GTX780m Temps - A little High?

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Xaser04

Member
Hi all,

After receiving my Vortex IV at the weekend and having to spend half the day reinstalling Windows 8 because 8.1 bugged out, I finally got around to play some games / run some benchmarks on it. In the course of doing so I have noticed that my 780m is often hitting the thermal limit of 93 degrees. This happens in both Crysis 3 & 3DMark11.

Apart from the temperature reading nothing else seems to be untoward. Crysis 3 shows no sign of artifacts or crashing. General performance is quite frankly epic for a laptop (My desktop is a 3770K / GTX780 system).

Whilst everything seems to run fine I am a little concerned with the temperatures being this high - more from a longevity point of view.

Reading up on the Notebook review forums leads me to believe a GPU Thermal re-paste is in order. This seems to be a pretty standard affair on the Clevo P170SM models.

What is everyone else seeing on the 780m when gaming?

Note - I bought my laptop through Ebuyer who I assume bought it directly from PCSpecialist? All of the documentation and the boxes return address are for PCS rather than Ebuyer.

As a second note I have a Blu Ray Drive yet no Blu Ray software (Cyberlink etc). I assume given my circumstance I should raise this with Ebuyer first?
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
Are you using a laptop cooler? Was there an option to upgrade the thermal paste? You could try pressing fn+1 to blast the fans to maximum speed, if the temperature you are recording is the highest one I wouldn't be concerned unless it is the average temp.
 
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Xaser04

Member
Temperatures are recorded by MSI Afterburner and are consistent with 99% load in Crysis 3 / 3DMark11. They also don't change much if the back is raised or running raised on a modified laptop cooler (modified to provide better airflow through the fans).

No option to change thermal paste, I assume it came with the standard stuff.

EDIT: FN+F1 just turns off the trackpad.
 
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darsmi

Bronze Level Poster
Hi xaser.....I have 2x 680m on my vortex 3 and I have the same temps(93) maximum. I too was worried.

But I've heard different story's ......some say 93 is fine but elsewhere I've heard it's too high.

Also....what do you mean by " hitting the thermal limit" ?

Regards
 
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Niao

Bronze Level Poster
I have benchmarked the P150SM and the 780M with Unigine in full spec and reached 82degrees and I have the Mx4 paste and a Zalman NC-2000 cooling stand.
I have also read ppl repasting and reaching 71 degrees at max. 93 seems quite high but maybe your fans are the issue.

mjep.png
 
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Xaser04

Member
Ok quick update, tried the following:

- Run on a modified cooling stand (modified to allow better airflow) - Still GPU temperatures peak at 93 degrees
- Raised up at the back (1 1/2 inches roughly) - No change in peak temperatures (in fact no obvious change in GPU temps at all)
- Run without the back cover on (apparantly according to the NBR forums this saw drops from 94 to 80 degrees; Again no change in peak GPU temps
- Run a combo of the above with the fans set to max (FN+1) - Slight reduction in temps intially (expected) but still peaks at 93

Finally - Re-paste of GPU with Artic Silver 5 - Slight reduction in temps but peaks are still the same. Crysis 3 seems to be a little better now as the GPU doesn't throttle back as much (849 --> 710Mhz).

None of the above show a drop in GPU temps beyond 1-2 degrees. Peaks are still reaching 93 whilst running Unigine Heaven.

In all cases performance is as expected for this class of GPU. Scoring 7.8K in 3DMark11 and Crysis 3 runs smooth (High settings).

The actual GPU heatsink design seems quite poor compared to the likes of the MSI GT70 or M17/18x. The actual method of putting pressure via the screws seems somewhat flawed as the little ring tabs arn't pushed down by the straight tabs (where the screws go).

My only thought now is possibly something awry with the heatsink assembly itself or possibly just the contact area (No obvious bends or issues that I could see with the naked eye).
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
What modified cooling stand are you using? You may need to wait a bit for the new thermal paste to kick in, I haven't played Crysis 3 but the highest temperature I got was around 90 degrees with an average of 80 without a cooling stand.
 
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Xaser04

Member
Some Akasa thing designed for 17" laptops. It has two 80mm fans blowing air at the bottom of the laptop. It has been modified by removing the fan covers (increased airflow) & by adding blocks to the back to raise the laptop up.

EDIT: Just to clarify the temps during a Unigine Valley run at between 88 and 93 degrees.
 
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Xaser04

Member
Quick update:

Ran Crysis 3 for around 45 minutes last night and apart from a few moments where it peaked above 90 degrees it stayed mostly around the 86-88 range. Not one instance of thottling from the 849Mhz boost clock which was nice as before it would drop down to 710Mhz.

Unigine Heaven peaks at 91 degrees rather than 94 like previous and again stays mostly below 90 for the majority of the run.

Overall a little on the hot side but acceptable for the moment.

I have sent an email to tech support requesting whether they can send out some of the little screws holding the GPU core heatsink down.
 
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Xaser04

Member
Quick update again:

Re-pasted the GPU with Artic MX-2 (found this cheap in Currys of all places...) and I am very pleased with the results.

With the back of the laptop on and playing BF3 for 30 minutes or so, temperatures stay in the mid to low 80's range with a couple of peaks to 88 degrees. Same story with looping Unigine Valley but temps peaked at only 85 degrees.

Huge improvement compared to my previous re-paste. I am starting to think that my AS5 may have expired, MX-2 shouldn't show that much of a cooling improvement in isolation.

Huge smile on my side though as it means I can just game on the laptop without worrying about temps any more. No more running with the back off and the laptop cooler blowing air directly on the GPU heatpipes to keep temps below 90 degrees.

:)

Quick pic of my idle temps from around 10 minutes ago (Ambient is around 18 degrees):

Temps_zps3ea0c56f.png


GPU is currently say at 31 degrees.
 
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