Predator Titan 500 PT515-51 fps dropped dratically?

Badgersurfer

I have a 2019 Predator Titan 500 PT515-51 standard layout RTX2060, 16GB Ram 500gb NVme drive (also added a 1TB NVme Samsung drive... I am running Windows 11. The only games I use are Steam platform UBOAT, Train Sim World 2 and Myst. Up until January they were running fine around 50fps under Win 11. Then suddenly for no apparent reason Train Sim World 2 and Uboat started jogging along really chunkily i.e. the fps dropped to 10-14fps. I unistalled the Intel 630 UHD drivers and downloaded them from Acer site and reinstalled also I downloaded the Nvidia 474.xx drivers and did a clean install but this made no difference. I also run Photoshop, Premier, Freecad and Fusion 360 but these all seem to be performing fine. I have many years experience with computers so have gone through the obvious but this is confusing. Other than doing a factory reset which I have my doubts are there any ideas how I may track this down or fix it? I have added a screenshot of 3D Mark Demo from the Staem platform as well... 

[​//Edited the content to add model name]

GAMING6698

@Badgersurfer
First check if you CPU/GPU Temperatures are below 90Degree C while gaming?

Badgersurfer

GAMING6698 said:

@Badgersurfer
First check if you CPU/GPU Temperatures are below 90Degree C while gaming?

OK I am currently carrying out your optimising recommendations. Further to my original posts I noticed that the PredatorSense wasn't set to extreme for the specific programs I run although my Logi G Hub is. Anyway I set the Predatorsense to the specific programs for extreme. Running Train Sim World 2 (picture attached) I noticed that the fps was constantly jumping from around 10 fps (red) to 51 fps (Green) also I seemed mostly to be on 300 only occasionally jumping to 600. 

GAMING6698

@Badgersurfer
Optimization guide will not work because your Gpu is overheating.
You need to apply new thermal paste and clean air vents, fans.

Badgersurfer

GAMING6698 said:

@Badgersurfer
Optimization guide will not work because your Gpu is overheating.
You need to apply new thermal paste and clean air vents, fans.

Thanks for that info. That would explain the irratic behaviour. What would I expect to see max temp C for running a game like TSW2? Ironic, I vacuum the air vents every day when I use it as I have dogs and they kicks up a lot of dust.

GAMING6698

@Badgersurfer
Expect CPU/GPU Temperature below 85 degree C most of time.
Currently i have one Tip- Cap your fps to 40 from nvidia software and you will get good gaming experience and probably make your system cool

Need to clean air vents from inside and apply good quality thermal paste to completely solve your problem

Badgersurfer

GAMING6698 said:

@Badgersurfer
Expect CPU/GPU Temperature below 85 degree C most of time.
Currently i have one Tip- Cap your fps to 40 from nvidia software and you will get good gaming experience and probably make your system cool

Need to clean air vents from inside and apply good quality thermal paste to completely solve your problem

I have just ordered some Artic Thermal paste and while I am at it I am going to change the standard 500GB WDC PC SN720 SDA for a Samsung 980 PRO 1 TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 I already have a Samsung 1TB SSD 970 in the D drive.
I am going to complete the stuff you put in your guide as I haven't cleaned out and reinstalled the video drivers yet. I am pretty convinced they are the problem.
As a matter of interest is the repasting a common problem (i.e. poor manufacture) with these computers or is it something that needs to be done on a regular basis.
Also would you by any chance have any idea what benchmark I should expect with the Futuremark 3DMark Demo I used, (in my picture) as against the results I currently get?
I appreciate your assistance here

GAMING6698

@Badgersurfer
Just monitor your current fps and temperatures in games.

-First Cleaning air vents from inside is very important don't forgot about it 
Check this video also (not your laptop but get idea)
https://youtu.be/uB39PPoHBpo

Follow these for thermal paste applying-

You should use X method if you don't have spreader (shown in video)
https://youtu.be/LHOBRvXYqEg
-Never open heat sink again after applying thermal paste because air bubbles go inside and make things worst 

(Keep your laptop away from dust and cover it when you are not using)

billsey

It's also worth noting that the M.2 slot in your system handles NVMe 3.0 x4, the NVMe 4.0 drive will work at 3.0 speeds. If you purchase a 3.0 drive it will likely be a bit less expensive.

Badgersurfer

I am not totally happy.
I have cleaned my fans, vents and repasted my CPU and all the other required components with ARTIC MX-4 thermal paste but I am not totally happy. Firstly I had to remove the heatsink again and repaste it because the GPU only dropped to 52C. So I repasted and now it is 41-47 and seems to have fixed my overheating gpu. But I am not sure if the cpu is still too hot. When I first turned on the machine the CPU temp was jumping between 40C and 80C. I can only presume that maybe is was because the paste has to settle. It seems the cpu fan is running more than it was before, for example when I open the Chrome browser the cpu temp rises to 72. Day 2 and I reckon the average temp seems to settled down to CPU 69C GPU 50C. I  ran Adobe Premier to render a 4k video and the average cpu was 71 gpu50. When the render got to the end the CPU shot up to about 87 for a few seconds then the fan increased and dropped it to 75. I notice that the CPU temp jumps up and down quite a bit which is telling me whatever senses the temperature is dodgy. Can anyone throw any light on this please. Should I open it up again and use a different paste? I noticed the stuff that was on the cpu was like a sort of solder and wouldn't come off...So I cleaned it with the correct solutions and repasted it. The original blue thermal paste was a proper mess, and wasn't even put on properly.

GAMING6698

@Badgersurfer
-Did you also replace paste on Vram (pink paste) (You should only change paste on CPU/GPU, VRAM Paste are different)
-You applied too much paste on chip it will not work good, just look my above video and simply draw X on chip (X should be not too big or small it should be same as shown in video)
And never open heat again after drawing x on chips but otherwise air bubbles go Inside and everything become worst

Badgersurfer

GAMING6698 said:

@Badgersurfer
-Did you also replace paste on Vram (pink paste) (You should only change paste on CPU/GPU, VRAM Paste are different)
-You applied too much paste on chip it will not work good, just look my above video and simply draw X on chip (X should be not too big or small it should be same as shown in video)
And never open heat again after drawing x on chips but otherwise air bubbles go Inside and everything become worst

I replaced all of the paste on all the chips As in the picture above. I used the spatula method on the video you sent me. So by what you are sayinf I seem to have done this wrong so I will have to strip it, clean it and do it again. Can you recommend the best pastes that I need please. I cannot see anything with pink paste in the videos so I am not sure what you mean. Can you point out in my picture above which is the vram, cpu and gpu chips please. Could I use thermal pads instead of paste as the paste I used (Artic M4) which had very good reviews was horrible to apply especially the fact that it was stringy so I had to clean some of the strings off the M/B afterwards? I appreciate your help...

Badgersurfer

I replaced all of the paste on all the chips As in the picture above. I used the spatula method on the video you sent me. So by what you are sayinf I seem to have done this wrong so I will have to strip it, clean it and do it again. Can you recommend the best pastes that I need please. I cannot see anything with pink paste in the videos so I am not sure what you mean. Can you point out in my picture above which is the vram, cpu and gpu chips please. Could I use thermal pads instead of paste as the paste I used (Artic M4) which had very good reviews was horrible to apply especially the fact that it was stringy so I had to clean some of the strings off the M/B afterwards? I appreciate your help...

Badgersurfer

This is the M/B before I cleaned and repasted it. No pink stuff that I can see...

Badgersurfer

GAMING6698 said:

@Badgersurfer
-Did you also replace paste on Vram (pink paste) (You should only change paste on CPU/GPU, VRAM Paste are different)
-You applied too much paste on chip it will not work good, just look my above video and simply draw X on chip (X should be not too big or small it should be same as shown in video)
And never open heat again after drawing x on chips but otherwise air bubbles go Inside and everything become worst

Looking again at what you are saying I have noticed in my picture that I didn'y heatsink the 2 areas where the pins come through as they had blue thermal paste before. I presume where you say pink VRAM paste mine is the Blue. So where are the Blue thermal paste areas are could I use thermal heat pads instead? If not what do I need to get. When it comes to the CPU and GPU (which seems fine) they had what looked like silver solder between them as it won't clean off back to copper. Do I use the same paste I am using or get something else?

Badgersurfer

Badgersurfer said:

GAMING6698 said:

@Badgersurfer
-Did you also replace paste on Vram (pink paste) (You should only change paste on CPU/GPU, VRAM Paste are different)
-You applied too much paste on chip it will not work good, just look my above video and simply draw X on chip (X should be not too big or small it should be same as shown in video)
And never open heat again after drawing x on chips but otherwise air bubbles go Inside and everything become worst

Looking again at what you are saying I have noticed in my picture that I didn'y heatsink the 2 areas where the pins come through as they had blue thermal paste before. I presume where you say pink VRAM paste mine is the Blue. So where are the Blue thermal paste areas are could I use thermal heat pads instead? If not what do I need to get. When it comes to the CPU and GPU (which seems fine) they had what looked like silver solder between them as it won't clean off back to copper. Do I use the same paste I am using or get something else?

I have been looking at a lot of stuff on the net and see what you mean. I have I have ordered a sheet of Artic pad so I will put it on the vram i.e. everything that had the Blue and redo the CPU/GPU with the silver paste again. Hopefully that will fix it.

JackE

I suggest that you temporarily hold off pushing the gaming load limits on this machine until the updated Win11 thermal framework driver and others are released at this link. I'm now recommending to other users to avoid the temptation to accept Microsoft's Win11 invitation at least until all the ACER OEM Win11 drivers are in place. In my opinion, Win10 is still little more than half-baked. Win11 is way less than half-baked.

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7905?b=1

billsey

Also, your pictures all show paste after it's been taken apart. Show us what it looks like just before you put it together so we can better judge the coating that will be there.

Badgersurfer

billsey said:

Also, your pictures all show paste after it's been taken apart. Show us what it looks like just before you put it together so we can better judge the coating that will be there.

The top picture with the silver paste is just before I put it together. The Blue paste is when I took it apart. So when I put it together after the silver paste (Artic M4) picture the GPU stayed below 50C but the CPU seems to stay around 69-72 and suddenly jumps to 80 under load but only for a second. I didn't realise that the silver paste was only for the CPU/GPU so I ordered a sheet of Artic 0.5 thermal pad to do the vrams etc. I hope this is the correct thing to do, I am just waiting for one of you folk in the know to confirm I am on the right track. BTW the top picture with the silver paste I did smooth down with a proper spatula before assembling 

JackE

>>> I am just waiting for one of you folk in the know to confirm I am on the right track.>>>

The more you keep digging around in there and fretting/fussing over heatsink pastes, the more likely you risk doing collateral damage. Keep checking the ACER download site  for Win11 thermal framework and other updates. And try to cool it for a while by avoiding heavy game loads.

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7905?b=1

Badgersurfer

JackE said:

>>> I am just waiting for one of you folk in the know to confirm I am on the right track.>>>

The more you keep digging around in there and fretting/fussing over heatsink pastes, the more likely you risk doing collateral damage. Keep checking the ACER download site  for Win11 thermal framework and other updates. And try to cool it for a while by avoiding heavy game loads.

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7905?b=1

I fully understand what you are saying and I have taken it on board. But the Artic paste I have used has fixed the GPU temp buy the CPU is rising into the 80s just with photoshop which it didn't do before. I am assuming that the vram with the paste is not cooling properly so I figured I would use the Thermal pads. I am not using the machine until I get confirmation from you folks who obviously have the experience with this type of machine that I am doing the right thing?