Huge FPS drops after several minutes of playing

[binkii woodle]

Using a new GPU (RTX 2070 super mobile) that has been having trouble running certain games.

It was never used much for gaming until recently, but now I'm getting drastic fps drops after several minutes of playing certain games, like the Witcher 3 for example. FPS is at a normal, stable, locked 60FPS, but after several minutes of playing the FPS drops down to under 20fps and stays there. I tested with MSI afterburner and something that I'm seeing is that my GPU usage will reach 100%, and then it suddenly downclocks to 300mhz, tanking the FPS with it. But even after the clocks return to normal the FPS still stays low. I know it's unlikely to be temperature related since the temperature doesn't actually increase too. Power usage seems to drop by almost 40w, so that might be the issue. The FPS will stay like this, but then return back to normal after an immediate restart of the game. It happens in other games like Elden Ring too, and exact time changes but it always happens after several minutes of gameplay.

Does anyone know any solutions? You can see this problem in more detail in the Witcher 3 benchmarks I did, there might be other issues there that I haven't noticed: https://imgur.com/a/YLBJB6e

EDIT: if anyone is finding this and wants to know if it was fixed, it was. Turns out my CPU was the culprit that was throttling all along, when i though it was my GPU. some of my fans were not working properly (likely due to outdated/broken software), and my CPU was running at too high clocks.

[Vince ✟]

You running a solid power supply and new drivers?

[cheshirm]

happening after several minutes of gameplay = still sounds like thermal throttling.

you play witcher 3 and eiden ring and your gpu temp does not increase? on a laptop? maybe run a different temp monitor. my desktop has a dual fan cooled 3060ti - the gpu temp went up 14 degrees after 3 minutes with this game.

or maybe the throttling is too sensitive - if temp goes up a couple degs or goes up fast then throttles down

[AH-1 Cobra]

Run HWinfo64 and see how hot the temps get on your CPU and GPU, they might be hitting max temps and thermal throttling. HWinfo gives you additional information about temps, such as hot spot temps, and memory junction temps which could effect your performance.

For example, my 3080 would run 68c core temps gaming, most people would think that's perfectly fine, but it had a hot spot temps that were +23c over the core temps, and that definitely puts the card into throttle territory, or 90c. I had to redo the thermals on the GPU, and it lowered the hot spot temps down to +11-+12 and my card now runs at higher boost clocks. You can't just base whether a GPU is thermal throttling or not on the core temps alone.

It might be worth taking that laptop apart and redoing the thermals. Get some 90% iso alcohol in a spray bottle, clean the old compound off and the surfaces, and get some Noctua NT H1 thermal compound and redo the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU. It's non-conductive, and won't fry your electronics if you use a little bit too much. Depending on the laptop model, this could range between difficult to easy based on how quickly you can get it apart and get to the heat sink. There's breakdown videos for lots of laptop models on youtube.

[жаби жаби]

bro i have same problem on my pc. i have 12400 and 3070. after 10-20 minutes fps drops from 40-50 to 20 and never gets up until restart. its not trorrling or something, i dont have same problem in other games.

[R4zen]

this is only avaiable solution:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8083

[gabagool]

I just switched to dx11... annoying I have to do that but it seems to have helped.

[Captain Nemo]

Non of these seemed to have worked has anyone found a fix.