[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.

[TimS85]

onjax wrote:
The hard truth is: most if not all gaming notebook' reviews I've read show signs of CPU/GPU throttling, often, a heavy throttling. So it has become a common practice for manufacturers to rely on thermal throttling mechanism and do not design proper cooling.
GL702VM is not the worst case, really.

I think you're right, but...it is clear that we have to do several tweaks to run it cooler and that's is actually wrong IMO .
Gaming laptops should be made to run good and not on it's limits with heating problems.

I'm now at around 80 degrees GPU and CPU , came from 92 this could be done easily out of the factory to run it cooler.

Great laptop though !!

[Bran187]

I'll share my experience with yall. I've been doing some thermal testing over the past few days. My findings are a bit lengthy, so I will try to organize as best I can.

For reference:
I am using a GL502VM with a 7700hq with GTX 1060.
I keep my home at about 21C (70F).
I tested both synthetics and games (Overwatch, BF4, and Mass Effect Andromeda).

Stock
At stock settings under gaming workloads and synthetic tests that would tax both components, my CPU would stabilize at 88-90 degrees with short peaks as high as 95. My GPU would stabilize between 88 and 89 degrees.

At stock settings, when just stressing the CPU (Prime95 or adobe video encoding) it really didn't get that hot. Hanging out in the mid to high 70's with only short peaks up into the low 80's. So I think that the shared heat pipes are to blame for the high temps in situations where both the CPU and GPU are being taxed, because when just taxing the CPU, my machine has no problem keeping the thermals in check.

Undervolting
Undervolting (both the CPU to -0.15 and the GPU using the provided afterburner profiles) only really impacted load thermals by a degree or two, though it is worth noting that it took both significantly longer top out. Also from monitoring in the ROG android app it is worth noting that the both the CPU and GPU seemed to boost higher and for longer periods of time than stock. So it seems that they were boosting more within the same thermal envelope which is cool (and I guess to be expected). My Cinebench R15 score went up by about 50 points doing this which I think supports my previous sentence.

99%
Using the 99% plan actually was the most promising (speaking purely in terms of thermals. The CPU and GPU topped out at 82 and 83 degrees respectively. I didn't really notice a performance hit in games doing this (though I'm sure it is there) but my Cinebench score dropped by just over 100 points. So in heavily threaded workloads I could definitely see this having an impact performance wise.

Here is where it gets interesting.
Undervolting just the CPU, while using the 99% power plan made a huge impact on thermals. The GPU would cap out at 77-78 degrees, and the CPU rarely went above 76. So my guess here is that, since we are not allowing the CPU to boost we are actually seeing the thermal benefits of the lower voltage. The trade off being max performance.

Other Interesting Tidbits:
An interesting note is that even at stock the laptops fans never actually sit at 100%. I found that it was close, but would only actually hit 100% when my CPU spiked past 90 degrees. The second it was back down, it would slow down a bit. So I found that if you force them to max in the ROG software the max temperatures droped by a few degrees in all scenarios tested.

Another thing I found is that using a laptop cooler dropped temps another 1-2 degrees in all scenarios. This will obviously vary from cooler to cooler thanks to fan speed, efficiency and placement so your mileage may vary. The one I had laying around isn't great or powerful, but the fan just happens to sit right where the air intake on the bottom of my 502. I plan on buying the Cooler Master U3 soon, and I will report back if it makes a noteworthy difference.

By maxing out the fan speed, and using a laptop cooler I was able to get my stock temps down pretty close to my 99% power plan temps (but not quite).

Best Case Scenerio (For Temps not necessarily performance):
Using my laptop cooler, maxing out fan speed, using the 99% power plan, and undervolting to -0.15 my temps droped even further. This is what I consider to be the best case scenario for thermals if you are okay with taking a possible slight hit to performance (again I didn't notice it, but I can almost guarantee that it is there) but for reference in Overwatch, and using these settings I'm still sitting above 100fps pretty much all the time. My GPU maxes out at about 73-74 degrees, and my CPU benefits even more sitting around the high 60's with occasional peaks up to about 72-73 degrees.

Conclusion:
So that is my novel.

I found that using the 99% power plan in conjunction with undervolting to be the most beneficial for the thermally minded. Crank the fan speed up if you want even more of a thermal edge.

If performance is your primary concern, crank up the fan speed and undervolt.

Also a laptop cooler never hurts, though your mileage may vary depending on the specific cooler.

And that folks, is my novel. I've probably just regurgitated what a lot of you have already said, but I figured I would throw my results/thoughts into the mix. Happy hunting!

[M-T-Pockets]

How do you adjust the fan speed in the ROG controls? I have a GL702VM and I don't see that anywhere?

[StarJack]

M-T-Pockets wrote:
How do you adjust the fan speed in the ROG controls? I have a GL702VM and I don't see that anywhere?

In the ROG Gaming Center app on the bottom left corner you should see a Fan Control tab.

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

[Bran187]

StarJack wrote:
In the ROG Gaming Center app on the bottom left corner you should see a Fan Control tab.

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

Yep this right here. If you have an android phone and you link it to the app you can do it from there as well under the utilities tab.

[onjax]

Bran187 wrote:
I'll share my experience with yall. I've been doing some thermal testing over the past few days. My findings are a bit lengthy, so I will try to organize as best I can.

Undervolting
Undervolting (both the CPU to -0.15 and the GPU using the provided afterburner profiles) only really impacted load thermals by a degree or two, though it is worth noting that it took both significantly longer top out. Also from monitoring in the ROG android app it is worth noting that the both the CPU and GPU seemed to boost higher and for longer periods of time than stock. So it seems that they were boosting more within the same thermal envelope which is cool (and I guess to be expected). My Cinebench R15 score went up by about 50 points doing this which I think supports my previous sentence.

Thanks for sharing the info, but have you checked in Afterburner or any other app, that GPU didn't actually cross the UV threshold set by profile?

[plumicla]

I don't know, guys....
I've tried all of these and my GPU and CPU still running about 83-86 degrees playing Overwatch for 20 mins.
My last chance external cooler, i guess.

[Trevor88]

plumicla wrote:
I don't know, guys....
I've tried all of these and my GPU and CPU still running about 83-86 degrees playing Overwatch for 20 mins.
My last chance external cooler, i guess.

I highly recommend the opolar LC06. I've had to adjust it to get it to work properly, but it works great and I've noticed across the board lower temps. I only undervolt CPU and GPU, I still use turbo boost and have not messed with any of my fan settings. If you decide to get one I recommend placing it on the left hand side on the rear (if you're looking at the screen). I've heard that this side is for the CPU exhaust, but for some reason it works much better in my case. Best of luck to you.

[plumicla]

Trevor88 wrote:
I highly recommend the opolar LC06. I've had to adjust it to get it to work properly, but it works great and I've noticed across the board lower temps. I only undervolt CPU and GPU, I still use turbo boost and have not messed with any of my fan settings. If you decide to get one I recommend placing it on the left hand side on the rear (if you're looking at the screen). I've heard that this side is for the CPU exhaust, but for some reason it works much better in my case. Best of luck to you.

Thanks!
Actually, i've already ordered this one http://ali.onl/tZ7 Hope this helps.
Could you show couple pics of your cooler installation?

[Bran187]

plumicla wrote:
I don't know, guys....
I've tried all of these and my GPU and CPU still running about 83-86 degrees playing Overwatch for 20 mins.
My last chance external cooler, i guess.

Have you tried them in conjunction with each other? Also what model are you using and what are your stock temperatures like after the same 20 minutes in Overwatch? (Sorry for all the questions, but the more data we have the better lol)