CPU Heat

[SteHud]

Specs: PCSpecialist Optimus Pro Elite 15 Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7-10875H 2.30 GHz 8-Core, 16 GB RAM, 6GB GeForce RTX 2060, 1 TB SSD

Hi everyone.
I've had my laptop since September and I'm very happy with it. For Christmas, I received a Steelseries Keyboard with onboard display that monitors the hardware.
I've noticed when playing games like COD/Cold War, AC Valhalla and even GRID 2019, the CPU temperature often tops 83.5 and the GPU around 79.5.
Is this normal?
I currently run my laptop with a CoolerMaster L2 board under it which I purchased at the same time as my laptop.

I find myself playing for an hour or so and switching it off as I'm worried about overheating. Have I got anything to worry about?
I'd love to hear your views on this.

Thank you.

 

[FerrariVie]

Specs: PCSpecialist Optimus Pro Elite 15 Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i7-10875H 2.30 GHz 8-Core, 16 GB RAM, 6GB GeForce RTX 2060, 1 TB SSD

Hi everyone.
I've had my laptop since September and I'm very happy with it. For Christmas, I received a Steelseries Keyboard with onboard display that monitors the hardware.
I've noticed when playing games like COD/Cold War, AC Valhalla and even GRID 2019, the CPU temperature often tops 83.5 and the GPU around 79.5.
Is this normal?
I currently run my laptop with a CoolerMaster L2 board under it which I purchased at the same time as my laptop.

I find myself playing for an hour or so and switching it off as I'm worried about overheating. Have I got anything to worry about?
I'd love to hear your views on this.

Thank you.

Hey, don't worry about that. Those temps look healthy enough to me.

I don't know what are you comparing those temps against, but if it is from a desktop PC, know that laptops run a lot hotter by default. Easy to predict, when you compare the size of the cooling solutions (fans and heatskink/pipes) of both.

The thermal limits are around the same though, so max allowed for GPUs are usually 85° and CPU 95°. So if you're below 80° on GPU and below 90° on CPU, that is still considered expected behaviour when under heavy load (like heavy games). Even above that, they will start to throttle down do control temperatures and you will notice it more when they reach those limits, as they will be reducing performance to keep the temperature under control.

By the way, you don't need a keyboard to keep an eye on temps, you can use software like MSI Afterburner to do that as well (as I do )

 

[SteHud]

Hey, don't worry about that. Those temps look healthy enough to me.

I don't know what are you comparing those temps against, but if it is from a desktop PC, know that laptops run a lot hotter by default. Easy to predict, when you compare the size of the cooling solutions (fans and heatskink/pipes) of both.

The thermal limits are around the same though, so max allowed for GPUs are usually 85° and CPU 95°. So if you're below 80° on GPU and below 90° on CPU, that is still considered expected behaviour when under heavy load (like heavy games). Even above that, they will start to throttle down do control temperatures and you will notice it more when they reach those limits, as they will be reducing performance to keep the temperature under control.

By the way, you don't need a keyboard to keep an eye on temps, you can use software like MSI Afterburner to do that as well (as I do )

Many thanks for your reply, that has put my mind at ease.

One thing that I did do this morning was lower the maximum CPU power from 100% to 99%.
I know that it will automatically disable Intel Turbo Boost, but I've already noticed that the temperature has come down by about 7% under full load, plus I also haven't noticed any slowdown in games.

One strange thing that I have noticed is on GRID 2019, when I used to take corners in Ultra setting, I'd sometimes get a slight stutter. Now everything is smooth all the way round. I'm not sure if that was a Turbo Boost issue with the game, but it's a welcome side effect.

Thank you again for your reply.

 

[SteHud]

I just played COD/Cold War and it was a staggering 16% cooler under full load.

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

I just played COD/Cold War and it was a staggering 16% cooler under full load.

It would be as you’re not using the processor to its capabilities.

There’s no need to nerf performance, it was well within thermal tolerances without limiting performance.

 

[FerrariVie]

It would be as you’re not using the processor to its capabilities.

There’s no need to nerf performance, it was well within thermal tolerances without limiting performance.

I agree.

Turbo boost is going to improve your performance, never give you stutters. So if you're feeling things smoother now without turbo boost, then it's either a wrong impression from your side or something else that was causing the issue before and that is not anymore.

Edit: You might not feel much of a difference when gaming, as usually they're a lot more heavy on the GPU than the CPU. However, there are other (better) ways to lower your temperatures (even though that's not needed in your case), like repasting or undervolting using Throttlestop or Intel XTU.

 

[SteHud]

I agree.

Turbo boost is going to improve your performance, never give you stutters. So if you're feeling things smoother now without turbo boost, then it's either a wrong impression from your side or something else that was causing the issue before and that is not anymore.

Edit: You might not feel much of a difference when gaming, as usually they're a lot more heavy on the GPU than the CPU. However, there are other (better) ways to lower your temperatures (even though that's not needed in your case), like repasting or undervolting using Throttlestop or Intel XTU.

I've noticed smoother gameplay on Cold War as well.
Do you think it's a software problem (drivers) or hardware?
I just tried rolling back the graphic drivers and restoring performance to 100% but I noticed the issues on a quick lap of GRID again.

As it's a new(ish) laptop (bought a few months ago) I probably won't go for the repasting option until my 18 month warranty is over, but I'll definitely look into undervolting using Throttlestop and Intel XTU. Thank you.

 

[FerrariVie]

I've noticed smoother gameplay on Cold War as well.
Do you think it's a software problem (drivers) or hardware?
I just tried rolling back the graphic drivers and restoring performance to 100% but I noticed the issues on a quick lap of GRID again.

As it's a new(ish) laptop (bought a few months ago) I probably won't go for the repasting option until my 18 month warranty is over, but I'll definitely look into undervolting using Throttlestop and Intel XTU. Thank you.

If you want to make sure that your performance is better or worst after making some kind of change (like the turbo boost and after undervolting), you could avail of synthetic benchmarks. Since we're talking about games, my favourite would be 3DMark Firestrike. You can find some info about it here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/real-users-benchmarks-rank-of-pcs-laptops.76665/ and feel free to post your results in there as well, as we can have a look at them (with and without turbo boost, then later with and without undervolt) and try to figure out if something might be wrong.

In your particular case, since we're talking about stutters, it might helpful to take a print screen of the graph that 3DMark shows after the benchmark is finished (unfortunately it's not part of the website's results URL), as it will give us an idea of the CPU and GPU clocks behaviour and we might be able to spot if they're inconsistent. It will look like this (more or less):

 

[SteHud]

If you want to make sure that your performance is better or worst after making some kind of change (like the turbo boost and after undervolting), you could avail of synthetic benchmarks. Since we're talking about games, my favourite would be 3DMark Firestrike. You can find some info about it here https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/real-users-benchmarks-rank-of-pcs-laptops.76665/ and feel free to post your results in there as well, as we can have a look at them (with and without turbo boost, then later with and without undervolt) and try to figure out if something might be wrong.

In your particular case, since we're talking about stutters, it might help to take a print screen of the graph that 3DMark shows after the benchmark is finished (unfortunately it's not part of the website results URL), as it will give us an idea of the CPU and GPU clock behaviour and we might spot if they're inconsistent. It will look like this (more or less):
View attachment 21186

Thank you so much for your help, it's much appreciated.