How can I resolve heat buildup on the Noctua NH-D15 G2?
The input lag becomes a nightmare during the late stages of a fight; the whole experience feels like it's running through mud. Even though the Noctua NH-D15 G2 has massive headroom, my restrictive case caused heat recirculation. I watched core temps crawl from 60,0C up to 88,0C, which tanked my boost clocks from 5,2GHz down to 4,1GHz. My first instinct was to just crank the fans to 100%, but that was a mistake—the noise was deafening and temps only dropped by 1,0C. Instead, I overhauled the case pressure, setting the front intake to positive pressure and linking the NH-D15 G2 fan profile to the motherboard's VRM and CPU sensors. Using RTSS, I saw my 1% lows jump from 45 FPS to 82 FPS, with core temps stabilizing between 68,0C - 74,0C. I had a brief scare with a high-pitched whine from the top exhaust after the change, but a quick flip of the fan orientation killed it. Now the fans hum along at 1100-1300 RPM. Four hours of gaming later and there's zero clock fluctuation.
