Keywords:
gl502, vmk, kaby, lake, skylake, gtx, 1060, high, noise, fan, heat, throttling, voltage, cpu, gpu, power
Hello,
Immediately, after booting my new, out-of-the-box, Asus GL502VMK I noticed two things wrong with it:
- Design: The screen, as I open it, gets in the way of the back vents, blocking the air out and catching all the heat (which can result in damage over time, like glue that is holding the panel coming out);
- Power management: The fans were always on, while just in Windows desktop, which was annoying.
Then I fired up some games: Euro Truck Simulator 2, American Truck Simulator, Asseto Corsa and - the most demanding - GTA V.
All games were ran in very high to ultra graphic settings.
While playing the first three I noticed an occasional drop in frames per second (FPS), but I assume it was due to overheating, so I ran CPUID HWMonitor - along with ROG Gaming Center - which showed high temperatures, but not to the point of throttling. Strange.
But, when I fired GTA V, I noticed from time to time (every 20 minutes or so) the drop of frames was huge, and when I went to ROG Gaming Center the CPU frequency was down to 890MHz.
WAIT WHAT?
Thermal throttling? No, the temperature was at 80ºC, which is pretty normal in these laptops.
So I came across
this guide, in this forum.
I followed it and had some interesting results, adapted to my hardware.
In Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XPU) I noticed one thing right away: I was not having thermal throttling. I was having power (voltage) throttling, i.e. the CPU was brought down to ~900MHz because it was consuming too much voltage, especially while gaming which all components are at max consumption: fans spinning, GPU at max frequency, etc...
I was running a external monitor with the laptop's monitor turned off and Wifi turned off. Imagine another situation with both consuming more power...
Heat I can dissipate with a fan base - which I own - but power throttling was not easy.
But something had to be made in order to maintain a high performance, while keeping everything in a good temperature and safe.
This guide is only on the software side.
Not a single thing was done on the hardware side - which could use some improvements...
How to:You can perform one of these steps or both. I recommend both.
1) CPU:Testing with Intel XTU:
-
Download and install Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) here or
directly here;
- Launch it and agree with the Terms and Condition (only if you do);
- Go to "Advance Setting" -> "Core" -> "Core Voltage Offset" (on the right side);
- Click on the voltage value of "0.000V" and select "-0.100V";
- Hit "Apply" - the yellow button - on the right panel;
- Done.
IMPORTANT: Choose the negative value, i.e. a decrease in Voltage in the CPU. This will decrease the excessive Voltage that the CPU has by default and does not need, and bring down the temperature.
You can see
this video to help you.
Optional:
- Run a CPU Stress Test, e.g. for 10 minutes, and see the evolution in temperatures and if your laptop remains turned on.
- I tested -0.150V, which caused my system to shut down; -0.120V brought some performance dtops; -0.110V was ok but not that better than -0.100V. So I advise -0.100V on Kaby-Lake chips.
Applying with ThrottleStop:
-
Download ThrottleStop here;
- Extract the package and paste it on the root folder of your C:\;
- Open it through ThrottleStop.exe;
- Click on "FIVR", on the bottom part of the application window;
- Select
CPU Core, under FIVR Control, on the top center;
- Check the Unlock Adjustable Voltage option just below;
- Leave the range as is, for initial testing;
- Reduce the voltage (undervolting) by clicking on the left arrow, and see the voltage decrease;
- Apply the undervolting value tested and validated with Intel XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility);
- Select
CPU Cache, under FIVR Control, on the top center;
- Check the Unlock Adjustable Voltage option just below;
- Leave the range as is, for initial testing;
- Reduce the voltage (undervolting) by clicking on the left arrow, and see the voltage decrease;
- Apply the same undervolting value as applied on the CPU Core;
- To avoid a loop with a blue screen, check the option "OK - Save voltages after ThrottleStop exits.";
- Click Apply;
- Only after testing you may click "Ok" on the bottom;
- After testing, click on Options, on the bottom;
- Check the two options on the right: "Start minimized" and "Minimize on close";
- Additionally, if you like it, on the left there are the "Notification area" options, that allows for adding tray icons to tell you the CPU and GPU temperatures, as well as the CPU frequency. You can choose the font and colour of those tray icons;
- Uncheck "Task bar" option on the main windows, to allow for it to go to the Tray area.
See
this video to guide you through all the process of ThrootleStop setup, including the next task scheduler part.
But, please, read all of my points to get a better experience.
Creating a scheduled task in Windows to launch ThrottleStop in each Windows startup:
- In the search bar, search for "task", and select "Task Scheduler";
-
Follow this guide;
- Make sure to give "Run with highest priveleges";
- Select triggers "At log on", on your specific user (this is to avoid difficulties if a problem occurs with this setup);
- Select the program "ThrottleStop.exe" to be launched;
- All done!
At Spring time, my temperatures came down:
- At idle from 55ºC to 40ºC;
- Browsing from 60ºC to 47ºC;
- Gaming from 85ºC to 76ºC.
This decrease saves power, decreases heat and lowers the fan movement and noise.
I am very happy with these temperatures.
2) GPU:-
Download and install MSI Afterburner here or
directly here;
- Launch it and click on Settings;
- Select "Unlock Voltage Control" and "Unlock Voltage Monitoring";
- Hit "Ok" and close the program (make sure it was properly closed in the tray area);
-
Download the GTX 1060 voltage profile here;
- Go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\Profiles" and copy the name of the *CFG file that starts with "VEN_";
- Change the name of my GTX 1060 voltage profile to the name copied by you;
- OPTIONAL: Make a copy of your Default voltage profile for backup;
- Launch MSI Afterburner again, unlock profiles on the lock image and select the Profile number 1;
- Hit CTRL+F on your keyboard and you will see the voltage curve,
looking like this screenshot;
- Close the curve window, click on Save (floppy disk) and Apply (the check mark);
- Done.
You can see
this video to help you.
GPU temperatures came down.
At Spring time, my temperatures came down:
- At idle from 52ºC to 37ºC;
- Browsing from 52ºC to 45ºC;
- Gaming from 80ºC to 78ºC.
Again, this decrease saves power, decreases heat and lowers the fan movement and noise.
I am very happy with these temperatures.
This also improves battery life, especially under soft loads, like browsing, watching videos and general use.
I hope you liked it and your laptop remains calm and quiet, even while gaming
🙂My appreciation to
onjax for the
original thread that help me a lot.
