[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.

[pwnnn]

What kind of fps were u getting?

GMart1285 wrote:
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
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 this is my first gaming laptop but a little bit depressing because I am expecting a $1300 laptop would work out of the box, hassle free when playing games. I thought I will just open this laptop after atleast 2 to 3 years 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!

[GMart1285]

pwnnn wrote:
What kind of fps were u getting?

G-SYNC is still enabled and I'm using the stock 75hz refresh rate.

Battlefield 1 Max settings
70-75 fps and occasionally it dips to 58 fps but no stutter or lags

Resident Evil 7 Max Settings
70+ fps most of the time but gets down to 67-68 fps depends on the area in the house

[GMart1285]

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.

Please try playing battlefield 1 or GTA V on ultra for 30 minutes and kindly post the results here. Thanks man.

[Gatoxico]

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 just did it, just missing some little cosmetic details.
They were not perfectly centered because previously I had drilled holes and they did not stay very well centered.

[Gatoxico]

pwnnn wrote:
...
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 just did it, just missing some little cosmetic details.
They were not perfectly centered because previously I had drilled holes and they did not stay very well centered.
greetings from Chile.

[doggz1999]

Anyone else notice that after bios 306 the voltage for the GPU is now set to 1000 instead of 1050mv by default?

[GMart1285]

Gatoxico wrote:
I just did it, just missing some little cosmetic details.
They were not perfectly centered because previously I had drilled holes and they did not stay very well centered.
greetings from Chile.

What are your temps after modding the bottom case? Did you remove all the dust filters on the original vents? So far I just did the undervolt, notebook control fan to 100% and foil tape on the gaps and my temps never reach 80c on most demanding games like Battlefield 1 ultra settings. I still have the stock bottom but maybe I will remove the anti dust filters first before drilling holes.

[Gatoxico]

GMart1285 wrote:
What are your temps after modding the bottom case? Did you remove all the dust filters on the original vents? So far I just did the undervolt, notebook control fan to 100% and foil tape on the gaps and my temps never reach 80c on most demanding games like Battlefield 1 ultra settings. I still have the stock bottom but maybe I will remove the anti dust filters first before drilling holes.

Hello, I had previously made several changes, below I leave the link. This time it was something 100% cosmetic and I did not see significant improvements with respect to what I had already done.
max 72-73 ° playing PUBG at medium-high

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?89061-GL702VM-amp-similar-Solution-to-Performance-issues-O...

[pwnnn]

WOW that looks almost factory!! where did you get it?

Gatoxico wrote:
I just did it, just missing some little cosmetic details.
They were not perfectly centered because previously I had drilled holes and they did not stay very well centered.
greetings from Chile.

[danmoore03]

Gatoxico wrote:
I just did it, just missing some little cosmetic details.
They were not perfectly centered because previously I had drilled holes and they did not stay very well centered.
greetings from Chile.

Can you send us a link where you got the speaker grilles. I want to do this, i've modded mine like your last picture, but this looks much cleaner! Nice work

Thanks!