Fps fluctuations on my HP Victus 15

Hey guys, I need help figuring out what’s happening with my gaming laptop.

I own an HP Victus 15 with Ryzen 7 8645HS, RTX 4050, and 24GB DDR5 RAM (16+8) on a 144Hz display.

What was happening before:

Games like Valorant and FIFA ran smoothly at 144Hz with minimal fan noise.

Temps were normal, GPU/CPU usage balanced, no stutters.

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What’s happening now (suddenly, out of nowhere):

FPS issues:

Valorant fluctuates from 130 → 70 FPS suddenly.

Even if I cap at 60FPS with V-Sync, it micro-stutters (FPS drops 60 → 57 for a split second).

FIFA also stutters with sudden drops.

Temps & usage (from MSI Afterburner / RivaTuner):

GPU: 70–82°C, with only ~40–60% usage.

CPU: 90–100°C, with ~90% utilization while gaming.

RAM: ~13GB used out of 24GB.

Fans: running full speed all the time while gaming, even at capped FPS.

Driver situation:

I was previously on a driver from July 1st, 2025.

I updated to the latest NVIDIA driver 581.42 (Sept 30, 2025 release) but the issue is still there.

Tried tweaking NVIDIA Control Panel settings (V-Sync, etc.), no real improvement.

Why I’m confused:

This started literally out of nowhere. Yesterday both Valorant and FIFA ran fine at 144Hz, today they’re overheating + stuttering badly.

I don’t know if this is thermal throttling, driver issues, damaged system files, or even a hardware/thermal paste issue.

Steam and background apps are minimal.

Specs for clarity:

HP Victus 15 Ryzen 7 8645HS 24GB DDR5 RAM (16+8) RTX 4050 144Hz display

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Question: Is this a case of thermal throttling (CPU/GPU heating too much), a bad driver, or something like a hardware fault? What would you suggest I try next?