High temperatures on brand new GL502VMK

[Reinserev]

Hello!

I have a brand-new GL502VMK with an i7 7700HQ CPU , GTX 1060 GPU and 12 GB of RAM. After 30 minutes of playing the Witcher 3 at Full HD on High/Ultra settings (some settings on High, others on Ultra, as reccomended by the G-Force Experience app) my CPU temperatures are around 88-92 degrees Celsius, according to Core Temp (while the GPU is at around 65, according to GPU-Z!). The CPU temperature quickly drops to 65 degress or less a few minutes after exiting the game. My idle temperatures are in the low 40's.
Is this normal? Is there anything wrong with my laptop?
I knew that The Witcher 3 is a very GPU and CPU intensive game (as stated by the game's creators), but those CPU temperatures have got me worried a little. I mention that I am running 64-bit Windows 10 with all updates installed, I also have all the latest drivers from ASUS's website and I have updated the GPU drivers to the latest version compatible with ROG laptops (the latest version refuses to install; this is a known bug and has been reported by many ROG GL users).

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Sincerely,
Carl

[Saragrl]

I own a 702VM, no issues throttling after fixes.

I undervolted to -.135 (-.150 was unstable). I don't use the afterburner profiles as I opened my unit and added tape to increase the airflow between the fans and heatsink. I don't regret this purchase even though mine had a faulty fan I needed to replace two months into ownership. If you don't feel okay tinkering with voltages and maybe opening your laptop, then I would consider a different laptop. Otherwise I think you will find a great laptop hiding under these tweaks.

For reference I own a 4670K@4ghz and a GTX 970 OC@ 1214mhz base and it averages 2-5 fps more in games. So if you can keep the temps down this is a really fast laptop for it's size / price.

[Reinserev]

Saragrl wrote:
I own a 702VM, no issues throttling after fixes.

I undervolted to -.135 (-.150 was unstable). I don't use the afterburner profiles as I opened my unit and added tape to increase the airflow between the fans and heatsink. I don't regret this purchase even though mine had a faulty fan I needed to replace two months into ownership. If you don't feel okay tinkering with voltages and maybe opening your laptop, then I would consider a different laptop. Otherwise I think you will find a great laptop hiding under these tweaks.

For reference I own a 4670K@4ghz and a GTX 970 OC@ 1214mhz base and it averages 2-5 fps more in games. So if you can keep the temps down this is a really fast laptop for it's size / price.

Thank you for your suggestions! Unfortunately opening my laptop is out of the question since the shop I've bought it from has very strict warranty policies that forbid this. Heck, they even made me take the laptop back to them and pay them 30 EUR just for installing a SSD that I got as an upgrade.

Tinkering with voltages, as long as I don't overclock, is alright with me. I'll try that as soon as I can.

I also have a desktop with a 4930K and a GTX 980. Didn't get the chance to test the same game on both so far though.

[Reinserev]

StarJack wrote:
Yea, I've undervolted the CPU -0.150 and I'm using Onjax's profile #1 in MSI afterburner 4.3 for the GPU. I am also using a custom power profile which prohibits CPU from hitting 100%/turbo. I honestly do not notice a performance hit doing this at all. Others would disagree I'm sure but for what I do with my machine, everything runs at a more than acceptable pace. I also have a cooler master notepal x-slim cooling pad and the Opolar LC06. It's alot of crap to keep my system somewhat healthy and maybe a little more futureproof but I spent too much cash on it and honestly couldn't find a model with the same specs and better cooling at the price.

Sent from my SM-G925W8 using Tapatalk

Thank you for the details! I'll try those settings as soon as I get the chance. "honestly couldn't find a model with the same specs and better cooling at the price". Well that's exactly what happened to me. I found and bought the GL502VM for roughly 1200 EUR. For reference, a GL702VM is around 1700+ EUR where I live. I have researched all GTX1060/GTX1070 laptops available in my country that cost less than 1300 EUR (my maximum budget) and concluded that the 502VM was the best decision.

[Bran187]

I have the exact same laptop. The GL502VMK with the 1060 3gb, 7700hq, and 12gb of ram. I grabbed it as kind of an impulse buy when it went on a crazy good sale at my local best buy. My unit runs hot (at stock my CPU was constantly 88+ peaking into the 90's and my GPU was sitting at 87 peaking up as high as 88-89).

From the reviews I have seen online, this is pretty well inline with most of these units and it's not particularly outside of the norm for laptops in the same (relatively) thin and light category. Heck even some beastly gaming laptops run similar temps (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsQbjSIrSmA lol). And while high, technically those temperatures are 'within spec'. But 'within spec' and 'good' are not always synonymous.

I wanted my temps to be lower. After a lot of research, trial, and error I settled on undervolting my 7700h and switching to the custom 99% power plan discussed in the article. I go into details about my experience here: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?89061-GL702VM-amp-similar-Solution-to-Performance-issues-O.... I dropped my temps by a good 10+ degrees doing this.

I'm comfortable where my temps sit doing that, and if you want to squeeze a few more degrees out of it you can crank up the fan speed in the ROG Gaming app, and try to find a laptop cooler that will work with this laptop.

[M-T-Pockets]

Does undervolting void the warranty?

[Bran187]

M-T-Pockets wrote:
Does undervolting void the warranty?

I highly doubt it. I don't think it is really possible to damage a CPU by undervolting it so I don't see why it would be a problem.

You would have to ask one of the Asus guys, or take a deep dive into the into the warranty documentation to be sure.

EDIT: Also, undervolting (in my experience) only really helps with temps if you do it in conjunction with the 99% power plan (I theorized why in that post I linked too). Your results may vary, but if I were you I would start with the 99% plan. See how the thermals and performance look, and then from there consider undervolting/the other options if the temps are still higher than you are comfortable with.

[Reinserev]

Bran187 wrote:
I have the exact same laptop. The GL502VMK with the 1060 3gb, 7700hq, and 12gb of ram. I grabbed it as kind of an impulse buy when it went on a crazy good sale at my local best buy. My unit runs hot (at stock my CPU was constantly 88+ peaking into the 90's and my GPU was sitting at 87 peaking up as high as 88-89).

From the reviews I have seen online, this is pretty well inline with most of these units and it's not particularly outside of the norm for laptops in the same (relatively) thin and light category. Heck even some beastly gaming laptops run similar temps (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsQbjSIrSmA lol). And while high, technically those temperatures are 'within spec'. But 'within spec' and 'good' are not always synonymous.

I wanted my temps to be lower. After a lot of research, trial, and error I settled on undervolting my 7700h and switching to the custom 99% power plan discussed in the article. I go into details about my experience here: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?89061-GL702VM-amp-similar-Solution-to-Performance-issues-O.... I dropped my temps by a good 10+ degrees doing this.

I'm comfortable where my temps sit doing that, and if you want to squeeze a few more degrees out of it you can crank up the fan speed in the ROG Gaming app, and try to find a laptop cooler that will work with this laptop.

I understand. So undervolting the CPU is definitely the way to go. Thank you for your advice and expertise! I guess I should consider myself lucky since my unit's GPU temperature after 30mins of FurMark was only 75 (peak 76).

Fortunately I also have a laptop cooling pad around. I'll try that, too.

One question, though: did you also undervolt the GPU?

[Bran187]

Reinserev wrote:
I understand. So undervolting the CPU is definitely the way to go. Thank you for your advice and expertise! I guess I should consider myself lucky since my unit's GPU temperature after 30mins of FurMark was only 75 (peak 76).

Fortunately I also have a laptop cooling pad around. I'll try that, too.

One question, though: did you also undervolt the GPU?

Yes but the undervolt on the CPU only really helped my thermals if I did the 99% power plan as well. Otherwise it just boosted higher/longer within the same thermal envelope. The power plan on its own helps quite a bit as well, and combing the two had the best results (for me personally). If you want more details go read through that thread, it has a lot of helpful insight.

As for the GPU, I did try it, but I found that it didn't really impact my temps that much. But others have had better success. My current theory is that this is one of those things where 'the silicon lottery' plays a big role on how effective it is. My GPU at stock didn't really boost that high, and as result my voltage was really damn close to what the undervolt profile provided by the OP was set to. So the impact on my machine was minimal. If yours boost higher, or at stock runs at higher voltages than mine (as these will vary from chip to chip even of the same model) you may have better results.

My other theory is that the 6gb and 3gb models have have different clocks on both the base and boost, as well as possibly run at different voltages. I haven't looked into it enough, or asked enough questions in that forum about what model of GPU they had to really do anything but speculate however.

Anyway, my ultimate advice is this. Go skim through that thread. See what worked for different people and try it out. Don't try stuff you aren't comfortable doing, but if it sounds safe/reasonable to you than maybe give it a try. Try a few different combinations of things and find the 'balance' that works best for you in regards to thermals and performance.

[Reinserev]

Bran187 wrote:
Yes but the undervolt on the CPU only really helped my thermals if I did the 99% power plan as well. Otherwise it just boosted higher/longer within the same thermal envelope. The power plan on its own helps quite a bit as well, and combing the two had the best results (for me personally). If you want more details go read through that thread, it has a lot of helpful insight.

As for the GPU, I did try it, but I found that it didn't really impact my temps that much. But others have had better success. My current theory is that this is one of those things where 'the silicon lottery' plays a big role on how effective it is. My GPU at stock didn't really boost that high, and as result my voltage was really damn close to what the undervolt profile provided by the OP was set to. So the impact on my machine was minimal. If yours boost higher, or at stock runs at higher voltages than mine (as these will vary from chip to chip even of the same model) you may have better results.

My other theory is that the 6gb and 3gb models have have different clocks on both the base and boost, as well as possibly run at different voltages. I haven't looked into it enough, or asked enough questions in that forum about what model of GPU they had to really do anything but speculate however.

Anyway, my ultimate advice is this. Go skim through that thread. See what worked for different people and try it out. Don't try stuff you aren't comfortable doing, but if it sounds safe/reasonable to you than maybe give it a try. Try a few different combinations of things and find the 'balance' that works best for you in regards to thermals and performance.

Thanks a lot! That is exactly what I am going to do! I think I'll start out by undervolting the CPU and enabling the 99% power plan, as per your suggestion. And I'll also use the cooling pad. I'll see what results I get and if I'm not satisfied (it would be nice to have CPU temperatures lower than 85 degrees and ideal to have less than 80) I'll dig deeper.

On a side note, any idea over why I may be getting some stuttering in older games? I installed GTA Vice City and used Frame Limit Adjuster to raise the 30FPS cap to 60FPS, but occasionally it drops to 40FPS for a few seconds. What is really strange is that the very same copy of the game with the very same settings and the very same Frame Limit Adjuster gave me no framedrops on my desktop with an i7 4930K and a GTX 980, so I don't think that the game and/or the Frame Limit Adjuster would be to blame.

[Bran187]

Reinserev wrote:
Thanks a lot! That is exactly what I am going to do! I think I'll start out by undervolting the CPU and enabling the 99% power plan, as per your suggestion. And I'll also use the cooling pad. I'll see what results I get and if I'm not satisfied (it would be nice to have CPU temperatures lower than 85 degrees and ideal to have less than 80) I'll dig deeper.

On a side note, any idea over why I may be getting some stuttering in older games? I installed GTA Vice City and used Frame Limit Adjuster to raise the 30FPS cap to 60FPS, but occasionally it drops to 40FPS for a few seconds. What is really strange is that the very same copy of the game with the very same settings and the very same Frame Limit Adjuster gave me no framedrops on my desktop with an i7 4930K and a GTX 980, so I don't think that the game and/or the Frame Limit Adjuster would be to blame.

No idea. I've never used and am not familiar with Frame Limit Adjuster.