Temperature controlling my laptop

[Jcomper23]

Okay, so, I got this laptop:

https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-ZEPHYRUS-S-GX701/

Now, I have Core Temp monitoring my temperatures, and I often like to play some heavy 3D games like Planet Coaster with the graphics settings cranked up. After some time playing, Core Temp reads:



Note the "(!)" by one of the cores, which Core Temp says:

(!) represents a warning notifying the user that his processor has reached a critical temperature at least once while Core Temp has been running.
This is an indication to a severe overheating issue and should be attended to as soon as possible to prevent instability and damage to components.

Now, I'd normally set Core Temp, when a core reaches, say, 175 F (79 C), to run a batch file with

powercfg -setacvalueindex SCHEME_BALANCED SUB_PROCESSOR PROCTHROTTLEMAX 50
powercfg.exe -setactive SCHEME_CURRENT

That did keep the temperature regulated for my last laptop, but doesn't seem to help much for my current one. What I've done now is set Armoury Crate to Windows mode, and I've so far played a fair bit in my really intense 3D games, seems to lag a bit more and take a bit longer to fully render things, but thus far the temperature has not exceeded 158 F/70 C. I'd like to set it so it can go faster, but I want to keep the temperature below 190 F/88 C, is there a good way to set the computer not to exceed that temp?

[gr8john6]

I do wish there were more detailed information on some of these ASUS branded apps. That sure would help me with figuring some of these things out. Also, thank you for your input. I will keep that in mind.

[Jcomper23]

gr8john6 wrote:
I heard mention of running Windows mode. Does that bypass any Armoury Crate imposed tweaks? I don't like how CPU can reach arouind 85 degree celcius in current state during gaming at all...

I mentioned a Windows mode set within Armory Crate, as shown here:



I've set Throttlestop as follows:



No issues so far, temp has stayed below 77 deg C/170 F, but I'll keep testing it...

[gr8john6]

Based on the image you have shown, I notice 2 things. First is that you don't have SST running. Second is that you have disabled CPU turbo boost? Second will surely lower temperature since it will keep CPU from going past stock 2.6 GHz. As for my stable set up, it is sub 50mV... Quite disappointing. BSOD stops below about 90mV but when using TSBench, I keep getting errors unless I go sub 50mV. Good thing it is keep under 80degree Celcius when using 128 SST setting for long gaming session.
P.S. I don't think you have the Armoury Crate fully set up either. You seem to be missing XTU monitoring service and few of the Apps that work with it.

[Jcomper23]

gr8john6 wrote:
Based on the image you have shown, I notice 2 things. First is that you don't have SST running. Second is that you have disabled CPU turbo boost? Second will surely lower temperature since it will keep CPU from going past stock 2.6 GHz. As for my stable set up, it is sub 50mV... Quite disappointing. BSOD stops below about 90mV but when using TSBench, I keep getting errors unless I go sub 50mV. Good thing it is keep under 80degree Celcius when using 128 SST setting for long gaming session.
P.S. I don't think you have the Armoury Crate fully set up either. You seem to be missing XTU monitoring service and few of the Apps that work with it.

From what I've read, Throttlestop tends to conflict with XTU, so may be just as well... So far, my cores have topped at 169 deg F/76 deg C, so I'll probably keep it as is for the time...

[Jcomper23]

Now, I'm gonna try working without Throttlestop, set CoreTemp to put the computer to sleep when the temp reaches 95 deg C, and see how it does...

[Jcomper23]

Well, I did not feel comfortable with one of my cores having reached critical. I currently have it undervolted at -90.8 mv, with turbo disabled.

[gr8john6]

Hey, I finally got a handle on thermal behavior of my Strix G731 laptop and thought I would share it with you.
Undervolting Core and Cache to the same level is important, even if you can only undervolt less than ideal.
In my case I settled on -80mV.
However, this isn't the only thing that affects the thermal performance of these units.
For whatever reason, ASUS has completely unlocked PL1 and PL2 limits(70 and 107 respectively).
PL1 limit being steadystate power limit and will determine your long term heavy load performance. Often this number is set to TDP value of the processor, in this case 45W according to Intel. But ASUS Strix G can handle more than that. After much tinkering, I came to around 55W for this value. Your number may be a bit higher or less. After that PL2 limit needs to be set. By default, this number is set to 90 in Throttlestop and XTU but this is way too high. About 75W level is enough to send the processor into Tjunction temp (100 degree Celsius). This number should be set to 1.25 x PL1 or somewhat less in order to provide enough power for short term boost, yet keep the CPU temps in reasonable level. I ended with 65W as conservative estimate. Doing this will keep your laptop CPU temps from climbing to 95+ degrees and also provide best steadystate (longterm workload) performance for your system.
Here is a very good article on this mess: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13544/why-intel-processors-draw-more-power-than-expected-tdp-turbo

I hope this helps!

[xeromist]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing

[Jcomper23]

Yes, very interesting. Now, is it possible to adjust the PL1 and PL2 limits within Throttlestop? Can they even be changed within Armory Crate?!

[Jcomper23]

Well, a few weeks ago, after a BIOS update and a few other updates, my laptop suddenly couldn't see the graphics card, and from there, would BSOD to where I couldn't even make it past the startup screen! Took it in, they wiped the hard drive and replaced the motherboard, so now I'm busy getting stuff back on! Haven't yet gotten Throttlestop back on, for now, I'm just playing it safe and have Armory Crate set to Windows mode...