[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.

[plumicla]

Bran187 wrote:
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)

My model is GL702VM
I tried 4 things together:

1) UV CPU with -0.130 (on -0.150 i got system unstable)
2) Use profile 2 or 3 from onjax
3) Use profile for GL702VM in NoteBook FanControl
4) Change power plan settings for CPU to 99%

Also i have cooling pad.
Stock temps was about 90-92 degrees in gaming Overwatch, BF1, XCOM2. Now it's about 83-86, like i said before.
I thing would be happy with 76-80 to prevent any physycal damage in long term usage.

[Bran187]

onjax wrote:
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?

Pretty sure I did. When I get home from work I will double check my notes and rerun the test just to be sure. I'll be sure to update with results as soon as I have them. 🙂

[Bran187]

onjax wrote:
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?

Alright so I've rerun my tests, and gotten pretty similar results. Also I should note that I ran tests in the 'high performance' power state, with the default fan settings, with no laptop cooler, and with the my CPU undervolted to -0.15.

I dropped 1 (maybe 2) degrees by undervolting the gpu. Monitoring the voltage in afterburner I can confirm that the voltage never passed 830ish (not sure what the exact number was but that's about where it sat on the graph). However I think that I figured out why my results are so lackluster.

When running at stock I noticed that my GPU never boosts past 1620MHz. So my voltage stays between 850 and 875 only rarely peaking up to 900. So most of the time my voltage wasn't that much higher than the UV threshold in profile 1.

Also like I noted in my initial post (or at least I think I did) my GPU did clock higher using the UV profile, consistently in the 1770-1800 range (which I assume higher core clocks = more heat). So my theory is this, the slight power savings I got from running at slightly lower voltages were offset by the higher core clocks.

However, if my understanding of Nvidia's GPU boost is correct, every chip is going to vary. So if your chip boosts higher than mine at stock it's possible that you saw a much more drastic reduction in temps than me.

Any thoughts or specifics you want me to look at? I'm all for tinkering so if you have any thoughts feel free to shoot them my way.

[mehul_mishra12]

Hi,
I have an ASUS Rog GL502VMK. It is overheating a lot so i used ur article to undervolt my CPU and GPU, i just used whatever setting u had mentioned and the temperatures came down about 10C. Now there is an issue with this, Games like CSGO and PUBG freeze mid-game when the Afterburner profile is on. As soon as I switch it off it works normally but temps go up a little bit. Also how can i test the stability at different undervolts of my CPU. I m new at it so need some good advice.

[Matze2k0]

mehul.mishra12 wrote:
Hi,
I have an ASUS Rog GL502VMK. It is overheating a lot so i used ur article to undervolt my CPU and GPU, i just used whatever setting u had mentioned and the temperatures came down about 10C. Now there is an issue with this, Games like CSGO and PUBG freeze mid-game when the Afterburner profile is on. As soon as I switch it off it works normally but temps go up a little bit. Also how can i test the stability at different undervolts of my CPU. I m new at it so need some good advice.

Which Profile did you use? Some do not handle 1 and 2 very well, try 3 and above . I'm using realbench for stability tests.

[mehul_mishra12]

Matze2k0 wrote:
Which Profile did you use? Some do not handle 1 and 2 very well, try 3 and above . I'm using realbench for stability tests.

Profile 2 maintained temperatures in late 70 to early 80s but profile 3 onwards gave me high 80s constantly while playing PUBG. So this is causing a dilemna

[tvshim]

Am I the only here who doesn't have fan control in ROG Gaming Center?

[mehul_mishra12]

tvshim wrote:
Am I the only here who doesn't have fan control in ROG Gaming Center?

Have u updated ur BIOS? the latest BIOS gives u this option even i didnt have it until recently, but when i updated the BIOS it automatically came up in my Gaming centre. ALso install the latest ATK from the support page. Hope it helps

[tvshim]

mehul.mishra12 wrote:
Have u updated ur BIOS? the latest BIOS gives u this option even i didnt have it until recently, but when i updated the BIOS it automatically came up in my Gaming centre. ALso install the latest ATK from the support page. Hope it helps

I have BIOS 306 in my GL702VM and Version V1.0.0050 ATK

edit: anyone else know how to turn off the 3rd fan for GL702VM, excluding NBFC? It really gets me when I hear it while just watching a video... Turning system cooling policy to passive also doesn't stop it from turning on then off.

[FastM]

tvshim wrote:
I have BIOS 306 in my GL702VM and Version V1.0.0050 ATK

edit: anyone else know how to turn off the 3rd fan for GL702VM, excluding NBFC? It really gets me when I hear it while just watching a video... Turning system cooling policy to passive also doesn't stop it from turning on then off.

unplug it?