Solving CPU overheating with Thermalright PA120 SE in Marvel Rivals
During heavy effect-stacking in team fights, I noticed my CPU cores hitting 92-95℃, which triggered thermal throttling and tanked my clock speed from 5.2GHz to 3.8GHz. The Thermalright PA120 SE is a beast, but the default fan curve is way too slow to react to sudden load spikes, letting heat build up at the base. I tried setting the fans to Full Speed in BIOS, but it sounded like a helicopter taking off and only dropped the temp by 2℃—a total waste of time. I switched to a stepped curve, triggering 100% fan speed at 75℃, and swapped to high-conductivity phase-change thermal paste. HWInfo shows full-load temps now stabilize between 78-84℃, and the clocks aren't diving anymore. I actually saw a 3℃ increase right after applying the paste due to uneven pressure, but it fixed itself after I tightened the cooler brackets. Fans now run at 1600-1800 RPM. Three hours of stress testing confirms no more throttling, and memory temps are 58-63℃.
