[GL702VM & similar] Solution to Performance issues / Overheating / Throttling / Whine

[onjax]

Hi guys, I bought GL702VM and was upset with its ability to handle games and high load. I had immediate temperature jump to over 85 jump and throttling / frame drops in games. So I decided to understand how to improve things, even though, I already lost my warranty due to my experiments, but at least I can answer for everyone, that:
- the main problem of this notebook is inefficient, insufficient cooling system with too thin fans, too small heatsinks, vent holes in a wrong places (aside, not above the fans).

To prove this, I first changed the thermal interface to liquid metal. That doesn't solve the issue. This proves, the thermal contact is ok, but heat dissipation is bad. Second, I ran stress tests with back cover removed - helped a lot, about 15-20 degrees off. The proves that air intake is wrong in this system.

I also removed an antidust tape with holes covering all the intake holes. That helped by around 5 degrees and also brought down air noise.

Then I came to idea of downvolting CPU and GPU, thanks to devs of ThrottleStop and MSI Afterburner, we can do this with relative ease.

The result: Fan noise reduced by half. Temp drop is huge. More speed due to ability of CPU/GPU to properly boost to max speed.

For your information - CPU is responsible for about 30% of heat, GPU - for 70%. So best idea is to undervolt the GPU, but for best results go for both.

THE GUIDE - CPU
Variant A - Install Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility

• Go to Advanced Tuning tab and Change Dynamic CPU Voltage Offset to negative value (move slider to the left). -100mV is a good starting point. Leave Mode to Adaptive.
  
• Apply changes.
  

My CPU holds -150mV well.

Variant B - Install Throttle Stop 8.3 or above

• On main window click FIVR button
  
• Under CPU Core Voltage move Offset Voltage slider to the left. -100mV is a good starting point. The lower value the less heat.
  
• Click Apply. On the same window you can save settings to make them apply every time you start the app.
  

THE GUIDE - GPU

• Download and Install MSI Afterburner 4.3 or above
  
• In settings turn on Unlock voltage control and Unlock voltage monitoring
  
• Close MSI Afterburner
  
• Download my Voltage Profile for GTX 1060
  
• Extract profile to some folder and then copy file to "C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\Profiles". Click continue as Administrator when Windows asks permission to write.
  
• Run MSI Afterburner, click on profile 1 (out of 5). Then press Ctrl+F. (1 - least heat, but may be unstable for some... 2, bit more voltage etc till 5.)
  
• You will see my Voltage Curve (screenshot). What you'll see that it's flat until 1050mv. that means. 1050 will never be used, so will never be used any voltage except 831mV @ 1860 MHz and below.
  
• Click apply to test this curve
  
• If this curve is not stable for you - edit it to your taste: Click on 831mV dot and move it lower, so that lower freq will be used for that voltage, and for 1860 freq next available voltage will be used. Etc. Work with leftmost voltage dots to make everything stable.
  

This curve drops heat of GPU by at least 30%, which is huge.

THE GUIDE - COIL WHINE
Workaround described here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/975530

Perform only these steps as Administrator:
1. At a command prompt, run the following command:
reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Processor /v Capabilities /t REG_DWORD /d 0x0007e066
2. Restart the computer.
3. Run ThrottleStop v8.3 or above and uncheck C1E. Click save.

In theory, it will make CPU a bit hotter while system is idle, because it disables some advanced C-states, but i didn't notice that in monitoring app.
That solved like 99.9% of the noise, and in addition, disabling C1E in ThrottleStop solved noise issue completely.

[EpicMomo]

Ymzuki wrote:
Didn't help me, even if i change fan speeds to 100% then run some stress test CPU+ GPU, the temps would stay lower than usual for a few minutes, but after that i would see again the 95C+ on CPU even with -0.15 undervolt. No problems with GPU temps, 72-78 and sometimes 80C with prime95+ furmark.

Considering changing the heatsink.

Is that the sweet spot where the cpu stays stable? you should try to undervolt it with a higher value mine's -150mv

[BaggyBizzle]

Thanks Zandor.. Your config works well for me. Didn't use the Intel App though just Fan control and MSI. Getting 70 cpu and 77 gpu temps full load. Which are well within decent limits for this laptop.

[Saragrl]

Just to put this out there, while I am sure this is probably unrelated, my cpu fan has begun to fail and I need to send it for repair. The fan was probably bad, and this just made it noticeable, quicker. Still, even after getting it back, I will use this. I would rather keep having them replace the fans then cook my laptop altogether.

[Ymzuki]

EpicMomo wrote:
Is that the sweet spot where the cpu stays stable? you should try to undervolt it with a higher value mine's -150mv

yeah i thin, i can also -0.150 but then in hwinfo64 i get i get " windows hardware errors " scroll down till last.

Anyway for now i have disabled turbo boost and also got the adaptive power management for gpu, vsync + gsync on so everywhere the fps is limited to 60 ( that is supposed to not use the gpu 100% if its not needed ....???? ) cpu temps max 72-75C and gpu temps 68-72C... i will reinstall Windows and everything later on, also update the bios etc and do some benchmark tests again, if anything fails ill grab a new heatsink ( 50 euro here in germany ) if no improvements i will send the device to asus asking for full replacement or w.e

Also i have the gl502vs, so i go the gtx 1070

[Dassh]

Ymzuki wrote:
yeah i thin, i can also -0.150 but then in hwinfo64 i get i get " windows hardware errors " scroll down till last.

Anyway for now i have disabled turbo boost and also got the adaptive power management for gpu, vsync + gsync on so everywhere the fps is limited to 60 ( that is supposed to not use the gpu 100% if its not needed ....???? ) cpu temps max 72-75C and gpu temps 68-72C... i will reinstall Windows and everything later on, also update the bios etc and do some benchmark tests again, if anything fails ill grab a new heatsink ( 50 euro here in germany ) if no improvements i will send the device to asus asking for full replacement or w.e

Also i have the gl502vs, so i go the gtx 1070

What do you mean with "grab a new heatsink"?

[Ymzuki]

Dassh wrote:
What do you mean with "grab a new heatsink"?

Buy a new heatsink ( I suspect my heatsink is faulty because I even remove the back of the laptop and did benchmark , there was no temperature improvement, I'm not sure what else could be the problem because both fans seem to run fine, 4300 RPM reported )

[Trevor88]

I joined the forum just for this thread, so thank you! One think I would like to add is that if you limit the framerate (I limit mine to 75), then the GPU won't have to work as hard. I have been using the methods on this thread as well as limiting the framerate and I noticed a drop in temperature from 86c to 72c which is huge. Thanks again and best of luck to everyone.

[Ymzuki]

Trevor88 wrote:
I joined the forum just for this thread, so thank you! One think I would like to add is that if you limit the framerate (I limit mine to 75), then the GPU won't have to work as hard. I have been using the methods on this thread as well as limiting the framerate and I noticed a drop in temperature from 86c to 72c which is huge. Thanks again and best of luck to everyone.

First of all, welcome.

How exactly did you limit the framerate? Myself i did Vsync + Gsync always on from Nvidia Panel, and Vsync Enabled in any game, even if everything is limited to 60 FPS ( GL502VS with GTX 1070 here ) the GPU still shows 100% usage at 1700MHz+...

[Trevor88]

Ymzuki wrote:
First of all, welcome.

How exactly did you limit the framerate? Myself i did Vsync + Gsync always on from Nvidia Panel, and Vsync Enabled in any game, even if everything is limited to 60 FPS ( GL502VS with GTX 1070 here ) the GPU still shows 100% usage at 1700MHz+...

I used the in-game menus to limit the framerate. Initially I tried everything in this thread to no avail (GL702 with GTX1060), so I did everything that this thread suggested and what finally did it for me was limiting the framerate. I haven't checked out the usage so I can't say whether or not mine is working at 100%, but I did notice a substantial difference in some applications. I noticed a huge drop in Diablo 3 (the one I noted in my original post), I also tried it on the Division with about a 7c lower temperature. Not all of the games I own have the option to limit framerate in the game menus I'm sure, but the ones that do I saw a noticeable improvement. I will have to go try some games that don't have that option and see what will happen.

[Ymzuki]

Trevor88 wrote:
I used the in-game menus to limit the framerate. Initially I tried everything in this thread to no avail (GL702 with GTX1060), so I did everything that this thread suggested and what finally did it for me was limiting the framerate. I haven't checked out the usage so I can't say whether or not mine is working at 100%, but I did notice a substantial difference in some applications. I noticed a huge drop in Diablo 3 (the one I noted in my original post), I also tried it on the Division with about a 7c lower temperature. Not all of the games I own have the option to limit framerate in the game menus I'm sure, but the ones that do I saw a noticeable improvement. I will have to go try some games that don't have that option and see what will happen.

I have done the same, limit ingame ( where possible Vsync on and frame limit to 60 ) and also from Nvidia control pannel, my monitoring software still shows 99% GPU usage, be it a game w.o v-syn/gsync or frame limited running 120+ FPS or limited to 60 FPS.