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Is your PC overheating? How to check for thermal throttling

By Michael Steininger · Updated October 2026

A processor or graphics card that gets too hot lowers its own speed to protect itself. The game starts fine and gets slower after ten minutes. You won't see an error, only lower clocks. Here's how to check.

Quick answerRun HWiNFO (free) in sensors mode while you play for 15 minutes. If clock speeds drop while temperatures sit at the limit, or HWiNFO shows thermal throttling as Yes, the part is too hot. Clean the dust out and improve airflow first.

1. Watch the right numbers#

  1. Install HWiNFO from its official site and start it in Sensors-only mode.
  2. Play the game for at least 15 minutes, then look at the Maximum column.
  3. For the processor: core clocks, package temperature and the throttling entries (Thermal Throttling, PROCHOT). For the graphics card: GPU clock, GPU temperature and hot spot temperature, and the performance limit entries.

A single high temperature isn't the problem. A clock speed that drops during the game while the temperature sits at its limit is.

2. Which temperatures are normal#

  • Processors: most desktop processors start to throttle at about 95 to 100 °C. AMD Ryzen 7000 and 9000 are designed to run up to 95 °C under heavy load, so seeing that number on its own is normal for them.
  • Graphics cards: they lower their boost clock step by step as they get warmer, and more steeply in the 80s °C. The hot spot runs 10 to 20 °C above the GPU temperature.
  • Laptops: run hotter by design and throttle sooner. A cooling pad and a clean fan help more than on desktops.

3. Fixes, in order#

  1. Dust: clean the fans, radiators and dust filters. Hold the fans still while you use compressed air.
  2. Airflow: case fans should bring cool air in at the front and push warm air out at the back and top. A case standing in a closed desk compartment chokes itself.
  3. Fan curves: in the BIOS or the board's software, let fans speed up earlier.
  4. A frame rate cap lowers the load when the game runs faster than your monitor shows anyway. How to cap FPS.
  5. New thermal paste or a better cooler, for older PCs or when temperatures are high even after cleaning.

Questions#

What temperature is too hot for a CPU while gaming?
It depends on the model. Most throttle at about 95 to 100 °C. What matters is whether the clock speed drops during the game.
Why does my game get slower after a few minutes?
Thermal throttling is the most common reason: the processor or graphics card heats up and lowers its clock. Check clocks and temperatures with HWiNFO.
Check it automatically

Frametide's BIOS checks include the processor fan curve, and its benchmark records FPS, 1% lows and stutters over the whole run (Premium), so a slow decline shows up in the frame-time graph.

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