GX640 Owners - Post Your Temps!

nice guide, do any of you guys have a set of underclock values and OC values that work which you could share?

thanks

 

Here's an update to my data graphing script: http://pastebin.com/Up7yXJta

Here's an example of the script in use, and the graph generated, after a run of 3DMark06 (11451 points):

I would've used Vantage, but I ran out of e-mail addresses earlier 11451 is slightly low - I got 11512 in an earlier run, but FRAPS didn't log the framerates so I did it again.

For full instructions on the use of the script, refer to my post here. The new thing is that you can also incorporate FRAPS' FPS logging as well, though I also cleaned up my code quite a bit.

 

nice work cheese, cool script

 

does this tool work for 5850 also??

 

Yes, it does.

 

with my experience with AMD GPU Clock tool and this laptop:

Works
100/100
300/300
450/450
625/1000
675/1000

Doesn't work:
350/350
400/400

 

ok thanks, gpu idling at 55 deg with -eng=200 -mem=300. pretty nice

would be cool to program the p1 touch-button to cycle thru a few settings. anyone know how to go about doing that lol

 

good stuff. seems like the mem doesnt like being at 400

 

A basic script could do it easily enough.

 

Can anyone confirm (and translate) if temps like 74C are good for gaming? What temperatures should I be looking for while idle/ surfing net/ youtube/ gaming on maximum settings on say, your typical highgraphics FPS games? (These will be done on stock configurations, with powerplay turned off, all drivers updated to most recent hopefully).

Thanks for the help and patience with my lack-of-pc-knowledge

 

idle around 55-60 (downclocked to 100/100 after watching 2 scrubs episodes temp was 51)

gaming 82+

 

74 while gaming is great. The truth is we don't really "need" to worry about the temps about as much as we are, it's not gonna destroy your machine anytime soon but we just like to run cooler and quieter. These parts are designed to run up to 100C. This doesn't mean they break the second they hit 101C but they're just built so they can survive up to 100C without any issues.

Ideally you'd like to keep your machine as cool as possible at all times (without being on risky voltages) just to be less stressful on your machine.

Internet browsing and standard use should be in the 50s with watching videos going up into the 60s

 

Thank you I appreciate your help NEM. Oh btw, should I worry more about the bottom being hot or the palmrest being hot? Which is a better indicator that my system is overheating (meaning, which should I rely on as a sign that my comp's going haywire/hot)?

 

It wont allow overheat, it will;
a) throttle at lower clocks to lower temperature
b) if it doesnt, then it will probably shut itself down

 

Just posting a report from playing Portal, all settings maxed at 1680x1050 with v-sync on. Since Portal is getting somewhat old now, it's not surprising that it ran flawlessly at 60 fps almost the entire time I was playing. You can also see that GPU load was at around 50% for quite a lot of the time.

Note that I alt-tabbed quite a lot during the game, and rendering stops when the game is loading an area or a saved game, but I didn't want to keep turning it on and off so FRAPS was logging the entire time - this is why the framerate graph keeps jumping to 0. As further evidence of this, note that every time the framerate jumps down like that, the GPU load does also.

Stats:
7704 lines of GPU data from 2010-05-02 01:20:58 to 2010-05-02 03:31:27
7712 lines of CPU data from 2010-05-02 01:20:59 to 2010-05-02 03:31:29
7516 lines of Frame rate data from 2010-05-02 01:24:27 to 2010-05-02 03:29:42

Measurement : Min/Avg/Max
CPU Core #0 [°C]: 56.0/73.7/80.0
CPU Core #1 [°C]: 52.0/67.5/77.0
GPU DispIO [°C]: 60.5/69.7/73.0
GPU MemIO [°C]: 67.5/79.0/84.0
GPU Shader [°C]: 62.0/73.6/77.5
CPU [MHz]: 1197.0/2482.8/2527.0
GPU Core [MHz]: 625.0/625.0/625.0
GPU Memory [MHz]: 1000.0/1000.0/1000.0
CPU Load [%]: 0.0/28.1/84.0
GPU Load [%]: 0.0/44.0/87.0
Frame rate [FPS]: 0.0/54.5/62.0

 

nice lackofcheese. Could you program into the script to when the sensors miss a reading it just shows as blank? Would make the graphs a little easier to see trends with.

Also, what are you using to monitor cpu freq?

 

Real Temp for CPU temps, frequency, and load
GPU-Z for GPU temps, frequency, and load
FRAPS for frame rate.

My CPU and GPU graphs are already programmed to have gaps whenever a reading is missed, but unfortunately FRAPS doesn't work the same way - it records when new frames occur and calculates FPS from there, as far as I know. As a consequence, it doesn't have any missed readings (though missed frames might be possible), it justs records it as 0 FPS when it's not getting any frames, and so the file I recorded has quite a few zeros.

There just isn't a simple way to sort that problem out. I have a couple of ideas, the best being to attempt to filter out any gaps in frametimes longer than a certain period - let's say 1s. Of course, if your GPU is actually rendering at <1 FPS you'll get a false positive with that test. Another approach is to filter out any sharp jumps in FPS, but that's quite complicated and likely to filter out situations where the FPS legitimately jumped in such a manner.

The best approach is probably checking the gaps between frames, but the problem with that approach is I'd have to use the frametimes from FRAPS rather than just the FPS data. Consider a situation where you alt-tab out or start loading 1/10th of the way through a second - you'll get 6 frames in that second, and FRAPS would record this as 6 FPS, even though it was actually at 60 FPS but only for 1/10 of a second. I probably will implement this approach later, but it will take some work.

 

mightve experience throttling due to heat. gpu got up to 94C after 3 hours of HoN (25C ambi). will conduct some test tomorrow to determine if i need to exchange the gx640 for a slower/milder lappy.

 

What's HoN ? And why would you want a slower computer? Is it cuz this might not a best bang for the buck computer?

 

Maybe he just wants a computer, while not so powerful, but still working after a year or two and also maybe he sees risk in temperatures going so high.

 

u could underclock, making it run cooler

 

the gx640 has a good price/ performance ratio, but i dont like the fact i have to underclock to keep the fan at bay (which i have to do since 80% of the time im not gaming) and the temps im getting when gaming are getting a little too high.

the build quality is subpar, i didnt realize this earlier because i never moved it around, but after taking it around the laptop feels real flimsy. the bottom caves a little when pressure is applied at multiple spots. screen is extra grainy when looked from above angle. however the battery life is decent for a gamign laptop

going to run some burn test to see if gpu is experiencing throttling, if so im going to get a slower laptop with a 4650 something.

 

So far, this is the only post that is steering me away from the GX. Aintz, in your opinion, is there another notebook out there that has a better price/performance ratio and is also 2-3 years futureproof?

 

In my opinion, the only notebooks that beat the GX640 as far as value-for-money gaming performance is concerned are the BestBuy G73, and the Acer AS5740G.

 

yeah the build quality of this is really what's turning me away from this laptop too. I went to bestbuy and saw that the g73 was really well built and light relative to other desktop replacement.

 

this is the best value/performance if you are not going to upgrade the cpu. clevo w860cu is better if you want to upgrade the cpu and is looking for a desktop replacement, the battery life for it is only 1hour so i didnt buy it.

i havnt had any new laptops recently. but compared to the build quality of laptops i had before (3 asus, 2 dell and 1 hp) this is by far the worst. i just noticed today 1 of the lil plastic legs below the screen is missing (the leg that keeps the screen from touching the bottom when you close it)

sum up
goods:
good performance/dollar ratio compared to other gaming laptops (11500 3dmark06 and 7.1k gpu score in vantage)
decent battery life (but its also 9cell but that doesnt bother me)
Keyboard has a number pad
appearance (that is before you touched it with your hands)

bads:
build quality (worst part is where the cd rom is)
aluminum finish - fingerprints everywhere
fan issues (although if you downclock everyday you can get it to be quiet)
harddrive clicking (can be solved by getting a ssd)
port placement
temps - my temps were ok when my ambient temp was really low, but now the gpu gets over 92 when gaming and thats too hot for my taste. heat = less life. laptops that overheat are much more likely to die, and msi warranty is one of the worst.
and oyeah my has a high pitched whine coming from it from time to time but other users dont have this problem

i will never purchase another msi product thats for sure. time to use msi recover and return this lappy before i get stuck with it.

 

good luck with the g73 or whatever you get.

i'll warn you though, i just returned an asus. it was the g51jx, and this thing was considerably less powerful than the gx640 and it was about 5x hotter. it was even bigger than the gx640 too.

The gpu temps of the g51jx laptop wouldn't always read as hot(maybe had a different censor location), but trust me, the laptop itself was like 5x hotter.

-----------

honestly the only problem i see with the gx640 is the keyboard "flex"

my gpu temp is usually at like 98-100 deg when playing crysis, but the laptop does not get hot. Taking the card reader plastic thing out is important too.

 

Noisy HDDs and the high-pitched whining are quite common issues. As far as I know, the whining is actually related to the sleep states of the Intel CPUs, and is quite common across a variety of laptops; supposedly it's also quite easy to fix as well.

As for the heat, it's pretty good for a high-end gaming laptop. Keep in mind that the 92C you're referring to is probably the memory controller in the GPU, which often seems to run at higher temps.

I haven't really moved mine around much, but although I do believe the build quality is worse than many competitors, I don't think it's problematic.

How so? It's 3 years, for one.

 

sum up
goods:
good performance/dollar ratio compared to other gaming laptops (11500 3dmark06 and 7.1k gpu score in vantage) - yep
decent battery life (but its also 9cell but that doesnt bother me) - yep
Keyboard has a number pad - yep
appearance (that is before you touched it with your hands) -yep

bads:
build quality (worst part is where the cd rom is) - Not normally, what are you refering to?
aluminum finish - fingerprints everywhere - Rather aluminium then cheap matt plastic
fan issues (although if you downclock everyday you can get it to be quiet) - Not issues then, its a fan
harddrive clicking (can be solved by getting a ssd) - Probably the heads cycling, another HDD replacement would also work
port placement - What dont you like?
temps - 92 doing what?
and oyeah my has a high pitched whine coming from it from time to time but other users dont have this problem - Alot of users have the problem but ignore it

i will never purchase another msi product thats for sure. time to use msi recover and return this lappy before i get stuck with it.

And i say the msi warrenty is great, 3 years, whats to loose..

 

sounds great on paper when you try to actually rma something thats when it gets fun.

 

While i agree with some extent, i dont think MSI will cause too much hassle.

 

I agree with Aintz. I currently own a GX640, Envy 15, and Asus G60VX. I haven't decided which one I'll be keeping (probably none). The MSI definitely has the worst build quality. It also heats up more than the Asus (the GPU temps are about the same, but the chasis heats up more than the Asus.

Heat is one of my major concerns as I like to use the LAPtop in my LAP. So far, none of them fits the bill. I will be getting the Acer 4820T/5820T when they come out. If those don't pull through on heat management though, I may just settle for a Acer 5740G or go big and get the G73Jh. There are rumors of a G53 as well so I may hold out for that too.

Basically, I have not found a lightweight gaming laptop that I can game in my lap.

 

Its strange that, but then i can also vouch for you guys, the hardwares too much for the cooling to handle on your lap (Where as the 725 works like a beast!) .

 

Well, if you say that gaming = high-end laptop card / midrange desktop card at the least, and laptop = use on your lap, then the ASUS G73 is basically the only gaming laptop there is, and it's far from lightweight.

Everything else is a gaming notebook, a non-gaming laptop, or a non-gaming notebook

 

Wise words are wise.

 

Note: A prime example of something that is neither a laptop nor for gaming is the Core i7 MacBook Pro.

 

i had a g51jx for around a month, and i dont think the build was any better than this. the keyboard of this is the only thing i see that could be better

 

The laptop feels sturdy enough for me, and in the end I'm happier with the year of accidental damage coverage than with assumptions about build quality that no-one will actually attempt to verify by intentionally dropping their laptops...

MSI and ASUS have very nice warranties, and to me that's worth as much as build quality.

 

When you guys talk about flex, and crappy build quality, can you guys compare that to the "squishyness" of a Nintendo DS Lite (1st generation Lite, the one with glossy exterior, not the new crappy one with matte sh*tty exterior), which is jsut about as durable as a macbook's exterior.

 

Did you see that the core i7 for the MBP is a i7 620? Pretty hilarious, there is no way to get a quad core for the MBP, it's dual core i5 or dual core i7. Hilarious, no idea why those mac heads got so excited for this supposed upgrade. The GPU still sucks also...

 

ya but macbooks arent for gaming, and that GPU will be enough for everything else. In the end mac lovers will still buy it, and end up paying a 200% premium for it.

 

I was just reading up about Temperatures in the G73jh...

Do they constantly reach 82~87C max while playing?

MSI GX640 temps hover around 85~89?

Honestly, thats NOT BAD at all for a single fan solution...
With the given mods, you could lower them 10C...

For example;
I currently still game on my m1530; my temp reaches 91C while gaming, and it starts to throttle...
I removed the cover plate (covers the ram & fan/heatsink), lifted the back for 2 inches more (+ the 9cell battery), and the Temp lowered to 85 Max temp...
Then I turned on the A/C, temps NEVER got higher than 80C, and I did a 3 hour L4D2 versus, rematching the same team twice..

for a single fan solution, the m1530 delivers (with the right mods).

the GX640 is quite capable, honestly.

 

Well the g73 is 17 inch too, so that can effect the temps,

So basically the comparison between the two shouldn't be made,

But for something with 1 fan going against something with 2, i'd say letem have it MSI

And i like to thank ben for his MSI lovage haha.

 

And I'm still internally debating.

****

 

Yeah, I did, but the i7-620M is a pretty fast CPU actually. It's about as fast as the i7-720QM for heavy multithreading, and faster in many tasks that don't benefit from more than two cores.
Still, the i7-620M is only ~20% faster clocked than the i5-430M (though with more cache, and an extra 10% boost on 1 core).

 

Sorry to break it to you, but the GPU on the GX640 does not hover around 85-89 on load. More like 90-99. I've had two GX640s by now so I'm fairly certain it's not because I've been getting defective units. These things run hot - you will hear it and you will feel it. Even my G60VX runs cooler, and the Asus are known to run hot.

 

Umm, that depends on the load you're talking about. I've never hit 90C except in Furmark.

 

my cpu temps hang around 70 or so when playing crysis for hours..

 

It's the GPU temps we're talking about here, though.

 

o my bad, mine goes about 100 max so far, but the laptop is not that hot TBH.

g51jx was like 5x hotter when the temps were only 93 deg.

maybe the censors are placed diff places on diff cards?