G53 and Starcraft 2

Good afternoon everyone,

I finally got a working G53sw-a1 from Newegg and everything is working great. I play mostly WoW (laugh all you want) and got great fps on nearly max details at 1080 res.

Unfortunately, I've started playing more and more Starcraft 2 and the game handles great on high settings at 1080 but the GPU heats up MUCH more. While hours of WoW would peaks at around 70 C, about 30 minutes of SC2 peaks in the upper 70's to the highest I've seen of 84. From what I've read this edges on being unsafe.

I've read about this problem with SC2 and frame rate limiting, so I've tried the variables.txt solution to max the fps to 30 but it still doesn't help the temperature issue.

Should I be worried or is there something I'm missing?

 

When you changed the variables.txt I'm assuming these are the values you changed to frameratecapglue=30 & frameratecap=60. 84c isn't something to be worried about, it's 90c+ when you should start getting concerned. But, since you only played for 30 minutes before reaching that temp, a few things you could try.

1. what are your system specs
2. what are your normal load temps in other demanding games, and what are your idle temps?
3. get latest drivers
4. compressed air to your laptop
5. repaste of gpu

 

have you a laptop cooler already? I've ordered the same g53sw-xa1 and a cooler with it. Sorry if getting a cooler wasn't part of the solutions you were looking for, but i'm sure getting a cooler helps more than adjusting system settings.

 

Well, I just have the standard G53sw-a1.

Core i7 2630qm
8 gb memory
gtx 460m

It usually idles around 46-50 C, and idles at around 70 in WoW.

Agh, sadly this laptop is about a month old lol. I'll try the compressed air.

What would you suggest for a cooling pad?

 

well I had the exact same concern for the laptop and I made a post quite a while ago, and I hope it helps;;
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/621813-cooler-g53sw.html

basically, to sum things up on that post, I was deciding between thermaltake massive 23' cooler vs zalman nc1000, and the majority recommended the zalman. I decided to get zalman nc3000 for myself.

hope this help!

 

A cooler won't offer you much of a drop in your temps. You would be better off opening up your laptop to repaste and maybe even change your thermal pads. TBH if you elevated your laptop you'd get the same effect of having a cooler.

 

Hey OP, I have the same temps as you. I posted similar stuff regarding that and steelblueskies told me that I should check my vents to see if

there is a gray foam blocking portions of the vent as it may increase high pressure areas of hotness around the gpu

In my case, yeah a good bit the vent was being blocked off by the foam. There are tutorials on how to open the G53 (youtube G73 as its the similar body) and it will tell you how to disassemble it.

I personally havent done it yet, Im worried ill break something with my hands haha

 

I might try this after using some compressed air. What I had read was pretty much stating the same thing. The G53 uses mostly the two rears vents, so the coolers (working from the bottom) wouldn't help noticeably. I'll try putting something under the back to tilt it or just raise the entire laptop. Thanks!

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd risk it either haha. I even have an old HDD laying around that would be perfect in that second bay but I'm too afraid to start dissembling the laptop to set it up. (Judging from the guide posted in these forums, it's pretty complicated)

 

Did you verfiy if the vents are being blocked by something (most likely the foam?) To check just shine a light in the vent.

I think I'm just going to ask Asus to just jimmy the foam around a bit and return back to me on a week where I dont have work.

And yeah I watched the tutorial for it, and jeez..whatever happened to like

1) unscrew 4-5 screws
2) remove panel
3) ?????
4) profit in the form of clearing vents!

 

Ugh...

1. That fps "cap" you mentioned in the first post, is only to help with the frames in menus, not in-game.
2. I play many huge battles and custom games and often go into the low 80's, being as that the G53 is a bit smaller and tends to run hotter then the G73, Id say your fine and have no need to worry.

Cleaning out the vents periodically is of course recommended, but I wouldnt become concerned with your temps until SCII starts pushing your card into the 90's (like so happened to mine thanks to ASUS's awesome paste job)