Thermal Throttling? Fix It with These 7 Checks

If your PC suddenly goes from “buttery smooth” to “why does this feel like a PowerPoint presentation?”, there’s a good chance your system is thermal throttling.

Thermal throttling is basically your CPU or GPU yelling:
“Hey, buddy, I’m too hot for this. I’m slowing down before I die.”

The good news? You can fix it. Here’s a foolproof checklist.

1. Check Temps First (Obviously)

If your CPU is hitting high temps (90°C+), that’s throttling territory.
Same for GPUs.

Get a monitoring app and watch temps while gaming.

2. Is Your Case Airflow Trash?

Most throttling comes from one simple problem: your PC can’t breathe.

Make sure you have:

at least one front intake fan
one rear exhaust fan
dust filters not clogged like a 3‑year‑old vacuum cleaner

Airflow fixes more issues than people think.

3. Clean Your Fans and Heatsinks

Dust is the silent FPS killer.

I’ve seen PCs where the CPU cooler looked like it was wearing a wool sweater.
Cleaning it instantly dropped temps by 15°C.

4. Check Your Thermal Paste

If your PC is a few years old, or you installed the cooler in a rush (we’ve all been there), the thermal paste might be:

dry
uneven
barely making contact

A fresh pea-sized drop can work miracles.

5. Make Sure Your Fans Are Facing the Right Way

Yes, this happens.
More often than you’d think.

Front fans = intake
Top and rear fans = exhaust
If all your fans blow inward or all outward, your PC is basically a convection oven.

6. Fix Your Fan Curves

Stock fan curves are made for silence, not performance.

Boost the ramp-up so your fans react faster when temps rise.

It’ll get louder — but you’ll keep your FPS.

7. Check If Your AIO Pump Is Dying

If you use liquid cooling:

listen for grinding noises
check if the pump speed is stuck
feel your tubes — one should be warmer than the other

If both tubes are cold, your pump might be gone.

Final Thoughts

Thermal throttling feels scary at first, but it’s one of the easiest PC problems to fix.
Tackle the checklist above, and your rig will breathe again.