Clevo 7970M Overheating

Hello,

After about a year and a half of decent performance (minus driver issues) my 7970M is now reaching temps of up too 104C when gaming.
Typically my in game fps is decent for about a minute before it begins to tank. It seems that the GPU begins to throttle when it reaches high temperatures.

I have tried applying new thermal paste, installing new drivers, and turning the Core and Memory clocks down but to no avail.

Interestingly enough...this trend seems to happen regardless of the game being played and how intensive. For example Skyrim does the exact same thing on Medium settings as it does on Ultra. (Runs well for a bit then starts to lag)
Its the same for League of Legends.

Can anyone help? My laptop is past the warranty to sending it back to the manufacturer is not an option. I was confident that is was a thermal paste issue and when I went to redo the thermal paste the old stuff had dried up quite a bit. But since re-applying there has been no change.

Help me please!

 

Do you use a cooling pad? Did you clean the dust off the heatsink? Did you check to see if your fan died?

I know these seem a little generic but it doesn't hurt to narrow things down.

Also, what thermal paste did you use and what application method did you use?

 

I removed the gpu fan and removed some dust that I didn't see earlier. The temps remain high but the gpu is no longer throttling!

I used some cheap Nexttech Heatsink compound because The Source didn't have Arctic Silver or anything better. I've applied varied amounts of the paste and it doesn't seem to make to much of a difference.

However I learned from this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/676272-clevo-p150-p170-cooling-systems-neglected-clevo-solutions-here.html that the laptop will run cooler with the back panel removed. So I did that and my peak temps dropped from 104c max to about 95c max. I'm going to try some of the other techniques and see how my temps adjust. But for now I can atleast play games again!

If anyone has any solutions other than the ones listed in that thread let me know.

 

I had a similar issue with my laptop recently high temps, sometimes into the 100's whilst playing games, now my gpu doesn't go above 75 degrees in games even with an overclock. I resolved it by cleaning out both my gpu and cpu fans and heatsinks, I know you mentioned took some of the dust out but did you literally clean all of it? I had to get a cotton bud, spirits and hoover to clean mine out, I also use Gelid X treme in mine although I don't think the paste was actually making that much difference in mine, I honestly believe making the inside is dust free on theses is just as if not more important in these machines

 

Ok... how did you apply the thermal compound exactly?
Did you use a grain of rice or pea approach or perhaps spread a very light amount over the entire die?

I used the spread method. Would put a relatively small amount in the center and used my index finger tip to spread it across the die in a thin layer.
Temperatures were excellent for me on a long term basis like that, and I didn't experience any problems.

Aside from that, a lot of people do the grain of rice or pea and then use the heat sink to spread it across the die - but, this can be tricky to do in a laptop because the space is smaller compared to the desktop and ascertaining the right size of the blob can be problematic (what with the paste sticking out more than you should apply, etc.).

Also... perhaps it might be wise to also check the memory modules on your GPU. Usually, there are some thermal pads on those, so its possible they might need a replacement.

Re-pasting the CPU as well with the above mentioned method might also help things out, because keep in mind that internally speaking, all your components share the same smaller space, which can contribute to the temperature buildup.

And finally... have you looked into the possibility of undervolting your GPU?
Meaning that you keep its clocks on stock settings but lower its operational voltage (reducing the amount of power it draws when in maximum use).

P.S. Recheck the laptop internals for more dust in crucial locations (such as between the air vent and the fan, etc.).