3 years old laptop keeps thermal throttling

[reivelt]

I use a 3 years old laptop, one Gigabyte Sabre 15, as my daily driver. The specs are as below

i7 7700hq

gtx 1060 mobile

16gb DDR4 2400

128gb SSD, 1TB HDD

 

The first two year performance was okay, but lately i have been experiencing thermal throttling while playing games such as Squad, Genshin, and RDR2. Idle temp of CPU is 64-70 degree which is obviously bad (I live in tropical country, i expect around 50-60 degree when idle). So naturally i do what i think i should. Currently i have done :

- Cleaned the internal fan and stuffs

- Re applying the thermal paste on both GPU and CPU

- I tried undervolting, i uploaded the throttlestop setting, i may need help cause i dont understand a lot about undervolting.

 

If any of you guys can point out what i can do, it will be greatly appreciated. Oh, and please, dont put buying a new laptop as a suggestion, i know thats the end all be all solution but my money is need elsewhere currently.

 

Thank you

[Helpful Tech Witch]

What’s your temp while gaming?

[SwiftXShadow]

Most likely you will have to underclock the video card. About 10 years ago when i bought a laptop i had that problem from the start. As time went on i had to underclock it more, and more and more and more. If i didn't then the entire system would freeze.

 

Honestly it is just bad laptop architecture. But then again laptops really should not be used as a main pc for gaming because of this heating issue.

 

There is no actual fix to your problem that will not come at the cost of performance or buying a new computer.

[Covelight]

Look if anything constricts the airflow - maybe you laptop's bottom panel design is the cause of overheating

[unclewebb]

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/97185/intel-core-i7-7700hq-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-80-ghz.html

 

@reivelt The Intel spec for thermal throttling for a 7700HQ is 100°C. Your ThrottleStop screenshot shows that Gigabyte has set PROCHOT Offset to 10 which has lowered the thermal throttling temperature (PROCHOT) from 100°C to only 90°C. This causes thermal throttling to start way sooner than it should.

 

Look in the ThrottleStop Options window. If there is a lock icon near the PROCHOT Offset setting then this setting cannot be adjusted. If PROCHOT Offset is not locked, you can lower the offset to increase the throttling temperature. Intel default for PROCHOT Offset is 0.

 

Unlocked

 

Locked

 

You have a 7th Gen processor. Looks like Gigabyte forgot to enable Speed Shift Technology. Check the Speed Shift box in the ThrottleStop TPL window to enable this and ThrottleStop will show SST in green on the main screen. Now you can use the Speed Shift EPP setting to control your CPU. If you change EPP from 0 to 128, your CPU will run a little slower but it will also run a little cooler. 

 

The CPU Core offset voltage should be set equal to or higher than the CPU cache offset voltage.

 

When your computer is idle at the desktop with only ThrottleStop open, what is reported for C0%? Some computers have a lot of unnecessary tasks running in the background which creates a lot of additional heat. The CPU never has a chance to idle down. Windows is very efficient when it is setup properly. Individual threads and cores hardly need to spend any time in the C0 state when a computer is idle. If you have a problem, look in the Task Manager and go to the Details tab to find out what is running on your computer. Get rid of what you do not need to be running all of the time. 

 

 

 

 

[reivelt]

On 8/30/2021 at 8:21 PM, HelpfulTechWizard said:

What’s your temp while gaming?

cpu reaching 95. gpu hovering around 85-90. Will post pic later after i get back to camp. thank you

 

On 8/30/2021 at 8:36 PM, SwiftXShadow said:

Most likely you will have to underclock the video card. About 10 years ago when i bought a laptop i had that problem from the start. As time went on i had to underclock it more, and more and more and more. If i didn't then the entire system would freeze.

 

Honestly it is just bad laptop architecture. But then again laptops really should not be used as a main pc for gaming because of this heating issue.

 

There is no actual fix to your problem that will not come at the cost of performance or buying a new computer.

thinking about undderclocking the gpu, never did that so im gonna look for answers for. thank you

Edited August 31, 2021 by reivelt
grammar

[reivelt]

On 8/31/2021 at 1:01 AM, unclewebb said:

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/97185/intel-core-i7-7700hq-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-80-ghz.html

 

@reivelt The Intel spec for thermal throttling for a 7700HQ is 100°C. Your ThrottleStop screenshot shows that Gigabyte has set PROCHOT Offset to 10 which has lowered the thermal throttling temperature (PROCHOT) from 100°C to only 90°C. This causes thermal throttling to start way sooner than it should.

 

Look in the ThrottleStop Options window. If there is a lock icon near the PROCHOT Offset setting then this setting cannot be adjusted. If PROCHOT Offset is not locked, you can lower the offset to increase the throttling temperature. Intel default for PROCHOT Offset is 0.

 

Unlocked

 

Locked

 

You have a 7th Gen processor. Looks like Gigabyte forgot to enable Speed Shift Technology. Check the Speed Shift box in the ThrottleStop TPL window to enable this and ThrottleStop will show SST in green on the main screen. Now you can use the Speed Shift EPP setting to control your CPU. If you change EPP from 0 to 128, your CPU will run a little slower but it will also run a little cooler. 

 

The CPU Core offset voltage should be set equal to or higher than the CPU cache offset voltage.

 

When your computer is idle at the desktop with only ThrottleStop open, what is reported for C0%? Some computers have a lot of unnecessary tasks running in the background which creates a lot of additional heat. The CPU never has a chance to idle down. Windows is very efficient when it is setup properly. Individual threads and cores hardly need to spend any time in the C0 state when a computer is idle. If you have a problem, look in the Task Manager and go to the Details tab to find out what is running on your computer. Get rid of what you do not need to be running all of the time. 

 

 

 

 

Great comprehensive guide. Thank you. Im currently testing it cause i just got back from the field.

 

Currently my CPU Offset value is -85.0 while the cache is -40.0. im gonna try if this is stable enough or not for now.

 

When idle in the desktop, C0 showing jumps from 5% to 25%. Im currently checking my task manager if there is any weird process running in the background.

[unclewebb]

25 minutes ago, reivelt said:

C0 showing jumps from 5% to 25%

That means there is LOTS of stuff running in the background or at least one or two badly behaving programs sucking up and wasting CPU cycles that could be best used for other tasks. Lots of room for improvement. 

 

 

For maximum performance, do not set Speed Shift EPP higher than 80. Where it says 128, you can edit that value. 

[reivelt]

1 minute ago, unclewebb said:

That means there is LOTS of stuff running in the background or at least one or two badly behaving programs sucking up and wasting CPU cycles that could be best used for other tasks. Lots of room for improvement. 

 

yep, i may have to do a fresh install. cause i have stopped a lot of processes and change the ones safe enough into manual start. The lowest i can get is this right now. And it will occasionally jumps to 20-30 for no reason at all.

 

Oh, i dont know if this is related, but the CPU fan never slow down. Like never ever slow down. the gigabyte software has a very limited option on fan control (max speed, auto, and manual that range between 55-80%).

 

Thank you for your help. The sst, and other stuffs really help turn down the temps to 56-61 when idle. still some work to do tho. Gonna update when i finish fresh install

[unclewebb]

@reivelt Use the Task Manager Details tab. The Processes tab is not accurate on Intel's mobile CPUs.

 

You can also try using the Resource Monitor. It keeps a running total of CPU usage so something spiking on a regular basis will be easier to see in that list. 

 

Your C0% could be better but it is not horrible like it was. 

 

 

[reivelt]

@unclewebbyea, thank you for your helped. it really does make a different.

 

i tried running games, after about 30 min playing in 34 degree Celcius (93.2 fahrenheit) room temp (i know, it is hot), the game started throttling again and it is the GPU now. I might undervolt the GPU, but the core clock when the throttling happens was so low, imma have to it little by little to see which is stable.