Severe downclock when gaming

[Aizenwolfe]

So guys, i just bought an Acer Swift 3 with i5-8250u, MX150 GPU and 8GB of RAM, i have no problem with everyday task using this laptop like Microsoft Office, watching videos etc but the problem comes when i try to game, at first its just like every other laptop when gaming, the temps are getting up, the fan started to spin faster, and the surface getting hotter, none of this are a problem to me. The problem comes after several minutes of playing the game (like 20-30 minutes), the CPU starts to downclock itself slowly to as low as 0.7GHz which makes the game stutter a lot, and when i check the temps using HWINFO and AIDA64, the CPU temps hovers around 70c-75c and it doesnt even thermal throttle, and the MX150 hovers around 85c-90c, i already undervolt the CPU using Intel XTU (-0.100 V) but keeps on getting the same results.

 

Anybody knows the problem and got solutions for me?

[cbhagberg]

Might be VRM or some other power component overheating. does it happen if you run prolonged stress tests?

[Aizenwolfe]

On 12/09/2018 at 11:46 PM, cbhagberg said:

Might be VRM or some other power component overheating. does it happen if you run prolonged stress tests?

I haven't tried any stress test that runs the CPU and GPU at the same time but i have stress tested the CPU and the temps never goes higher than 75c and there is no sign of thermal throttling, at least that what's written in AiDA64, do you know any software that stress both the CPU and GPU? @cbhagberg

 

And that downclock happens when i'm playing FIFA 18, right now i'm downloading other games so i can try and see if it happen in other game too or just the FIFA.

 

Edit: the problem occurs in other games too, probably will always happen if i stress both the CPU and GPU.

Edited September 14, 2018 by Aizenwolfe

[Falkentyne]

Could be the MX150 GPU (whatever that is) overheating and triggering the CPU to throttle.

Fastest way to test that is to download Throttlestop 8.70, uncheck "BD Prochot" and then see if the problem still happens.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/

 

If it doesn't happen anymore, you still are going to have to deal with the GPU temps.  You may need to do some research on how to "re-paste" your model (almost every laptop out there has been repasted by SOMEONE, so hit up google and youtube and do your research).  I suggest buying Coolermaster Gel Maker Nano for your laptop and NOT Grizzly Kryonaut.  Kryonaut has been known to be horrendously bad on low pressure weak fitting laptop heatsinks (in other words, temps start out great for 1 week then slowly get worse than stock).

[Aizenwolfe]

On 13/09/2018 at 4:11 AM, Falkentyne said:

Could be the MX150 GPU (whatever that is) overheating and triggering the CPU to throttle.

Fastest way to test that is to download Throttlestop 8.70, uncheck "BD Prochot" and then see if the problem still happens.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/

 

If it doesn't happen anymore, you still are going to have to deal with the GPU temps.  You may need to do some research on how to "re-paste" your model (almost every laptop out there has been repasted by SOMEONE, so hit up google and youtube and do your research).  I suggest buying Coolermaster Gel Maker Nano for your laptop and NOT Grizzly Kryonaut.  Kryonaut has been known to be horrendously bad on low pressure weak fitting laptop heatsinks (in other words, temps start out great for 1 week then slowly get worse than stock).

Yeah i monitored the MX150 temps and it reaches 90c on max load, i suspect that my laptop cooling solution is not powerful enough to cool both GPU and CPU at the same time. I'll try your BD Prochot solution soon, but at the moment i found a solution(not a good one though), by limiting the GPU temps to 70c-75c so the CPU doesn't throttle itself that bad, the bad thing is, the MX150 only reaches 1000-1200mhz while on max performance, it able to hit 1500-1700mhz.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, is there any other good thermal paste beside the one you suggested? Or would liquid metal cooling a better solution to solve my problem?

 

Edit: already unchecked BD Prochot on Throttlestop, problem still occurs. I definitely have to repaste my laptop with a good thermal paste or a liquid metal, is there anyway to change the temps limit for my cpu? It wont go higher than 75c no matter what happen @Falkentyne

Edited September 14, 2018 by Aizenwolfe
Follow-up

[genexis_x]

2 hours ago, Aizenwolfe said:

i suspect that my laptop cooling solution is not powerful enough to cool both GPU and CPU at the same time

The cooling solution is decent. Might be due to bad thermal paste which is common in Acer laptops.

 

TG Kryonaut is fine as long as the heatsink doesn't have any damage. Here is a guide:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/which-thermal-paste-to-buy-and-apply-traditional-and-liquid-metal.806840/

[Aizenwolfe]

17 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

The cooling solution is decent. Might be due to bad thermal paste which is common in Acer laptops.

 

TG Kryonaut is fine as long as the heatsink doesn't have any damage. Here is a guide:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/which-thermal-paste-to-buy-and-apply-traditional-and-liquid-metal.806840/

Yeah i do think so too, would applying thermal pads on the VRM helps @GeneXiS_X ? I really wanted to use liquid metal but i'm scared because it so conductive and would definitely kill my laptop if i made a mistake.

[genexis_x]

7 minutes ago, Aizenwolfe said:

Yeah i do think so too, would applying thermal pads on the VRM helps @GeneXiS_X ? I really wanted to use liquid metal but i'm scared because it so conductive and would definitely kill my laptop if i made a mistake.

I don't think it's VRM related

 

LM in Ultrabooks/regular laptops isn't necessary, a good non conductive paste will do the job fine

[Aizenwolfe]

9 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

I don't think it's VRM related

 

LM in Ultrabooks/regular laptops isn't necessary, a good non conductive paste will do the job fine

Well I dont think i have the courage either to apply LM to my laptop, there are just too many risk but, if it could cool down my temps aggresively then maybe i'll consider using LM. @GeneXiS_X

[genexis_x]

10 minutes ago, Aizenwolfe said:

Well I dont think i have the courage either to apply LM to my laptop, there are just too many risk but, if it could cool down my temps aggresively then maybe i'll consider using LM. @GeneXiS_X

9 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

a good non conductive paste will do the job fine

 

[cbhagberg]

I did a test on my Asus GL703G with i7 8750H and 1070.

Swapping the paste on both CPU and GPU to a high perf one dropped the temp during 5 runs of heaven benchmark with about 15 degrees on average on CPU.

 

Tried the same with LM (Condutonaut) on CPU, it dropped by an additional 2,5-3 degrees on average at the same test.

Swapped back to paste and is still 15 below the standard paste. Asus applied a LOT of it, way to much if you ask me.

 

What I did notice was that the Intel ETU no longer showed thermal throttling as much.

 

After I played around a bit with the setting for volt and thermal limit, the throttling disappeared all together, and it is a bit quieter.

[Aizenwolfe]

On 15/09/2018 at 10:03 PM, cbhagberg said:

I did a test on my Asus GL703G with i7 8750H and 1070.

Swapping the paste on both CPU and GPU to a high perf one dropped the temp during 5 runs of heaven benchmark with about 15 degrees on average on CPU.

 

Tried the same with LM (Condutonaut) on CPU, it dropped by an additional 2,5-3 degrees on average at the same test.

Swapped back to paste and is still 15 below the standard paste. Asus applied a LOT of it, way to much if you ask me.

 

What I did notice was that the Intel ETU no longer showed thermal throttling as much.

 

After I played around a bit with the setting for volt and thermal limit, the throttling disappeared all together, and it is a bit quieter.

Well, i guess i really need to change the thermal paste, my CPU speed goes down even lower now, to 0.45GHz @cbhagberg

[genexis_x]

5 minutes ago, Aizenwolfe said:

my CPU speed goes down even lower now, to 0.45GHz

I think it's not thermal related

 

Does it still under warranty? If yes then return it, there might be problem with the mobo (hardware side or BIOS/firmware related)

[Aizenwolfe]

13 hours ago, GeneXiS_X said:

I think it's not thermal related

 

Does it still under warranty? If yes then return it, there might be problem with the mobo (hardware side or BIOS/firmware related)

Yes it is, i just bought this laptop like two weeks ago. i'm going to take this laptop to the Acer Customer Service, i do think from the start that this downclock problem is not normal at all, i suspected the thermal first because the chassis is so thin. @GeneXiS_X