Laptop can no longer run games it used to a couple of months ago, even after a fresh reinstall

[MuonicAnalysis]

Specs: CPU: i5-12450H, GPU: RTX 3050 4GB of VRAM, RAM: 16 GB

I first got this laptop last July and it was perfectly capable of running games at a completely stable 60 FPS (it could get up to 120 fps easily with uncapped fps) without overheating or any fps drops even with max graphics but I took a break from playing games for a while and when I returned, I had 40 fps at best, settling around 20 most of the time. I did a factory reset and reinstalled it, in case it was a malware issue but I had the same problems. One thing I've noticed is the CPU usage of the game starts at 40% when it first opens but then drops to 10% to 20% afterwards. Does anyone have any ideas as why performance degraded so much? (the game is Genshin Impact by the way). 

[strange13930]

22 minutes ago, MuonicAnalysis said:

Specs: CPU: i5-12450H, GPU: RTX 3050 4GB of VRAM, RAM: 16 GB

I first got this laptop last July and it was perfectly capable of running games at a completely stable 60 FPS (it could get up to 120 fps easily with uncapped fps) without overheating or any fps drops even with max graphics but I took a break from playing games for a while and when I returned, I had 40 fps at best, settling around 20 most of the time. I did a factory reset and reinstalled it, in case it was a malware issue but I had the same problems. One thing I've noticed is the CPU usage of the game starts at 40% when it first opens but then drops to 10% to 20% afterwards. Does anyone have any ideas as why performance degraded so much? (the game is Genshin Impact by the way). 

are your gpu drivers updated?

[MuonicAnalysis]

53 minutes ago, strange13930 said:

are your gpu drivers updated?

Yep, no difference at all.

[jaslion]

Well yeah its overheating. That gpu is supposed to be 83c max it will HEAVILY downclock to not kill itself and even then its failing as its at 90c.

 

Open your laptop and blow the dust out of the fans. If its been 3 years also do a repaste.

 

[MuonicAnalysis]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Well yeah its overheating. That gpu is supposed to be 83c max it will HEAVILY downclock to not kill itself and even then its failing as its at 90c.

 

Open your laptop and blow the dust out of the fans. If its been 3 years also do a repaste.

 

I did open it up a couple of days ago and blew out the dust from the fan (with a wipe too). I might not have been thorough enough but there's definitely a lot less dust (but I might try again with compressed air or smth if it's a better option). Still, there wasn't much of an improvement. I do think there's something wrong with the fan though since the cpu is always on high temperatures even under low load. It's been less than a year since I got it so I don't know if I should repaste. Maybe a cooling pad would help?

[strange13930]

8 minutes ago, MuonicAnalysis said:

I did open it up a couple of days ago and blew out the dust from the fan (with a wipe too). I might not have been thorough enough but there's definitely a lot less dust (but I might try again with compressed air or smth if it's a better option). Still, there wasn't much of an improvement. I do think there's something wrong with the fan though since the cpu is always on high temperatures even under low load. It's been less than a year since I got it so I don't know if I should repaste. Maybe a cooling pad would help?

yeah if there are high cpu temps with low load I would repaste

[manikyath]

18 minutes ago, jaslion said:

If its been 3 years also do a repaste.

no. keep that heatsink firmly in place where it belongs until all other options have been ruled out.

 

on that note.. i noticed my 6 year old laptop has been running a bit hot and loud as of late.. found a few dustbunnies living in the heatsink. back to normal after ejecting said bunnies.

10 minutes ago, MuonicAnalysis said:

did open it up a couple of days ago and blew out the dust from the fan (with a wipe too). I might not have been thorough enough but there's definitely a lot less dust (but I might try again with compressed air or smth if it's a better option).

go to your local variety of office supply store and buy one of those cans of compressed air, pop off the underside of your laptop to get a better view, and just spray liberally in every venthole you can find.

 

these days the air channels between the fans and heatsinks tend to be quite well sealed, so it may help to loosen the screws on the fans (only fans, NOT heatsink) to create a bit of a gap for stuff to fly out of.

[MuonicAnalysis]

37 minutes ago, manikyath said:

no. keep that heatsink firmly in place where it belongs until all other options have been ruled out.

 

on that note.. i noticed my 6 year old laptop has been running a bit hot and loud as of late.. found a few dustbunnies living in the heatsink. back to normal after ejecting said bunnies.

go to your local variety of office supply store and buy one of those cans of compressed air, pop off the underside of your laptop to get a better view, and just spray liberally in every venthole you can find.

 

these days the air channels between the fans and heatsinks tend to be quite well sealed, so it may help to loosen the screws on the fans (only fans, NOT heatsink) to create a bit of a gap for stuff to fly out of.

Alright, I ordered a can of compressed air! Hopefully, it manages to fix the overheating when it arrives. I'll also try and loosen the screws. If all that fails and there's still overheating/performance issues, do you think it could be a problem with the fan itself?

[DreamCat04]

9 hours ago, manikyath said:

no. keep that heatsink firmly in place where it belongs until all other options have been ruled out.

Didn't they say that they already blew out most of the dust? I'd really advise changing the thermal paste. My laptop had its thermal paste on the GPU really dry after just 1.5 years of daily use. It's now been 3 more years and I haven't had to replace the thermal paste yet. One thing you ( @MuonicAnalysis )should try, is let the device cool down, then start a load on the GPU and monitor how quickly the GPU heats up. The higher the initial jump, the more your paste has dried out and should be replaced. I don't think this is something to be fixed purely by cleaning the fans. In the case of my laptop, cleaning the clogged up fans did bring an improvement, but it didn't bring it back to where it once was. Only a repaste did

[MuonicAnalysis]

On 5/20/2025 at 7:48 AM, DreamCat04 said:

Didn't they say that they already blew out most of the dust? I'd really advise changing the thermal paste. My laptop had its thermal paste on the GPU really dry after just 1.5 years of daily use. It's now been 3 more years and I haven't had to replace the thermal paste yet. One thing you ( @MuonicAnalysis )should try, is let the device cool down, then start a load on the GPU and monitor how quickly the GPU heats up. The higher the initial jump, the more your paste has dried out and should be replaced. I don't think this is something to be fixed purely by cleaning the fans. In the case of my laptop, cleaning the clogged up fans did bring an improvement, but it didn't bring it back to where it once was. Only a repaste did

If I do repaste, I have a few questions if you don't mind. How do I know which thermal paste is right to get for my laptop? I was reading about liquid metal but I'm not sure if my laptop has liquid metal or not or whether it's better to use thermal paste over liquid metal. How easy is it to mess up and destroy your motherboard even if you know what you're doing?

 

[DreamCat04]

17 minutes ago, MuonicAnalysis said:

If I do repaste, I have a few questions if you don't mind. How do I know which thermal paste is right to get for my laptop? I was reading about liquid metal but I'm not sure if my laptop has liquid metal or not or whether it's better to use thermal paste over liquid metal. How easy is it to mess up and destroy your motherboard even if you know what you're doing?

 

LM is quite risky indeed as it'll destroy solder if it spills. Since it's metal, it's also electrically conductive, so there's a potential for shorts. If your heatisnk is copper that isn't nickel plated, the LM will "dissolve" into the copper over a few months. I'd say if the laptop doesn't come with LM pre-applied, it's not worth it. I repasted my laptop with Arctic MX-4 on the GPU as it had crusty, dry paste and it has held up really well. There's also PTM 7950, which is great for laptops as it performs on-par with the best thermal pastes while lasting a very long time due to it being a pad that liquefies when it gets hot. It was even proven to lose thermal resistance over time (meaning it IMPROVES as it undergoes many heating/cooling cycles)
For checking if the laptop comes with liquid metal, I'd suggest watching some disassembly videos of your exact model, you'll easily be able to tell whether it uses LM or not. On my laptop there was an oxidized spot in the pre-applied LM on the CPU that caused a few cores to be pinned to the thermal limit under load. Simply re-spreading it on both sides fixed it and it's been running fine for 2.5y now