Help needed Undervolting laptop due to CPU (and GPU) overheating

[stefweber]

Hi PC Specialist Community,

I have been enjoying my new laptop for a few weeks now, which was certainly the best I could put together; a Recoil 17.3 inch, 300 Hz + G-Sync with i9-11900K (CPU) and NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3080 16GB (GPU). Even though my laptop has the best specs, overheating is a problem, especially when I have my laptop on "best performance" and gaming with the highest graphics settings. My games aren't very new games so far, I have old strategy games including Age of Empires 3, Battle for Middle-earth 2 and Warcraft 3 - reforged (a remake with better graphics). During gaming, the fans have to work extra hard, so my laptop makes airplane noises due to the powerful fans. While playing WC3 reforged with 300hz and best graphics settings, my CPU quickly exceeds 80°C. My laptop even shut down a few times due to the fact that the CPU had probably briefly reached 99°C (the maximum for an i9-11900K). This has led me to the conclusion that I cannot game/enjoy my laptop to the fullest due to overheating.

I've already tested one of the best coolers for large laptops, the Cooler Master Notepal XL, which has one of the best reviews. This has made little or no difference, so I will now also return this product. The laptop's fans work well and much better than the cooler, so this isn't the problem.

After thorough research I have found that what most people do is undervolting a CPU (or GPU). I have seen good videos on YouTube and read several instructions like this one:

[GUIDE] How to undervolt laptop (Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU, 2021 revised version)

This is my own guide on how to undervolt Intel CPU / Nvidia GPU in your laptops. Hope you found it useful! Notes: This is my own metho...

genexisx.blogspot.com

There are also different sources on the forum about this:

Undervolting: Dangerous or not?

Hi guys. So now that my laptop is RMA'd I can't game, and i'm getting really bored. I've still got my daily driver, a thin-n-light, so at least i can watch some movies. Reading up on how to care for a laptop is keeping me busy, and I see a lot of people recommending undervolting as it improves...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Ionico laptop: Guide how to Undervolt, Power Limit, Fan controlling and Memory tuning

@cedrixman I am no expert of GPU undervolting as rarely my GPU risks to throttle, given the ample die size. However when you say 725 mV at 1500 Mhz are you saying that you allows your GPU to any given Mhz but, the only variation you make are, giving the GPU less voltage at each Mhz step? Or are...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

In my case, I am specifically looking for guidance and support from people that have experience undervolting an i9-11900K CPU and RTX 3080 GPU in a laptop, preferably a Recoil 17.3 (300Hz Activated). What I found online is quite limited, and it can be different depending on your CPU. I already know that people often start with -50mv and stress test a laptop until -100mv is reached (if possible). Some also go further. Following successful undervolting, overheating is often no longer a problem and the CPU (or GPU) can even perform better.

Does anyone with the same CPU and / or GPU have any experience with this, can someone please guide me?

I will surely be eternally grateful!

Cheers,
Stefan

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi PC Specialist Community,

I have been enjoying my new laptop for a few weeks now, which was certainly the best I could put together; a Recoil 17.3 inch, 300 Hz + G-Sync with i9-11900K (CPU) and NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3080 16GB (GPU). Even though my laptop has the best specs, overheating is a problem, especially when I have my laptop on "best performance" and gaming with the highest graphics settings. My games aren't very new games so far, I have old strategy games including Age of Empires 3, Battle for Middle-earth 2 and Warcraft 3 - reforged (a remake with better graphics). During gaming, the fans have to work extra hard, so my laptop makes airplane noises due to the powerful fans. While playing WC3 reforged with 300hz and best graphics settings, my CPU quickly exceeds 80°C. My laptop even shut down a few times due to the fact that the CPU had probably briefly reached 99°C (the maximum for an i9-11900K). This has led me to the conclusion that I cannot game/enjoy my laptop to the fullest due to overheating.

I've already tested one of the best coolers for large laptops, the Cooler Master Notepal XL, which has one of the best reviews. This has made little or no difference, so I will now also return this product. The laptop's fans work well and much better than the cooler, so this isn't the problem.

After thorough research I have found that what most people do is undervolting a CPU (or GPU). I have seen good videos on YouTube and read several instructions like this one:

[GUIDE] How to undervolt laptop (Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU, 2021 revised version)

This is my own guide on how to undervolt Intel CPU / Nvidia GPU in your laptops. Hope you found it useful! Notes: This is my own metho...

genexisx.blogspot.com

There are also different sources on the forum about this:

Undervolting: Dangerous or not?

Hi guys. So now that my laptop is RMA'd I can't game, and i'm getting really bored. I've still got my daily driver, a thin-n-light, so at least i can watch some movies. Reading up on how to care for a laptop is keeping me busy, and I see a lot of people recommending undervolting as it improves...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Ionico laptop: Guide how to Undervolt, Power Limit, Fan controlling and Memory tuning

@cedrixman I am no expert of GPU undervolting as rarely my GPU risks to throttle, given the ample die size. However when you say 725 mV at 1500 Mhz are you saying that you allows your GPU to any given Mhz but, the only variation you make are, giving the GPU less voltage at each Mhz step? Or are...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

In my case, I am specifically looking for guidance and support from people that have experience undervolting an i9-11900K CPU and RTX 3080 GPU in a laptop, preferably a Recoil 17.3 (300Hz Activated). What I found online is quite limited, and it can be different depending on your CPU. I already know that people often start with -50mv and stress test a laptop until -100mv is reached (if possible). Some also go further. Following successful undervolting, overheating is often no longer a problem and the CPU (or GPU) can even perform better.

Does anyone with the same CPU and / or GPU have any experience with this, can someone please guide me?

I will surely be eternally grateful!

Cheers,
Stefan

It shouldn’t be reaching those temps and suggests a bad paste job rather than a permanent issue with the cooling design.

First things first, I’d repaste the CPU. You should see peak temps lower to low 90’s I’d expect.

Once it’s under control, THEN you can optimise with undervolting.

 

[FerrariVie]

To be honest, those Recoil 17"s have the best cooling solution that I've seen, judging by the temperatures that people are reporting on the benchmark thread: https://www.pcspecialist.ie/forums/threads/real-users-benchmarks-rank-of-pcs-laptops.76665/

However, there is one thing that caught my attention from your post. When you say that you're running your laptop on "best performance", what exactly do you mean by that?

Before going into the undervolt route and even before trying to repaste CPU and GPU, I would do 2 things:

1. Try running the 3DMark Firestrike benchmark (instructions on that thread I linked above), just to see how your own build compares to others with the same chassis and similar specs. Post results in there and we can discuss it here afterwards;
2. After the benchmark, when you're into real gaming, you need to make sure that you have control center set up correctly. Leave fans on auto (you can tweak them later when your build is stable) and the power profile in entertainment/gaming, as that is already the mode that your manufacturer chose as the best for that purpose. Using high performance/turbo modes is kind of overclocking your CPU and that is definitely not needed for a build with 11900K and RTX 3080.

You're also saying that you get high temperatures with WC3 reforged, but what about other games? You definitely should not get high temperatures with Age of Empires 3 . I'm just wondering if it's a bug with WC3 or lack of optimization for your hardware, so testing other heavy games would be great. Even if you don't own any, download a demo or something and give it a quick try. I would suggest Forza Horizon 4 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/f...ft_web_collection&activetab=pivot:overviewtab), even if you don't like the racing games. Crank everything up to max and give it a try for a few minutes.

 

[stefweber]

It shouldn’t be reaching those temps and suggests a bad paste job rather than a permanent issue with the cooling design.

First things first, I’d repaste the CPU. You should see peak temps lower to low 90’s I’d expect.

Once it’s under control, THEN you can optimise with undervolting.

Thanks for your reply.

Since my laptop is quite new (less than 1 month old), I would be surprised if the pasting is damaged. The pasting might not have been applied properly, but I am also not sure this is the case because the fans usually do a good job with cooling and are not on continuously, except when gaming intensively (hence the airplane noises).

Usually the temperature never rises above 90 degrees but this does happen occasionally when I am gaming while charging & having my laptop at best performance option (reaching more than 5.10Ghz) & and having WC3 at 300Hz and the highest graphics settings. Normally the fans start working intensively before such a CPU temperature is reached. While gaming with these settings the fans remain on and are very loud.

As far as the pasting is concerned, do you know what would be the best way for me to check this? I am a bit scared to open the laptop myself to avoid any damage to components. I also would rather not send the laptop back to the UK for a check if I can avoid this (I am based in Belgium btw).

If I am certain that there are no issues with the pasting (I think this is the case), then I would love to give undervolting a try as I have only seen positive things about this. Of course, this must then be done carefully and with the proper settings for my laptop's CPU and GPU.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for your reply.

Since my laptop is quite new (less than 1 month old), I would be surprised if the pasting is damaged. The pasting might not have been applied properly, but I am also not sure this is the case because the fans usually do a good job with cooling and are not on continuously, except when gaming intensively (hence the airplane noises).

Usually the temperature never rises above 90 degrees but this does happen occasionally when I am gaming while charging & having my laptop at best performance option (reaching more than 5.10Ghz) & and having WC3 at 300Hz and the highest graphics settings. Normally the fans start working intensively before such a CPU temperature is reached. While gaming with these settings the fans remains on and is very loud.

As far as the pasting is concerned, do you know what would be the best way for me to check this? I am a bit scared to open the laptop myself to avoid any damage to components. I also would rather not send the laptop back to the UK for a check if I can avoid this (I am based in Belgium btw).

If I am certain that there are no issues with the pasting (I think this is the case), then I would love to give undervolting a try as I have only seen positive things about this. Of course, this must then be done carefully and with the proper settings for my laptop's CPU and GPU.

Just have a look at some youtube videos, repasting is very easy.

PCS have an open chassis policy where you can do pretty much what you want internally without affecting warranty so long as you don't do any damage in the process.

It's a custom laptop, so you'll be needing to repaste every year or so as well as take it apart and clean it so it's something you're going to have to learn to do.

Load on a pc is where you stress the components to their maximum capacity. It doesn't really matter what it's like under load at all, that's not really relevant. Under full load it should be operating perfectly normally within limits.

Normally to stress and test temps you'd use furmark on the GPU and something like Prime95 or Aida64 on the CPU, these are torture tests and will push them much harder than any game ever could. It should be within normal temps at full pelt, no bit of software should be able to push it out of acceptable limits, that's not how it works.

 

[stefweber]

To be honest, those Recoil 17"s have the best cooling solution that I've seen, judging by the temperatures that people are reporting on the benchmark thread: https://www.pcspecialist.ie/forums/threads/real-users-benchmarks-rank-of-pcs-laptops.76665/

However, there is one thing that caught my attention from your post. When you say that you're running your laptop on "best performance", what exactly do you mean by that?

Before going into the undervolt route and even before trying to repaste CPU and GPU, I would do 2 things:

1. Try running the 3DMark Firestrike benchmark (instructions on that thread I linked above), just to see how your own build compares to others with the same chassis and similar specs. Post results in there and we can discuss it here afterwards;
2. After the benchmark, when you're into real gaming, you need to make sure that you have control center set up correctly. Leave fans on auto (you can tweak them later when your build is stable) and the power profile in entertainment/gaming, as that is already the mode that your manufacturer chose as the best for that purpose. Using high performance/turbo modes is kind of overclocking your CPU and that is definitely not needed for a build with 11900K and RTX 3080.

You're also saying that you get high temperatures with WC3 reforged, but what about other games? You definitely should not get high temperatures with Age of Empires 3 . I'm just wondering if it's a bug with WC3 or lack of optimization for your hardware, so testing other heavy games would be great. Even if you don't own any, download a demo or something and give it a quick try. I would suggest Forza Horizon 4 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/f...ft_web_collection&activetab=pivot:overviewtab), even if you don't like the racing games. Crank everything up to max and give it a try for a few minutes.

Thanks for your advice.

I will definitely look into the 3DMark Firestrike and compare my build with others.

By "best performance" I mean the option that you can select in the bottom-right of the Windows toolbar. By selecting the small charging icon, you can choose "Best Battery Life" all the way in the left, or "Best Performance" all the way in the right. I can then indeed reach processor speeds exceeding 5.10Ghz. I have not done any actual overclocking and don't plan to do this as overheating will become a bigger issue then, I am glad with the processor speed. Undervolting on the other side seems more appealing as the CPU temperature can decrease and performance can thus improve.

The Control Center is set up correctly, I have the fans set up in auto and when the CPU or GPU starts to heat up the fans usually start spinning faster and making those loud airplane noises. So at least the fans work well (much better than a laptop cooler!).

So far my laptop only turned off while playing WC3 reforged, this happened at least twice. This did not happen with AOE3 or BFME2 but when playing with the highest settings the fans will usually stay on continuously and can be quite loud. For this reason I would really like to give undervolting a try to lower the CPU temperature.

I will also try another game with the highest settings, perhaps Forza then or CoD Warzone to see if I have any issues. I don't think it is a bug but I can always check, I really believe this to be the CPU overheating too quickly.

Thanks again!

 

[stefweber]

Just have a look at some youtube videos, repasting is very easy.

PCS have an open chassis policy where you can do pretty much what you want internally without affecting warranty so long as you don't do any damage in the process.

It's a custom laptop, so you'll be needing to repaste every year or so as well as take it apart and clean it so it's something you're going to have to learn to do.

Load on a pc is where you stress the components to their maximum capacity. It doesn't really matter what it's like under load at all, that's not really relevant. Under full load it should be operating perfectly normally within limits.

Normally to stress and test temps you'd use furmark on the GPU and something like Prime95 or Aida64 on the CPU, these are torture tests and will push them much harder than any game ever could. It should be within normal temps at full pelt, no bit of software should be able to push it out of acceptable limits, that's not how it works.

Thanks for sharing your insight, I appreciate your time.

I will definitely take a closer look at this now. I will also search for the stress tests that you recommended.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for sharing your insight, I appreciate your time.

I will definitely take a closer look at this now. I will also search for the stress tests that you recommended.

A stress test is exactly that, Furmark will push the GPU to 100% over whatever period you choose to run it for.

FurMark Homepage

FurMark - GPU stress test and graphics card benchmark

geeks3d.com

Aida Or Prime95 will push all cores to 100% usage and polling through different instruction sets to test for bugs in the silicon

Download Prime95 version 30.19 Build 20

Download Prime95 - a handy tool for overclockers and system stability checkers, Prime95 has a feature called "Torture Test" that allows maximum stress testing on the CPU and RAM. There are several options allowing the stress test to focus on the memory, processor, or a balance of both.

www.guru3d.com

Downloads | AIDA64

 

[FerrariVie]

Thanks for your advice.

I will definitely look into the 3DMark Firestrike and compare my build with others.

By "best performance" I mean the option that you can select in the bottom-right of the Windows toolbar. By selecting the small charging icon, you can choose "Best Battery Life" all the way in the left, or "Best Performance" all the way in the right. I can then indeed reach processor speeds exceeding 5.10Ghz. I have not done any actual overclocking and don't plan to do this as overheating will become a bigger issue then, I am glad with the processor speed. Undervolting on the other side seems more appealing as the CPU temperature can decrease and performance can thus improve.

The Control Center is set up correctly, I have the fans set up in auto and when the CPU or GPU starts to heat up the fans usually start spinning faster and making those loud airplane noises. So at least the fans work well (much better than a laptop cooler!).

So far my laptop only turned off while playing WC3 reforged, this happened at least twice. This did not happen with AOE3 or BFME2 but when playing with the highest settings the fans will usually stay on continuously and can be quite loud. For this reason I would really like to give undervolting a try to lower the CPU temperature.

I will also try another game with the highest settings, perhaps Forza then or CoD Warzone to see if I have any issues. I don't think it is a bug but I can always check, I really believe this to be the CPU overheating too quickly.

Thanks again!

CPU overheating should not shut your laptop down, since it would thermal throttle to avoid reaching that point.

I don't have that option on the windows toolbar on my AMD DTR, so maybe it's something specific for Intel. Anyway, if you're having issues, I would avoid messing with that and leave things on standard, at least until you're happy with that and then you can start tweaking it. Use the entertainment mode in control center and you should have the best performance x temperature ratio.

You also didn't mention which power mode are you using on control center?

 

[stefweber]

Thanks for the links SPYDERTRACKS.

FERRARIVIE, on the Control Center I use Performance as I want my laptop to operate at best performance, this is also part of the reason why I tried to choose the best CPU & GPU when buying the laptop. It would be nice to enjoy the laptop to the fullest with the best settings instead of having to lower these to avoid issues. If I get irritated from the fans and overheating, I will consider trying the Entertainment option. But I hope I can actually solve this issue!

I was watching YouTube just now and my CPU also exceeded 80-85 degrees, I am not sure if this is normal. Not sure if my fans should be doing this much work.

Anyways, I might have to check the thermal paste at some point. I would also however really like to undervolt the CPU and GPU properly if somebody can guide me through this with the same laptop and components.

​

 

[SpyderTracks]

I was watching YouTube just now and my CPU also exceeded 80-85 degrees, I am not sure if this is normal. Not sure if my fans should be doing this much work.

They shouldn't be, it's got a thermal paste application issue.

Unfortunately it's pretty common from PCS, it's the area that comes up most often on laptop builds.

Luckily it's an easy fix.

Anyways, I might have to check the thermal paste at some point. I would also however really like to undervolt the CPU and GPU properly if somebody can guide me through this with the same laptop and components.

​

We can help you through that, but there's no point doing it until thermals are under control as you don't know where your ceiling or targets are without normal thermals.

 

[FerrariVie]

Thanks for the links SPYDERTRACKS.

FERRARIVIE, on the Control Center I use Performance as I want my laptop to operate at best performance, this is also part of the reason why I tried to choose the best CPU & GPU when buying the laptop. It would be nice to enjoy the laptop to the fullest with the best settings instead of having to lower these to avoid issues. If I get irritated from the fans and overheating, I will consider trying the Entertainment option. But I hope I can actually solve this issue!

I was watching YouTube just now and my CPU also exceeded 80-85 degrees, I am not sure if this is normal. Not sure if my fans should be doing this much work.

Anyways, I might have to check the thermal paste at some point. I would also however really like to undervolt the CPU and GPU properly if somebody can guide me through this with the same laptop and components.

​

Are you really using performance mode to watch YouTube? If you're doing that, I'm not surprised by your temperatures. When you're not gaming, you're supposed to change it back to quiet mode because your CPU is more than capable of doing any medium/light task even when underclocked.

Performance mode is basically giving your CPU more power than stock values, so it's basically overclocking it (if thermals allow). It should be used only for short bursts of performance, like benchmarks and video/photo editing. Trust me, change to entertainment mode and leave the windows bar on the middle and let me know what your thermals look like. You will definitely not notice any difference on real life usage by doing that change.

 

[DarkPaladin]

First off, it's pretty cool to see a fellow BMFE 2 player in 2021! I originally played it back when it originally came out on my Grandmother's laptop, and only recently started playing it again with my brother after following a few YouTube tutorials.

As for the cooling, there's a few steps I take before looking into making hardware changes (i.e. repaste + undervolting)
1) Click the battery icon at the bottom-right corner of the screen and check what mode it's on. I personally have mine on "better performance" when doing/playing non-CPU intensive tasks, whereas I'll turn on to "maximum performance" for game genres such as MOBA's where the CPU is mostly needed for the best possible framerates
2) I would then invest in a good cooling pad. I personally use the IETS GT300 cooling pad for my laptop, and it works like a charm (although it can be tricky to get it into the correct position with a 17.3" laptop). Another good option is the Klim Cyclone
3) During gameplay, you can turn your fans on to their highest performance by using FN + 1 (at least it is for my laptop, although your instruction manual should show these keys combinations)
4) Only at this point would I recommend doing an undervolt. I use Intel XTU for my laptop and I found the sweet spot to be at -0.70 after following very useful instructions from @SpyderTracks a few years ago. However, it's best to gradually go back <-0.05 and see how it effects performance after doing a mini stress test every few minutes. You ideally want to monitor the temperatures above all here, and my CPU never goes higher than 79-80c using the Intel XTU stress test with my settings.


If that isn't enough to cool down your laptop, then I'd look into checking for dust build-up by using compressed air and cotton buds + thermal purifier (Artic provides thermal paste remover + purifier on Amazon) on the fans to remove any potential dust-build up.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Sil...s=thermal+paste+remover&qid=1621198928&sr=8-3

If you're feeling comfortable with this part, invest in some good thermal paste like Grizzly Kyronaut, Noctua NT-H2, or a thermal grease paste. Remove the screws in the correct order (from 9 to 1), then remove the paste with the Arctic thermal paste remover. After you've removed the paste from both the components + heatsinks, use the thermal paste purifier and wait 30 seconds before cleaning it off.

Then, apply the newly acquired thermal paste using the X method (as the X suggests, 2 lines across all 4 corners of the components) then attach the heatsink back down and screw in the correct order (1 to 9). Check the temps after letting it settle for a few minutes. If it didn't work or the temps are higher, you'll probably have to do it again. Applying thermal paste is unfortunately trial and error, even for people with a lot of experience.

Hope this helps!

 

[barlew]

First off, it's pretty cool to see a fellow BMFE 2 player in 2021! I originally played it back when it originally came out on my Grandmother's laptop, and only recently started playing it again with my brother after following a few YouTube tutorials.

As for the cooling, there's a few steps I take before looking into making hardware changes (i.e. repaste + undervolting)
1) Click the battery icon at the bottom-right corner of the screen and check what mode it's on. I personally have mine on "better performance" when doing/playing non-CPU intensive tasks, whereas I'll turn on to "maximum performance" for game genres such as MOBA's where the CPU is mostly needed for the best possible framerates
2) I would then invest in a good cooling pad. I personally use the IETS GT300 cooling pad for my laptop, and it works like a charm (although it can be tricky to get it into the correct position with a 17.3" laptop). Another good option is the Klim Cyclone
3) During gameplay, you can turn your fans on to their highest performance by using FN + 1 (at least it is for my laptop, although your instruction manual should show these keys combinations)
4) Only at this point would I recommend doing an undervolt. I use Intel XTU for my laptop and I found the sweet spot to be at -0.70 after following very useful instructions from @SpyderTracks a few years ago. However, it's best to gradually go back <-0.05 and see how it effects performance after doing a mini stress test every few minutes. You ideally want to monitor the temperatures above all here, and my CPU never goes higher than 79-80c using the Intel XTU stress test with my settings.


If that isn't enough to cool down your laptop, then I'd look into checking for dust build-up by using compressed air and cotton buds + thermal purifier (Artic provides thermal paste remover + purifier on Amazon) on the fans to remove any potential dust-build up.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arctic-Sil...s=thermal+paste+remover&qid=1621198928&sr=8-3

If you're feeling comfortable with this part, invest in some good thermal paste like Grizzly Kyronaut, Noctua NT-H2, or a thermal grease paste. Remove the screws in the correct order (from 9 to 1), then remove the paste with the Arctic thermal paste remover. After you've removed the paste from both the components + heatsinks, use the thermal paste purifier and wait 30 seconds before cleaning it off.

Then, apply the newly acquired thermal paste using the X method (as the X suggests, 2 lines across all 4 corners of the components) then attach the heatsink back down and screw in the correct order (1 to 9). Check the temps after letting it settle for a few minutes. If it didn't work or the temps are higher, you'll probably have to do it again. Applying thermal paste is unfortunately trial and error, even for people with a lot of experience.

Hope this helps!

Whilst you have some great advice here you have it back to front. You want to ensure that the cooling system is working correctly prior to further optimisation with the methods you described.

If the laptop has a bad paste job and or debris build up in the radiator then its pointless trying to optimise as @SpyderTracks pointed out in his earlier post.

 

[solidus1983]

After Reading the thread thus far, i agree with @SpyderTracks , this sounds more like a poor paste job or debris in the fin array or fans.

After all Clevo rates the Heatsink for 340w and the dam thing is one big mass for thermal dissipation.

So before you go Optimising, follow SpyderTracks advise.

As for the system shutting down not sure what's going on there