M860TU / NP8660 GPU and CPU thermal stress tests

Dear all,

There has been lots of debate over temperatures on the new Clevo NP8660, but I haven't yet seen any relevant tests regarding CPU and GPU temperatures.

I'm making this post to kindly ask the new owners to make some tests to the main components of your laptop.

Let's go in parts:

CPU
You will need the following programs:

Prime95 to stress your CPU and make it work at full load:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

RMClock to check core speed and temps in a graphical kind of diplay:
http://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml#rmclock
(you will probably have to setup the program to recognize your CPU as a mobile CPU)

HWmonitor is a very nice tool. HWmonitor is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, fans speed.
http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

If you run HWmonitor and RMClock and then start stress testing with Prime95 (CPU Stress Test - Small FTTs) you should see the CPUs working at max speed (max multipliers and max clock speed) and they should hold forever like this. This constant stress will obviously lead to the CPU temperature to raise. It would be interesting to see how does the fan deals with this temperature and at what point do the temperature of the different CPUs stabilize.

GPU

Download the following program:

Rivatuner is a must have program. It will monitor your GPU clocks and the temperature of its core in a graphical manner that you can follow over time. http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163

ATItools is a very useful and easy to use synthetic GPU stress test. http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

I would actually recommend always running the above mentioned monitoring programs (HWmonitor, RMClock and Rivatuner) to keep track of your system's temps and health.

1- Now, to stress the GPU you can start by running all those monitoring tools I mentioned and then start ATItools. On this program, just press "Scan for artifacts" and the GPU will start being used at maximum "speed" for as long as you keep the scanning on. Monitor how the system temperatures change in function of this. Pay particular attention to the GPU temperatures and what's the behaviour of the fans to deal with the raising temperature. Also, keep an eye for any possible clock fluctuation you might find (specially if the temperature of the GPU reaches a too high plateau that will lead to the GPU downclocking to protect itself from the thermal stress).

2- Nothing beats real life testing... So grab yourself one of those juicy FPS that demand everything from your GPU and run it for a couple of hours. I recommend running games like Crysis or Stalker: Shadow of Chernobil. Nedless to say, while running these, always keep the 3 monitoring tools on to gather all the information you might need.


And that's that.
It would be extremely useful if owners would collect several screenshots of their monitoring (on the different types of "stress tests") by pressing the PrsSc key and then pasting it into Paint and, finally, posting their results here.

Looking forward to hear from all of you,
M.

 

maybe you should add HDD?

 

ive been using Hard Disk Sentineland it keeps a good check on my hard drive. this is a trial version.

 

I would liek to add some suggestions.

CPU:
- wPrime 1.55 (set threads to how ever many cores you have) ... run 1024M test

GPU:
- 3DMark06 or Vantage (set to loop infinitely)

HDD:
- HDtune

Overall:
- BurnInTest Pro (pretty good job on burning in almost all major components)

 

Well... I was thinking about making these tests as simple as possible (otherwise, most of the people would be scared off). And... as you can see, not many owners gave us their reports!

I am bumping this thread up and asking again to the lucky owners of the M860TU laptop to perform these simple tests. It doesnt take more than a couple of hours (do it while you are having dinner or something like that) and it will give us a more clear idea of how this laptop handles the heat.

I would be particularly interested in seeing CPU tests (GPU tests as well, of course) because I've read some reports (from Gavinh, if I'm not mistaken) of CPU reaching 91ºC and some other users reporting problems in WoW that I suspect, might be related with CPU downclocking (a similar problem existed in the m15x).

If you could help everyone out by doing these simple tests, that would really be great.

Cheers,
M.

 

I've encountered difficulty with getting ATITool to recognize my card. Any tips? I've attached a pic of the message I receive, but I'm not sure where it's directing me.

 

Hmm... can't say I know (although I think it won't matter, as you only want to scan for artifacts and you are not going to mess with clock speeds).
Alternatively to ATItools, you can try Furmark:
http://downloads.guru3d.com/FurMark-v1.4.0-download-1965.html

It's pretty much the same. It will put your GPU to a proper exercise. Don't forget the Rivatuner, HWmonitor and RMclock. Those are THE TOOLS!

Good luck and thanks for this Keving,
M.

 

For ATITools to work, you may have to disable driver signing.

 

Unfortunately, that actually is the message I receive when I try to scan for artifacts. Atitool just doesn't see the 9800gt I guess, so I've downloaded FurMark.

A few questions with furmark:
1. What res should I run? Native 1680, or 1280x1024?
2. Do you want any MSAA?
3. Is there any specific amount of time you'd like the test to be run?

After you answer these, I'm going to let my notebook idle for a while, then I'll start with the pre-CPU test screenshots.

 

Hi there Kevin,

When I ran those tests (on my previous AW m15x), I simply ran at default settings. Run it for at least one hour.
Regarding the GPU, I think that playing 4 hours of Crysis while monitoring with Rivatuner, is probably more informative. (obviously the synthetic tests are quite informative as well).

Looking forward to see those screenies. Cheers for being the 1st volunteer!

 

I know that not many people have taken some time to do these tests...
But since I've learned that gavinh experienced CPU's temperatures of above 100ºC (on one of the CPU's cores), I am asking M860TU owners to spend one hour to do these tests and report back to the community.
Come on... it doesn't take such a long time.
Please!??

 

Well, I'm done running all of the tests; now I just have the 4 hours of gaming to get through. It'll be a marathon of Crysis (demo), Stalker, and Mass Effect.

I've run, consecutively:
Prime95 x2
wPrime 1.55 1024 test
1 hr of FurMark Benchmark
BurnInTest x2
HDTune x2
1 hr of Orthos

I'll be making a topic tomorrow, with all of my screenshots and analysis. I made sure to take a snip at and sometimes during every step, so there'll be no room for speculation on the authenticity of my results. I still might marathon a few series of 3dMark06/Vantage sessions, only because people seem to love those so much.

I'm 25 minutes into the Orthos session right now.... Good Lord does this thing have ice running through its veins.

 

I can't run to your specifics at the moment as I had to reinstall windows due to another problem.

I did look into undervolting my m860tu, but I ran the test at the start of the undervolting guide... I ran ORTHOS for just under 13 minutes, my CPU was running at full load the whole time from what I could tell.

My CPU reached a max temp of 59 celcius.

GPU wasn't much higher but I guess this test wouldn;t stress that much.

Oh and my HDD has reached a max temp of 60, it occasionally gets up near there. Since I bought a cooling pad though it tends to sit around the low 50's. It's a targus chill pad.. the thing is completely the wrong shape for my laptop but at least it works a bit.

 

Thank you guys.
Take your time, don't rush!
Appart from the HDD (in some cases), the rest seems pretty amazing so far.
Kevin... post those results fast!!!!

Cheers guys