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[down 2 orth]

I've got some noob issues here, so please bear with me.

I’m using a gaming laptop (yeah, I know desktops are better) with the following stats:

Asus ROG Zephyrus M GM501

Intel Core i7 (8th Gen) 8750H / 2.2 GHz

16 GB DDR4 SDRAM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

It’s a few years old and I know that it’s nothing to write home about, but I still figure that I shouldn’t be having the problems that I’m having. Essentially almost every game that I play on it has a massive fluctuation in the frame rate. For example, I’ll start Dying Light off at 70-80 FPS, but after a minute it dips to the 50s, and then after a few minutes it will fluctuate between 25-55 FPS and stay that way for most of my session. Every now and then it will go higher or lower. I’m playing with 1440p screen settings, but the weird thing is that putting the graphics to the lowest settings on 1080p seems to have very little or no effect on the frame rate.

Borderlands 3 was like this, but even more erratic. Also had the same issue for 1080p with Grim Dawn, Arkham Knight, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and Yakuza 0. The few games with a stable frame rate were Doom 2016, Dead Cells, and the Banner Saga.

Any help would be super appreciated, and I’ll be happy to provide more info. Thanks in advance!

 

[Patrick S.]

It's throttling down because it's overheating.

 

[down 2 orth]

It's throttling down because it's overheating.

That doesn't sound good. Does that mean there is probably some permanent damage? And what can I do to take care of the issue?

 

[kamkamkam]

Download https://openhardwaremonitor.org/

Start it, it will begin logging the temperatures.

Play a game until framerate drops, then save the results and report them back here.

Silly question, does the laptop chassis get hot to the touch? Look for vents near the rear of the base, while gaming make sure they are not obstructed and they are pushing out hot air.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[scoobidoo112]

Monitor your temps, if it's overheating open it up (plenty of guides on youtube) and clean the thing with canned air. If that doesn't work it might need some fresh thermal paste, but that might be a bit too much of a challenge.

Ensure your power plan is set to max performance, if you have an integrated GPU + Nvidia, then ensure the games use the Nvidia one in the Nvidia control panel. Also set the profile of said game to Prefer Maximum performance. Finally make sure you run games in fullscreen mode.

If it's not overheating, and none of this helps, open up your task manager (ctrl + shift + esc) and check to see if there are other processes running in the background that are hogging the CPU.

 

[down 2 orth]

Download https://openhardwaremonitor.org/

Start it, it will begin logging the temperatures.

Play a game until framerate drops, then save the results and report them back here.

Silly question, does the laptop chassis get hot to the touch? Look for vents near the rear of the base, while gaming make sure they are not obstructed and they are pushing out hot air.

Ok I'll do that. Yeah it's always hot. It gets hot just running windows and going on the internet.

 

[down 2 orth]

Ok I played until I was getting big drops and saved the data. I'm not sure which data is most useful, so please excuse the dump.

|
+- ASUS GM501GS (/mainboard)
|
+- Intel Core i7-8750H (/intelcpu/0)
| +- Bus Speed : 100.364 100.355 100.372 (/intelcpu/0/clock/0)
| +- CPU Core #1 : 4014.55 802.91 4114.91 (/intelcpu/0/clock/1)
| +- CPU Core #2 : 4014.55 802.91 4114.91 (/intelcpu/0/clock/2)
| +- CPU Core #3 : 4014.55 802.91 4114.91 (/intelcpu/0/clock/3)
| +- CPU Core #4 : 3914.19 1906.91 4114.91 (/intelcpu/0/clock/4)
| +- CPU Core #5 : 3914.19 802.91 4014.61 (/intelcpu/0/clock/5)
| +- CPU Core #6 : 3914.19 802.91 4014.61 (/intelcpu/0/clock/6)
| +- CPU Core #1 : 86 68 97 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/0)
| +- CPU Core #2 : 87 68 98 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/1)
| +- CPU Core #3 : 87 68 96 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/2)
| +- CPU Core #4 : 85 67 96 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/3)
| +- CPU Core #5 : 85 66 95 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/4)
| +- CPU Core #6 : 85 67 96 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/5)
| +- CPU Package : 89 71 98 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/6)
| +- CPU Total : 0.78125 0.130206 78.0769 (/intelcpu/0/load/0)
| +- CPU Core #1 : 3.90625 0 79.2308 (/intelcpu/0/load/1)
| +- CPU Core #2 : 0 0 76.1539 (/intelcpu/0/load/2)
| +- CPU Core #3 : 0.78125 0 76.9231 (/intelcpu/0/load/3)
| +- CPU Core #4 : 0 0 76.9231 (/intelcpu/0/load/4)
| +- CPU Core #5 : 0 0 77.6923 (/intelcpu/0/load/5)
| +- CPU Core #6 : 0 0 81.5385 (/intelcpu/0/load/6)
| +- CPU Package : 6.20986 4.08432 50.892 (/intelcpu/0/power/0)
| +- CPU Cores : 3.40755 1.49994 47.4219 (/intelcpu/0/power/1)
| +- CPU Graphics : 0 0 0 (/intelcpu/0/power/2)
| +- CPU DRAM : 0.665007 0.597953 2.29902 (/intelcpu/0/power/3)
|
+- Generic Memory (/ram)
| +- Memory : 31.157 31.1287 48.5768 (/ram/load/0)
| +- Used Memory : 4.96166 4.95716 7.73572 (/ram/data/0)
| +- Available Memory : 10.9631 8.189 10.9676 (/ram/data/1)
|
+- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (/nvidiagpu/0)
| +- GPU Core : 1442.5 265.5 1809.5 (/nvidiagpu/0/clock/0)
| +- GPU Memory : 4006.8 4006.8 4006.8 (/nvidiagpu/0/clock/1)
| +- GPU Shader : 2885 531 3619 (/nvidiagpu/0/clock/2)
| +- GPU Core : 87 69 91 (/nvidiagpu/0/temperature/0)
| +- GPU Core : 0 0 99 (/nvidiagpu/0/load/0)
| +- GPU Frame Buffer : 1 1 71 (/nvidiagpu/0/load/1)
| +- GPU Video Engine : 0 0 0 (/nvidiagpu/0/load/2)
| +- GPU Bus Interface : 0 0 16 (/nvidiagpu/0/load/3)
| +- GPU Memory : 6.90584 6.0288 59.3016 (/nvidiagpu/0/load/4)
| +- GPU Power : 41.077 37.269 116.69 (/nvidiagpu/0/power/0)
| +- GPU Memory Free : 7626.27 3334.02 7698.12 (/nvidiagpu/0/smalldata/1)
| +- GPU Memory Used : 565.727 493.879 4857.98 (/nvidiagpu/0/smalldata/2)
| +- GPU Memory Total : 8192 8192 8192 (/nvidiagpu/0/smalldata/3)
| +- GPU PCIE Rx : 0 0 973.633 (/nvidiagpu/0/throughput/0)
| +- GPU PCIE Tx : 0 0 355.469 (/nvidiagpu/0/throughput/1)
|
+- Generic Hard Disk (/hdd/0)
| +- Used Space : 45.9856 45.9843 45.9858 (/hdd/0/load/0)
|
+- ST1000LX015-1U7172 (/hdd/1)
| +- Temperature : 42 38 42 (/hdd/1/temperature/0)
| +- Used Space : 60.2224 60.2224 60.2224 (/hdd/1/load/0)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parameters

|
+- ASUS GM501GS (/mainboard)
|
+- Intel Core i7-8750H (/intelcpu/0)
| |
| +- CPU Core #1 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/0)
| | +- TjMax [°C] : 100 : 100
| | +- TSlope [°C] : 1 : 1
| |
| +- CPU Core #2 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/1)
| | +- TjMax [°C] : 100 : 100
| | +- TSlope [°C] : 1 : 1
| |
| +- CPU Core #3 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/2)
| | +- TjMax [°C] : 100 : 100
| | +- TSlope [°C] : 1 : 1
| |
| +- CPU Core #4 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/3)
| | +- TjMax [°C] : 100 : 100
| | +- TSlope [°C] : 1 : 1
| |
| +- CPU Core #5 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/4)
| | +- TjMax [°C] : 100 : 100
| | +- TSlope [°C] : 1 : 1
| |
| +- CPU Core #6 (/intelcpu/0/temperature/5)
| | +- TjMax [°C] : 100 : 100
| | +- TSlope [°C] : 1 : 1
| |
| +- CPU Package (/intelcpu/0/temperature/6)
| | +- TjMax [°C] : 100 : 100
| | +- TSlope [°C] : 1 : 1
|
+- Generic Memory (/ram)
|
+- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (/nvidiagpu/0)
|
+- Generic Hard Disk (/hdd/0)
|
+- ST1000LX015-1U7172 (/hdd/1)
| |
| +- Temperature (/hdd/1/temperature/0)
| | +- Offset [°C] : 0 : 0



NVAPI

Version: NVidia Complete Version 1.10

NVML

Status: Success

Number of GPUs: 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nvidia GPU

Name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Index: 0
Driver Version: 457.09
Driver Branch: r456_87-6

DeviceID: 0x1BE110DE
SubSystemID: 0x17EE1043
RevisionID: 0xA1
ExtDeviceID: 0x1BE1

Thermal Settings

Sensor[0].Controller: GPU_INTERNAL
Sensor[0].DefaultMinTemp: 0
Sensor[0].DefaultMaxTemp: 127
Sensor[0].CurrentTemp: 88
Sensor[0].Target: GPU

Clocks

Clock[8]: 4006800
Clock[9]: 11
Clock[10]: 571428
Clock[11]: 1
Clock[12]: 1325000
Clock[13]: 17
Clock[16]: 368140
Clock[17]: 1
Clock[18]: 27000
Clock[19]: 1
Clock[30]: 2885000
Clock[31]: 17
Clock[32]: 2784000
Clock[33]: 25
Clock[34]: 2581000
Clock[35]: 25
Clock[36]: 1296000
Clock[37]: 25
Clock[40]: 540000
Clock[41]: 1
Clock[44]: 108000
Clock[45]: 1
Clock[62]: 3
Clock[63]: 9
Clock[92]: 4006800
Clock[93]: 32
Clock[99]: 571428
Clock[100]: 32
Clock[106]: 1325000
Clock[107]: 32
Clock[120]: 368140
Clock[121]: 32
Clock[127]: 27000
Clock[128]: 32
Clock[169]: 2809801
Clock[170]: 32
Clock[176]: 2733000
Clock[177]: 15
Clock[183]: 2530506
Clock[184]: 15
Clock[190]: 1296000
Clock[191]: 6
Clock[204]: 540000
Clock[205]: 32
Clock[218]: 108000
Clock[219]: 32
Clock[281]: 3
Clock[282]: 32

Tachometer

Status: NOT_SUPPORTED

Utilization Domains Ex

Percentage[0]: 0
Percentage[1]: 1
Percentage[2]: 0
Percentage[3]: 0

Utilization Domains

Percentage[0]: 0
Percentage[1]: 1
Percentage[2]: 0
Percentage[3]: 0

Cooler Settings


Memory Info

Value[0]: 8388608
Value[1]: 8274944
Value[2]: 0
Value[3]: 8349140
Value[4]: 7809368

Fan Coolers Status

Status: NOT_SUPPORTED

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GenericHarddisk

Drive name: Generic Hard Disk
Firmware version: Unknown

Logical drive name: C:\
Format: NTFS
Total size: 254930841600
Total free space: 137699516416

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GenericHarddisk

Drive name: ST1000LX015-1U7172
Firmware version: SDM1

ID Description Raw Value Worst Value Thres Physical
01 Read Error Rate 3A0622000000 60 100 6 -
03 Spin-Up Time 000000000000 99 99 0 -
04 Start/Stop Count 313E00000000 85 85 20 15921
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 100000000000 100 100 36 -
07 Seek Error Rate CF90BC010000 60 75 45 -
09 Power-On Hours (POH) DE250000C6AB 89 89 0 9694
0A Spin Retry Count 000000000000 100 100 97 -
0C Power Cycle Count 320600000000 99 99 20 1586
B8 End-to-End error 000000000000 100 100 99 -
BB Reported Uncorrectable Errors 000000000000 100 100 0 0
BC Command Timeout 020000000000 100 100 0 2
BD High Fly Writes 000000000000 100 100 0 -
BE Temperature Difference from 100 2A00182A0000 51 58 40 42
BF G-sense Error Rate 000000000000 100 100 0 -
C0 Emergency Retract Cycle Count 140000000000 100 100 0 -
C1 Load Cycle Count D55B00000000 89 89 0 -
C2 Temperature 2A0000000F00 49 42 0 42
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 000000000000 100 100 0 -
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 000000000000 100 100 0 -
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 000000000000 200 200 0 -
F0 Head Flying Hours 8A2A0000FEE2 253 100 0 -
F1 Total LBAs Written 1E3DEC720200 253 100 0 -
F2 Total LBAs Read B78042020300 253 100 0 -
FE Free Fall Protection 000000000000 100 100 0 -

Logical drive name: D:\
Format: NTFS
Total size: 1000203087872
Total free space: 397856858112

 

[kamkamkam]

You're definitely being thermal throttled.

Can you hear the fans running in the machine?

 

[down 2 orth]

You're definitely being thermal throttled.

Can you hear the fans running in the machine?

Yeah, constantly. I can also confirm that the power setting has always been in performance mode.

 

[kamkamkam]

Yeah, constantly. I can also confirm that the power setting has always been in performance mode.

How much air can you feel coming out of the vents?

 

[down 2 orth]

How much air can you feel coming out of the vents?

A light flow from the back and even lighter on the sides.

 

[kamkamkam]

There is probably dust blocking airflow.

Buy something like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000AE67M/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Follow a guide like this to get the machine open.



Then blow the compressed air over the components.

If the temperatures don't improve after that, my guess is the thermal paste is breaking down. Though I think that is highly unlikely.

Also what kind of surface is the laptop on?

 

[down 2 orth]

There is probably dust blocking airflow.

Buy something like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000AE67M/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Follow a guide like this to get the machine open.



Then blow the compressed air over the components.

If the temperatures don't improve after that, my guess is the thermal paste is breaking down. Though I think that is highly unlikely.

Also what kind of surface is the laptop on?

Ok, thanks a lot. Should I also buy an external fan as well?

 

[MightySquirrel]

Yep looks like a typical case of cpu + gpu downclocking not to hit temp limit and switch off completely [throttling].

Take apart, clean and put something like Conductonaut [metal liquid = best conductor] or even just Carbonaut pad [pretty ok still] on both gfx and cpu to bring temps down dramatically so you can enjoy quieter laptop than it ever was.

 

[V4skunk]

Ok, thanks a lot. Should I also buy an external fan as well?

What do you put the laptop on? A pillow on your knee?

 

[jhjfss]

According to your stats, your CPU has hit 100 C. Thats way too hot, and it automatically throttled to protect itself. Only way to fix it is to open the back panel, take a can of compressed air and clean out all the dust you can find. Then, replace the thermal paste for both the CPU and GPU.

 

[PhoenixTank]

OP, apparently there is a "fan overboost" setting in Asus's (ROG) software. Given the quality of their software it might be more trouble than it is worth... but would at least confirm the problem/offer a fix without opening up anything.

Take apart, clean and put something like Conductonaut [metal liquid = best conductor]

Fair post but needs the warning of potentially shorting your components if you don't know what you're doing. Something not electrically conductive would be a better idea for a first timer - might as well stick with paste rather than pads too unless contact is abysmal (does happen in laptops).

 

[Durask]

Check for dust.
Also you can use throttlestop to slow down the CPU.

ThrottleStop 9.6 Download

ThrottleStop is a small application designed to monitor for and correct the three main types of CPU throttling that are being used on many lapto

www.techpowerup.com

Try Disable Turbo (I tried that once on a laptop, did not affect 1080p performance).

 

[MightySquirrel]

OP, apparently there is a "fan overboost" setting in Asus's (ROG) software. Given the quality of their software it might be more trouble than it is worth... but would at least confirm the problem/offer a fix without opening up anything.


Fair post but needs the warning of potentially shorting your components if you don't know what you're doing. Something not electrically conductive would be a better idea for a first timer - might as well stick with paste rather than pads too unless contact is abysmal (does happen in laptops).

Looking at those temps he needs the very best. On a PC you don't really care much about which thermal paste to use at all, but for a laptop LM is a must [especially in this case with those temps], if he wants a quiet laptop. [10 C difference is too big of advantage. It's a differnce between a quiet laptop with LM and loud laptop that just about manages to maintain clocks with regular paste even after cleaning]

Liquid Metal vs. Thermal Paste Benchmarks: Intel’s Thermal Problem, Pt1 | GamersNexus

stub There are many reasons that Intel may have opted for TIM with their CPUs, and given that the company hasn’t offered a statement of substance, we really have no exact idea of why different materials are selected. Using TIM could be a matter of cost – as seems to be the default assumption –...

www.gamersnexus.net

 

[BlitzerRadic]

You can coat the conductive parts with nail polish if using liquid metal.

 

[down 2 orth]

Thanks for all of the replies and advice. My roommate helped me take it apart and sure enough, there's a lot of dust down there. I'm going to buy some compressed air, but can I get by without doing the thermal coating? That seems a bit more complicated...

 

[down 2 orth]

What do you put the laptop on? A pillow on your knee?

Just on my desk, which in my old apartment was pretty dusty.

 

[Dream-Knife]

Thanks for all of the replies and advice. My roommate helped me take it apart and sure enough, there's a lot of dust down there. I'm going to buy some compressed air, but can I get by without doing the thermal coating? That seems a bit more complicated...

Try dusting it first, then if you're still having an issue replace the thermal paste.

 

[prag16]

Thanks for all of the replies and advice. My roommate helped me take it apart and sure enough, there's a lot of dust down there. I'm going to buy some compressed air, but can I get by without doing the thermal coating? That seems a bit more complicated...

Yeah doing the thermal paste will be a pain in the ass especially on a laptop. The integrity of your thermal paste may be compromised after running so hot, but you can definitely give it a shot without taking that step, because it's definitely drastically more involved than blowing the dust out.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

What you can also do (on top of the cleaning, that will be necessary no matter what) is buy a laptop cooler:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NNMB3KS/?tag=neogaf0e-20 (just an example, there are many)

I got one for my travel laptop (which has very similar stats to yours) and it definitely helped. My hand on the laptop also gets a lot less hot now as a side effect

 

[Krappadizzle]

Big problem with laptop gaming is overheating. My friends won't be "laptop gamers" anymore because playing anything recent from the last few years will throttle the shit out of it, it's annoying playing with them as we only have about a solid hour at best before they have to stop because performance degrades so badly. It's easier to just play older games that don't run so hard or hot.

 

[bbeach123]

I would recommend limiting your FPS , It helped a lot .

 

[LostDonkey]

I would deffo re apply the paste after running at those temps. Whatever was left was probably burnt off. Had previous of this on a desktop AIO pump failure and all the paste was gone after removing.

 

[Areiz]

It's throttling down because it's overheating.

It's a normal issue for a laptop

 

[Bernd Lauert]

Clean that shit and buy a laptop cooler for intense games. Helped me bring down the temps from 90 to 80 and now everything's fine. Sadly laptops will always have some temperature issues.

 

[Patrick S.]

Also, hold or block the cooler fan blades in place when you use compressed air on them. Super high fan speeds from being hit with compressed air can damage the fans.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

Also, hold or block the cooler fan blades in place when you use compressed air on them. Super high fan speeds from being hit with compressed air can damage the fans.

But it makes such a nice sound!

 

[Patrick S.]

But it makes such a nice sound!

That is, indeed, the truth.

 

[PhoenixTank]

Looking at those temps he needs the very best. On a PC you don't really care much about which thermal paste to use at all, but for a laptop LM is a must [especially in this case with those temps], if he wants a quiet laptop. [10 C difference is too big of advantage. It's a differnce between a quiet laptop with LM and loud laptop that just about manages to maintain clocks with regular paste even after cleaning]

Liquid Metal vs. Thermal Paste Benchmarks: Intel’s Thermal Problem, Pt1 | GamersNexus

stub There are many reasons that Intel may have opted for TIM with their CPUs, and given that the company hasn’t offered a statement of substance, we really have no exact idea of why different materials are selected. Using TIM could be a matter of cost – as seems to be the default assumption –...

www.gamersnexus.net

Not saying LM isn't good, just that you shouldn't advise it to a newbie in the space without also noting the risk of potential damage and ways to avoid, as BlitzerRadic mentioned.
Hard to say what temp he'll manage with the dust out. Thermal runaway is fun like that.

 

[TintoConCasera]

It's a normal issue for a laptop

Nah, it's not normal at all. I've used my laptop for gaming for more than 3 years and I never experienced those issues.

OP, clean it and buy an external cooler for it. It will increase it's lifespan.

 

[DESTROYA]

Clean the fans first and see if that helps, and like a poster above mentioned I would never suggest a newbie use LM for the first time, at more traditional paste is much safer to recommend.

 

[Jebron]

I had this exact problem with my older i7-7700k and GTX 1080 system. I took the entire thing apart, cleaned every single component, re-applied thermal paste, and modified the fan configuration. All my problems disappeared and I was actually able to overclock my GPU a bit to get about 10% more performance. I would highly recommend this.

 

[Julius Ibidus]

I had this exact problem with my older i7-7700k and GTX 1080 system. I took the entire thing apart, cleaned every single component, re-applied thermal paste, and modified the fan configuration. All my problems disappeared and I was actually able to overclock my GPU a bit to get about 10% more performance. I would highly recommend this.

same here, clean my systems every year or so, keeps them running smoothly.

 

[futurama78]

I don’t think gpu hardware is all the great these days especially in notebooks.

 

[Reindeer]

I don’t think gpu hardware is all the great these days especially in notebooks.

Mobile variant of 1070 is as fast as 1070 desktop and Vega 56, it's plenty fast to play current games at 1080p60 high/ultra settings.

 

[futurama78]

Mobile variant of 1070 is as fast as 1070 desktop and Vega 56, it's plenty fast to play current games at 1080p60 high/ultra settings.

Oh wow. Thought they were all 60%

 

[PaintTinJr]

A light flow from the back and even lighter on the sides.

Just on the off chance that something has been accidentally changed in the power profile for performance.

I would check that the CPU cooling - in the performance profile settings - is set to Active cooling, and just in case the CPU is struggling before you get to clean it fully, I would set the maximum CPU performance to 90% - taking away 10% down to a 2GHz maximum by your system spec - and set the minimum to 80% if it is set to a higher value, or leave it at 55-65% (~ 1.4Ghz -1.6Ghz range which is optimal for performance/power use/cooling when doing normal browsing,etc)

 

[Reindeer]

Oh wow. Thought they were all 60%

The 10 series laptop GPUs were as good as their Desktop counterparts, but 20 and 30 series ones are weaker, which partly has to do with TDP increase on Desktop GPUs that laptops obviously can't maintain.

 

[Areiz]

Nah, it's not normal at all. I've used my laptop for gaming for more than 3 years and I never experienced those issues.

OP, clean it and buy an external cooler for it. It will increase it's lifespan.

Years ago I've had a similar issue with mine, and so I've chosen to limit my use of it for playing particular heavy graphics games on it. I've troughs it was a common issue