How to fix thermal throttling on Thermalright PA120 SE in Civ 7?
The screen tearing felt like watching a shredded painting, especially during late-game map pans where the visual discontinuity was just unbearable. Looking at the logs, the PA120 SE fins hit thermal saturation during long sessions, causing the CPU clock to dive from 4.4GHz down to 3.2GHz, which completely wrecked the frame stability. I tried lowering the graphics settings first, which dropped temps by 4℃ but didn't stop the tearing—a classic case of treating the symptom rather than the disease. I ended up stripping the cooler and applying a top-tier paste with 13.5 W/mK conductivity, then manually cranked the fan curve to hit 1700 RPM at 75℃. In HWiNFO, peak temps plummeted from 88-94℃ to a much safer 68-75℃, and clock fluctuations stayed within 0.1GHz. I actually messed up the mounting pressure on the first try, and temps spiked by 3℃ until I recalibrated the screw torque. Now CPU load sits steady at 60-75%. Frame time analysis confirms the tearing is gone, and RAM temps are chill at 58-63℃.
