CPU usage is very low but temperature is really high.

[wjbqmzl]

My laptop cpu is i7-12700H, When I play the game, my laptop becomes really hot, the temperature is even higher than playing large 3A games. The cpu usage according to the software (MSI center) is only a few percent (5~8%). But the temperature is always higher than 90 Celsius. Does someone have some suggestions about decreasing the temperature?

[Chibbity]

Sounds like it's throttling the CPU to try and stay cool.

DRG is pretty CPU intensive for a shooter, and laptops have notoriously bad cooling.

Get a fan pad?

[CptnSpandex]

Other little tip it is really badly called a LAPtop, so people think its ok to put it on ya legs or on your bed when you play but then by doing that you completely cover the vents and cook your not on your LAPtop.

[SCamp]

If your laptop's old then most likely one or both of your fans silently died. I suggest getting both your CPU and GPU fans replaced if they haven't been replaced recently.

If your laptop is relatively new, then lol idk.

===

My MSI laptop has a shared heatsink coil that connects both CPU and GPU. Just having one of the fans (I believe it was the CPU) losing balance and grinding/stopping lead to a 20-30C increase in temperature to 80-90C as the GPU fan had to take the load cooling the heatsink.

I used the fan booster to use the GPU fan to compensate for the failing of the other when doing intensive tasks such as games/android emulation. Across the 1.5 week span of the CPU fan failing, I assume both the vibration, heatsink hotness and (ab)using the fan boosting was enough to kill the GPU fan too.

[Tacitcat]

People in here have already given good advice. I'll add you can do some stuff on the game side to help, limiting fps to your refresh rate would help temps (if you're usually getting fps over your refresh rate). And I highly doubt you would notice any difference in gameplay.

Just as a FYI, I highly doubt the game is only using 5-8% of your CPU. Games don't use all of the cores/threads in your CPU equally, they benefit from having multiple cores but they will usually run mainly on 1-4 cores. If you want a more accurate view of CPU usage, you'll want to monitor CPU per thread. (I don't know if MSI Center can do this but MSI Afterburner, HWInfo, and others can.) You'll probably see very high usage on a few of your CPU threads but fairly low usage on most of the others. Which is normal.

[David Davidson]

Originally posted by SCamp:

If your laptop's old then most likely one or both of your fans silently died.

Fans don't die all that often, not much in them that can wear out, they don't use brushed motors, so no brushes to wear out and the bearings/bushings are usually pretty good. Fans will run for years (decades even) without dying, I've not replaced my desktop fans since 2011.

@OP, get a cooling pad. They aren't expensive and drop temps significantly, they also offer a bit of a dust catcher which stops dust from getting into the heatsinks and fans on your laptop.

You could always open the laptop up and clean the fans out, which is easy enough and doesn't require any more than removing the back of the laptop.
Hold the fan in place with your finger so it doesn't spin up and use a vacuum cleaner to suck the dust out. A Q-tip can be used to dislodge any more stubborn dust/fluff/pet hair before sucking it up.

How old is your laptop? What are it's specs? Have you run a temp monitoring program (such as HWINFO64) to get accurate temp readings while playing?

[Cor.]

How old is the Lapper?

do you have pets?

If youre careful, a Q-tip dipped in alcohol to clean the blade, We have cats, and you cant imagine how dirty those blades can get, and how clogged the heat sink can get.

Using canned air while blowing the dust out, hold the fan blade with something to keep it from spinning, or the air pressure can spin the blade way too fast and damage the fan, especially if its one with bearings..

[Driftkel]

Is the laptop old or new?

You have to keep in mind that laptops in general have really bad cooling and airflow so you should consider a cooling pad for your laptop to try and combat this.

Also, try investing in something like a dust blower to blow out any dust in the fans.

[Rock&StoneTorture]

Problem is the laptop. Get a spacious desktop pc instead.

[Cress]

Google your problem, which will probably tell you to clean your exhaust ports and check if your fans are working properly. Go from there. Not really the place to get this type of diagnostics.

[Rock&StoneTorture]

I can recommend undervolting the cpu and gpu. There are many videos on Youtube.

but still get a desktop pc.

[ShugoTheRipper]

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/132228/intel-core-i712700h-processor-24m-cache-up-to-4-70-ghz.html

Mobile CPU; laptop with bad cooling is problem.

Make sure you are not blocking any vent ports and maybe clean out the dust. Cooling system is often shared to other components (like your GPU) and could be heating everything up.

100°C is max, so technically you are still in spec.

[David Davidson]

Originally posted by Cor.:

How old is the Lapper?

do you have pets?

If youre careful, a Q-tip dipped in alcohol to clean the blade, We have cats, and you cant imagine how dirty those blades can get, and how clogged the heat sink can get.

Using canned air while blowing the dust out, hold the fan blade with something to keep it from spinning, or the air pressure can spin the blade way too fast and damage the fan, especially if its one with bearings..

This is good advice.
Would add that you need to wait for the alcohol to evaporate before turning anything on. Even though the risk is extremely low, alcohol (even 99.9% pure ethanol or methanol) can dissolve residue on the board (such as flux) which can become conductive, which may cause a short. A very low risk, but waiting for an hour won't cause any harm.
Other solvents may damage the plastic fins on the fans, dry maintenance wherever possible is best.
As for spinning fans up, the problem lies less in the bearings and more in the fact that a motor, when spun up, becomes a generator. Most laptops/PCs will have a flyback (flywheel/freewheel) diode which shunts current back into the motor in this case, but if the diode isn't working, or was omitted when the laptop was made, you could be pushing a higher voltage into your laptop/PC than it can handle.

Originally posted by Rock&StoneTorture:

Problem is the laptop. Get a spacious desktop pc instead.

For many people "get a desktop" isn't an adequate solution. While a desktop is optimal, this reads like "Gas prices too high?? Get an electric car instead!" some people just can't afford it.

Though if OP can afford a new computer, a desktop is the way to go. Either build your own, or find one on a second hand product site (eg craigslist), test it out before paying (if that isn't within OP's skillset, they probably know someone who can help) and you'll save a lot of money either way.
New PC parts are insanely priced these days, I remember (not long ago, less than 7 years) that a good GPU cost about $250, $300 if you wanted something that could run most games on high, $550-700 if you wanted a top of the range GPU. Now prices go into the thousands. Same goes for RAM, buying new RAM used to be an afterthought as it was so cheap, <$100 for 2x the average amount of RAM in prebuilt gaming PCs, unless RAM prices have dropped significantly then they're super expensive too.
Most expensive PC parts used to be the motherboard, CPU and GPU, PSU was trivially inexpensive if you wanted an okay one, a whole PC, case and all, significantly above competing console specs would set you back about $600-1000, $2000-3000 PCs were usually overclocked monsters with water cooling and the latest everything
PC building has changed for the worse.

@OP get to cooling your laptop as best as possible, cooling stand with active fans is the best choice. No real need to spend a fortune, so long as it blows cool air in you'll get a bit of a boost. Also, if running with external monitors, keep the lid open, that'll trap heat which can damage the LCD on your laptop over time. Most newer laptops are designed to be thermally efficient with the lid open.

[splinemaster]

I had a very similar issue with my MSI laptop where the cpu temp was uncomfortably high whilst playing games like DRG. How I solved it is using the MSI Center "Super Battery" mode in the "User Scenario" selections. I still play plugged in (like any sane person), but the setting seems to limit the unnecessary upper performance of the cpu which worked wonders in preventing it from getting too hot. Noticeable performance hit though, but still very playable! Went from consistent 80+ to 50-60 *C in most games. Its a weird fix certainly but it absolutely worked for me.

[wjbqmzl]

Originally posted by CptnSpandex:

Other little tip it is really badly called a LAPtop, so people think its ok to put it on ya legs or on your bed when you play but then by doing that you completely cover the vents and cook your not on your LAPtop.

I actually put my laptop on top of a cardboard rectangle frame (vertically). It gives space for fan to draw cool air and vent the heat. It works pretty good, I made it myself, and it can decrease the temp for around 5~8 Celsius.

[wjbqmzl]

Originally posted by Cor.:

How old is the Lapper?

do you have pets?

If youre careful, a Q-tip dipped in alcohol to clean the blade, We have cats, and you cant imagine how dirty those blades can get, and how clogged the heat sink can get.

Using canned air while blowing the dust out, hold the fan blade with something to keep it from spinning, or the air pressure can spin the blade way too fast and damage the fan, especially if its one with bearings..

The laptop is new, and I don't have pet. The fans are not blocked.