Predator Helios 300 GPU Throttling in games

MysticalBeluga

I recently purchased a new Predator Helios 300 (8th gen model) and lately while playing some games (mainly Destiny 2, although it sometimes happens in Rainbow Six Siege as well, these are the only games I have been playing on the laptop so far so I don't know if it would happen in others), my GPU has been underclocking itself down to around 100mhz (down from ~1800mhz generally), and then slowly climbing back up to its original speed over around 30 seconds. I'm pretty sure the issue isn't related to temperatures, as my GPU temperatures almost never exceed 75c (although my CPU does get relatively hot, I am getting a cooling pad to hopefully prevent this), and the throttling happens at seemingly random temperatures. It happens seemingly randomly, as sometimes it will go an hour or so without happening and sometimes it happens once every few minutes. I have tried a few things to fix it, such as setting the power management mode in the Nvidia control panel to 'prefer maximum performance'', as well as disabling Battery Boost in Geforce Experience. I have also adjusted some power plan settings in Windows, such as setting the Maximum Processor State to 99% while on battery and plugged in (not sure if this would do anything, I just saw it in a video about fixing an issue similar to mine). I might have also disabled Link State Power Management for my PCI Express, although I think this was already turned off, I disabled it if it wasn't.

Shayd

This could be a driver issue. What GPU do you have?

MysticalBeluga

Shayd said:

This could be a driver issue. What GPU do you have?

I have the GTX 1060 6gb version, I updated the drivers to their latest version in Geforce Experience the day I got the laptop, so I wouldn't think drivers would be an issue.

sri369

Try following the settings in the below thread and see if that helps.
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/551954/settings-to-reduce-temperatures-some-settings-to-lower-temperatures-and-increase-performance

MysticalBeluga

sri369 said:

Try following the settings in the below thread and see if that helps.
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/551954/settings-to-reduce-temperatures-some-settings-to-lower-temperatures-and-increase-performance

So I changed all my settings to mirror yours (except the MSI afterburner curve, when I did that my GPU got unstable and I couldn't launch games without them crashing). My temperatures seem to be slightly lower, although my CPU still gets pretty hot as well as the laptop itself (when playing games). I haven't noticed any major GPU throttling issues since I adjusted the settings, however since I changed all of those settings, my Destiny 2 has been crashing very often for some reason. I haven't tested any other games yet but I would assume the results would be the same. Do you have any idea what setting might be causing crashing issues and how I could fix it?

sri369

MysticalBeluga said:

sri369 said:

Try following the settings in the below thread and see if that helps.
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/551954/settings-to-reduce-temperatures-some-settings-to-lower-temperatures-and-increase-performance

So I changed all my settings to mirror yours (except the MSI afterburner curve, when I did that my GPU got unstable and I couldn't launch games without them crashing). My temperatures seem to be slightly lower, although my CPU still gets pretty hot as well as the laptop itself (when playing games). I haven't noticed any major GPU throttling issues since I adjusted the settings, however since I changed all of those settings, my Destiny 2 has been crashing very often for some reason. I haven't tested any other games yet but I would assume the results would be the same. Do you have any idea what setting might be causing crashing issues and how I could fix it?

Temperatures... your GPU seems to be running fine, don't alter it. You might not need MSI. So shut it down for now.

Start with undervolting the CPU first. And when you do any undervolting, as a thumb rule, when still testing, disable "start with windows" option, and run any benchmarking tool for atleast 5-10 mins. This way you can stress test to make sure it doesn't die when in games.

MysticalBeluga

sri369 said:

MysticalBeluga said:

sri369 said:

Try following the settings in the below thread and see if that helps.
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/551954/settings-to-reduce-temperatures-some-settings-to-lower-temperatures-and-increase-performance

So I changed all my settings to mirror yours (except the MSI afterburner curve, when I did that my GPU got unstable and I couldn't launch games without them crashing). My temperatures seem to be slightly lower, although my CPU still gets pretty hot as well as the laptop itself (when playing games). I haven't noticed any major GPU throttling issues since I adjusted the settings, however since I changed all of those settings, my Destiny 2 has been crashing very often for some reason. I haven't tested any other games yet but I would assume the results would be the same. Do you have any idea what setting might be causing crashing issues and how I could fix it?

Temperatures... your GPU seems to be running fine, don't alter it. You might not need MSI. So shut it down for now.

Start with undervolting the CPU first. And when you do any undervolting, as a thumb rule, when still testing, disable "start with windows" option, and run any benchmarking tool for atleast 5-10 mins. This way you can stress test to make sure it doesn't die when in games.

I've had my CPU undervolted to -125mV for a week or so and it's been doing fine from what I've seen (although it didn't really change my temps at all compared to when it wasn't undervolted for some reason). The crashes just started happening today after I changed my settings to mirror yours in that post, I don't want to revert all the settings but I'm not sure which specific one would be causing crashes.

sri369

MysticalBeluga said:

I've had my CPU undervolted to -125mV for a week or so and it's been doing fine from what I've seen (although it didn't really change my temps at all compared to when it wasn't undervolted for some reason). The crashes just started happening today after I changed my settings to mirror yours in that post, I don't want to revert all the settings but I'm not sure which specific one would be causing crashes.

Try closing MSI afterburner - simply closing the program will remove all its effects. And then check. Based on what you mentioned, it seems that GPU undervolting isn't working as intended on your laptop.

Diabolic89

I had this exact issue. I stopped using predator sense to overclock and used MSI afterburner to adjust the voltages and i have yet to see the issue return.

Red-Sand

If MSI and Predator Sense overclock is running at the same time, that could be the reason for the conflict as MSI unlocks voltage/clock controls.

MysticalBeluga

So I managed to get a stable underclock curve in MSI afterburner (from what I've tested so far). This is what the curve looks like:

I'll make sure to keep Predator Sense and MSI Afterburner not running at the same time and see how it performs. Thanks everyone for all the help so far.

Red-Sand

MysticalBeluga said:

So I managed to get a stable underclock curve in MSI afterburner (from what I've tested so far). This is what the curve looks like:

I'll make sure to keep Predator Sense and MSI Afterburner not running at the same time and see how it performs. Thanks everyone for all the help so far.

Predator Sense cam be ran just be sure to keep overclock set to "normal". 

sri369

MysticalBeluga said:

So I managed to get a stable underclock curve in MSI afterburner (from what I've tested so far). This is what the curve looks like:

I'll make sure to keep Predator Sense and MSI Afterburner not running at the same time and see how it performs. Thanks everyone for all the help so far.

You do not need predator sense if you have MSI going on. Also, seems like your card needs a little over 950 to be stable. Mine settled around 925. This is why I normally recommend people at 975. But nice, glad to see you got this resolved.

iFox1983

I do play D2 on Helios 300 GEForce 1060 almost daily and my issues while playing are the fan gets too loud and FPS drops. I have bought a cooling pad but it is still loud. Will this undervoling, somehow, solve the issues? Please assist
 

Red-Sand

iFox1983 said:

I do play D2 on Helios 300 GEForce 1060 almost daily and my issues while playing are the fan gets too loud and FPS drops. I have bought a cooling pad but it is still loud. Will this undervoling, somehow, solve the issues? Please assist
 

It can certainly help