Are my temps too high? (Helios 300)

Jonsy

Recently bought an Helios 300 and noticed my i7 8750H reached a 96° temperature spike while gaming (BF1, ultra settings). My CPU idles at 0-1% with temperatures of about 50°. Should I return it or try undervolting?

Red-Sand

While nothing "bad" will happen from having temps that high, it will however "thermal throttle" your speeds which decreases performance (Which is not acceptable!)

I recommend you try out the two videos below.
The first one gives general optimization tips for windows (You'd be surprised how many resources windows eats!)
The second shows how to undervolt your CPU to remove power limit throttling and thermal throttling.
Note: For the i7-8750H instead of setting the undervolt to -0.125 for CPU core/cache as shown in the video, instead set it to -0.140 for BOTH CPU core/cache.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTPMwQKlfPE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3v3o21M8gg

Red-Sand

While nothing "bad" will happen from having temps that high, it will however "thermal throttle" your speeds which decreases performance (Which is not acceptable!)

I recommend you try out the two videos below.
The first one gives general optimization tips for windows (You'd be surprised how many resources windows eats!)
The second shows how to undervolt your CPU to remove power limit throttling and thermal throttling.
Note: For the i7-8750H instead of setting the undervolt to -0.125 for CPU core/cache as shown in the video, instead set it to -0.140 for BOTH CPU core/cache.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTPMwQKlfPE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3v3o21M8gg

Jonsy

@Red-Sand Thank you. I actually had already followed the Windows Optimization Guide (btw thank you, didn't know was yours) but left some things on to allow Skype and my mic to function properly. I followed your suggestion and tried your second guide as well. Went for a quick test-drive on BF1 (20 min) and now the situation seems much improved (peak temperature was 84°). Only question is: what about turbo limits and tpl settings? Should they be the same as for the i7 7770HQ? For the limits I went with max 41 and the rest 39. Also, would there be a way to turn on your custom fan profile only when gaming and leave it to auto for everything else?

Red-Sand

Ah I forgot to mention that! Good thing you caught it!

The turbo limits basically limit CPU speeds and for the i7-7700HQ I had found that any game + streaming at 3.2GHz on all cores worked perfectly.

For the i7-8750H to be running all cores at stock speeds and maintain 84 C is quite impressive!

Note: Even if you set all cores to 41 that doesn't mean all cores will operate at 4.1GHz.(Example)
I believe 41 and the rest 39 is a perfect setup as when a single core for the i7-8750H is running full tilt it maxes at 4.1GHz and when all cores are active they cap at 3.9GHz.

TPL settings will vary depending on usage. It basically sets the voltage to the CPU (increases battery life etc).
You may want to check if the TPL setting is capping your CPU speeds.

Jonsy

Red-Sand said:

Ah I forgot to mention that! Good thing you caught it!

The turbo limits basically limit CPU speeds and for the i7-7700HQ I had found that any game + streaming at 3.2GHz on all cores worked perfectly.

For the i7-8750H to be running all cores at stock speeds and maintain 84 C is quite impressive!

Note: Even if you set all cores to 41 that doesn't mean all cores will operate at 4.1GHz.(Example)
I believe 41 and the rest 39 is a perfect setup as when a single core for the i7-8750H is running full tilt it maxes at 4.1GHz and when all cores are active they cap at 3.9GHz.

TPL settings will vary depending on usage. It basically sets the voltage to the CPU (increases battery life etc).
You may want to check if the TPL setting is capping your CPU speeds.

Thank you @Red-Sand. Could you exapand on TLP settings? Right now I have these:

Also, would there be a way to turn on your custom fan profile only when gaming and leave it to auto for everything else?

Red-Sand

Turbo boost short and long are like this..

Your CPU initially runs at the high package power (short) for 28 seconds when given a single large task such as rendering a file.
After that 28 seconds it reverts to the lower package power (long) for the remainder.

This basically adjusts the voltages sent to the CPU to give it a "soft cap" to help with temps etc.

Enable speed shift os just like it sounds. It enables speed shift. 
Speed shift epp is like this: 
0-255 
0 = Maximum performance of CPU
255 = Less performance but better temps/battery life
128 Ive found to be a good balance of the values.

Intel power balance adjusts how much ppwer is goven to the CPU and Intel GPU and distributes to the values set. This can also help with temps.

As far as I know there's no way to have profiles for the fan automatically adjust. My custom fan setting was the easiest way to get devent cooling and have the fans auto off when they aren't needed (sub 40 C)

Th3Pingu

My CPU and GPU both reach 95-96C while playing Witcher 3 on ultra. I've undervolted and underclocked the CPU to -100 and 2.8 and repasted both of them with the Arctic Silver 5. I have a G3-571(i7 and GTX 1060). Should I try a liquid metal thermal paste or is my laptop a goner?