7970m Very High Temps; Fan Speed at 35%

Hi,

I have a Clevo P170EM with 7970m and the latest 13.1 WHQL drivers.

My 7970m has been running quite hot. Here are the average temps i get:


1. Skyrim - 99 C
2. Witcher 2 - 99c
3. Shogun 2 - 93c
4. LA Noire - 75C
5. GTA-4 79C

With all the above games, the fan speed stays at 35% till the temps cross 95c then the fan goes to 100%. As soon as the temp drops down, the fan goes back to 35%.
Because of this, my card is always running hot.

I have tried FN+1 to activate the turbo fan but nothing happens (I have the hotkey drivers installed) .
I have an American Megatrends BIOS which might explain why turbo fan does not work.

I have tried MSI Afterburner to change the fan speed but the fan speed option is grayed out.
Ati Tray tools does not detect my card.

I am out of options right now and I need to find a way to have the 7970m run at 100% fan speed when I am gaming.
This is my first gaming laptop and I really don't want to fry my card.

Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks.

 

terrible temps, you're certainly going to kill your graphics card. If im not mistaken, the fan profiles are governed by the bios itself. With that in mind, it might be beneficial to flash the latest sager bios.

if this fails, you may also need a repaste, as normal temps of the 7970m range from 70C-85C on stock frequencies.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

Would flashing a sager bios on top of my American Megatrends BIOS be ok or is it too risky ? .
I am currently not in the United States and I need my laptop to be working for the next 15 days without any issues hence my apprehension as I don't want to end up with a dead machine.

The idle temps are fine at 45c and even games like GTA4 and Arma 2 etc keep it down to 80c.

Its only Skyrim and witcher 2 which manage to reach 99 before the fan goes 100% and brings the temp down to around 85c and then goes back to 35% raising the temp again.

So is a software only approach is not feasible to put the fans on max speed ?

 

the Fn + 1 doesnt work on out P150/P170EM models as it was for some reason disconnected compared to the HM models previously.

what part of the world are you in at the moment and whats the ambient temperature as back in the summer here in the UK mine was touching the 90c+ mark as well. mine was mainly my cpu but the graphics was in the top 80s but UK weather cant really be classed as summer.

when was the last time you cleaned your fans and vents out with compressed air. this can lower the temps by 10c if its clogged up with dust.

 

@MrDJ

I am currently in India. The ambient temp is between 24-30c.

Also the CPU is pretty good, the max CPU temp was 77c. With the temps averaging at 60s.
It's only the GPU which wants to run at 35% till the temps cross 95c.

The laptop is new , It's just been 2 months since I have had it so I am assuming it is not clogged with dust.

That's too bad about turbo fan. Anything else I can do to replicate that effect?

I tried speed fan some time back, It detects the 7970m but does not have anything under the fans.

 

that is strange as my cpu got hotter than my gpu. as mentioned it might need a thermal repaste.
the ambient room temps could well have something to do with it as well but i would of thought your cpu temps would of been higher as well.

im not sure what else to suggest. hopefully a owner with the same spec as you will be able to advise further.
might be worth contacting your supplier to see if they have any better ideas.

 

My P170EM machine have copper heatsinks for both CPU and GPU. I have seen that some CLEVOs are alloy CPU heatsinks.. strange.

Foil modded
BIOS 1.02.14
EC 1.02.12
Room temp 24
CPU temps (4 cores 3,8GHz) on Metro 2033 ~80-82 degrees
GPU temps (core 975, vram 1475) same game ~83

Your GPU temps are definately way too high! Just contact your reseller for advice.

 

@MrDJ

Thanks man, I am as stumped as you.
Thermal paste will have to wait till I get back to USA . I have never really opened a laptop before and I have only minial idea of repasting.
I dont want to mess with the hardware till I have exhausted all other options.
I did contact my reseller, I am awaiting a reply.

@Tornator

Thanks for the info.
Can you let me know your fan speed when you are gaming ?
I am assuming you have turbo fan running if the temps never cross 83cc ?




I am quite suprised that is impossible to set up a fan profile for 7970M.

Desktop AMDs have the overdrive setting which let the users specifty fan speed.
No such luck for mobility GPU.

Also I noticed that Intel PCH has a max temp of 89c when gaming. What does PCH mean and should I be worried.

Any other ideas?
Thanks.

 

There should be a thread about repasting on a 7970m, Google search for It, also it's not very hard to do.

my temps max out at 86C, where the 100% fan speed (3400rpms) kicks In, and quickly drops it back to 85-84. bear in mind,
ambient temps were extremely high at 35C and above. Australia the place to be with a laptop (Y)

also, PCH is platform controller hub. I don't know what it does though...

Edit: as you've stated you haven't opened up your laptop before, im assuming that will be a large build up of dust within the air vents, blocking air flow. This can dramatically increase temps, if this isn't done at least once a month.!

 

HWiNFO64 fan speed is 35% all the time, it´s not working. But GPU fan is 607 RPM.. this looks better.
I have vanilla CLEVO BIOS and EC, Fn+1 (turbo fan) doesn´t work for me. Foil mod improved my CPU and GPU temps ~4-5 degrees

Is there any app to check clevo fan speeds?

 

as mentioned and even though its quite new it might be worth getting a small watch philips screwdriver and removing the base 6-8 screws just to check there isnt any build up of dust. even if it lowers it by a few degrees it will help.
on my previous m860tu clevo which had a mesh grill for the fan it showed the dust buildup quite well but on these new models it just has slits in the plastic base which doesnt show up the dust from outside at all.

 

95C with Furmark. Is that considered high? I don't know other games I haven't tested them because I only play TF2 (which doesn't use %100) right now. It's an addiction.

Should I do something?

Edit: I opened back cover and allowedit to suck clean air. It dropped to 82. Probably it was sucking hot air.

 

The latest HWINFO64 can check. 607 is way too low though.

 

Thanks , I found the thread. will get to it when I get back.

I opened my laptop. There was a slight gathering of dust ( the laptop is only 2 months old) near the vents which I have cleaned up.
The max temp in Witcher 2 is now 97 but Skyrim still stays at 99.

 

Hwinfo shows me a percentage of 35% for min and 100 for max.

Using GPU-Z and checking the temps , the avg temp for Skyrim is 91c. It goes from 75-90c . Stays in the 90s goes to 99 fan comes up temp falls to 83-85 and goes to 90s again.

 

Thanks. There was a small gathering of dust which I have removed. Only witcher 2 has improved , the max temp is not going beyond 97-98c.

 

thats still too high

 

I've this problem with my p370em. Wish there as an option to max the fans out, or at least some sort of manual adjustment.

 

I have heard back from my reseller. They are looing at getting me the latest bios.
The seller also advised me to invest in a cooling pad.

I was looking at cooler master u3 .Should I go for it, or are there better options ?

Also I have been playing around with various settings, and I have found that setting power play to maximize battery reduced the temps drastically.

With power play at - Max Performance

Witcher 2 Avg: 95 Max 99

Battlefield 3 Avg: 94 Max: 99

With power play set to : Maximize battery

Witcher 2 Avg: 60c Max 64c

Battlefield 3 Avg: 61c Max: 69c

Even the CPU temps dont cross 73c. PCH which earlier maxed to 98c , now has a max of 72c.

As expected, there is a decrease in FPS with power play at maximize battery but I am shocked at the 40c difference I observed.


Is this expected behaviour ? How can one setting bring about such a huge difference ?

Can I setup power play to a value between max battery and max performance?

Edit: Disabling power play gave me very low fps

 

With the max battery you are cutting performance, thus keeping temps low. With max performance you are getting... Maximum performance, meaning your GPU is giving you everything it has.

 

somewhat related, it was stated by my reseller, that removing the heat sink to re paste voids your warranty.

So just check with them first...

 

Agreed but the temp diff is quite huge. 40c is too much for the increase in fps it offers.

Is there any way I can get better fps while still keeeping my temps in 80c kind of like a balanced mode which is between max performance and battery ?

 

Thanks for the info. I will drop an email to my reseller to confirm.

 

but hey, if they say it does. just use the same paste as their stock, and they would never find out (;