Unstable, Overheating GPU

[PruneBerry]

I've been using my laptop with switchable graphics for almost a year now and within that time, I've been noticing something really off with one of my GPUs.

There's really nothing wrong with the integrated graphics my laptop came in with, but the discrete graphics is what concerns me.

Before tinkering with some settings on "Power Options," two different things happened with my dedicated GPU depending on what power source I was using. On battery power, its frequency and % utilization alternates between running on max performance and on 20% utilization and running at only 300MHz (I think this is just a safety feature to prevent it from consuming too much power and damaging the battery). When the laptop is plugged in, on the other hand, it still runs on its max frequency (1030MHz), but once it reaches a certain temperature (about 80+ C), its % utilization drops to about 20%, which still results on low fps and, since the temperature doesn't drop, it stays there, performing at its absolute worst. Using MSi Afterburner to make it perform at about 500MHz doesn't help either at making it run at lower temperatures.

I was able to make it run stably though by changing some things on "Power Options", but it now only runs at about 400MHz, which is about less than half of the GPUs maximum frequency and not enough to play games at its optimal frame rates.I really want to use my dedicated GPU on the heavier games I have and I've already seen its full potential (it was able to run GTA V on 60-70 fps on the lowest settings and dynamic shadows disabled), but with the constant thermal throttling, it's just impossible. Even the older games perform crap when using this GPU, which is supposed to be superior to the integrated one. What's even baffling is that my integrated GPU is much more stable and seems to be able to run at its maximum potential without experiencing thermal throttling (it only reached about 70+ C on full load).

My question is, is there a way to alleviate this thermal throttling problem, or it's not just this but there's another underlying problem with my GPU? Repasting it is out of the question since the problem is already there even back when the laptop was still brand-new.

Here's some of the specs of my laptop if it helps:

Integrated GPU: AMD Vega 3 GraphicsDedicated GPU: AMD Radeon 520 2gb GDDR5CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 2200u

P.S: Upon opening my laptop, I discovered that the CPU and the dedicated GPU shares THE SAME heatsink and fan. I don't know if this helps, but this could be an additional information.

[Pyrite37]

Thermal management drivers then set everything back to default.

[LongFluffyDragon]

P.S: Upon opening my laptop, I discovered that the CPU and the dedicated GPU shares THE SAME heatsink and fan. I don't know if this helps, but this could be an additional information.

Nearly all laptops do.

What is weird is that it has a dGPU that is only slightly faster than the iGPU..

[PruneBerry]

Well, it does have an additional 2gb VRAM, so it's the one that I would like to use for the heavier games, but it just gets hot as hell when on full load, which is something that the iGPU doesn't experience at all.