A clarification regarding the 10.6 Drivers and Temps

I have recently updated to the 10.6 Cats. (Uninstalled the stock 9.12 > Safe Mode Driver Sweeper > Installed 10.6).

Now both my Device Manager and CCC Information tab shows "5800 Series" rather than 5870 (as in the case of 9.12). Does this mean the drivers haven't been installed properly, and will it have any adverse impacts on my GPU?

Gaming performance seems to be a little better on this than the stock.

However, Hwinfo shows the GPU correctly. Also I wanted to run the following temps by our resident experts:

Thermal Diode (Idle): 67C
(GTA IV after 30 mins): 100C
(Mass Effect 2 after 1 hour) EDIT: 90C

Ambient Room Temps: 26 - 27 C.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to put up with me and probably hundred others and their questions!

 

Well, I'd say those temps are high. If you have enought experience and courage, you can repaste GPU. That should help lowering your temps 10-15C. My G73 idle 56C(MemIO) and runs Mass Effect 2 for 1 hour with max 82C.(on MemIO) My ambient 26C

 

your temps are the same with mine, and im on 10.6 too

regarding the "5800 Series", i think thats normal

 

5800 Series is normal. It was changed in newer drivers, dont ask why.
Your temperatures are toasty though...

 

should come in handy this winter, if this machine survives that long. Who would've thought, that for 1.5k you could actually get a gaming toaster oven!

 

You ought to know that it's not the first notebook with a GPU that runs this hot. I just retired a ~3 year old 7800 Go GTX that pushed 100C.

The cooling could be better perhaps, but the GPU is just a hot little beast. They are pushing the limits with high end GPUs.

Oh and regarding new paste, I did that and maybe got a 3 C improvement so I wouldn't risk it frankly. If you were getting shutdowns it might indicate a cooling problem but otherwise it looks like you are probably seeing the norm.

 

Every other laptop with the mobility 5870 is running cooler so stop saying "its just so hot and its supposed to be like that". 100C is a real bad temperature to be gaming at. Im sorry if youve had a poorly pasted or badly cooled laptop or a hot running gpu before, but this is not normal. Ive never had any laptop reach or break 90C much less 100C and ive always owned the best gpu available at the time.

 

If your temps only improved by 3C, then either the original tech did a good job, and there's little room for improvement, or you can't paste that well, and should become an Asus Assembly Technician!

 

i am hitting 105 in starcraft each multiplayer game. it will be 105 and the fans nice and quiet... ???

do i void any warranty if i go in to repaste??

 

I'm a little ticked as well about the fans not kicking on a little bit higher sooner. This laptop is super quiet and I appreciate that, but allowing the machine to break 90* without going 100% fan is just ludicrous. People are saying the fan profile changed in BIOS 211, I sure hope so. I'll give up whisper quiet for -10* every day of the week.

 

It did not change enough, I am running 211 and it kicks on sooner but still heats up to the same temps

 

I bought mine in April, and within this timespan, the Idle temps have changed from 60C to 69C, in constant room temps. The rate at which the thermal paste (or the lack of there of ) is degrading is worrying indeed. Maybe some of us can log on to Tiger Direct, NewEgg and Bestbuy and warn potential buyers about this very real and difficult issue, which most of them will face further down the road.

 

The fan does go gradually up also in the 209 BIOS. If your hearing is OK you can hear this. You can't measure this because the measuring tools can't properly read the fan speed.

 

My idle temps had crept up toward 67C over time. I was and still am running ATI 10.7 with stock vBIOS. I repasted tonight and I'm now idling at 58C in a 27C room.

I also had a thought on the fan speed not helping GPU temp. You see, our G73 rigs have such powerful fans that they are creating a vacuum on BIOS 211 and you can't transfer heat in a vacuum due to low particle collision.

OK. Fine. I thought it was funny.

 

i idle at 78.... and get gsod on stock speeds

should i rma for faulty gpu or repaste?

i am up to the task of repaste

 

Jody, that was funny That would probably explain where all the common sense of Asus techs disappeared to!
78 is too high, even by my standards (Hell Cry would probably freak) if he had those temps!

 

yeah but 78 + GSOD = RMA
or paste it myself?

 

Since I have not done the procedure myself, I cannot say how steep (or rather flat) the learning curve is for repasting. However, I would advise you on taking the unit to a trusted service centre and have them apply the paste. Try to get them to agree to carry the risk, if something goes wrong, during the process. In a few cases, users who have followed the youtube video to the word, still had issues in reassembling the unit. The GPU vbios seems flimsy, and may be damaged by static if you're not careful. Reconnecting the keyboard and touch pad can also be a 'touchy' issue. So if possible, get the experts to do it, since 78 is definitely too high, and if left unchecked, it may further degrade your gpu.

If the thermal paste does not help, then RMA would be your only option, imho.

Goodluck!

 

i also believe in the "let the experts do it" way of doing things

with that, i wonder if anyone knows how to find out where a nearby Asus authorized service/repair that can do a repaste for a minor charge can be located.

i hope theres one near orlando because google isnt helping me on this.

 

If your not comfortable opening up a laptop then this is the last machine you want to touch....

Its not extremely hard but most people that will say that have been working on machines over the years and feel fairly confident in what there doing to some degree....

If you never opened up a desktop more less a laptop then stay away and pay someone else to do it ... You can go from a working hot laptop to a non working laptop in no time flat ....

G theres an awful lot of screws here i wonder where all these go ? ...

 

I've never opened up a laptop before but that youtube instructional seems easy enough.

Or not :/