What is Thermal Throttling | How to Avoid It

Do you want to know what is thermal throttling and how to avoid thermal throttling? You are on the right spot to know the answer of this question.

You may not have suffered from it, but thermal throttling in the SSD exists, although in not all of them. It must be avoided at all costs so that the transfer speeds of our unit plummet.

We have talked a lot about thermal throttling that occurs in CPUs, GPUs, etc even going over the one generated in SSDs.

See Also: Benefits of Using SATA SSDs

However, until now we had not focused specifically on solid hard drives, and it is M.2 SSDs are one of the most affected. Maximum performance has a cost, are you willing to pay it?

What is thermal throttling?

If you want to learn extensively about thermal throttling, we prepared a guide that will assist you to learn more about thermal throttling.

• Throttling is a technology that most modern hardware has to use to protect them protect from damage, such as overheating.
• Thermal throttling is a technology used by PC components to lower performance in exchange for cooling themselves.
• In the case of CPUs or GPUs, they lower the frequency, in the case of motherboards, the phases are degraded earlier and the motherboard reduces its useful life in the PC and on SSDs throttling lower the transfer speed.

Do not confuse throttling with thermal throttling. The throttling may have uses for other purposes, such as conserving the battery or balancing consumption so that it does not trigger certain components.

See Also: Different types of SSD Drives

How thermal throttling Occurs in an SSD

The immediate effect of thermal throttling on an SSD is to plummet transfer speeds, but when does it happen?

When the unit reaches a maximum temperature set by the manufacturer, from then on, the SSD will lose a lot of performance and we can see it quickly (file transfers, load times, decompressions, etc.).

Keep in mind that not all SSDs come with thermal throttling support, so we must pay more attention if the model we have has this technology activated or not. In advance, we tell you that most of them bring it, so it is simply an informative note.

When thermal throttling is Activated

Here it is also important to know what is the maximum temperature SSD must not reach, which may lead to thermal throttling?

We have taken a look at the main brands and we see that they all have the same operating radius: from 0ºC to 70ºC.

This means that the SSD will go into thermal throttling as soon as it reaches 70 degrees Celsius, but we are not interested in reassuring ourselves if we see our SSD operating below 70ºC. The SSD has to work at normal temperatures, what are they?

• Normally our SSD is between 30 and 45 degrees Celsius under normal workload.
• If stressed with heavy load, it should not exceed 60ºC (except if we do a benchmark).
• Beware of benchmarks: they reduce the useful life of the SSD.

To say that the M.2 are hotter than the 2.5-inch ones, and the reason is in the abysmal speeds that they can reach (especially the PCIe 4.0).

See Also: Uses of an SSD Cache

Finally, thermal throttling is said to be dynamic because it works in “stages”:

• Pre-thermal throttling: the SSD goes to maximum performance.
• Thermal throttling: The SSD throttles down to cool down.
• Post thermal throttling: Once cooled, it returns to normal performance and even maximum performance.

In this way, the performance of the SSD does not drop forever, but returns to normal when thermal conditions are optimal.

How to know if you have thermal throttling

There are certain symptoms that reveal that we have thermal throttling in the SSD, and we can summarize them as follows:

• Freezing or strange performance on the PC.
• Brutal drop in transfer speed when we are copying-pasting a file.
• Slow loading screens of a video game.
• Blue screens.

However, the best way to know if we are suffering from thermal throttling is by checking the temperature of the SSD, and we can do it through 2 tools: HWMonitor (I recommend it because it is more complete) and CrystalDiskInfo.

Through any of these programs you can check the temperature of the SSD, and if you see that it is above 60ºC, you will be able to know why the performance of the unit is reduced.

Tips to avoid thermal throttling

We already know what thermal throttling is and what its effect on SSDs, so we only have to address the tips to prevent it from thermal throttling.

See Also: Uses of NAS SSD (Network Attached Storage)

1. Good Motherboard

Yes, motherboards get hot, especially if we have overclocked RAM or CPU. In the end, raising the voltage triggers the VRMs to get hotter.

You will see that there are motherboards with passive heatsinks in certain areas, and they are vital for cooling.

Most motherboards do not include active heatsinks (except the AMD X570), so things can be complicated if we do not have good ventilation in the box.

In fact, in summer “the seams” of the cooling of much equipment are seen, especially if we live in a hot area. The ambient temperature rises, so PC get hotter at idle and under load.

With an emphasis on SSDs, there are motherboards that come with passive heatsinks installed for use with our M.2.

Also, it is very important to see where the M.2 slot is located because it is usually very close to the GPU and the CPU.

In most cases you will see the M.2 slot right next to the PCI-Express x16 slot, and that position is not good at all because the cooling capacities are reduced due to the limited space. So why do manufacturers put it there?

One argument is that the GPU has fans and can indirectly cool the M.2 installed right next to it. However, it is best if the slot is between the CPU socket and the PCI-Express x16.

Thus, air can move freely and more interesting flow can be achieved to keep our SSD cool, even the CPU cooler can help as well. Also there are M.2 slots that are quite far apart below the PCIe x16 slot, which is also a very good position.

2. CPU Cooler is Key

Why? Especially if the slot is between the socket and the PCIe x16, the heatsink can help ventilate the heat that the SSD gives off.

A powerful and not too small tower heatsink is usually recommended to expel the heat coming out of the SSD.

The main thing is that the heat does not stay concentrated in the SSD, but it somehow escapes upwards and the case fans do their job by blowing it out and bringing fresh air back in.

See Also: RGB SSD for Power and Light Up the Gaming PC

So, keeping the cooling of all the components at bay, it will be rare for our SSD to suffer from thermal throttling.

We see them in CPUs and GPUs, whose radiators occupy the outlet grills of the case, thus limiting the cooling inside the case: the component’s heat is extracted directly without internal ventilation (except for additional fans).

Here problem is that there is not enough airflow inside the case to successfully extract heat from other components, such as the motherboard, RAM memories, SSDs or power supply.

3. Good Ventilation and Ventilation Curves

Without a doubt, one of the keys for everything to work as it should be is that there is good ventilation in the system.

It is not only important that the components are well cooled, you have to create an air circuit inside the box that the hot air comes out and that fresh air enters to cool.

To do this, several factors must be taken into account: such as

• Components are not too close together
• Fans are of great quality: CFM and static pressure, dB and RPM
• Fans in the case: minimum 3 of 120 mm
• Create fan curve to program case fans

4. Heatsink for M.2 SSD

Finally, the best advice we can give you to avoid thermal throttling in your M.2 SSD: install a passive heatsink. Brands have their own heatsinks, but we can go to online stores and find adaptable solutions.

It is an active heatsink that installed just above the SSD and has aluminum fins to extract heat from the unit through convection.

We hope this information has been helpful to you. If you have any questions, comment below and we will respond shortly.

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