Laptop performace significantly down and Hwinfo reports cpu takes only 7 watts

[sid18020]

Its an Asus laptop (thin and light)(X510UNR) with 8th gen intel i7-8550u and an MX150 graphics. It used to give me good enough performance and I was happy with it (CS:GO ~ 100 fps low quality, l4d2 ~ 90 fps high quality). After a good 2 years where I stopped gaming and got back into it recently, any 3D game just does not run smooth. Lots of stutter, frame time lag, 60+ avg fps but unplayable from hitches.

 

Snooping around on Hwinfo I see that the cpu takes in only 8 watts (P1 power limit) and never goes to the 45 w (P2 power limit). P1 and P2 are supposed to be short term and long term power usage.

 

Another thing, I had always seen that the the cpu core would thermal throttle (expected of a laptop) but recently the cpu throttle because of 'power limitation'. This was definitely a new behavior.

 

Core temperature also does not seem to go above 80 C. (not as I remember)

 

Its confusing trying to pinpoint the problem as my laptop still reaches its boost clock (3.5ghz) games still give me 60+ fps (w/ stuttering)

 

The only thing changed about my system was a ram upgrade and an windows 11 update.