sure if your laptop allows this, but my ROG's bottom chassis could be removed, so I always put my laptop on a laptop stand without the bottom chassis then put a small fan right behind the laptop, which helps cooling tremendously.

 

My GPU rarely goes above 70C with all this combined, CPU could reach 80C ish.

 

Side note, I see that your battery is 100% ish and plugged in, Asus has a feature to limit battery charge, 60% 80% and 100%, so you could plug it all the time but the battery would stay at the level you set, to prevent battery degradation from charge cycles.

Download MyAsus software for this.

[Narcisisa]

15 minutes ago, Dukesilver27- said:

There may be a malware, I'm not sure, check what software/app is using your GPU when not gaming, try the task manager. Honestly, if I were you, I'd reinstall windows and see if it fixed the problem, the easier solution, but you might have to back a lot of things first.

 

I have an ROG laptop myself, not as powerful as yours, but a bit older so the cooling solution is not as good.

But do you not use Turbo mode?

Turbo mode allows better cooling with higher fan curve, therefore noisier, in my experience this helped quite a bit.

 

Anyway, do you use a laptop cooling pad, or at least prop up your laptop with anything (other than the built in one)?

This helps quite a bit, the higher and steeper, the better.

 

If you still experience high temps, try undervolting your CPU, believe it or not, your CPU high heat output also affects your GPU high heat output, because the laptop's heat pipes/vapor chambers are inter-connected, therefore sharing the same cooling fins and fans. Here's a guide for ryzen cpu u dervolting.

Undervolting my CPU did it for me, truly helped the temps for both CPU and GPU.

 

Last resort, a very janky solution, I'm not sure if your laptop allows this, but my ROG's bottom chassis could be removed, so I always put my laptop on a laptop stand without the bottom chassis then put a small fan right behind the laptop, which helps cooling tremendously.

 

My GPU rarely goes above 70C with all this combined, CPU could reach 80C ish.

 

Side note, I see that your battery is 100% ish and plugged in, Asus has a feature to limit battery charge, 60% 80% and 100%, so you could plug it all the time but the battery would stay at the level you set, to prevent battery degradation from charge cycles.

Download MyAsus software for this.

i do use turbo mode, but when its throttling like this i dont play any games because the fps drops makes it too hard to play. ive tried to undervolt it but its really complicated to me and im not really sure how to do it because i know almost nothing about computers and im afraid id damage it by messing something up :-(.

i didnt know about the battery limit thing but thanks for letting me know because i thought there was something wrong with my battery when it would stay at 80% all the time but im glad to know that there isnt any problems.

i always keep it slightly elevated because of the way i sit, i dont have a desk atm because im still ordering new furniture, but i keep it where theres constantly air going through the bottom so it doesnt get too hot. before it started throttling it was usually at a similar temperature to yours, like around 75 to around 87c. it doesnt get hotter than 90c unless its throttling :( 

thanks for replying

[Dukesilver27-]

38 minutes ago, Narcisisa said:

i do use turbo mode, but when its throttling like this i dont play any games because the fps drops makes it too hard to play. ive tried to undervolt it but its really complicated to me and im not really sure how to do it because i know almost nothing about computers and im afraid id damage it by messing something up :-(.

i didnt know about the battery limit thing but thanks for letting me know because i thought there was something wrong with my battery when it would stay at 80% all the time but im glad to know that there isnt any problems.

i always keep it slightly elevated because of the way i sit, i dont have a desk atm because im still ordering new furniture, but i keep it where theres constantly air going through the bottom so it doesnt get too hot. before it started throttling it was usually at a similar temperature to yours, like around 75 to around 87c. it doesnt get hotter than 90c unless its throttling :( 

thanks for replying

I think you don't understand what thermal throttling means, it means the temperature is so high that the CPU/GPU reduces the performance therefore lowering the temperature as a measure to protect itself from damage or completely shutting down.

 

Anyway, in regards to undervolting, I know that it is quite daunting, do it step by step and you'll get it done. It is quite simple, and laptops especially gaming laptops truly benefit from undervolting, me personally and a lot others feel like undervolting is a must for laptops in general. 

I did a lot of research about undervolting, there is no downside to it, in the process your laptop might crash a few times due to unstable undervolting, but no harm would be caused by these crashes. Once you found the stable settings, the benefit you got vs the effort you put is totally worth it, trust me.

 

Regardless of undervolt or laptop position, I think there's an issue from the software/OS, maybe a malware or virus, again, check with task manager, which software/app/services are using up your resources without you knowing.

 

 

[Narcisisa]

32 minutes ago, Dukesilver27- said:

I think you don't understand what thermal throttling means, it means the temperature is so high that the CPU/GPU reduces the performance therefore lowering the temperature as a measure to protect itself from damage or completely shutting down.

 

Anyway, in regards to undervolting, I know that it is quite daunting, do it step by step and you'll get it done. It is quite simple, and laptops especially gaming laptops truly benefit from undervolting, me personally and a lot others feel like undervolting is a must for laptops in general. 

I did a lot of research about undervolting, there is no downside to it, in the process your laptop might crash a few times due to unstable undervolting, but no harm would be caused by these crashes. Once you found the stable settings, the benefit you got vs the effort you put is totally worth it, trust me.

 

Regardless of undervolt or laptop position, I think there's an issue from the software/OS, maybe a malware or virus, again, check with task manager, which software/app/services are using up your resources without you knowing.

 

 

yeah i know like nothing about computers but from what people have been telling me i thought it was throttling :,(

ive already checked and theres no viruses or anything like that, ive checked task manager and nothing is really different than before its been acting up

im gonna try to undervolt it and see if that fixes anything, i think it should

[Dukesilver27-]

6 minutes ago, Narcisisa said:

yeah i know like nothing about computers but from what people have been telling me i thought it was throttling :,(

ive already checked and theres no viruses or anything like that, ive checked task manager and nothing is really different than before its been acting up

im gonna try to undervolt it and see if that fixes anything, i think it should

Well, the underlying issue here is that you're not gaming, or mining, or doing anything remotely heavy, yet your GPU usage is through the roof.

Therefore, the issue would not be solved with undervolt, it might help a bit, but it won't solve it. 

If you're really at your wits' end, you just reset the windows OS, your data in Drive D will not be touched, but everything else on Drive C/OS would be affected/deleted. It's bothersome to be sure, but it is the last resort that usually fixes issues related to software/OS.

To be clear, if you ended deciding resetting the OS, then please select the option with clean fresh install, because the issue might hide anywhere on your OS drive or registry.

[Narcisisa]

3 minutes ago, Dukesilver27- said:

Well, the underlying issue here is that you're not gaming, or mining, or doing anything remotely heavy, yet your GPU usage is through the roof.

Therefore, the issue would not be solved with undervolt, it might help a bit, but it won't solve it. 

If you're really at your wits' end, you just reset the windows OS, your data in Drive D will not be touched, but everything else on Drive C/OS would be affected/deleted. It's bothersome to be sure, but it is the last resort that usually fixes issues related to software/OS.

To be clear, if you ended deciding resetting the OS, then please select the option with clean fresh install, because the issue might hide anywhere on your OS drive or registry.

ok thank you, should i reset it first and then undervolt or should i undervolt and then reset

[Dukesilver27-]

3 minutes ago, Narcisisa said:

ok thank you, should i reset it first and then undervolt or should i undervolt and then reset

Reset first, definitely. Otherwise all the settings would be lost.

Please note down anything you have set in your laptop, or some software that you use, back up any documents pictures videos anything on Drive C that you would like to keep. 

If you have pirated games, make sure to back up all the save files from Drive C, otherwise they would be loss forever.

 

I suggest you to do a bit of research first, before resetting your laptop, might save you a bit of pain of losing files.

[Narcisisa]

2 minutes ago, Dukesilver27- said:

Reset first, definitely. Otherwise all the settings would be lost.

Please note down anything you have set in your laptop, or some software that you use, back up any documents pictures videos anything on Drive C that you would like to keep. 

If you have pirated games, make sure to back up all the save files from Drive C, otherwise they would be loss forever.

 

I suggest you to do a bit of research first, before resetting your laptop, might save you a bit of pain of losing files.

ok thanks so much! i appreciate the help a lot, i hope this works