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.

[radosm]

I got my G551JW about a month ago and i've also noticed this problem. So far I couldn't find a proper fix, the only thing that does help is setting the fan speed to 100 % whilst playing games. It still thermal throttles but far less frequently. In order to do that you need to download Notebook fan control and set your config to Asus Zenbook UX31A.
I've sent ASUS a complaint with a link to this thread and hopefully they will figure out a way to fix this issue.
Will keep you guys up to date if they reply.

[mickey3]

radosm wrote:
I got my G551JW about a month ago and i've also noticed this problem. So far I couldn't find a proper fix, the only thing that does help is setting the fan speed to 100 % whilst playing games. It still thermal throttles but far less frequently. In order to do that you need to download Notebook fan control and set your config to Asus Zenbook UX31A.
I've sent ASUS a complaint with a link to this thread and hopefully they will figure out a way to fix this issue.
Will keep you guys up to date if they reply.

Really appreciate your efforts! I am looking forward to seeing some answers from Asus.

[radosm]

Asus replied to my complaint.
Here is my complaint : "The G551JW has a GTX 960m. Once the GTX 960m reaches 74 degrees celsius it
starts to thermal throttle. This is a problem seeing as most modern games make the
graphics card reach that temperature even on medium or low setting. I noticed this
problem when I played GTA V ,The Witcher 3 : Wild hunt , and Battlefield 4 in some
cases (When I increase the graphics and there are a lot of explosions etc... .I'm not
the only one having this issue , I've checked the forums and found this :
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?64295-G551JW-GPU-throttle-at-74-
degree-celsius

Is there going to be any BIOS update that will allow the GPU to run hotter by just a bit
so that it potentially does not thermal throttle or am I basically stuck having to deal
with this issue ?"

And their reply : "Dear customer

Thank you for contacting ASUS technical support!

No, in current state it's impossible to pass by thermall throttling at that level. The only way is to provide a better cooling for your device (e.g. cooling pads).
You can also wait for bios update regarding thermal policy, but we have no date given, when it'll be updated.


Best Regards,

Paweł Rogowski
Technical Support Engineer "

[Funkave]

Unfortunately I got similar answers from two customer services reps from different countries.

[radosm]

Well, if they don't fix it I'm screwed. I can't return the laptop and all modern games will thermal throttle.

[Piro]

But GTX 860M is the same to GTX960M and has no such throttle at 74C and reaches higher temps and... it's ok, because it's named GTX 860M. 🙂

Asus Logic - new definition of logic.

[Ttm1st]

Thanx guys for the tips . Ill try making the cpu work at 99% as mentioned and today ill get a colling pad .. hope this works.
Do you guys think asus is truly working on a bios update ?

[Piro]

Im not sure if Asus works on a bios update.
But I work on the bios update for sure.

[MafJose]

I wonder if its only Asus that has this wierdly low throttle point with the gtx960m card or same thing happens to other manufacturers? Lenovo, MSI, etc. Anyone has experience with them?

[OCFreak]

MafJose wrote:
I wonder if its only Asus that has this wierdly low throttle point with the gtx960m card or same thing happens to other manufacturers? Lenovo, MSI, etc. Anyone has experience with them?

I have an acer aspire nitro as well with GTX960M. Under stresstest (CPU + GPU) there is no throttle and max GPU temp reached is 75C. MAX CPU temp reached is 93C in case anyone wants to know that as well. Hard to say what the GPU throttle limit is since it only reached 75C.