helios 300 G3-571

pisco2183

Just got the laptop yesterday from amazon and after updating windows and bios to the latest version i loaded up gta 5. With coolboost on and fans set to auto the cpu temperature was around 85- 95. The game settings were set to very high and was using around 3100MB of the gpu memory. And the peak temperature went to 95 deg after 1 hr of gaming. Is undervolting the only way i can bring the temperatures down? or is there a safer way? Repasting? that doesnt sound safe either. Should i send this laptop back and buy a new one? Please help

 

MY settings: rest all are default

1. Changed power settings to balanced. 

2. Preferred graphic processor to nvidia

ALL my drivers are uptodate and the laptop works great for normal use. But whats the point of using a gaming laptop for normal use. Im disappointed with these heat values for the cpu. 

 

pisco2183

Just want to share. 
I have undervolted the cpu by -60 milli volts. and disabled turboboost in intel xtu and this thing works like magic. the temperatures stay below 75 now pleased to see these with high graphics still. also the temperature when normal use is around the same like 42deg as such. but when full on gaming for 3 hrs in gta5 the temperature were topping 72 thats all. hope it helps. 

Thank you all for ur sugessions. 

Flx

Undervolting is very reliable and simple to do, I would recommend it. You can repaste youself but it will void warranty, you can send it back to Acer also and have them do it but there's no guarantee it will be better. Some laptops of this batch seemed to have gotten a bad thermal paste job. Your ambient temperatures can also cause higher temps, like a hot room with no AC or airflow.

pisco2183

So do i return this laptop and ask for a replacement? cuz just now i tried to play the game and the temperature went to 88deg right off the bat. My room temperature is 70deg Farenheit so its cool. Or i have to return this laptop and get another option? 

Flx

You have a few options at this juncture. You can try lowering settings, you can try undervolting, you can either send the laptop back and have Acer repaste it or you can return it to wherever you bought and request a brand new Helios. I would seriously consider undervolting as it is simple and quick to do and it doesn't affect performance at all. If you aren't interested in that then yea sending it back is the next step.

pisco2183

Reducing the graphics, its only impating the gpu temperature donno why thats happenning but the cpu temperature arent dropping when i reduce the game graphics. The main problem is with the cpu temperature which is going to 88- 90+ peaks and the laptop feels like a furnace when i touch the metal over it. normally its staying at 84 average. But when im driving a car in gta5 the peak increases to 92 deg or so which seriously scares me. Do all gaming laptops go through this phase or its just acer series? 

 

-> I will try undervolting the laptop and check the temperatures. Also should i change the setting back to 0 after i am done playing the game ? or i can leave the setting like that for years without changing it? 

-> Would the life time of the laptop reduce by undervolting it? 

 

 

Flx

I understand what you're talking about with the CPU temps. If you use Intel Extreme Tuning Utility you can completely exit the program after undervolting and it will keep your undervolt settings. No need to set it every time. And no it won't reduce the life span, if anything it should extend it by bringing the temps down and pushing less voltage through the chip. Another side effect is it 'should' increase battery life off the charger but i'm not 100% sure on that. Mine seems to last longer but I haven't done any real testing with that personally.

 

And yes all/most gaming laptops inherently run a lot hotter, 92 while not optimum is still within operating parameters. This chip can go up to 100c before it shuts itself off, throttling usually starts around 90-95 if I remember correctly. Gaming laptops run hot in general. You can prop the back end of the laptop up with a book or something (make sure it doesn't block the cooling vents) or set it on a laptop stand or other raised surface. Also since this laptop has cooling vents shooting out the back, make sure there's enough room behind the laptop to vent properly so that the hot air doesn't get immediately sucked back in (say if the laptop was a few inches from the wall, move it away).

pisco2183

thanks for the replies they are really helpful. Theres one last clarification i require before i go ahead with undervolting.

 
-> Would it affect the performance of my cpu if the temperatures are between 88-95 with 24 hrs of gaming or more ?? 

-> Also I've observed the mouse pointer freezing when i try to install a program. Like when i get the User Account control interface the mouse stops for a second and then when i press yes or no then again it stops. This isnt a big deal but a lil annoying. Is it possible to prevent this from happenning? 

 

Once again thank u so much for ur input. 

Flx

You're welcome, hope you find some resolution that works for you. First question simple answer is No. The only time performance should be affected is if the CPU throttles itself due to temperature. Other than that no performance will not be affected; however there is another thing to consider here is the components that support the CPU (cooling system for example) will be subject to more stress over time. I've done a couple of long gaming marathons in Fallout 4 and the laptop performed fine the entire time (albeit I was capping frames at 60 so that could affect results).

 

Also some personal advice (you may know this) but remember to get up and walk around a little and stretch your legs for long gaming sessions, every hour or two you should walk around a little (also helps to take strain off your eyes). Maybe get a drink or use the restroom.

 

For the UAC thing you can try disabling it altogether, I'm not really sure what causes the freezing (it could be something in Win 10) but I have heard of someone else having the same issue and they weren't able to resolve by the normal troubleshooting.

Sorig

Of course lowering your settings in games is not going to change the CPU temperatures as graphical settings have little effect on CPU overhead anyway and lowering settings in your games is unacceptable since you bought a gaming laptop capable of playing with all the bells and whistles and you want to get all the performance you can from it.

 

In this scenario, repasting most likely is not going to lower the cpu temps by much and here's why: the default fan curve in these laptops prioritizes low noise over low temperatures. This means that even with the best thermal paste in the world, the fan curve will still let the cpu hit 90c before the fans really kick in.

 

Undervolting is the only way you will get lower CPU temperatures. Download Intel's XTU and apply a -0.100v undervolt to the Core Voltage Offset.

Undervolting works because you are reducing the heat output by directly making the CPU produce less heat.

Flx

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Sorig wrote:

Of course lowering your settings in games is not going to change the CPU temperatures as graphical settings have little effect on CPU overhead anyway and lowering settings in your games is unacceptable since you bought a gaming laptop capable of playing with all the bells and whistles and you want to get all the performance you can from it.

 

In this scenario, repasting most likely is not going to lower the cpu temps by much and here's why: the default fan curve in these laptops prioritizes low noise over low temperatures. This means that even with the best thermal paste in the world, the fan curve will still let the cpu hit 90c before the fans really kick in.

 

Undervolting is the only way you will get lower CPU temperatures. Download Intel's XTU and apply a -0.100v undervolt to the Core Voltage Offset.

Undervolting works because you are reducing the heat output by directly making the CPU produce less heat.

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Lowering your settings can reduce temperature not really sure where you're getting this information from. If your processor and GPU are doing less work, the temps will go down. You're telling me the temps will be the same if I put a game on high vs a game on low? They won't be, I've experienced it first hand. Another example is playing a non demanding game vs a demanding game, the temps will be radically different because there is less load being put on the components.

 

And yes you bought a gaming laptop, but it's still restricted by it's graphical capabilities. You aren't going to max out every game with max resolution and bells and whistles with a 1060, sorry just not going to happen. A persons got to know their limitations.

 

Again, repasting has been shown to be a common issue on this board and a lot of Predator laptops have come with a less than stellar pasting job by Acer. Some people have repasted and solved the issue with their temps going down, others just undervolt.

 

Your information about the fan curves and low noise that is wrong also, trust me the manufacturers didn't prioritize low fan noise. Maybe on a normal laptop you will get major throttling to keep the fan from coming on until 90 but not these. You can definitely hear these suckers over a regular laptop fan and unless you're playing a non demanding game your fans will be 3k or more. My fans definitely do not wait until 90 to start kicking in, that's for absolute sure. You are correct about the undervolting but it is NOT the only way to reduce temps.

Sorig

Mate I know for a fact that a 1060 isn't going to max out every game out there. Still, a 1060 will do modern games at very high settings, 1080p 60fps, so why lower the settings to have the visuals on par with a lower end GPU. Waste.

I know lowering the gfx settings will result in lower GPU temperatures but also in higher fps>higher cpu usage>higher cpu temp. It balances out. Generally only few settings like draw distance affect the CPU that much. Most games, especially non open world games will still use just as much CPU whether you play on low or high settings.

Now I didn't claim the fans in these laptops are completely dead until 90c. I meant they will really rev up at this temperature. And by low noise I obviously meant low noise relatively to laptops.

I must admit I should've been more clear in my previous comment.

Flx

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Sorig wrote:
Mate I know for a fact that a 1060 isn't going to max out every game out there. Still, a 1060 will do modern games at very high settings, 1080p 60fps, so why lower the settings to have the visuals on par with a lower end GPU. Waste.

I know lowering the gfx settings will result in lower GPU temperatures but also in higher fps>higher cpu usage>higher cpu temp. It balances out. Generally only few settings like draw distance affect the CPU that much. Most games, especially non open world games will still use just as much CPU whether you play on low or high settings.

Now I didn't claim the fans in these laptops are completely dead until 90c. I meant they will really rev up at this temperature. And by low noise I obviously meant low noise relatively to laptops.

I must admit I should've been more clear in my previous comment.

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Okay this is much clearer. Cheers

pisco2183

Just want to share. 
I have undervolted the cpu by -60 milli volts. and disabled turboboost in intel xtu and this thing works like magic. the temperatures stay below 75 now pleased to see these with high graphics still. also the temperature when normal use is around the same like 42deg as such. but when full on gaming for 3 hrs in gta5 the temperature were topping 72 thats all. hope it helps. 

Thank you all for ur sugessions. 

Flx

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pisco2183 wrote:

Just want to share. 
I have undervolted the cpu by -60 milli volts. and disabled turboboost in intel xtu and this thing works like magic. the temperatures stay below 75 now pleased to see these with high graphics still. also the temperature when normal use is around the same like 42deg as such. but when full on gaming for 3 hrs in gta5 the temperature were topping 72 thats all. hope it helps. 

Thank you all for ur sugessions. 

---

Awesome, glad it worked for you! Just FYI you could probably bump that to -0.100 and see even better results. Also i'm curious why exactly did you disable turbo boost?

pisco2183

I watched a video on youtube https://youtu.be/DfDuUr0PoJY
And the youtuber gave me this link to follow http://www.geeks3d.com/20170213/how-to-disable-intel-turbo-boost-technology-on-a-notebook/ and i did as he said. Because he was getting amazing results. Earlier his laptop was worse than mine but after doing this process his temperatures dropped by 15 deg.
But i kind of underclocked it in the control panel. Didnt use the third party software like him. And in xtu i undervolted and disabled turboboost.

Flx

Interesting, thanks for the link. Are you still getting the same FPS you were before with Turbo boost disabled? Also how exactly did you disable it, the option is greyed out for me in XTU.

vicodinhit

One doubt about using XTU to undervolt the G3-571.

 

Steps I've followed: 

 

1.Install XTU.

2. Open XTU -> navigate to Advanced Tuning -> Core -> Change "Core Voltage Offset" to say -0.100V.

3. Click Apply. (Now I am not sure what is going on) After Apply I saved it as a new profile "Default_Undervolt".

4. Now if I restart the PC will this change be applied or do I need to open XTU for it to work? 

 

Please let me know. Thanks in advance!

Flx

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vicodinhit wrote:

One doubt about using XTU to undervolt the G3-571.

 

Steps I've followed: 

 

1.Install XTU.

2. Open XTU -> navigate to Advanced Tuning -> Core -> Change "Core Voltage Offset" to say -0.100V.

3. Click Apply. (Now I am not sure what is going on) After Apply I saved it as a new profile "Default_Undervolt".

4. Now if I restart the PC will this change be applied or do I need to open XTU for it to work? 

 

Please let me know. Thanks in advance!

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Yes that's all correct except the profile I don't think you have to save it (I never messed with it). The undervolt persists after a reboot and after sleep mode but I think after a Windows update or driver update (and maybe a full shut down?) you'll have to redo it.

Sorig

Clicking on "Aply" is all you need to do, but saving it as a profile allows you to quickly disable and reapply the undervolt by switching to the default profile and back just in case.

Intel's XTU settings should stick even when the program is not running but there are scenarios in which the settings will revert to defaults:

-If your computer crashes for whatever reason or if Windows isn't shut down properly for any reason, the settings will revert.
-If you do a restart, the settings may or may not revert. (In my experience).
-If you shut down your computer like normal then turn it back on, the settings will stick. (If fast boot is enabled. Enabled by default nowadays).
-If you shut down the computer while holding shift this counts as a restart the next time you turn it back on so the settings may or may not revert to defaults.
So basically anything that produces a FULL reboot will most likely revert settings to defaults.

Flx

Cool thanks for the info on the profiles, very useful