P150SM Temps

I've had my P150SM for a couple of weeks now, put it through its paces and see what it can do. (Specs below).

My main concern from day one, is temperature. I've seen a few posts on here and through a few PMs with certain people that 90degrees+ with this machine is quite common.

Now, I've been playing BF3, for the past 20 minutes. GPU is at 99%, FPS capped at 60, then temps hit 93-94degrees. Then all of a sudden my GPU Core clock drops from 849(stock) to 701. Sticks there, then my FPS drops. It doesn't rise again until my temp drops to below 90degrees, then all is ok, FPS back capped at 60.

I've done a couple of repaste jobs myself and still having the same issue? Using MX4 for reference. It came with IC Diamond as stock btw.

Been in touch with my supplier who said temps should be fine and shouldn't affect gaming, if it does, then get in touch.

Anyone else have the same issue or any advice?

 

whats your ambient room temperature. try raising the back up slightly. ive got an old dongle in the centre lifting the back up and it helps a bit but it is 29c here today and feels even hotter in my room.

 

Well it's 25 here today in Yorkshire. I've raised it slightly and makes little difference.
FN+1 also doesn't really help either.

 

I have a Mythlogic Pollux 1613 Black (p150sm) with 4800MQ, 780m GTX. I experience the same thing, although I dont own BF3. But in The Witcher 2, with everything set to max, there are times when the GPU can reach 91-92C. I havnt played any other games that give me such high GPU temps, but most other games dont max out my GPU, so that may be why. Have never experienced any throttling yet, though. Ambient temp is maybe 25C

edit: I have been told myth that this can happen under full load, its not really too hot

 

Yeah my reseller did tell me all is fine and BF3 is very GPU intensive. Although 90+ is high, it won't cause problems.
Maybe the GPU Core fluctuation is normal and the dip in FPS is situational. Might be all in my head, but I'm sure that the laptop shouldn't run this high.

I'm currently playing GW2 and seeing similar drops in GPU Core speed when temps hit 90+.

Just wanted to gauge opinion on whether there was actually anything the matter, or whether I'm just being daft..

 

It's normal when you're experiencing throttling, which is exactly what your system seems to be doing. Did you mention that to your supplier when you were in contact last? And what are your idle temps like?

 

I've just re sent them another email, informing them of my issues.

I've just been checking. With GW2, playing at max settings at 849 clock I sit at 110FPS, then when the core drops to less than 750, then I get 95FPS. Thats a big difference in my opinion.

Is there any way I can accurately log this?

 

the FPS? not sure....but the clocks and temps, GPU-z and then check the write to log file option, but it will give you a very long .txt doc. Can plot it out though with matlab or excel

 

Thanks for that, just started logging with GPU-Z, very handy.

Just been playing GW2 for 5 mins max and saw the "throttling". Core Clock goes from 849-810-770-731. Then goes up and down depending on the temperature.

I'd say 91 degress is the limit, before the GPU starts to downclock itself.

 

You can also use HWinfo. When you bring up the sensors window, there is an option to log it.

 

Thanks, I'll try that.

What would you guys suggest a way forward would be? Surely it shouldn't be throttling or hitting those temps in the first place?

 

I dont think much can be done, if you think that all the thermal paste and pads are fine. I guess they are fine, since my system is behaving almost the same (maybe it doesnt reach those temperatures in the witcher 2 so fast... not in 5 mins, more like 30, but I also dont have guild wars 2 to compare). Is it possible to disable the GPU boost that the card has? Stop it from overclocking itself to 850 MHz and just stay at 800? Then you wont reach 90C+. Or maybe undervolt?

 

Kind of defeats the object really. I got the 780m for its power. I don't want to under utilise it. I want to OC in the future.

Ill see what my reseller has to say.

 

im not sure if the Fn + F1 is activated on this model. i know it was on the HM series then not on my EM series.

i know it defeats the object buying these top end cards and then getting these high temps. just think about how much room there is in your 15" and then that added to your room temperature.
my situation is slightly different though. my 680 gpu is fine (idle yesterday was 50c and full load 75-79c with room temperature of 26c which i am happy with. but my 4 cores are more my worry.
been repasted 3 times now. works out fine for 3 weeks and then slight downclocking starts again with the highest temps of 94-96c with crysis 3
covered by extended warranty so if it dies it dies, im covered.

there are lots of handy software in my sig below for you to try out.
if you could run some benchmarks with 3dmark, vantage, 3dmark11 and then you can compare scores with others around the world with your same spec.

 

My 3dmark scores vary from 6500 to 7700 on stock. I presume this is down to the slight throttling I'm seeing.

The FN+1 works on this model and works fine. Just doesn't help me in my situation.

I'm at a loss, I don't know what to do.

 

so clevo saw sence and re enabled full fan speed. thats good to know.
its so difficult to know if its just our summer weather thats buggering us all up in the uk as we havnt had it like this for years. i think there was only 4 days last summer that could be classed as high so its difficult to compare year by year.
my 6 year old m860tu has never throttled once. ok it only has a 260gtx which in its time was the fastest gpu available.
has technology finally reached its peak that in a 15" laptop high temps will start becoming the norm as the small space just cant take the power anymore.

who was your supplier and have you checked with their support to see what they suggest.

 

I bought through PWNPCS and I'm in conversation with them now, they are saying it could be the weather.
But its 15 degrees(max of 18) here where I live today and still getting the same problem

I remember having temps of 80 in my old Alienware m15x and thinking that was low. Repaste after repaste brought them down to 75 Wish I could get those temps on this.

 

Where about's in Yorkshire are you, I'm Sheff way out.....

I typically see 80°C as a target and I don't usually see more than 85-86?

My fan keeps sticking on full blast and it floats at about 70°C - maybe blast your fan on full and see if you get the same 70°C - just for comparison (same fan speed etc.)

all settings are on the top notch - multi player maps - 60fps limit

 

Well lets get some afterburner and intel xtu graphs and lets figure out EXACTLY what is happening.

 

i had the same issue as you guys but i fixed it apparantly by adding some pressure on the 780m heatsink my temps dropped almost instantly by 20 °C and now staying about 77 °C all the time.

 

@Calibre I'm in Hessle, small town just outside of Hull.

@Meaker I'll try and provide some shortly.

@Scerate Can you elaborate a little more?

 

Put washers on the mounting points to increase the down force on the contact plate to improve the contact is what he is mentioning I believe.

 

I actually tried to fix it yesterday so i put my notebook on the back, so it's upside down and plugged in mouse, keyboard and external display and started fiddeling around. I then started up heaven 4.0 and gpu-z and then let the show begin, i then decided to add some pressure with a pencil on these marks [look at the pics the red dots especially]

blue dots are where i added the springs
green dots are where the temps barely dropped, on screw nr. 4 i accidentally used red font for the -2 °C






Which worked out very well the temps dropped instantly i wasn't even used much force just a slight push

 

Nevermind, missed you had done in on the inner tabs.

 

still works flawless actually

 

Haha ninja edit caught you

You might want to put a washer on the other two between the screw and the arm to even the pressure.

 

There is a Afterburner graph after running 3dmark.

You can see as the GPU % goes up, aswell as the temperature, the Core Clock drops.

 

yeah will try that later i actually used washers first before i decided to give that springs a go. But i already told my seller about that temperature issue, he maybe sends me a new GPU Heatsink

 

yep thats how that Boost 2.0 works i guess, but you should try add some pressure too maybe it helps you too the same amount as me

 

Yeah good point here, if you recall in my thread when I first got the SM, my heatsink wasn't sitting flat, I very gently manipulated it in to position. I suggest applying a very thin and even spread of TIM (or ideally Engineer's blue - not IC diamond, just cheap stuff or your wasting money) and I mean very, very thin (as thin as you can, not enough to operate the machine) make sure you get full coverage and you cover the chip corner to corner.

Then refit your heatsink, setting it in to position as straight and evenly as possible, then insert the GPU screws only as follows (not the 3 RAM sink screws)

- put each screw in, in the order numbered on the sink, and with each one - insert it and then wind it anticlockwise (ie to loosen the screw) while applying gentle pressure, stop when it clicks (this is the thread engaging) then wind it in 2 turns - move to the next screw in the sequence.

when all 4 screws are in 2 turns, then go back to #1 and give it 1 turn, then #2, #3, #4 and back to #1 - 1 turn at a time until all screws stop, then give it a gentle nip to tighten and leave it for 2-3 minutes.

Do not at any time press on the heatsink or do anything to squeeze the TIM.

Gently remove all 4 screws and lift the heat sink straight up as accurately as possible, don't twist it or slide it.

you should be able to see if the heat spreader made even contact with the GPU - if it did, then the GPU spreader is level to the GPU, so leave it at that and move on..... if not, and you're confident and able, gently manipulate the GPU spreader in the direction required to get a good contact and repeat the above. EDIT, for the sake of your wallet be gentle - you could make this worse, if you think you applied enough force to move the heatsink, stop and re-check fitment - you may have already gone to far, you will soon get a feel for how much force you need to apply! fyi, typically, it will be ok left to right it will flex in to position, it will likely be front to back it is out, and I suspect, it will be the side of the chip closest to the back of the laptop that does not make contact at all. - you could even try just winding the screws in half way or 1/4 - or less, which will give you an even finer measure of flatness by just lightly pressing the surfaces together, allowing you to see the natural fit more clearly.

Personally I use Stuarts Micrometer Blue to do this, but it's not for everyone - cheap TIM will do the job but Micrometer Blue is ultra thin so it won't create a suction - thus it's easier to lift off straight, it is grease based (like many TIM's) and contains blue dye, so requires cleaning off with alcohol

When the above is sorted Wipe clean and start again, but this time fit the 3 ram screws aswell, and fit them FIRST not last, then gently follow the above procedure and again, remove and check the TIM. If you now find your not getting a god contact then the RAM spreader is out of alignment in relation to the GPU spreader, so this needs manipulating in to position - this is much harder because the heatpipe is smaller, and already bent to an excessive angle, so be extremely careful with this one.

The way these things are by design I suspect it is impossible to have them mate with the card within 0.4mm - no one's to blame here, they have a price target and that's it. When precision components are being made for machinery and engines they're sometimes made in 3 or more different sizes and the best fit is determined on assembly, which is OK on a £5000 piece of equipment but it's not really possible here.


EDIT** I might just throw together a step by step guide, maybe an embedded video or something IDK....

 

What are you playing (BF3?) I'll do the same tonight if you want a quick comparison as the above procedure can take some time, it took me about 20 minutes but it comes naturally to me, it might take a less experienced or DIY engineer an hour or so.

I recall roughly that viewing my 780m clocks in GPUz showed absolutely no thermal throttling what so ever, and top temps well below 90° - I could be wrong but if I had the above on my machine, I would have already machined a one piece copper heat spreader....... FYI heatpipes CAN vary massivly in performance, I have about 3 or 4 GTX 780m cooler on their way (I should have them in about 10 days) You're welcome to come and try a different cooler or 2 if you live local ** I'll also have 3 or 4 of the solid copper CPU coolers in

EDIT**

Hessle aye.... I worked in Hessle for a bit..... I used to live in Barton just a mile or 2 down the road

 

Will try that asap, cause i just got confirmed that my seller sends my a completely new 780m heatsink

 

If it doesn't fit, don't force it with more springs this is how silicone gets chipped on the corners..... this is really not the correct approach, align the heatsink as I mentioned above if you can, and you will see even better results.

EDIT lol, you beat me to it, yes I would try the above

 

Well keep me in mind mate, I've got no problem paying for some extra coolers. Did you buy them online?

I'll re apply paste tonight using the method you stated earlier and give it a go.

 

No, I'm not sure you can just buy these parts, it takes me about a month or 2 to parts, I'm also ordering some bottom covers to mod but they'll probably take at least 6 or 8 weeks (unless I get lucky and their in the next shipment from Clevo in a week, which I'm hoping the copper CPU coolers and 780m GPU coolers will be tagged in with)

 

Good stuff, like I've said before, I'll be more than happy to take a set off your hands

 

Will do

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet with the covers, but have a few small mods in mind...........

 

Those are high GPU temps, it should not throttle or get up to that temp so quickly.

 

I'm pretty excited when the new Heatsink arrives actually, i think i can even do match a stock Desktop 680 speed when theoretically set core clock to 1006 and memory to 3000mhz

 

Wow, sounds pretty nice!

These new heatsinks that Calibre and you are getting, are they replacement parts from Clevo themselves? Why were they not included in the original build, if they are so much better?

 

I think his were faulty originally perhaps.

 

Seems he was/is having the same issue as myself.
I'll do a careful repasting job tonight and see what that brings.

 

Seems he was/is having the same issue as myself.
I'll do a careful repasting job tonight and see what that brings.

 

Do the thermal pads under the GPU ram heatsink portion have to be replaced if one were to do this?

 

From what I am to understand, the TIM they use is pretty much crap. There's a reason for why they offer the IC Diamond I suppose...

However, if these temps are true, then I might reconsider going for the 15" machine... I want a high end and fairly mobile gaming machine, but this is a little scary. My current GPU doesn't get THAT hot.

 

I just did a quick benchmark at work with Bioshock Infinite @ ultra, this are my temps and they aren't rising much and i even got about 28 °C ambient temperature here

 

I get very similar temps typically mine is about 80°C (Edit it does hit 91 actually see post below) it does go to sub 75-76 but this during light loads, the fan almost goes silent below 80°C which is even possible during a full on battle indoors in BF3 (frames limited to 60) so temperatures are really not an issue.

@dquancey:

as Meaker said these are just standard normal replacement GTX 780m heatsinks, nothing special about them!

The CPU cooler's I'm getting are from the P17*SM and they are all made from copper, so they are a bit special to those of us with 15" machines and as for the question about why we don't get them as standard?? no idea, we should in my opinion tbh, we have the same CPU's and the same GPU's so why do we have a lower spec 180w PSU, compared to the 230w of the P17*SM and a cheaper aluminium CPU heatsink...... cost cutting I suppose but I'm not impressed.............

I'm only getting them for some projects I have coming up, these coolers are really just going to get destroyed and butchered.

 

no, they can remain in place, just take care not to damage them.

The aim of the rather long procedure is to assess and adjust the angle of the heatspreader so it is parallel and mates perfectly with the GPU. The same procedure can be applied to many different "linked" heatsink assemblies, & I don't just mean linked CPU & GPU, or GPU & RAM but also heat-spreader and radiator, because the radiator is off to one side, it's resting position my pull the heatsink out of alignment in relation to the processor.

Typically desktops are unaffected because they are self levelling due to the unlinked layout and luxury of space - some people try to lap their desktop heatsinks and achieve a perfectly flat surface or to remove minuscule air gaps but unless they're doing it right (and 99% of the ones I've seen are NOT) then they are probably going to be warping the flatness which is more harmful than an unpolished surface!, literally taking 1 step forwards, and 2 steps backwards.

 

Thank you Calibre, one more question. If, using your method, I find that one side of the GPU is not contacting the heat sink properly, how would I go about to fix it? Should I just carefully tighten one of the heatsink screws (1, 2, 3 or 4) by maybe 1/2 turn, in the corner which does not have proper contact, or should I tighten two of the 4 screws, or maybe all 4 by 1/4-1/2 turn?

also, cleaning off IC diamond 7, use cotton swabs and as high % ethanol as I can find?

 

You may want to use springs or washers between the lower spoke and the upper spoke on the closest corner.