[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.

[slayvus]

Has anyone actually tried adding more thermal mass to help dump heat out faster? I'm not sure of the clearance tolerances in the chassis near the heatpipes, but several companies make copper and aluminum heatsinks ranging from .3" square x .2" tall to .55" square and .275" tall. I plan on doing conductonaut and some fujipoly ultra extreme pads on mine when I receive it, the GL702VS, along will all the undervolting for CPU and GPU.

[slayvus]

So I've added new thermal pads to the mosfets and and VRAM chips. I couldn't get the liquid metal to work since I had to use some pretty thick 1.5mm pads for the VRAM. So when the GPU started heating up the laptop would just shut down after about 5 or 6 seconds. I installed kryonaut instead and I'm idling at 45c or so and I'm maxing out at 76c on both CPU and GPU. I disabled turbo boost on my CPU so I'm running at 2.8GHz and a .890v on the CPU, which now pulls like 28w according to afterburner. I think I'm going to do like another person in this thread and buy a new bottom panel case and do some modifications to it.

So basic measurements I found that you can fit 9.5mm tall heatsinks on the VRAM block around the GPU. These are what I used https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P726Y60/ . Looks like you could also put on some 14mm^2x6mm heatsinks along the heat pipes along the CPU and GPU. The chokes and mosfets near the back get really hot. Could also potentially fit 4-5 14^2x6mm heatsink on top on that black tape. As it is though, there just isn't enough surface area for the heat to dissipate.

I plan on removing the smaller heatsinks and putting some bigger ones on there because they can be slightly taller. Currently using 8x8x5mm heatsinks across the pipe.

[djbigbear]

slayvus wrote:
So I've added new thermal pads to the mosfets and and VRAM chips. I couldn't get the liquid metal to work since I had to use some pretty thick 1.5mm pads for the VRAM. So when the GPU started heating up the laptop would just shut down after about 5 or 6 seconds. I installed kryonaut instead and I'm idling at 45c or so and I'm maxing out at 76c on both CPU and GPU. I disabled turbo boost on my CPU so I'm running at 2.8GHz and a .890v on the CPU, which now pulls like 28w according to afterburner. I think I'm going to do like another person in this thread and buy a new bottom panel case and do some modifications to it.

So basic measurements I found that you can fit 9.5mm tall heatsinks on the VRAM block around the GPU. These are what I used https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P726Y60/ . Looks like you could also put on some 14mm^2x6mm heatsinks along the heat pipes along the CPU and GPU. The chokes and mosfets near the back get really hot. Could also potentially fit 4-5 14^2x6mm heatsink on top on that black tape. As it is though, there just isn't enough surface area for the heat to dissipate.

I plan on removing the smaller heatsinks and putting some bigger ones on there because they can be slightly taller. Currently using 8x8x5mm heatsinks across the pipe.

hmmm, according to my experience, covering heatpipes with another heatsink+thermal pad/tape will only make it worse. in this particular case those thermal pads/tape insulate heat rather than transferring it to the heatsinks.

[slayvus]

djbigbear wrote:
hmmm, according to my experience, covering heatpipes with another heatsink+thermal pad/tape will only make it worse. in this particular case those thermal pads/tape insulate heat rather than transferring it to the heatsinks.

The heat sinks I put on there get as hot as the pipes. They just need more air flow over them to actually be of any use. Which is why I wanted to modify a new bottom case panel. Cut some slits right over the heat pipes and try and force more air to intake through that area.

Edit: I know for a fact that XoticPC uses similar heatsinks on heat pipes in laptops similarly like I am. It's one of their "premium" add-ons. I had purchased an MSI Dragon Eyes GE40-2OC from them and selected this option. They put several small heat sinks on the pipes plus a few other on other components on the motherboard.

[Pastaga51]

hey guys,

undervolting ur cpu and boost ur fan so you do not have a problem throttle.

tuto for boost fan:

Download RW read & whrite utility (I use the portable version) http://rweverything.com/





If you want to stop turbo fans, you have to stop your laptop.
I use rw for 3 years on my g551 and now on my gl702.

Sorry for my english.

[PIXL8]

onjax wrote:
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.

I was stress testing my GL502VM on stock settings and I noticed that during the test my CPU utilisation is usually sitting at 5% with recent max at 65 and average 10. I ran the test for 30 min. I did this with -0.100V and it is still at 5%. I'm new to undervolting is there something I'm doing wrong?

[PIXL8]

onjax wrote:

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.

I was doing this and added your profile to the locaation then started afterburner but the profile buttons are not selectable, am I doing something wrong. MSI Afterburner was the latest version.

[bagges]

Today I drilled some holes in the bottom case on my GL702VMK 1060 6GB, i7-7700HQ. GPU Temp while playing PUBG 79-80°.

I did -110mV on CPU and disabled turbo. GPU is running @1840mhz and 893mV.

Without the holes but undervolting, PUBG ended at >90°.

With GPU Tweak II it is also possible to lower the temp limit and cap FPS. I limited framerate to 90 FPS and set GPU target temp to 70°. Runs good so far.

Here some pictures of the mod.

https://blogges.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_20180621_144739.jpg

https://blogges.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_20180621_144748.jpg

https://blogges.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_20180621_144802.jpg

[jweatherly74]

bagges wrote:
Today I drilled some holes in the bottom case on my GL702VMK 1060 6GB, i7-7700HQ. GPU Temp while playing PUBG 79-80°.

I did -110mV on CPU and disabled turbo. GPU is running @1840mhz and 893mV.

Without the holes but undervolting, PUBG ended at >90°.

With GPU Tweak II it is also possible to lower the temp limit and cap FPS. I limited framerate to 90 FPS and set GPU target temp to 70°. Runs good so far.

Here some pictures of the mod.

https://blogges.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_20180621_144739.jpg

https://blogges.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_20180621_144748.jpg

https://blogges.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_20180621_144802.jpg

Nice work on the mod. What did you use to cut out the hole and secondly would you mind sharing the link to the speaker grill you used? I'm assuming you used a hole saw or dremmel tool. I've been looking at coming up with a solution with modders mesh https://mnpctech.com/case-mods-gaming-pc-liquid-modding-custom-computer-mnpctech-overclock-cooling-f.... I'm a bit skittish cutting a hole in the bottom though.

[bagges]

jweatherly74 wrote:
Nice work on the mod. What did you use to cut out the hole and secondly would you mind sharing the link to the speaker grill you used? I'm assuming you used a hole saw or dremmel tool. I've been looking at coming up with a solution with modders mesh https://mnpctech.com/case-mods-gaming-pc-liquid-modding-custom-computer-mnpctech-overclock-cooling-f.... I'm a bit skittish cutting a hole in the bottom though.

I used those speaker grills: https://www.ebay.de/itm/2X-2-Zoll-Schwarz-Audio-Lautsprecher-Cover-Dekorative-Metall-Mesh-Grille-DL/...

I drilled the holes with a normal hole saw (this one: https://amzn.to/2MYs6w9)

Worked easier than I thought 😄