ASUS ROG Strix Scar III - Extremely High Temperatures after Technician Messed Up Repaste!

Hi all,

I had purchased the Asus Scar III with the i7 and RTX 2060 GPU. When I first got it out of the box, the temperatures were excellent - gaming or CPU intensive work, it could run everything without getting itself cooked. But roughly a week after the purchase, I started seeing CPU temperature differentials - one core would sit at 77C while gaming, and the other sat at 85C. Six months later, possibly due to dust build up, the CPU temps grew even further, going as high as 95+ C while gaming.

At this point I got Asus to come and repaste the laptop. However, during gaming the temps didn't improve at all (obviously asked them to come for a repaste again but delayed the next technician visit due to the Coronavirus situation), although temps improved during CPU only workloads, and the temperature differentials were gone. Now all cores had equal temperatures, except the last 2 cores which differed by at most 5 degrees which is kinda acceptable.

But a week later, I again see those temperature differentials, just like a week after newly getting the laptop! Now they are like 13-15 degrees apart. I have no idea if it is a poor thermal paste job, or the thermal paste dried up, or warped heatsink - I really don't know yet. If I get it repasted with Kryonaut or Liquid Metal, will the situation improve? Meanwhile, here are the temps at different time frames of using the laptop.

Brand New:

CPU only workloads (Cinebench): Around 75-77C, ~70W power pull, running at full 4 GHz

CPU + GPU Workloads: CPU averaging 80-85C at 45 Watts, GPU at 75-77C. Also, the CPU can be pushed harder as there is headroom to around 50 Watts, and it still stayed at 87-88C.

No temperature differential between cores.


A week later:

CPU only workloads (Cinebench/Prime95): 85C at 70W power pull running at full 4 GHz. Around 7-8C differential.

CPU + GPU Workloads: CPU averaging 85-87C at 45 Watts, GPU at 75-77C

Temp differential of around 7-8C.



6 Months later:

CPU only: 93-95C at 70W power pull, still running at 4GHz on max fans. Core differentials of around 10-12 degrees.

CPU + GPU Workloads: CPU at 95+C, power varying between 40-45W on max fans. Around 10 degree differentials. GPU at 80-81C.



After repaste by Asus Technician:

CPU only: Comes down to 85-86C at 70 Watts, maintaining full 4GHz. Core differentials reduced to 5 degrees.

CPU + GPU: No improvement here, CPU at 93-95C, GPU at 80C.


A week after the repaste:

Idle temps: Noticed a 4-5 degree differential at idle itself. Both CPU and GPU are idling at 50+ C at turbo mode profile, quite unusual as I generally see less than 40C temps on the CPU at idle doing nothing.

CPU only workloads: Struggles to maintain even 50 Watts now, 93-94C with a temp differential of around 13-15 degrees. No longer at 4 GHz - runs at 3.4-3.5 GHz only and slowly throttles even more.

CPU + GPU workloads: CPU Constantly at 96-98C, averaging ~30W. GPU at ~81C.



Please advise me as to what should I do to improve the condition of my laptop. The main point I'm stressing is, why did the temps increase, and why do temperature differentials come around a week of using the laptop? When laptop was new, there was nothing; after a week I started seeing those temperature differentials. The story repeated itself after getting it repasted as well. Is the thermal paste of bad quality, or is there a problem with the heatsink? Will getting it repasted with Kryonaut help reduce both the temps as well as temperature differentials occuring after a week? Please help. Thanks.

@Papusan @Vasudev

 

Neiter liquid metal or Krynaut will help if the heatsink have bad contact with die/uneven or warped heatsink. I would try ICD or Phobya Nano Grease Extreme. This two thermal paste is the best choice with not the best heatsink.

Edit. If the temperatures is ok after repaste, but won't last long before it shoot up again... This is typical bad heatsink fits.

 

Are you sure it's only because the heatsink is warped? There are no temperature differentials immediately after the repaste, they show up exactly around a week of using the laptop.

 

See my edit. The paste pump out (due thermal cycling) and temps will be worse after short time. This normally due bad heatsink fits on die. Thicker thermal past as mentined will help on this. Kryonaut is too thin (low viscosity) and won't last. With properly working heatsink you shouldn't see this. All thermal paste will of course pump out but not this fast as you see now.

 

Ohh. At first I was under the impression that the thermal paste applied by the Asus technician is at fault, as it was of cheap quality from what it looked like. But it makes me feel strange when the laptop has the 4 screw heatsink design (unlike the tripod heatsink design on the Alienwares), it still is struggling. Might as well ask Asus to replace the entire heatsink and see if I can get a properly working heatsink. The Asus technicians don't know a thing at all, and say that paste and grease are two different things. We first tried paste, now we'll apply grease and problem will be gone and when I ask them the reason for these temp differentials, they simply don't even know what it is.

 

As usual. Thermal paste applied from the factory is intended to last (not for best thermal performance). Not sure if the technician who helped you out used the same paste. Yes, I would ask for a replacement heatsink. If there is still a problem... Try recommended pasta brands as I mentioned above. Good luck

 

Thanks alot mate. Hoping to get back here with improved results

 

I have an Asus G752VS over 3 years old and I game on it constantly. It has i7 6700 and GTX1070 and my temps are fantastic. I do have it sitting on a Coolermaster laptop cooler but temps never ever get anywhere near 90C. Also the Windows install is over 3 years old and even with a bunch of crap running in the background it still games awesome. This is the best laptop I have ever owned. Never been apart further than remove bottom access panel for SSD upgrade. The only bad thing is the keys on the keyboard are prone to breaking and coming loose. I have worn the letters off the WASD keys or had to replace them becasue they broke. So the stock thermal paste on this thing is holding up fine and I dont plan to touch anything.

 

That's good. In my case, Asus did replace the heatsink, but surprisingly it didn't do much to restore the thermals to their 'out of the box' state. Since most of the facilities were still sort of locked down in that period, there was no aftermarket thermal paste like IC Diamond in stock for me to try, and I was left to deal with Asus. Upon talking to a senior tech consultant working at Asus, they investigated the matter, and it was found out, that the reason behind the severe throttling on the CPU, even post the heatsink replacement was because, the technician did not use the thermal paste supplied by Asus. Instead he probably sold the thermal paste which Asus gave to the technician for use (which was designated for the Scar 3), and instead used a cheap Vivobook thermal paste, thinking he would get away with it for money sake.

Now Asus finally applied the so called 'right' thermal paste, and boom, CPU became as good as it was out of the box. However, the GPU continued to run hot and thermal throttled at 86 degrees which is unnatural for a 90W 2060 inside a thermal design which allows for a full 115W 2070. So Asus had to refund me the money and they did the needful in August, and I couldn't be happier with the decision to give it back to them, now that Ryzen 5000 CPUs and the Ampere GPUs are just around the corner. I did try buying the Zephyrus S15, though thermals were surprisingly decent for a thin and light, it had a loose trackpad so I sent it back (As if destiny wanted me to buy the Ampere laptops, lol). So even though it felt bad for the time it throttled heavily when the brand wasn't helping much, at the end consumers always win, especially when guys like @Papusan are here to guide us.