VN7-592G GPU temp/throttling

tom_R2E3
tom_R2E3 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter
in 2016 Archives

 

Hello Acer forum.

 

I bought the VN7-592G black with skylake i5 & 960GTX just before Christmas.  I have fitted a 512 SSD and 16GB DDR4 ram, and on the whole I am impressed with the performance of the laptop. 

 

However:  I get GPU throttling almost immediately after starting a game, e.g fallout 4.  The CPU temps are stable at 75, but the GPU reaches 90C almost straight away and throttles.

 

Most throttling complaints I have seen regarding this laptop series are to do with the CPU, which makes me wonder if the high GPU temps I have are normal.  Can anyone advise?

 

I have the laptop propped up on a hard surface to get air in from underneath.  I also have the ACER cool boost on permanently.

 

Here is a screen shot from an MSI afterburner log.  You can see the GPU temp limit is reached and the laptop throttles the GPU to keep it below 90C.

 

Is there anything I can do?

 

THROTTLING.bmp

Answers

  • sharky25k
    sharky25k Member Posts: 473 Skilled Practitioner WiFi Icon

    Hi,

     

    Most probably most of the people don't check carefully what causes the throttle, so they assume the CPU. They just see the frame drop. Your game is quite GPU intensive as it is written on steam. You should also post an image to see how much your cpu usage is compared to the GPU. And I notice something odd as well. Your GPU frequency is at 540 MHZ which is well below the maximum speed which is 1097+boost (I assume you have a GTX 960M). And it never reaches that speed, even at the beggining when your temperature is well below the throttling point.

     

    The only suggestion from my side, is to change the thermal paste on the CPU and GPU, and it will help a lot. I did this on my 591G and it helped a lot, however I cannot tell you in games, since I don't use it for gaming, but in stress tests is quite clear that it improved the temperatures.

  • tom_R2E3
    tom_R2E3 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    Hello, thanks for your response.

     

    Yes it's the GTX 960m.  I thought of two possible reasons it might show 540Mhz.  Something to so with dual channel means it only shows half the clock? Or, maybe it's showing the Intel onboard graphics clock rather than the Nvidia card?  As you can tell, I dont really know what i'm on about.  

     

    Here is a screen dump of everything MSI afterburner logs.  The order is a bit messed up but it's all there:

    CPU load is significantly lower than GPU load.

     

    log-2.jpg

  • tom_R2E3
    tom_R2E3 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    I just tried with another hardware monitoring program EVGA precision, and it showes the GPU clock at ~1100Mhz

     

    Maybe I should try reseating the GPU with new paste as you suggest.  Is there a how-to anywhere for this? I have quite a bit of experience with PC's but this is my first laptop.

  • sharky25k
    sharky25k Member Posts: 473 Skilled Practitioner WiFi Icon

    Hi,

     

    It's not showing the intel GPU.  I have unfortunately the 591G not the newer 592G, but still I have a 960M and afterburner shows correctly the values. Nevermind, the other software shows your GPU clock with boost.

     

    Regarding replacement of the thermal paste, well I think on youtube there are guides to disassemble the notebook (at least for 591G but I don't expect to be very different). Since you installed RAM and SSD, I assume you have some experience to take apart the notebook (since I think for installing the RAM you need to take out the motherboard).

     

    The same thing you will need to do also with the termal paste. You will need to take out the motherboard since the GPU and CPU are on the other side of the board. It is not very hard but be careful. It is very easy to remove the heat sink/heat pipes and clean up the old thermal compound (with isopropyl alchool) and put a new one, once you removed the motherboard. But till you remove the motherboard is a little work, and you need to be careful.

     

    I used noctua NT-H1 thermal paste and it worked well. Just I don't recommend to use any conductive thermal paste (eg. Coollaboratory liquid pro) since you can cause a short circuit if you don't have experience in applying thermal paste.

    You will be very suprised by the improvement. Of course this is in case you use a good thermal paste and not toothpasteSmiley Very Happy

  • tom_R2E3
    tom_R2E3 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    Hi Sharky.  Once again thanks for the advice.  

     

    I took some of your advice and replaced the thermal compound on both the CPU and GPU.  But I chose to use the coollabs metal solution because I felt confident about using it and I wanted the best possible performance.  It was no problem doing the job, but the results were a bit disappointing.  It made no discernable difference to high load temperatures.  The GPU behaves in th same way, hovering around 90°C adjusting the GPU clock between 950 and 1100MHz.  I just played fallout 4 for half an hour, recorded a max temp of 92 on the GPU but only 66 on the CPU.

     

    It's such a shame because it's a very capable laptop, but Acer have really under achieved on the GPU cooling.  I wonder if the competitors, Lenovo Y50 etc are any different.

     

    Cheers,  Tom

  • sharky25k
    sharky25k Member Posts: 473 Skilled Practitioner WiFi Icon

    Hi,

     

    I should have told you something like this.

     

    While I still have the same temperatures as before even after changing the thermal paste, I can tell you clearly that it was a huge improvement compared to the previous situation.

     

    Before, in AIDA64 stress test my CPU was howering around 1.6-1.7 GHZ after around 10 minutes of the stress test with maximum teperatures (stress test on CPU, GPUs and memory but not on disks). After changing the thermal paste, the CPU is howering around 2.5-2.6 GHZ, but still at max temperatures. If I use notebook fan control (it has configuration for 591G) I can go up to 2.9 GHZ in stress tests. The point is that acer does not crank up the fans to 100% even if you reach throttling speeds. My notebook (591G) does not have coolboost - even if many people around here state that V nitro, black editions have coolboost, the reality is that NOT all of them have, and acer doesn't do anything to give you some way to control the fan speed.

     

    To be honest with you I never saw my GPU to throttle, even in AIDA 64 stress test after changing the thermal paste, but it is true, it does not keep working at the boost frequency (1100 and something MHZ), but at around 1090 or something like this.

     

    I do intense works on my notebook for bioinformatics but I don't play games (OK, except minesweeper) so I cannot argue that a game can put somehow more stress on your GPU than I put with my application, or with stress tests.

     

    You can try to use notebook fan control, https://github.com/hirschmann/nbfc/ but I don't think that there is configuration for 592G and I am not sure if the 591G configuration will work. However, bear in mind that with this software your fans will be really loud.

  • tom_R2E3
    tom_R2E3 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    Again, thanks for the advice.

     

    I will have a go with AIDA 64 Extreme tonight and let you know what the results are like.

     

    I have installed notebook fan control, but I can't see a config for any of the VN series? Did the 591 config come with the program, or did you find it somewhere else? Maybe you could share it with me, i'd like to give it a try.

     

     

  • sharky25k
    sharky25k Member Posts: 473 Skilled Practitioner WiFi Icon

    Hi,

     

    To be honest I don't remember well, if it comes with the installation or not.

    If not you can download the configuration from the same webpage at the configs folder.

    But the naming is the one which I think made you miss it. It is named Aspire VN7 591 V15 Nitro, so does not have the "Acer" name in front as all other configs which are ment for Acer notebooks.

     

    Also for testing if the application is working properly, without risking an unexpected shutdown, just select the config, enable the software, and use the slider to crank up the fan to 100% and see if it will speed up by literally checking if you hear the noise fan. If the config is not working your fans should not speed up. If it is working leave the slider on auto and depending on the temperature the fans will adjust the speed depending on the temperature

     

  • milad
    milad Member Posts: 13

    Tinkerer

    I have same problem here .

    http://community.acer.com/t5/V-and-VN-Series-Laptops/Aspire-VN7-592G-lag-spike-amp-fps-drops-in-almost-every-game/td-p/424985

    and exact same laptop (Black Edition).

    Bought same time too!

    Acer just made a chic thin laptop for gaming and doesn't consider a proper cooling system.

    I'm disapdointed after all.

  • tom_R2E3
    tom_R2E3 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

    Hi, yes it is quite disappointing, I agree.  On the whole I am quite impressed with my laptop, but the things which impress me are:

     

    The Screen - LG?

    The CPU - Intel

    The SSD - Samsumg.  

     

    The bits Acer did are the bits which are letting it down!

     

    Our laptops are a little different, I have the Skylake i5, which I thought would reduce throttling problems.

     

    If I stress test with AIDA64, CPU, FPU, GPU and system memory I get no CPU throttling at all, it runs at the max clock (2.8) and the cores stay around 75°C indefinitely.  It is really the GPU which causes me all the problems.

     

    Never used a cooling pad, but I can’t see it making a great deal of difference to my situation.

     

    I have the coolboost application, it is in the “Acer quick access” program. It was installed on the laptop when I got it.  I believe it helps a little, but the GPU cooling is still nowhere near enough to keep it below 90°C. It reaches 90°C after about 15-20 seconds of load!

     

    I have also played with several programs to control fan speed, some of which worked (were able to control the fans).  However, they made no difference to my situation, at 100% they sound the same as my laptop always did when under load, and the throttling was also the same.

     

    In short, I have no suggestions.  Maybe build a PC?

  • sharky25k
    sharky25k Member Posts: 473 Skilled Practitioner WiFi Icon

    Hi,

     

    I am quite amazed by your CPU temperature:-)

    Looks like it really worth it to use Coolaboratory liquid pro. Truly I was not afraid about the application method but I wasn't sure if the heat pipes and the radiator is copper and not aluminum since the liquid pro is not compatible with aluminum.

     

    It is quite strange because I have the 591G with an i7 4720HQ processor not the Skylake one. My CPU runs at 90 and something degrees but at 2.9 Ghz (it starts at around 3.4 at the beggining of the stress test).

    But strangely I never saw my GPU to throttleSmiley Sad but it's true that it does not run at boost frequency (it runs at around 1097 Mhz)

     

    I am not sure but could be the fact that my notebook has an i7 and GTX960M the cooling system to be designed in a different way? To be honest I don't expect it, but it could be the only explanation why your GPU is throttling and mine is not even if I have a slightly higher TDP on the CPU as the TDP of the i5-6300HQ. More importantly you have a more efficient thermal paste than I have.

     

     

  • tom_R2E3
    tom_R2E3 Member Posts: 18 Troubleshooter

     

    Hey sharky.  I don't think my low CPU temp is to do with the liquid pro, I guess it's because it's Skylake.  I also think that the flatness of the "heatsink" is crucial to the connection between the chips. I really don’t like that they share the same heatsink plate, it's almost guaranteed not to sit perfectly on either the CPU or GPU.

     

    I bought a cooler master U3 pad:

    http://www.saturn.de/de/product/_cooler-master-r9-nbc-u3pk-gp-notepal-u3-plus-1752901.html?rbtc=%7C%7C1752901%7C%7Cp%7C%7C&gclid=CJ_C9deOvs4CFeEV0wod-nYN4g

     

    Which has three fans underneath. It made no discernable difference.

     

    I've accepted that I cannot improve the situation. But it would have been nice to hear something from Acer, perhaps agreeing that it's a problem?? Then I might have wasted less time on it.

     

    I'm going to look in to an external GPU linked over USB-C   Smiley Surprised

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