What is Thermal GPU Throttling and how to Stop or Control?

Have you ever come across a situation where your PC’s gaming performance starts to become low. You may experience FPS lags and several other sorts of performance hits due to an unknown reason. This all is related to your graphics processing units. And, when your graphics processing starts to throttle, all these issues will appear for sure. So, in this article, we will know what is GPU Throttling and how to fix it? So, without any further delays, let’s get started.

GPU Throttling itself is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a safety mechanism built for your graphics card to keep it in a good condition. But, there is surely something wrong going on with your GPU and resulting in this issue.

So, if you really want to get rid of this problem, this article is going to help you with the same. The problem can be caused by some hardware or software issues as well.

GPU Throttling

However, fixing it will be easy if your GPU and the system is working in a good condition. You might find this thing frustrating because it will appear suddenly and there is nothing you can do if you are not aware of it.

Just like CPU Throttling, GPU throttling can be fixed but you may have to use your graphics units with some limitations for sure.

If you are using an overclocked machine, you may have to underclock it. The heat can come across because of various other things. It is possible that you are demanding much more than your GPU’s capacity. For example, if you are using today’s most powerful graphic card which is Nvidia’s RTX 3090, there are actually fewer reasons for you to overclock that card since most games nowadays that are graphically demanding can be smoothly operated by that card unless you are using it for other personal agenda like cryptocurrency mining.

Heat can come because of various other things and you should take this thing seriously. If you are not doing something about the excessive heat, it can result in some damage to your system.

We would suggest you going to a computer expert if you do not want to get into all this by yourself. If you are ready to fix it, let’s do it with the help of this article.

What is Graphics card Throttling?

You can imagine GPU Throttling as a safety mechanism that will appear only when your GPU starts to dissipate a lot of heat. The GPUs are designed in such a way that they can work under certain heat limits. If the heat goes away, the GPU will lower down its performance and try to cool it down on its own.

It is possible that you are having a cooling mechanism but the GPU can throttle at any time without any prior warning. In other words, you can’t neglect it.

If it throttles now, it will surely come again whenever you take your computer to those limits again.

So, you should always be curious to fix it properly and get your computer back in normal conditions.

GPU Throttling will save your GPU from getting burnt. So, if you are seeing a continuous drop in performance, it is time to check if it is throttling and fix it right away.

Why Thermal Throttling is important?

GPU Throttling or we can thermal throttling will happen only when your GPU starts to generate a lot of heat. When your cooling system is no longer able to reduce the heat and the overall heat of the hardware starts to go beyond the set limits, you will see your graphics unit behaving abnormally. And, this will happen every time if you are not doing anything about it.

But, if your GPU doesn’t throttle even after reaching that limit, it will probably burn out and you will not be able to use it anymore.

So, if we look at this situation at a different perspective, it is indeed a good thing to save our hardware from damages. And, by fixing this issue, you can get your GPU back into the game.

It is possible that there are certain issues with the cooling mechanism.

How to check your GPU throttling limit?

If you have built a new computer or using a new GPU, it is possible that your GPU is not designed for the loads you are putting on it. But, it is easy to check how much power your GPU is having.

You can simply do a stress test on your Graphics card and then see if it can do the job you are looking for. There are some good software which you can use to check your GPU throttling. These software will make everything easy for you.

Now, if you need more performance from your system, you can decide to buy and install a new GPU inside your computer.

Some of the good software you can use to check GPU throttling are as follows.

  1. MSI Afterburner
  2. AIDA64 Extreme 
  3. GPU-Z 

Why is GPU Throttling bad?

Most of us are aware of the things which will happen once your GPU starts to throttle. You can no longer play your favorite games with the desired video quality and the levels of FPS you were getting earlier.

It is possible that your GPU is not built for the performance you are taking from it. But, if it is doing the same, you may have to reduce the usage at this point. Once your GPU starts to work again normally, you can use it for other tasks.

Most of the time, this problem is related to faulty cooling systems. But, if we look at the results, you will feel frustrated.

You will also want to fix this thing. But, you may not know how to do it. So, in this article, we are going to know everything about the same.

4 Efficient ways to stop GPU from throttling (Stop, Underclock Or Control)

Because, this all is happening because of excessive heat inside your GPU, we are going to perform some tasks which are crucial to make your system free of that heat.

Let’s see what are the things you can do to keep your GPU safe from throttling.

GPU Thermal Paste Application

Most of the time, your GPU becomes too hot because of improper installation of your heat sinks. Because there is a gap between your heat sink and the processor surface, the heat will not transport to the cool areas.

This can totally damage your GPU within some minutes of heavy usage. So, in order to fix this thing, it is important to apply or reapply thermal paste between both surfaces.

You will have to ensure that everything is attached properly and the heat can now go to the heat sink.

This will properly cool down your GPU and you can now use it even for much harder tasks.

Make sure to follow this procedure properly only if you are confident that you can do it. This is a technical task and if you are not sure that you can do it, you should definitely find an expert for help.

However, you can easily find various online tutorials that will provide you with enough help with this.

So, make sure to properly do this job and then proceed to the next step.

Underclock and Undervolt your GPU

More voltage to any electric/electronic system means more heat dissipation. So, the next reason why your GPU is heating so much is that it is working much more than its limits. Overclocking the CPU, RAM, and GPU is normal these days.

But, not all systems and hardware can handle this thing. So, if it is the case with your system, you are going in the wrong direction. You will have to underclock your GPU.

Obviously, you will have to handle some performance drops but you will get rid of the throttling for sure. Now, you might be thinking that what’s the reason for using a GPU if it is not able to handle that job. That’s what we want to discuss here.

If you are not able to get the desired outputs from your GPU, it is time to either upgrade it or the whole system if needed.

Underclocking or undervolting a GPU is pretty easy. You can easily use the software which you have used while overclocking it.

You can use MSI Afterburner to easily do this thing and see if it fixes your problem. If you are still facing this problem, the next method can help you out.

Improve your cooling system

Whether internal or external, your GPU will need a good cooling system if you are demanding some great performance from it. Most of the GPU which you but directly from the vendors will not come along with the inbuilt heating fans. And, whenever installing the new fans, we often do not pay much attention to them.

But, if they are not fully efficient to cool down all the heat your GPU is dissipating, you might see GPU throttling even while doing some normal graphical tasks.

So, if you are using a laptop, make sure that you are using proper external cooling methods. Your cooling fan should be clean.

Also, the area around the outlet of your cooling system should be open. If you have a desktop, ensure installing good heating set up to reduce the overall heat dissipated from all the components inside your CPU.

This will definitely help you to make your system cooler and then keep it safe from any danger.

Manually Configure fan speed

If you have done the earlier step and you think everything with your fans and cooling system is good, you might need to increase your fan speed a little bit. This happens mostly when we build a computer by combining different hardware from different places.

If your setup is not having a properly configured cooling system along with enough fan speed, you might see this issue.

So, it is time to check the limits of your cooling system and let it exhale all the unwanted heat from your computer.

In order to properly configure your fan, you can make use of various software like MSI Afterburner and EVGA precision.

Try setting the fan speed at their highest limits and see if it fixes your problem. If not, you will have to find an expert to help you with the same.

When you should find professional help?

Now, if you have tried all these steps, you should definitely go to an expert who can look deeply into the matter. Only a professional will be able to help you with this now.

Either there are some problems with your GPU or other things. It could be some software or hardware problems. You may not be able to detect and fix those problems unless you are an expert in computers.

Also, it is not advised to perform those tasks on your own. So, make sure to find a good computer repair station nearby you and tell them everything about it.

Surely you will have to pay some amount for it but they will be able to solve your problem.

It will be good if you find your manufacturer’s computer repair station for the best services. If you have built a customer computer, you can also get in touch with the place where you bought your GPU.

This is the last and perhaps the best thing you can do to get your computer back into its normal condition.

Final Verdict

So, this was all about fixing this problem. We hope you are now aware of what is GPU throttling and how to fix it? Not everyone will be able to follow all the steps because they could be pretty technical for some people.

But, it is important to fix this issue because it can result in some serious damages if you do not take care properly. If you want to do it on your own, this article is enough to help you.

We hope you will find this information helpful if you really want to solve the GPU throttling problem. If you found it helpful, consider sharing it with others as well.

Also, give us your valuable feedback in the comment section. We would love to hear from your side now. We keep coming with regular articles on various other technology-related topics.

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