So this problem has been going on for a while now, basically since I got the laptop about a year ago. I have an MSI GL65 Leopard 10SFSK-493, with 16 GB of ram, an RTX 2070 Super, and an i7-10750H CPU. Some slight info about things I've done with this laptop (I have little to no knowledge about the complicated stuff in tech, so I'm just listing things I think may have affected the situation):
-When I first got the laptop, I did a clean install of Windows, which uninstalled a lot of drivers by default and changed settings to defaults again. I installed the drivers I needed back, but I'm still not sure if this might have affected anything else.
-I do a lot of gaming on this laptop, for several hours at a time, typically with higher settings, (Some games I play are Dying Light, Elden Ring, Minecraft, Dauntless)
-I have never gone into BIOS settings and changed anything there (I plan on checking if Hyperthreading is enabled or disabled, but I don't want to mess up anything in BIOS until I know how to properly navigate it), but I have spent a lot of time configuring other settings in power management, NVIDIA Control Panel, and many other things, to try and optimize my CPU and GPU usage and try to fix the problem (GPU is mostly fine now, it almost never exceeds 80% usage or around 70 C temps).
Essentially, the problem I've been having is exactly what's stated in the title. My CPU is constantly throttling itself whenever I'm gaming (this happens the most in Dying Light and Elden ring), maxing out CPU Usage to 100% in Task Manager, and getting extremely hot. If this was something that only happened when I had settings too high or when I was running a game beyond my laptop's performance capabilities, I wouldn't be worried... but this happens at random, and even when I play games on the lowest settings. For instance, I will be playing Dying Light, and for 3 hours I will have a good, constant 120+ fps, and then all of the sudden for seemingly no reason (even if I'm in an area that is loading minimal entities and anything that would increase CPU usage), my fps will suddenly drop to 15-20, and stay like that for the next 20 minutes or so, or sometimes longer. I've looked up if anyone else has this problem with this laptop, but all of the tech reviews and benchmarking for it show it to be extremely good for gaming, and seemingly running at a decent 60 fps all the time. I have no clue what to do anymore, because the problem could be anything from what I stated it to be, to something as simple as my laptop not getting enough power. After this whole year of frustration with my CPU, I'm just looking for answers as to what the heck is happening, so I know if I can even fix this, or if I need to start saving for a new gaming setup.
Edit: Another problem I forgot to mention is that whenever Task manager shows the CPU being used at 100%, other third party monitoring programs on my laptop show it at 50% (Xbox Game Bar, MSI Dragon Center). I trust task manager over the other two, but it's a little strange.
Also, today I ran a small test of my own, to try and identify the problem with the CPU, and throttling is definitely a huge part of it. I downloaded FPS Monitor and had that run as an overlay while I launched Dying Light. I sat in one spot and didn't move for 3 minutes, and for that time, it was fine, averaging at around 70% CPU usage, 70 C, and 100 fps. at the fourth minute, all of the sudden everything went wrong, and the fps dropped to 35, CPU temps jumped up to 80+ C, and CPU usage suddenly maxed out. GPU usage and temps remained normal, but for sitting in one spot and idling, that's definitely concerning.
Edit 2: Just to clarify, I do have my fan curve's edited and sometimes I just turn on cooler boost via MSI Dragon Center, and I also have performance mode set to turbo in Dragon Center.
-When I first got the laptop, I did a clean install of Windows, which uninstalled a lot of drivers by default and changed settings to defaults again. I installed the drivers I needed back, but I'm still not sure if this might have affected anything else.
-I do a lot of gaming on this laptop, for several hours at a time, typically with higher settings, (Some games I play are Dying Light, Elden Ring, Minecraft, Dauntless)
-I have never gone into BIOS settings and changed anything there (I plan on checking if Hyperthreading is enabled or disabled, but I don't want to mess up anything in BIOS until I know how to properly navigate it), but I have spent a lot of time configuring other settings in power management, NVIDIA Control Panel, and many other things, to try and optimize my CPU and GPU usage and try to fix the problem (GPU is mostly fine now, it almost never exceeds 80% usage or around 70 C temps).
Essentially, the problem I've been having is exactly what's stated in the title. My CPU is constantly throttling itself whenever I'm gaming (this happens the most in Dying Light and Elden ring), maxing out CPU Usage to 100% in Task Manager, and getting extremely hot. If this was something that only happened when I had settings too high or when I was running a game beyond my laptop's performance capabilities, I wouldn't be worried... but this happens at random, and even when I play games on the lowest settings. For instance, I will be playing Dying Light, and for 3 hours I will have a good, constant 120+ fps, and then all of the sudden for seemingly no reason (even if I'm in an area that is loading minimal entities and anything that would increase CPU usage), my fps will suddenly drop to 15-20, and stay like that for the next 20 minutes or so, or sometimes longer. I've looked up if anyone else has this problem with this laptop, but all of the tech reviews and benchmarking for it show it to be extremely good for gaming, and seemingly running at a decent 60 fps all the time. I have no clue what to do anymore, because the problem could be anything from what I stated it to be, to something as simple as my laptop not getting enough power. After this whole year of frustration with my CPU, I'm just looking for answers as to what the heck is happening, so I know if I can even fix this, or if I need to start saving for a new gaming setup.
Edit: Another problem I forgot to mention is that whenever Task manager shows the CPU being used at 100%, other third party monitoring programs on my laptop show it at 50% (Xbox Game Bar, MSI Dragon Center). I trust task manager over the other two, but it's a little strange.
Also, today I ran a small test of my own, to try and identify the problem with the CPU, and throttling is definitely a huge part of it. I downloaded FPS Monitor and had that run as an overlay while I launched Dying Light. I sat in one spot and didn't move for 3 minutes, and for that time, it was fine, averaging at around 70% CPU usage, 70 C, and 100 fps. at the fourth minute, all of the sudden everything went wrong, and the fps dropped to 35, CPU temps jumped up to 80+ C, and CPU usage suddenly maxed out. GPU usage and temps remained normal, but for sitting in one spot and idling, that's definitely concerning.
Edit 2: Just to clarify, I do have my fan curve's edited and sometimes I just turn on cooler boost via MSI Dragon Center, and I also have performance mode set to turbo in Dragon Center.
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