[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.

[PedroSequeira]

Thanks for the reply 🙂

my rog gaming center dont have the option to set fan speeds, and speedfan program didnt work for me either =S As i see in HWmonitor the top speed of my fans are at 4300rpm, maybe if they are actually a little faster system would be cooler... anyway, guess i'll stick with him, and use some undevolt mods. I already tryed juice a little more from this and managed to get near 1800 mhz at 850mv but then the gpu temps got higher and i decided it didnt worth the 2 fps increase 😄 so i reversed to 800mv, refresh monitor is of 60hz so i dont get anything more of playing games higher than 60fps anyway. My last councern is the future, i tought this laptop would be awesome to play games at max for at least 2 years more... guess i hoped too much, i usually play on desktops and i should know that there is really some good diference from laptops and desktops even with the "same" specs ^^

Ah and with stock curve my gpu is not limited by heat... its caped by power, at least is what AB and gpu-z says 😛 to be honest gpu heat never was the problem, cpu reachs over 100ºc tough.

In order to enjoy games i'll stop monitorizing temps and speed with afterbuner xD i'll just play and guess stop crying too 😄 i have the receipt from original owner, it still have 1 year and 2 months of warranty, if it breaks due heat i'll just send it back to Asus.

thanks for the feedback man o/

[FastM]

PedroSequeira wrote:
Thanks for the reply 🙂

Ah and with stock curve my gpu is not limited by heat... its caped by power, at least is what AB and gpu-z says 😛 to be honest gpu heat never was the problem, cpu reachs over 100ºc tough.

thanks for the feedback man o/

I can't speak for the 1060 but in my testing I've noticed the 1070 starts to downclock once the temperature hits 63c, so If you really want the most out of your GPU you gotta keep it under that temp. I don't believe this is something GPU-Z reports properly. (I could be wrong!)

[PedroSequeira]

Hi, so i'll just throw my last coin to add on this thread...
I managed to lower a lot the initial temperatures of the laptop by using some of the tips that i read here. Undervolted cpu and gpu, and i'm using notebook fan control. This last thing felt like it helped a lot... when i'm going to start a game i put the fans at 100% so it takes a lot more time to increase temperatures. Plus, using whisper mode from geforce experience, i caped my fps games at 45/50. I know what u are thinking... we should be able to play games at 60fps+ with this specs, but my display is 60Hz top and with G-sync i dont notice and diference of playing at 50fps or 60fps... but i notice a nice diference on temperatures. GPU wont be full load so it will produce less heat. Would be nice if my laptop version would come with an asus fan control, i know it could be risky for some users but make the program simple and with like 2 options... one for browsing and small stuff and other for gaming which makes fans hiting 100% faster. So resuming:

1-Undervolt cpu with xtu (-100mv or so )
2-Undervolt gpu with Afterburner ( mine is a flat line 800mv @1646mhz )
3-Instal notebook fan control ( make urself a profile or at least when u start an heavy game put them at 100%)
4-Use Geforce Experience "whisper mode" or another fps cap at ur choice ( 45/50 fps decrease temperature well)

Last step isnt the best choice but it makes me very confortable with temperatures... gpu top 73ºc and cpu around 80ºc. Probably wont work for everyone but maybe sharing my experience someone will figure out what works for them.

And saying this again if someone of Asus going to read this, doing all this steps to feel confortable with a laptop with this price will make many people return them and you will lose costumers for sure... i bet it wont take much time to engineers change this at factory, at least the voltage on cpu and changing the fan control policy. Having more holes at the bottom would be nice too 🙂

Thanks all for the tips at this forum.

[pwnnn]

PedroSequeira wrote:
Hi, so i'll just throw my last coin to add on this thread...
I managed to lower a lot the initial temperatures of the laptop by using some of the tips that i read here. Undervolted cpu and gpu, and i'm using notebook fan control. This last thing felt like it helped a lot... when i'm going to start a game i put the fans at 100% so it takes a lot more time to increase temperatures. Plus, using whisper mode from geforce experience, i caped my fps games at 45/50. I know what u are thinking... we should be able to play games at 60fps+ with this specs, but my display is 60Hz top and with G-sync i dont notice and diference of playing at 50fps or 60fps... but i notice a nice diference on temperatures. GPU wont be full load so it will produce less heat. Would be nice if my laptop version would come with an asus fan control, i know it could be risky for some users but make the program simple and with like 2 options... one for browsing and small stuff and other for gaming which makes fans hiting 100% faster. So resuming:

1-Undervolt cpu with xtu (-100mv or so )
2-Undervolt gpu with Afterburner ( mine is a flat line 800mv @1646mhz )
3-Instal notebook fan control ( make urself a profile or at least when u start an heavy game put them at 100%)
4-Use Geforce Experience "whisper mode" or another fps cap at ur choice ( 45/50 fps decrease temperature well)

Last step isnt the best choice but it makes me very confortable with temperatures... gpu top 73ºc and cpu around 80ºc. Probably wont work for everyone but maybe sharing my experience someone will figure out what works for them.

And saying this again if someone of Asus going to read this, doing all this steps to feel confortable with a laptop with this price will make many people return them and you will lose costumers for sure... i bet it wont take much time to engineers change this at factory, at least the voltage on cpu and changing the fan control policy. Having more holes at the bottom would be nice too 🙂

Thanks all for the tips at this forum.

Can you link the profile for the 800mv @ 1646mhz profile? is this for the 1060gtx?

[thebiggboss180]

hello

i am new to forum and new to asus brand as all,

and i would like to add my observation to the heat matter,

the cpu and gpu after undervoltaing and maybe before they dont have heat problems at all .. at least to my gl502vm 7th gen

the problem as u can see from speedfan reading is from the acpi or temp1 from the pic1 and 2 in idling and fullpower

and i dont know if it can be solved with repasting or bios update .. just wanted to bring this matter to ur attention

[pwnnn]

I have a Asus rog GL702VM i7 6700hq version 16gb ram 1060gtx 6gb bios .306

i finally achieved gpu and cpu temps around 72-73ish steady

My config as follows:

XTU -165v volt offset with turbo boost short power max 40w and same with turbo power max 40w
Msi afterburner 1607mhz constant with a 800mV flat line
Notebook fan control (biggest difference i found) with the asus rog gl702vm profile with fans at max 100%(will adjust based on temperatures)
Last but not least i also have a notepal x-slim laptop cooler

My laptop other than those mods/changes zero alterations to the chasis . I tested the temps by playing an hour of PUBG with medium settings and temps did not hit past 74 . This is only one testing i did so far but will test/try again and i am only using pubg because this game seriously puts a beating on this laptop.

I do feel if cutting the holes at the bottom of the chasis for it to pull in air would make a big impact on this cooling. I am currently looking for 2inch speaker grills so i can dremel 2 inch diameter at the bottom of the chasis underneath the fans and install it there so it can pull in air. Sorry for ****ty grammer and spelling i am rush typing this

Hopefully my testings will help others. Honestly though i found the fan control made probably the biggest difference.

[pppttl]

pwnnn wrote:
I have a Asus rog GL702VM i7 6700hq version 16gb ram 1060gtx 6gb bios .306

i finally achieved gpu and cpu temps around 72-73ish steady

My config as follows:

XTU -165v volt offset with turbo boost short power max 40w and same with turbo power max 40w
Msi afterburner 1607mhz constant with a 800mV flat line
Notebook fan control (biggest difference i found) with the asus rog gl702vm profile with fans at max 100%(will adjust based on temperatures)
Last but not least i also have a notepal x-slim laptop cooler

My laptop other than those mods/changes zero alterations to the chasis . I tested the temps by playing an hour of PUBG with medium settings and temps did not hit past 74 . This is only one testing i did so far but will test/try again and i am only using pubg because this game seriously puts a beating on this laptop.

I do feel if cutting the holes at the bottom of the chasis for it to pull in air would make a big impact on this cooling. I am currently looking for 2inch speaker grills so i can dremel 2 inch diameter at the bottom of the chasis underneath the fans and install it there so it can pull in air. Sorry for ****ty grammer and spelling i am rush typing this

Hopefully my testings will help others. Honestly though i found the fan control made probably the biggest difference.

I'm glad that you could reduce the temps. Can you please share the afterburner profile?

[pwnnn]

I just did the 1703 creator update and now some funny stuff happens.....specifically in gaming on players unkown battleground....

whether i am on low settings or medium i am getting roughly the same fps but more DROPS its inconsistant. I have vsync off in game and in nvidia panel i have vsync off and gsync on (also tested with vsync on as well) and i am not getting the constsant 75FPS my temps are in the low 73s. What could be the problem? cpu is hitting 3.2ghz and gpu is at 1820ishmhz. i dont see throttling and i been looking / alt tabing into the desktop while game is running to see the speeds on hwmonitor, techspot gpuz, cpuz and msi afterburner. Not sure what is up ..... when i am at the main screen in pubg i see the fps counter hitting 140ish but once i hit game its MUCH lower compare to others with the same specs (non asus brand laptop). What could be the problem?

[pwnnn]

pppttl wrote:
I'm glad that you could reduce the temps. Can you please share the afterburner profile?

I ended up using the profile posted because it could hit 1850ish mhz with out temp increase like maybe 1 degree to like 74-75ish. Now how having with constant fps for the game pubg. I thought gsync caps my fps or is there something i need to do to cap the fps.

[GMart1285]

Hello guys! This is for those who DON'T want to do the following:


1. Drill the bottom cover
2. Remove the anti dust filters
3. Reapply thermal paste (Stock thermal paste is really fine, trust me you will get the same result. I think if someone got a poor stock thermal paste application on this laptop, it's just a super isolated case) (I'd say if your idle temps are 60c to 70c, then I'd consider the re-pasting)
4. Put Opolar LC06

Note: Ambient Temp has atleast 2c to 5c impact on your laptop's temp and should be playing for atleast more than 30 minutes to really determine the effectiveness of the tweaks. I did not limit the processor to 99% or disable turbo boost because it affects performance. I just want to get my money's worth.



After reading all your experiences and tips for a year, I finally pry opened my GL702VM (2016). I did not remove any anti dust filter, didn't drill the bottom case, no Opolar LC06 and no reapplication of thermal compound. I just installed a foil tape on the gaps. But prior to opening the case, of course I undervolted the CPU and GPU (according to Onjax) then cramped up the internal fans to 100% using Notebook Fan Control and I am also using a Cooling pad (CoolerMaster X-Slim). I will show you all the data that I have gathered. Here are the results.


I can say that the new 306 BIOS resolves the throttling but not sure with the heat. Maybe it helps a bit on idle temps and some games but the results are not accurate, sometimes I feel it's the same temps as 305 BIOS.

Ok here it is.

My Ambient temp: 23c to 26c



1. Stock (out of the box)

GTA V Max Settings (Out of the Box)
- easily reached 85c to 87c for CPU/GPU in 5-10 minutes and will spike to 90c at times (I believe it will reach 90c+ if I played 1 hour)

NBA 2K18 Max Settings (Out of the Box)
- 83c to 85c for CPU/GPU (slowly heating up because it is less hardware intensive than GTA V, but still reaching 85c after playing several more minutes)



2. Undervolt -144.5 offset CPU (ThrottleStop), Profile 1 MSI Afterburner by Onjax, Notebook Fan Control 100% 3 fans with cooling pad

NBA 2K18 Max Settings
- 77c to 79c GPU and 72c to 75c CPU

GTA V Max Settings
- 83c to 87c CPU/GPU but slowly heating up compared to stock

Mafia 3 Max Settings
- same scenario as GTA V

Battlefield 1 Max settings
- same as GTA V

Resident Evil 7 Max Settings
- slightly lower than GTA V and Mafia 3 but still reaching 81c to 83c at times (I think the temps lowered down a little bit after installing the 306 BIOS)



3. Installed Foil Tape, Undervolt -144.5 offset CPU(ThrottleStop), Profile 1 MSI Afterburner by Onjax, Notebook Fan Control 100% 3 fans with cooling pad

Battlefield 1 Max Settings
- GPU and CPU 74c to 78c

NBA 2K18 Max Settings
- usually below 70c, temps maxing out at 72c

Resident Evil 7 Max Settings
- below 75c



4. No bottom case, no undervolt, of course no cooling pad, just Notebook Fan Control to 100% and Foil Tape (which I believe is useless since bottom case is removed)

NBA 2K18 Max Settings
- GPU max at 60c while CPU barely hits 59c

Battlefield 1 Max Settings
-63c GPU and CPU hovers around 64c-67c



5. IDLE temps (Inside fans not spinning) (GL702VM Skylake), No Undervolt

with bottom case (no cooling pad)
CPU: 42c to 43c
GPU: 48c to 52c

without bottom case
CPU: 40c to 43c
GPU: 47c to 50c

Here's the interesting part, the idle temps even without the bottom case are nearly identical to the temps with bottom case. I'd say maybe 1c to 3c only. The big difference comes in when you play games and cramped up the fans without the bottom case. I am not an expert dealing with the laptop's thermal management but it just doesn't make sense when all of us know and it's obvious that the wrong placement of vents on the bottom case is the problem. I believe that the Asus stock Thermal paste is fine because the temps still varies on the tweaks or mods. It's just weird when idle.

The purchase of this laptop is both good and bad. It excites me and I learned a lot during this process since it is my first gaming laptop but a little bit depressing too because I am expecting a $1300 laptop would work out of the box, hassle free when playing games. I thought I will pry open this laptop after atleast 2 to 3 years just to clean or upgrade it. But nah! Let's just move on and just enjoy the laptop until it breaks, I think if we limit our playing time to 2 hours then rest, it's all good, it will last 3 to 5 years. I don't want this temp monitoring to become an obsession lol sometimes I feel that it's taking over my time. I will just use it to it's full extent and get my money's worth since there are still workaround and thanks to all of you guys especially to the creator of this thread Onjax.

For now, I am good with the foil tape mod. I just don't want to mod the bottom case, do a re-paste or buy Opolar at this time. I mean I paid for a brand new laptop. It's not acceptable for me, it's just me, please don't get me wrong. It's like I purchased a half-broken refurbished product and I am the one who needs to fix it. The stock paste should last atleast 2-3 years if you are a casual gamer (I don't want to add value to the purchase of the laptop by buying a new good thermal paste). And the Opolar thing is hassle for me, I mean I should have bought a desktop if that's the case. Ya I know I should've replaced it from the start and get a different laptop instead. I partially regret getting this thing but this is the only laptop with pascal 1060 (G-SYNC) below $1400 at the time and ya maybe I will drill holes after a year or two from now. I just wanna enjoy it as it is for the meantime. (Well except for the tape mod which is very minor and it's just like putting a new RAM in your system lol).


Thanks again guys. Peace out!