Sony Z, 330M and overheating.

I'm really interested in this new Z model but possible heat-related problems do worry me a little bit. I owned previous Z with P8400 and it was very hot when 100% loaded with 3D-applications (3DMark or games) in speed mode. It is known to overheat with T9900 as well. Now Z uses GT 330M which outputs almost twice as much heat as 9300M GS (I wouldn't count i5 because it has same TDP as Core 2 Duo). Other manufacturers aren't putting 330M in such a small enclosure mainly due to thermal limitations.

Sony posted few images showing its heatsink and fan. I don't see significant changes in cooling system and I'm sick of that.





I don't want to pay premium price and then find 330M unusable due to overheating. What do you think about that?

 

I think I'm going to wait for reviews, which I was going to in any case.

 

the 330M only consumes 10w more than the 9300M at peak due to being 40nm vs 65nm, i don't believe it'll tax the cooling system. I'm sure Sony will apply some loving QA on it's flagship before shipping

I never had overheating issues with my Z, even after multi-hour gaming sessions. Sure the fan would kick in louder than usual and the air coming out of it was hot, but the rest of the laptop didn't feel hot and I never had it crash on me.

CPU's and GPU's are designed to tolerate heat rather well.

 

The aluminums keyboard design may help in dissipate heat. However, I’m no Engineer, so I’m just taking a guess.

 

I am hoping that the Sony engineers have done their homework, by testing out the components fitted into the Z, during the design phase, than slapping in whatever they could, into the available real estate.

I am not too concerned about overheating, to be quite frank, since a Vaio is not a Dell or an HP or a Lenovo. In fact, the new Z solves one of my ONLY peeves about the old-Z, which was the low-end graphics card it came with, 256MB of graphics memory and all.

Of course if one is too worried about overheating, the built-in graphics on the new generation of Intel chips, are not too shabby by themselves and might probably even be better than the dedicated graphics of the old-Z.

 

After the last Nvidia GPU overheating/failure debacle, it's safe to assume both sides are being much more careful now.

To clear up a point, Sony hasn't been immune to GPU problems. Pretty much everyone who used the Nvidia chips got stung, including Apple.

The 330M isn't really new, it's based off the 9700M GTS. Let's hope after they repackaged it, they got everything smoothed out. With the delays pushing out Fermi and the recall costs, Nvidia needs to execute everything perfectly for a while.

 

The upgraded HSF assembly for the Z is rated for 35W. You have to look at your 10W increase relative to that, and then it's substantial. 35W+10W is an almost 30% increase.
In reality, it's worse, because the new CPUs also have a higher TDP rating.

 

No they don't.
Arrandale's 35W includes CPU cores, GPU cores, IMC and other stuff previously found outside of C2D chip.

I suppose that i5 with deactivated iGP will have the same TDP as C2D (25w).
Conclusion:

1) Core 2 Duo + 9300M GS = 37W TDP
2) Core i5 + 330M GT = 50W TDP

35% more heat should be noticeable (it's like adding second 9300M GS to current Z)

 

I do remember seeing a Z (4th gen) with a T9900 and it downclocked most of the time. If my memory serves correct, the clock stays at 2.4GHz, when the native speed of the T9900 is 3.06GHz.

Ok - downclocking is understandable when the system ain't being used fully.
I even would be content on non-user settable clock settings if it only downclocked when idle.

What I was not happy about the T9900 in the older Z is that when you try increasing the work load (ie, making the T9900 run with video encoding, games, what-have-you), the CPU will run at full speed for LESS THAN 10 SECONDS. At least, that is what CPU-Z told me. This was with a 9300GM, and either Sony stuck in a BIOS code to force the CPU to downclock when a certain temperature is reached, or downclock after a certain amount of time (less than 10 seconds), I don't know.

Quite frankly, if one buys a T9900, one expects it to run T9900-designed speeds as the user demands (as required at least), period.

I admit though, the current (older) Z is pretty good at heat release. But with an i5 and 330m, I'm rather reluctant on commiting to anything till somebody actually decides to bite the bullet and test this thing out.

I will be pretty disappointed if the new Z downclocks again, since despite all that power, if I don't have access to the full potential of the hardware and everything is downclocked, what is the point of spending $2k or so for something you can't fully properly use? I mean, the P8600 I have doesn't downclock, so I might as well just sit tight for a CPU or SSD upgrade rather than buying a new machine altogether (depending on whether the P9600 and P9700 DON'T downclock or not...)

 

I'll be interested in user feedback once the Z is released. We'll have to see if the CPU or IGP are bios limited in any way. That sort of in depth info is usually not revealed in reviews- but sometimes you can infer based on benchmarks.

 

I just bought the Sony core i7, Z series, Nvidia 330M graphics and it barely dissipates heat. This is my first Sony, my previous laptop was a Toshiba and it was burning, if I didn't have a cooler under it, it would just turn off from over heating. So I think your safe to assume it is cool. If you want, I can run test for your benefit and my amusement.

 

How did you manage to get a hold of one? And yes post pics and test results!

 

Are you kidding?
Can you post some benchmark results and GPU-Z/CPU-Z screenshots?

 

lol a n00b with 1 post comes on here and says he's got the new Z and we all fall for it...

 

Any preferred benchmark you need ???????

 

Ya your right this is the F series, my bad, check my new post to confirm

 

If you zoom in you can actually see your post. lol

 

blah....................

 

wait, that's an F, not a Z!! :\

 

Ya i realized that, sorry people , only the size matters , the specs are the same

 

bigger housing allows for a more expansive HSF + better airflow, makes a big diff

 

I'd like to see 3DMark05 and 3DMark06 at default settings (anyway they don't allow to change anything in free versions).

Nobody knows exact scores for 330M...

 

Someone posted their results in the F Owners thread here.

6520 on AC Power, 5185 on battery.

This is with an i7-720 cpu. Note that it looks like the F series (and all i7 processors?) are massively throttled when on battery right now...

-Peter

 

I am on a week old SR590 CTO and win7
The throttling is controlled by the power settings, you can choose from 5% to 100% how the processor behaves on AC (100%) and on batteries (75%)
I had mine set to 100% and was getting CPU temps 90c and GPU temps 80c so i throttled my AC down to 80%

now my CPU never rises past 71c and GPU 66c

i'm sure the F series guys could change their settings if they looked for it

 

No, it doesn't seem that simple. Check out the two posts by uzun here and here

If I'm not mistaken, your SR590 isn't an i7 cpu, either, but C2D?

 

ya T9600 2.8
o well