Fixing Noctua NH-D15 G2 temp fluctuations in Elden Ring?
Whenever I hit a big brawl in the Lands Between, my frames would dive from 60 down to 42, which is a nightmare when you're trying to time a perfect dodge. The default fan curve on the NH-D15 G2 is way too conservative; the temps were bouncing between 65℃ and 88℃, causing the CPU to panic and shift clocks. I tried the Windows 'Ultimate Performance' power plan, but that just pushed the CPU to 94℃ and caused even worse throttling—total nightmare. I went into the BIOS and slashed the fan response time from 3 seconds down to 0.7 seconds, then remounted the whole cooler to make sure the pressure was perfectly symmetrical across both towers. In AIDA64, the peak temp dropped from 88℃ to 71-76℃, and frame times tightened from 18-32ms to a crisp 9-13ms. The fans were ramping up and down constantly at first, so I raised the start threshold to 55℃ to smooth it out. Now it stays between 64-70℃ and the input lag is gone. My fingertips can actually feel the responsiveness now.
