G551JW - GPU throttle at 74 degree celsius

[mickey3]

Dear all

I bought a G551JW about two weeks ago. At room temperature the laptop stays at 41 degree celsius. As a gaming notebook, I use Furmark to stress test the GPU.

To my surprise the GPU (GTX960M) start throttling at 74 degree celsius - which is meh for a gaming notebook. It is too low for thermal throttle in my opinion. I use the latest Nvidia driver (350.12) and also tried the Asus VGA driver. Both result in thermal throttle at 74 degree.

Is it normal for G551JW guys?

UPDATE 1: It seems that a new beta bios from Asus can fix the thermal throttling policy (i.e., higher temperature before throttling begins). It can be found in this post.

WARNING: As this is a beta bios, it may not work for you. From several attempts in this topic, I conclude that this bios is reasonably safe. The temperature ceiling is raised to 82c. Big thanks to TayTayTheKiller and other members! However, use this bios at your own risks.

Link to beta bios: CLICK HERE

UPDATE 2: Asus has updated the bios on their support page. If you use Windows 8.1 then the link is HERE. The temperature ceiling for this bios is 78c. As the bios revision 204 is official, it is safer than the above beta bios.

[Piro]

Simple solution that helps: use cooling pad for your G551, prefer these with 70 CFM air flow or more (Cooler Master X series?).
But this is not enough.
As the air intake vents in G551 are small, just unscrew and open cover that gives access to memory & hdd.
Put your asus on pad then - you will see really high improvement of temperatures and thus - FPS in any game (tested on The WItcher 3)

[MafJose]

I tried cooling pad also - turned out to be rather pointless, no effect. Its the inner temperatures what matter, cooling pad cant reach there in any way, it just blows air to the plastic case basically.
Listen, this one-fan-cooled laptop is just not what its advertised for - its just a powerful multimedia device, not a full - on gaming PC for long gaming marathons.
I had gtx860m and actually it ran the GTA 5 pretty well, just gradually performance dropped from 50-60fps to 30-45 fps and started to stutter. But hearing from other users I think 960m is even worse, seems like they made it even more temperature-sensitive than 860m was.

[Piro]

@MafJose - basically U R right, but after I removed mem/hdd cover even using Glacier 200 Cooling Pad (<30 CFM) temperatures drop, especially while long tests/gaming.
For instance I improved my 3DMark Fire Strike from 4716 to 4799 (almost 4800). With cover closed, or opened but no pad running - I have still around 4710-4720. With both (pad running, cover opened) never worse than 4780.

In Witcher 3 I have about +2 FPS at average with this (but I play with constant 30 FPS so I decided to use my additional computing power for maxing all graphics settings except Hair Works (still have it off, not enough computation power of GPU).
So this works for me.

[MafJose]

Yes, maybe that way it could provide some cooling, it also slightly depends on the design of the cooler.
I also tried to just lift it higher so it could get easier access to air, did not help either.
In conclusion it has to be done right internally by manufacturer, G751 has it right but its alot bulkier due to that.

[Piro]

Yep, the only solution for 15 inch design or smaller is to provide external thermal port. I demanded this years ago - simple copper bone ending that goes via one vent slot (left or right) with about 0,5 cm2 copper surface and simple screw mount. I did one self made for me in other laptop (much smaller Asus UX21), so I can have external cooler, sucking heat from copper bone inside. This works like hell and is simple in design. Of course you need external cooler but it can be any size and sink all heat.
I plan to do a test version of such heat port so I will publish photos and results. But surely there will be no throttling at all because GPU could not reach 74C. No way.

[kinglionaire]

I plan to buy asus g551jw but this issues make me very confuse and from what i read the asus g551jm also have a heat issues problem bcoz single fan uses in this two models

So which one better if had to choose between asus g551jm with gtx860 4gb ddr or g551jw with gtx969 4gb ddr??

Any other model recommend( max 15.6 inches for portability)

Thanks for the advises

[Piro]

G551 thermal design is not so bad, all in all.
If you go for G551jm you will get GTX860M with 4Gb DDR5 and GTX860M is same as GTX960M. Just same chip, Maxwell 1-st gen.
Difference is in thermal limit - 93C or so for 860 and 74 for 960. Thus - 860M can deliver speed of about 5000 3DMarks in Fire Strike, and 960 - now 4800 is a really fast.
Buy a notebook with GTX860M.

[kinglionaire]

Piro wrote:
G551 thermal design is not so bad, all in all.
If you go for G551jm you will get GTX860M with 4Gb DDR5 and GTX860M is same as GTX960M. Just same chip, Maxwell 1-st gen.
Difference is in thermal limit - 93C or so for 860 and 74 for 960. Thus - 860M can deliver speed of about 5000 3DMarks in Fire Strike, and 960 - now 4800 is a really fast.
Buy a notebook with GTX860M.

Thanks for the reply

Im very upset hear this case from asus rog but for my budget i think this is the best option compare with lenovo y50 msi ge60 or acer v nitro black edition...

[Kryst]

Will asus release something to make it better? or it can't be fixed this way

[mickey3]

We can hope for a new Bios (or vbios, I am not so sure) update. There are some reports that ASUS did give a beta Bios to one of the G551JW's owners after he had contacted Asus support.

Meanwhile I visit Asus support page all days. They will have to do this soon because this topic shows up on Google for G551JW query. Potential customers will definitely be aware of this issue, thus creates a bigger problem for Asus.