[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.

[skejcikk1]

Hi all,
I used my GL703VM a few months. I change Thermal Paste on CPU & GPU. A few weeks ago i changed also Thermal Pads and use Cooling Pad Coolermaster Notepal U3 Plus. I clean my ROG from dust once a month, but i still get problems with high temps.
When i use my notebook normally (firefox or Excell) i have 43-55°C. When i playing games (Cities: Skylines, House Flipper, GTAV, Euro Truck Simulator 2, FIFA 18) i have temps 88-95°C sometimes up to 100°C in FIFA or ETS2. Also i got low FPS as for this specs. In C:S i got 25-45FPS, in House Flipper its 40-60FPS, GTAV 40, ETS2 its 20-60FPS, FIFA 18 give me only 40FPS. I think it should be above 50FPS up to 120FPS (i got 120HZ screen) with this specification (I7-7700HQ 2,8GHz, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 6GB).

Can anybody tell me what i have to do with my ROG to get more FPS, put temps down and make it quieter?

[skejcikk1]

Hi all,
I used my GL703VM a few months. I change Thermal Paste on CPU & GPU. A few weeks ago i changed also Thermal Pads and use Cooling Pad Coolermaster Notepal U3 Plus. I clean my ROG from dust once a month, but i still get problems with high temps.
When i use my notebook normally (firefox or Excell) i have 43-55°C. When i playing games (Cities: Skylines, House Flipper, GTAV, Euro Truck Simulator 2, FIFA 18) i have temps 88-95°C sometimes up to 100°C in FIFA or ETS2. Also i got low FPS as for this specs. In C:S i got 25-45FPS, in House Flipper its 40-60FPS, GTAV 40, ETS2 its 20-60FPS, FIFA 18 give me only 40FPS. I think it should be above 50FPS up to 120FPS (i got 120HZ screen) with this specification (I7-7700HQ 2,8GHz, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 6GB).

Can anybody tell me what i have to do with my ROG to get more FPS, put temps down and make it quieter?

[Passion64x]

skejcikk1 wrote:
Hi all,
I used my GL703VM a few months. I change Thermal Paste on CPU & GPU. A few weeks ago i changed also Thermal Pads and use Cooling Pad Coolermaster Notepal U3 Plus. I clean my ROG from dust once a month, but i still get problems with high temps.
When i use my notebook normally (firefox or Excell) i have 43-55°C. When i playing games (Cities: Skylines, House Flipper, GTAV, Euro Truck Simulator 2, FIFA 18) i have temps 88-95°C sometimes up to 100°C in FIFA or ETS2. Also i got low FPS as for this specs. In C:S i got 25-45FPS, in House Flipper its 40-60FPS, GTAV 40, ETS2 its 20-60FPS, FIFA 18 give me only 40FPS. I think it should be above 50FPS up to 120FPS (i got 120HZ screen) with this specification (I7-7700HQ 2,8GHz, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 6GB).

Can anybody tell me what i have to do with my ROG to get more FPS, put temps down and make it quieter?

I think 43-55 is totally fine in idlish state.
1. Disable turbo boost for cpu and allow it to downclock when not under load . You can also undervolt it if you really feel the need. You won't see any loss in performance.
GPU:
1) Never allow gpu to reach 85C - it will throttle and cut fps in half . Cpu will throttle at 90C i think - so always keep below .
2) Set gpu power mode to adaptive
3) Use custom voltage graph for gpu
4) Never play with uncapped fps , it will allow your gpu to downclock and cooldown when under light or no load. You can cap your framerate with msi afterburner in Rivatuner or in game console.
5) Set lower settings for things like ambient occlusion , anti aliasing , multisampling . They are very gpu intensive and can make your temps go throught the roof .
6) If you are playing single player games i would just cap them at 60fps + lower graphics settings and you laptop will stay cool and quiet .

[McPcholkin]

Hi! i here again, in previous post i write how i make undervolting to decrease temperature, all be OK before came hot summer, cooling solution cant do work.
First i try replace thermal paste to Arctic MX-4, for fun i also test cheapest thermal paste i have (КПТ-8, 0.7$ for 10g tube).
Cheap КПТ-8 - CPU 75С, GPU 78C

Arctic MX-4 - CPU 69С, GPU 74C


So use more expensive thermal paste is good idea.
Next i watch on thermal paste mark, i use small amount of thermal paste and i found curve on heat-sink


It real bad for normal cooling, also some thermal pads not touching GPU memory, i bend heat-sink and replace thermal pads.
So now i do my best in heat-sink (maybe try liquid metal in future).

First i do tests in all possible conditions with bottom case and without:

• Flat on table
  
• Cooling stand 5cm (just small boxes under back rubber pads)
  
• Cooling stand 5cm + external 120mm fan
  
• Cooling stand 4mm
  
• Cooling stand 4mm + external 120mm fan
  

Also i measure room temperature, it make measurements more accurate.
Results incredible, -10C without bottom case !!!!!!!!!

So my chose drilling
I make some draw to make it more pretty


First i make template to find where start drilling


Scratch template on bottom case

[McPcholkin]

Drill small holes


And make it bigger


Then i go to "1 dollar store" and buy Sieve for sifting flour.


It give me stainless steel mesh, i glue it to case using 2 component epoxy glue


In result i have this


And i make tests again all data from tests i put in this google doc, here difference in Celsius:


Also i buy cooling stand and mod it adding 2 fan under holes.



In result i have:
Pretty vent holes in bottom case, -10C on CPU and -11C on GPU.

[HolographicSun]

I am just gonna share my experience here, hopefully someone will find it useful.

My GL502VMK was good for 1 year, stock temps GPU was 70-80°C and CPU was 78-87°C, while undervolted my CPU was always between 70-82°C with no need to disable Turbo Boost or uv the GPU (which is still at 70-80°C at stock settings, kinda impressing). Anyway, after 1 year my undervolted CPU temp suddenly increased to 75-88°C with general gaming (mostly AA games and indies), while some bigger games (The Witcher 3, KD:Deliverance, XCOM 2, AC Origins) pushed it to 90-98°C, which is way too dangerous. I even reached 100°C on one core but the laptop didn't shutdown... weird. Now I am sending the laptop back to an Amazon Repair Center so they can "fix" it (under warranty). I assume they will clean it and repaste, but I am 99% sure that it won't be enough. Well hopefully I will either get my laptop fixed (for real) or a refund. In the latter case I will just wait for the rtx 2060 mobile or maybe will just get a desktop, these laptop brands all have trash design, overheating problems, terrible displays and are super expensive (also considering you have to work in order to fix the laptop problems).

It's sad 'cause I really enjoyed the GL502VMK design (Titanium Gold), the quality of the G-Sync Screen and the performance, but I was hoping to keep the laptop for at least 6 years and with these temps I am pretty sure the CPU or something else close to it would easily fail... and replacing the mobo costs nearly as the full laptop (no kidding).

Anyway I am done with Asus, no official statement about the overheating problems and no updated drivers. I am sure someone from Asus read this topic and saw all the unsatisfied customers here. Problem is they still didn't fix the overheating, even the new GL503 and GL504 gaming laptops (with the "brand new designed cooling system") are overheating. This shows their engineers really don't know how to make laptops with normal cooling. The only thing I can do now is spread the word and tell people to not buy Asus products, especially laptops.

[Stpa67]

I bought my GL702VS 6-7 months ago after trying a few other gaming notebooks that sounded like vacuum cleaners even when surfing (msi, hp ...). All in all my gl702vs is silent when surfing and watching movies but some games really makes the fans going though it does not sound to bad compared to the ones i tried before.

The gl702vs can throttle a lot when it gets hot so i repasted the cpu and gpu and added 11W/mK thermal pads everywhere else. Benchmarks went up quite a lot up to around gtx1080 max-q levels. But some games like old Crysis and Witcher really makes the gl702vs heat up and throttle.

So i did like this:

- games NOT heating the gl702vs to much i run at close to maximum g-sync threshold around 117 fps capped by RTSS (see blurbusters g-sync guides)
- games heating the hell out of the gl702vs i restrict framerates a lot more, Crysis i run at 60 fps max and it works well, other games at other thresholds

No matter what you do thin slimmed gaming laptops will get hot, really hot and throttle but capping the fps with RTSS (rivatuner statistics server) did wonders for me. Crysis was easy to cap since it runs at 60 fps whenever g-sync and v-sync is on (i am not sure g-sync even works without v-sync) and for me 60 fps is ok. Black Mesa and most older games i run at 117 fps .

So those of you having problems with heating and throttling try RTSS and cap the fps for the game until it no longer throttles to bad, 117 fps g-sync is amazing but 60 fps g-sync is not to bad either at least not when compared to only v-sync/adaptive v-sync/fast v-sync or no v-sync and horrible tearing.

[Stpa67]

Stpa67 wrote:
I bought my GL702VS 6-7 months ago after trying a few other gaming notebooks that sounded like vacuum cleaners even when surfing (msi, hp ...). All in all my gl702vs is silent when surfing and watching movies but some games really makes the fans going though it does not sound to bad compared to the ones i tried before.

The gl702vs can throttle a lot when it gets hot so i repasted the cpu and gpu and added 11W/mK thermal pads everywhere else. Benchmarks went up quite a lot up to around gtx1080 max-q levels. But some games like old Crysis and Witcher really makes the gl702vs heat up and throttle.

So i did like this:

- games NOT heating the gl702vs to much i run at close to maximum g-sync threshold around 117 fps capped by RTSS (see blurbusters g-sync guides)
- games heating the hell out of the gl702vs i restrict framerates a lot more, Crysis i run at 60 fps max and it works well, other games at other thresholds

No matter what you do thin slimmed gaming laptops will get hot, really hot and throttle but capping the fps with RTSS (rivatuner statistics server) did wonders for me. Crysis was easy to cap since it runs at 60 fps whenever g-sync and v-sync is on (i am not sure g-sync even works without v-sync) and for me 60 fps is ok. Black Mesa and most older games i run at 117 fps .

So those of you having problems with heating and throttling try RTSS and cap the fps for the game until it no longer throttles to bad, 117 fps g-sync is amazing but 60 fps g-sync is not to bad either at least not when compared to only v-sync/adaptive v-sync/fast v-sync or no v-sync and horrible tearing.

On the other hand cutting out some airvents under the under the cooling fan intakes would probably help a lot, i will try gaming with the bottom off and if my gl702vs runs at least 5C cooler i think i will cut out some airvents myself also in the next months (probably voided the warranty anyway when i repasted).

[jacobtc]

Bought this laptop used, and have been seeing trottling while gaming (surpriiise). Anyway, I had the bottom off to see the temperature decrease, but also noticed that the small fan (Fan 3) never runs. Is there a way I can manually control the fan to check whether it is dead or not?

Installed Notebook Fan Control, and was able to adjust the fan manually, so atleast it works, however why won't it run automatically?

[KalEl]

HolographicSun wrote:
I am just gonna share my experience here, hopefully someone will find it useful.

My GL502VMK was good for 1 year, stock temps GPU was 70-80°C and CPU was 78-87°C, while undervolted my CPU was always between 70-82°C with no need to disable Turbo Boost or uv the GPU (which is still at 70-80°C at stock settings, kinda impressing). Anyway, after 1 year my undervolted CPU temp suddenly increased to 75-88°C with general gaming (mostly AA games and indies), while some bigger games (The Witcher 3, KD:Deliverance, XCOM 2, AC Origins) pushed it to 90-98°C, which is way too dangerous. I even reached 100°C on one core but the laptop didn't shutdown... weird. Now I am sending the laptop back to an Amazon Repair Center so they can "fix" it (under warranty). I assume they will clean it and repaste, but I am 99% sure that it won't be enough. Well hopefully I will either get my laptop fixed (for real) or a refund. In the latter case I will just wait for the rtx 2060 mobile or maybe will just get a desktop, these laptop brands all have trash design, overheating problems, terrible displays and are super expensive (also considering you have to work in order to fix the laptop problems).

It's sad 'cause I really enjoyed the GL502VMK design (Titanium Gold), the quality of the G-Sync Screen and the performance, but I was hoping to keep the laptop for at least 6 years and with these temps I am pretty sure the CPU or something else close to it would easily fail... and replacing the mobo costs nearly as the full laptop (no kidding).

Anyway I am done with Asus, no official statement about the overheating problems and no updated drivers. I am sure someone from Asus read this topic and saw all the unsatisfied customers here. Problem is they still didn't fix the overheating, even the new GL503 and GL504 gaming laptops (with the "brand new designed cooling system") are overheating. This shows their engineers really don't know how to make laptops with normal cooling. The only thing I can do now is spread the word and tell people to not buy Asus products, especially laptops.

Well it's just not the best cooling design. But to be fair many gaming laptops have these issues and they need to address them by undervolting, running fans at high rpm, etc. It's really the 7700 that runs hot in this thing. The 1070 in this laptop is awesome and would run low / mid 60s for me even without mods. It's the cpu that's the issue and that seems to run hot in mine initially.