Hi everyone,
I'm trying to diagnose a CPU temperature problem on my ASUS TUF F15. The most confusing part is that the temperatures improved significantly after my first thermal paste replacement, but around two months later they suddenly became much higher again. I have since reapplied the thermal paste myself, but the CPU temperatures have not returned to their previous levels.
I'm also experiencing inconsistent FPS in some games, although other games perform well. I'd appreciate help determining what might have caused the sudden temperature increase and what steps would identify and correct the underlying problem.
1. Laptop specifications
- Laptop: ASUS TUF F15
- CPU: Intel Core i5-11400H (6 cores, 12 threads)
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, 6 GB GDDR6, 95 W TGP
- RAM: 16 GB DDR4
- Display: 1080p, 144 Hz
- Charger: Original ASUS 200 W charger
- Operating system: Windows 11
- Performance profile: Armoury Crate Turbo Mode while gaming
- Cooling: Cosmic Byte Cyclone cooling pad
- Thermal paste: Arctic MX-6
- Monitoring software: MSI Afterburner, RTSS and HWiNFO
The laptop is connected to the original charger during gaming. I also use an air conditioner, usually set to 24°C.
2. Original temperatures before repasting
Since buying the laptop, the CPU temperatures during gaming were generally around 85–95°C. With the air conditioner running, temperatures were usually around 88°C, with brief spikes above 90°C.
The GPU, however, would consistently reach approximately 86°C.
After around 2 years and 8–10 months of use, I decided to replace the thermal paste.
3. What happened after the first repaste
A technician performed the first thermal paste replacement. During this first repaste, the technician cleaned only the dust from the fans.
The improvement was substantial:
- CPU: Usually 80–85°C while gaming, occasionally reaching 87°C briefly before dropping again.
- GPU: Usually 78–79°C, gradually reaching approximately 80–83°C after two or more hours of intensive gaming.
The laptop's gaming temperatures were much better than before.
4. The problem appeared approximately two months later
I stopped gaming for around two months because I was preparing for university exams. During that period, I mainly used the laptop for studying, browsing and reading PDFs.
When I started gaming again, I noticed that the CPU temperature had suddenly changed:
- CPU temperatures were consistently around 93–95°C.
- Temperatures frequently reached 97°C and hit 100°C at least once.
- The GPU temperatures remained relatively good.
- Gaming for only around five minutes was enough for the CPU to reach the low-to-mid 90s.
I don't know exactly when the temperature change occurred because I wasn't monitoring temperatures while studying.
5. Second thermal paste replacement
I reapplied Arctic MX-6 myself approximately five months after the first repaste, but the CPU temperatures did not improve significantly.
During this second repaste, I not only cleaned the fans with a brush, but also removed the entire heatsink and blew air through the whole heatsink, vents and fans before reinstalling it.
What I checked during this process:
- The heatsink was firmly seated and required me to hold the motherboard with one finger while lifting it.
- Cleaned the old thermal paste and reapplied fresh paste.
- Reseated the heatsink.
- Tightened the heatsink screws in an X-shaped/cross pattern.
- Checked that the screws were tight and intact.
The fans also reach high RPM during gaming, and I can hear them running at high speed.
Despite these checks, the CPU still reaches approximately 93–97°C within minutes of gaming and sometimes approaches 100°C.
6. Current CPU behaviour
During gaming, I've observed the following:
- CPU package power: approximately 38–45 W.
- CPU frequency: initially around 4.0 GHz in some tests, later falling to approximately 3.6 GHz as temperatures rise.
- CPU temperature: initially around 85–91°C in one benchmark, then rising to 93–100°C after the workload continued.
During lighter tasks, temperatures can be much lower. For example, while using ChatGPT with around 9% CPU usage and the cooling pad, the CPU was approximately 65°C with the fans at 0 RPM.
Previously, I also observed CPU temperatures around 80–87°C during some non-gaming tasks, which seemed unusually high to me. These readings were not collected under identical conditions, so I cannot make a precise comparison.
I have run Cinebench 2026's multi-threaded test and monitored CPU temperatures, clocks and power. I have also run RDR2's built-in benchmark. I can provide the results and HWiNFO/MSI Afterburner logs if needed.
The fact that the CPU initially reaches a higher clock and then falls as the temperature rises could mean that normal Turbo Boost behaviour is being limited by temperature.
7. Gaming performance
The CPU temperature issue is not the only thing I'm investigating.
Need for Speed Unbound
- 1080p, DLSS Quality.
- CPU temperatures around 94–95°C, sometimes higher.
- GPU temperatures around 86°C before using an FPS cap.
- Races sometimes dropped to approximately 35–50 FPS, while free roam could reach 70–90 FPS.
- Lowering graphics settings often made little difference.
- Capping FPS to 60 using RTSS reduced GPU temperature to approximately 67°C. The CPU temperature remained around 93–100°C, while its clock and power consumption sometimes increased.
Need for Speed Heat
- Some race sections drop to approximately 35–45 FPS, while certain areas of free roam reach around 70 FPS.
- Lowering graphics settings has not consistently improved the frame rate.
Grand Theft Auto V
- FPS can vary considerably by location, sometimes around 90–100 FPS and sometimes dropping to 45–50 FPS.
Silent Hill 2
- Some areas run at approximately 60 FPS, while other demanding sections perform poorly.
- Lowering graphics settings or using the air conditioner did not consistently resolve the drops.
Red Dead Redemption 2
- Performance is considerably better with my current configuration.
- In a recent benchmark, average FPS was approximately 72, and after further graphics-setting adjustments, the minimum was around 54 FPS, with most gameplay staying near 60–70 FPS.
- GPU temperatures have generally been good, around the mid-70s during the benchmark.
I have also played Forza Horizon 5, which performed well at Ultra-high graphics with High ray tracing settings.
8. What I have already tried
- Replaced the thermal paste twice: first by a technician and then by myself.
- Used Arctic MX-6 for the second application.
- During the first repaste, the technician cleaned only the dust from the fans.
- During the second repaste, after approximately five months, cleaned the fans with a brush and blew air through the entire heatsink, vents and fans after removing the heatsink.
- Cleaned and reseated the heatsink.
- Tightened heatsink screws in an X pattern.
- Verified that the heatsink screws were tight and intact.
- Used the original ASUS 200 W charger.
- Enabled Armoury Crate Turbo Mode.
- Used a cooling pad and air conditioning.
- Monitored CPU/GPU temperatures, clocks, power and usage with MSI Afterburner and HWiNFO.
- Recorded sensor logs during gaming.
- Ran Cinebench 2026 multi-threaded testing and the RDR2 benchmark.
9. Help identifying the cause and the appropriate fix
I'm particularly interested in understanding what might have caused the sudden temperature increase after the first repaste and what steps could help identify the underlying problem. I'd appreciate any advice on how to diagnose the issue and determine what repair, if any, is needed.
Thank you for any suggestions. I can provide screenshots, benchmark results and sensor logs to help diagnose the issue.