30fps dropped

Dunno why there's such a drop - I bought 4 asus NX500 laptops and on the recently received ones if I use SVP (used liquid metal to cool them) for mpv for 1440p videos, or transcoded (4k) videos I am getting many dropped frames, about a consistent 30 per second. Is some setting likely incorrect? I was able to play .264 transcoded 60fps and 1440p hevc videos at 60fps before.
I've simply exchanged-moved the M2 ssd between laptops, so same-original W/10 Operating system.