Acer Predator 17X GX-792-752

Hi, i am experiencing some baaad trmperatures here with the new predator 17X. The thermal problem is only related to the 7820HK processor. The GPU temps are awesome. I just benched the notebook with unigine valley, on the normal preset in predatorsense the CPU gets to 91 degrees. this is not normal. when overclocked to 4.2 Ghz it gets to 100 degrees, voltage also explodes, gets to 1.3V. really??? why? you don't even need 1.2V... GPU temps are awesome, 78 degrees max on 1900+ Mhz, all of this OC from predatorsense of course. on normal preset you can't even hear the fans at all and CPU gets to 91 degrees. we need a better fan profile to ramp up the fans a bit for the CPU. although on the turbo preset the fans are maxed out but they can't cool the CPU, throttling also kicks in. on this scenario, the CPU voltage is much higher than needed. Does anyone have some ideea how to permanently fix this? Or should i wait for a bios update with better tuned EC firmware? This laptop is such a great device, it doesn't deserve to be ruined by minor lack of tweaks that have such an impact on cooling and performance, and ultimately, user experience. Looking forward for some advices. I can provide more info on the issue if needed. Thank you!

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vorob

Usual thing for latest Acer lappies. Repaste it by yourself or change it in shop.

Robitzik

Won't i lose the warranty if i do repaste? i'm a little confused as i don't see any void sticker anywhere, neither on the screws as usual. i would really want to apply some good ol' quality arctic silver paste Smiley Wink

the factory one is always sooo bad, the application aswell

vorob

Nope, there are no any warranty stickers. You even don't need to remove the motherboard to take off cooling system. Thx acer for that Smiley Happy

Robitzik

mate, this really saved me. i really wanted a laptop that offers possibility for maintenance against dust and ability of repasting when needed. very happy with my choice. still, they really need to update the bios, 1.3V on the processor is way to much, or at least update the predatorsense with useful features like custom OC and voltages. Thanks a lot for the info!

Rosk4

Hey, how much did the temps drop after repasteing? need the info because same problem with same gear Smiley Very Happy

Robitzik

I ordered some nice Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, tomorrow should arrive and i'll post some temps after repaste, with different scenarios with the OC profiles from PredatorSense of course. I can't wait myself to repaste and do some tests. I also saw on the net that the latest Alienware laptops have overheat issues aswell. This is not really overheat to say so, i learned that Kaby Lake is designed to run as hot as 100 degrees celsius, but anyway, it's strange

ven98

Let us know if you have found any void stickers, because I am planning to do a repaste as well, but don't want to lose warranty. THERE ARE SOME PREDATORS THAT HAVE VOID STICKERS.

jake_angelson

In my case predator 15 g9-593 there is no void stickers and also I repasted mine the temps now on CPU is around 70-80 deg, max on stress test (prime95) is 84 deg, on GPU much cooler around 75-79 deg max. Im using arctic silver 5. you can also undervolt using Intel XTU it will drop temps to 3-5 deg more.

Rosk4

Hey Robitzik, how is your repaste going? Smiley Surprised Any huge thermal drops i want to hear? Smiley Happy

beststevie

if you open anything else than the "serviceable area" (the Batterie and Storage Area) you should always loose your warranty.

If I'm wrong I learned something very new!

Robitzik

Well, maybe it's a little different now. at least as i noticed. none of the case's screws have void stickers and nowhere on the exterior. so this allows to at least take off the bottom cover completely to do some dust cleanup. the only void sticker i found inside the laptop is located on the GPU's heatsink bracket. so if you plan on getting off the cooling system to repaste, YOU WILL LOSE YOUR WARRANTY. but guess what, my laptop already came in voided, directly from the factory. the void sticker was already damaged by screwdriver. i am the first and only owner, when i unboxed my brand new laptop, the seals on the packaging were intact, so it's definitely not a refurbished product, especially from a store. this is not an OK thing from Acer. they have serious quality control issues. i don't really care, i would have repasted it anyway because of the poor quality paste they used. but if you are a person who doesn't want to lose warranty in case something goes wrong with the laptop, if you receive a product already voided from factory, then you are screwed, bigtime

Robitzik

Now, about thermals... The paste they used on the CPU is very bad. when i took off the heatsink, it was dried up completely, did not have that "creamy" state as paste usually has, when i was cleaning it off, it was like breaking up, not a tad sticky. the paste on the GPU on the other hand was actually quite good. After repasting both CPU and GPU with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut, i had some nice improvements, 79C on the CPU running Intel Burn Test for a half hour on the normal preset in PredatorSense, and 82C running Unigine Valley, the GPU temp got a tad higher, 79C compared to 78C before repasting but i'll tell you right away the other improvement on GPU temps. So i decided to ramp up things is PredatorSense to Turbo preset. I got 96C running Intel Burn test, but throttle kicked in and kept the CPU only at 3.7 GHz, instead of the OC 4.2GHz, maintaining the same 96C temp. While running Unigine Valley, the CPU was on the same 96C, but there was no throttle, it ran smoothly on almost 4.3GHz, with GPU temps of about 74C instead of 81C before repasting, on OC preset. The GPU temperature improvement came in only on the OC preset, you saw that on the normal one it was higher, and also before repasting it was higher on OC. CPU temps are nice, but not on OC. The biggest problem here is not the thermal solution, nor the cooling system, it is the CPU voltage, it always ran on 1.2 or 1.3 Volts. that, my friends, is very high, excessive. You barely need 1.1V to run @4.2GHz. that's why i insisted so much on BIOS level OC control. i really don't want to use Intel XTU, but for the sake of testing and sharing the information, i will. We still need to ask Acer to provide an OC BIOS for laptops with unlocked processors. they can't just leave these laptops to use the maximum voltage even if not needed. Oh, also the GPU hits the power limit on PerfCap @1860MHz, although it is advertised at 1911MHz, but i don't think it really matters that much. These things hurt user experience and possible future buyers of their products. The OC BIOS is all i want, beside that i am totally satisfied with this laptop, it's awesome. Unigine Valley scores are extremely nice, normal preset score: 3912, turbo preset score: 4439

Robitzik

Any opinion on all these, guys?

Karp-Acer_Retired

We suggest you check the articles below for overheating laptop.

https://us.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/6695#_ga=1.258119689.263337500.1415824428

https://us.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/418#_ga=1.258119689.263337500.1415824428

If this does not help and you believe your computer is overheating, the computer may need you may need to Acer support for repair in your region.

https://www.acer.com/worldwide/

Robitzik

Thank you very much for trying to help. There are no issues of this kind, the laptop is always on a flat surface, well ventilated, no dust built up as it is brand new, i barely have the laptop from the start of the month. keep in mind that it is the i7 7820HK and gtx 1080 model. The real problem here, from all my tests and statistics, are the voltages. Please, someone from the Acer crew provide some info if we will be getting an OC bios or a better optimized one at least, with some tweaks on the CPU side? Alienware seems to have solved the problems that i am facing on my Acer...

Robitzik

Ok... So i've made some tests with Intel XTU undervolting... without undervolt, stock voltages with stress test, XTU shows CPU package temperature of 84C... with the best undervolt i could achieve of -0.120V, CPU package temperature was 81C... when overclocked to 4.3Ghz with PredatorSense, it registered temps of 97C and throttling all over the place, same said when i could barely get a -0.100V undervolt on the OC profile, still getting 96-97C temps and of course throttling...i saw 7700HQ doing a better job because it was running full performance with no throttle. CPU cooling on this computer is soooo bad... i expected a stable device in 2017 after paying 2700 Euros... first time trying Acer, and maybe the last too

ven98

CPU cooling is bad, because of the triangular shape and the 3 screws holding it. They could have chosen a better design and this wouldn't happen.

Robitzik

Yes you are right about the triangular shape, partially. i have seen this problem on Alienware laptops with the uneven spread of the heatsink over the CPU. it's not the case here, with the 17X. after seeing the Alienware problems, i started looking for these kinds of issues and other ones too on my Acer, the bracket is very well secured, surprinsigly even, and well thought out, without applying unnecessary pressure on the CPU and all three corners have equal distance after my measurement. the whole cooling system also is very heavy compared to other ones i've took down, it's sturdy, has no flex and does not move at all after fixing it into place. i really have very few ideas, almost none, why the temperatures are so high. i've never seen such high temperatures on a CPU and i've tested A LOT of notebooks and PC's, disassembled and repaired and all the stuff. Look at the monstruous cooling system on MSI's Titan Pro, it makes you wonder a bit why did they bother to put such cooling on a system that has the same specs as our Predator from Acer, that thing has a ton of heatpipes. I wanna see what temps do other people get on the 17X, so please, if anyone else has a GX-792, post some info here so we can compare across multiple devices, we need all the help we can get

vorob

I've got G9 (593) with 6700HQ CPU. Same issue, normal temperature on GPU and high on CPU. Acer replaced motherboard and cooling, but problem is still there.

As i understand, you can't tighten screws forever. There is some kind of a block so you won't damage your motherboard. My guess is that this block it too high, and cooling system is not strongly pressed on CPU. I changed termalpaste and downvolted cpu -0.130, and from now my temperatuce will never go higher then 85C in real applications and games. Its okay for now, cause before i had around 98...

Robitzik

i am positive that the culprit is not the cooling solution. the heatsink is top notch. look at the GPU temps, they are amazing for such heat the chip produces compared to the CPU. i will try to research your argument too, with the block not touching the CPU properly. if you lift the block and there are tiny spear like paste dots remaining on the CPU surface, it means the block did not apply enough pressure and didn't even out the paste on the surface, dragging paste after it when you lift it and leaving those dots. if that's the case i'll try to mod some extra pressure on the CPU bracket, not too much as the die can crack. as you saw, repasting did not help too much on the CPU side, but worked very well with the GPU. also undervolt didn't help (to my surprise), so the CPU block contact pressure could be the issue

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