Predator Helios PH315-53 with RTX 2070 max Q severe FPS drops after a few minutes of gaming

I have a 4 year old Helios 300 gaming laptop with RTX 2070 Max Q 8GB video.
Model : PH315-53/NH.Q7ZED.00M

It been working great all time excep when some dust build up in the cooling fans, which was removed and then it was good again.

I usually play Modern Warefare 2 (COD) DMZ from 2022, I have not updated to newer games, this game and my computer worked fine all time with an average RPS about 70-90. The cooling fans are running at high speed when gaming.

In May this year I travelled away 3 months and did not use my laptop. When I came home, I had to update COD and Nvidia drivers. I also updated Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Pro licence. Now after updating computer when playing the same game the RPS go down to 20 after a few minutes, and it is prettyr unplayable dispite it is the same game and same computer as before.

I Reinstalled Nvidia and COD. I checked both fans but no dust anywhere. I replaced the thermal compond which was old, dry and brittle. After replacing it, the RPS initially is good about 80 but after 5 minutes it go down to 20 RPS again, GPU temperature stay rather normal at around 62 degrees C. Problem remains and I have run out of ideas.

Passmark 3D Benchmark tests:
Nominal passmark score : 11.500
My computer before replacing terminal compond: 8.900
My computer after replacing terminal compond: 13.300
My computer after playing the game for 10 minutes: 3.500

Does anyone have any idea what is causing this drop in 3D performance ?

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

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StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/727216/predator-helios-ph315-53-with-rtx-2070-max-q-severe-fps-drops-after-a-few-minutes-of-gaming

Be aware that your PH315-53 is a 5 year old released laptop, and if you haven't replaced its main battery then your laptop is due for a new battery, as this also affects performance especially in high end gaming,.

With the benchmarking with the PassMark 3D tests that you are getting for the PH315-53 with RTX 2070 gpu shown above, if the best test result is 13,300 and its the Pass Mark Rating score, then that is an unbelievable score for your PH315-53 and its a bit hard to believe that its correct?

As with my 2023 built model Predator Helios Neo PHN16-71-50JG with an i5-13500HX cpu / RTX4050 gpu / 64GB RAM at 2 32GB DDR5-4800MT/s CL40 / 1TB Samsung 990 Pro + Heatsink M.2 SSD which is a pretty high spec laptop, I get a PassMark Rating of 10,050 which is 32% less than your 13,300 PassMark score, which can't be correct, as its impossible that you get those scores with a Predator with a 10th Gen cpu and the RTX2070, also and if you are getting those results above, the tests must be wrong and there is something wrong with the sensors and hence its a good idea to change the battery for a performance boost and to rectify the drop in performance. Good luck and hope this helps you out to solve this problem.

Here is the oem Acer suggested batteries that your laptop requires and DO NOT buy a cheap copy battery.

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Mikael_S

I always have the power cord plugged in, I doubt the battery condition is causing this since I did not use the battery while gaming.

The nominal benchmark test 11.500 is an average of many users reporting the 3D performance for this nvidia GPU. Some users may have 13.500 and some others may have only 8.000 depending on other HW/SW specs. Note, I only ran the graphics 3D test, not other test (memory, CPU etc).

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1348862#Comment_1348862

It doesn't matter if your PH315-55 is plugged into the adapter and the mains 24/7, as in extreme gaming or when the laptop requires extra power, it always gets compensated with power from the battery, this happens with every laptop, so and if your battery is old and can't do that, the laptop either becomes slow as its fps drops, or it becomes sluggish or just crashes. So those are the symptoms.

With the PassMark benchmarking score above, my scire is for the overall average of all tests for the cpu, gpu, 2D, 3D, ram, M.2 so my RTX4050 3D gpu benchmark is 9,349 which is no way near your 13,300.

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harie

"Hi Mikael, thanks for the detailed breakdown. Since temps are fine and you already replaced thermal paste, the severe FPS drop sounds more like power delivery or throttling than heat. A few things to try:

Check power plan & GPU settings – Make sure Windows is set to High Performance and in NVIDIA Control Panel set Prefer maximum performance.
Power adapter – If the charger isn’t delivering stable power, the GPU can throttle heavily. Test with another adapter if possible.
BIOS & firmware updates – Sometimes power management bugs are fixed with BIOS/EC updates from Acer.
Background processes – Check Task Manager for any apps spiking CPU or disk usage during gaming.
Limiters – Use tools like MSI Afterburner or HWInfo to monitor GPU clock, power, and throttling flags when FPS drops. That will confirm if it’s a power or VRAM issue.

Given your Passmark dropping over time, it’s likely not a one-off game problem but system-wide throttling under sustained load. If all else fails, testing with a clean Windows install can help rule out software conflicts."