What fixes work for RTX 4090 thermal throttling and driver timeouts during 4K gaming

[Sophia_M]

I recently upgraded to an RTX 4090 for 4K gaming and 3D rendering, but I'm experiencing unexpected thermal throttling and occasional driver timeouts during extended gaming sessions, even though my case has good airflow and I'm using a quality power supply. I've monitored the temperatures, and the GPU hotspot is hitting concerning levels, which makes me wonder if I received a unit with a poor thermal paste application or if there's an underlying issue with the power delivery or my system configuration that I haven't accounted for. For other 4090 owners, what have been your typical operating temperatures under full load, and what troubleshooting steps did you find most effective for stabilizing performance? Is repasting the GPU a common necessity with this model, and are there any specific driver versions or BIOS settings you'd recommend to ensure reliability without sacrificing the card's performance potential?