GTA IV overheating CPU on Sony Vaio SA?!

Hey all, I recently purchased the Sony Vaio SA with dual core i7 ivy bridge, 8 gig of ram, 2 gb ram for nVidia gt 640 LE with intel 4000 switchable graphics. To my great disappointment, the laptop seems to overheat while gaming. At first I played Black Ops on high settings and it seems to run fine throughout the whole campaign with no overheating issues (Fans seems to get a bit loud but that was it). More recently, I installed GTA IV and it overheats after about 10~20 minute into the game. The cpu temp peaks up to 86 degrees Celsius and the game slows down resulting the framerates to drop to single digits, rendering the game unplayable. I tired turning down the specs to no avail. The game just seems to hog the cpu no matter what setting I set at, even at the lowest (Default on high 1600x900 res, texture high..ect).

I try to monitor my graphic card temp but I don't know how, I don't even think it's supported, so I can't say for sure that it's solely the CPU's fault.

Could it be my laptop is simply over spec'd? After all, it's a 13 inch laptop, 0.96 inch think, and weighs about 3.7lb (1.7kg).
Also, there seems to be a design flaw on the placement for the heatsink. It's located at the rear at the laptop where the hinge of the laptop screen seems to block where the hot air comes out.

OH, i also have a cooling pad underneath the laptop, but the underside of the laptop doesn't seem to overheat so I don't know if it even helps or not.

Any ideas, comments, or similar experiences? This is quite a shame that such a seemingly perfect laptop can't even run a game. Why do I even spend so much money then?

 

generally speaking, if it isnt a laptop made for gaming you risk overheating issues, especially from smaller laptops. The only laptops that i would use around that size for gaming would be the sagers and AW as they have notably better cooling than most other manufacturers.

 

Your GPU is the one throttling, not the CPU as it is well within normal operating temperature. If you are comfortable with opening up the laptop, I would try to apply aftermarket thermal paste to the GPU and CPU. If you can shave off 3-5 degrees off the GPU load temps, it should stop or lessen the throttling.

 

86 degrees is not that hot for a CPU. 95+ would be alarming.

 

Problem is, there's no guide on how to take it apart, yet. And it probably voids warranty to do so.

Try running Throttlestop with BD PROCHOT disabled and whitelist GTA IV on the nvidia control panel

 

GTA IV is known to not be nice to the CPU, so I don't think there is much you'll be able to do about it. If you plan on gaming on a desk you might want to consider getting a notebook cooler to try and help keep temperatures down. Anything below 95°C is fine for a CPU but I hate seeing temperatures above 80°C.

 

The VAIO SA does not have any vents that benefits from a notebook cooler

 

The CPU could be throttling if Sony built any safeguards into their systems.

 

the 2012 SONY VAIO S series are very cool running, both on the CPU and the GPU side, even with serious (read 90%) overclocks of the GPU and when playing Battlefield 3. there's something weird happening here.

i would suggest you disable Intel TurboBoost, especially given that you have the i7 version of the laptop, which runs hotter than the i5 version. also, in VAIO Control Center > Power Management > Power Options, set Thermal Control Strategy to "Priority to ventilation".

 

Thanks guys for all the inputs! I run GPU-z and the GPU temp peaks at about 75 degrees at full load. I suspect over throttling as well cuhs once I alt-tab out of GTA IV for about 3 minutes, and go back in game, the game run smooths again for about 5 minutes before lagging like hell. I am at the airport right now, so I'll let you guys know once I get home.