AN515-45 Thermal throttling in games only after reapplying heatsink, clean windows Install worth it?

PaulAnon

Nitro AN515-45, AMD Ryzen 5600H, RTX3060

Was cleaning cooling system, forgot(!) to screw heatsink back on. After booting laptop up CPU temp went to 95* and laptop shut itself down. Applied thermal grizzly and screwed heatsink on. Now CPU is going through massive (fps gradually dropping from +100 to 30 and not returning back) throttling only in games on 80*C and not in tests on 90*C, which wasn't a thing before. Would clean install of windows help?

Puraw

Hi @PaulAnon ,

Since your throttling kicks in during gaming loads but not under synthetic tests, one thing worth trying is disabling Processor Performance Boost in Windows’ Advanced Power Settings.

On Ryzen laptops, Core Performance Boost (CPB) / Processor Performance Boost can push clocks and voltages up aggressively, spiking temps and triggering early thermal throttling. Turning it off caps the CPU to its base clocks, which can smooth out performance and avoid the gradual FPS drop you described — especially if the cooling system was recently disturbed.

How to disable in Windows:

1. Press Windows + R, type powercfg.cpl, and hit Enter.
2. Next to your active plan, click Change plan settings → Change advanced power settings.
3. Expand Processor power management → Processor performance boost mode.
4. Set both On battery and Plugged in to Disabled.
5. Click Apply and OK, then restart.

You can always re‑enable it later to compare. If this reduces the drop‑off, it points to thermal/power boosting as the trigger rather than a lingering heatsink or paste issue.

If this option is hidden you need to unhide the following registry key (Attributes) by changing the value to 2:

PaulAnon

Hello @Puraw,

Issue persists after disabling processor performance boost, although CPU temperature drops below 70. Before disturbing cooling system CPU temperature was usually at 90*C during gameplay with no gradual fps drop/throttling

GAMING6698

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1351558#Comment_1351558

You have to follow this guide's step 5. (Do thermal repasting and clean like shown if you didn't).

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/724763/ultimate-laptop-cooling-optimization--guide.

There is important warning in guide which is your answer:

Never remove or open the heatsink after applying and securing new thermal paste. Removing it breaks the thermal paste seal, creating air bubbles or voids that cause overheating.

So, Now you have repaste.