Why is my Thermalright PA120 SE choking in KCD2 towns?
Whenever I hit the crowded streets of Bohemia, my CPU temps shot from 62℃ up to a scary 94-98℃, which instantly triggered the motherboard's thermal throttling. The default fan curve on the Thermalright PA120 SE is way too lazy before 80℃, letting heat soak into the fins until the frame times spiked from 16ms to a choppy 45ms. I tried just blasting the fans at 100% in the BIOS, but while it dropped temps by 5℃, the noise was like a jet engine in my room—completely unbearable. I eventually went into the motherboard control panel and redefined the PWM curve, setting a stepped 4-8% increase specifically between 75-85℃, while also cranking up the front case intake. Monitoring via HWiNFO showed the core temps finally capped at 82-86℃, with clock speeds stabilizing within a +/- 100MHz range. I did notice some annoying fan RPM hunting at first, but adding a 0.7s hysteresis timer smoothed it right out. Now the fans sit steady at 1200-1500 RPM. After a few stress tests, the thermal profile is rock solid and the settings are saved.
