Alienware 15 normal cpu temps ?

Dean037

Dean037

Dean037

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Just stared in thread in cooling section saying i recently purchased a alienware 15 with i7 7820HK and gtx 1080, was playing frost punk yesterday for hour or so and used CPUID HW monitor and max temps got to 100 degress c on cpu what is classed as normal and would you advice getting in touch with dell ?

Thought might been seen by more in general hardware

Thanks dean
 
The AW15 R3, and other similar designs from AW (15" 17", 1060, 1070, 1080 variations ) suffer from poor thermals. There are a couple of huge threads on other forums about it.

In very short terms, the heatsink's ability to remain stuck tight to the CPU die is compromised by a combination of:

- poor design of the heatsink ( 3 fixation points instead of 4 in each corner )
- thermal pads being too thick preventing the heatsink from being pulled properly down onto the CPU die.
- non flat heatsink surface.

Reaching 100degC is not unheard of. I've reached 101 once on mine ! ... but its not normal, and shouldn't be that hot. I am about to take mine apart for the second time to re-apply new thermal paste and pads to bring my temps down.

I did that a while back and it came down to the 60-70degC under load ... but its crept back up again ... so back in I go.

Whether you want to do that, or send it back to Dell is upto you.

I think in hindsight, whilst I *really, really* like the feel, look, performance of my AW15, my experience with it has been seriously spoiled by the thermal aspects of it, and I dont think I would buy or even recommend another.
 
It was MX4 paste I used last time round, but for some reason the temps have risen over time. It'll be interesting to see what it looks like when I take it apart.
 
Donnie Fisher said:
The AW15 R3, and other similar designs from AW (15" 17", 1060, 1070, 1080 variations ) suffer from poor thermals. There are a couple of huge threads on other forums about it.

In very short terms, the heatsink's ability to remain stuck tight to the CPU die is compromised by a combination of:

- poor design of the heatsink ( 3 fixation points instead of 4 in each corner )
- thermal pads being too thick preventing the heatsink from being pulled properly down onto the CPU die.
- non flat heatsink surface.

Reaching 100degC is not unheard of. I've reached 101 once on mine ! ... but its not normal, and shouldn't be that hot. I am about to take mine apart for the second time to re-apply new thermal paste and pads to bring my temps down.

I did that a while back and it came down to the 60-70degC under load ... but its crept back up again ... so back in I go.

Whether you want to do that, or send it back to Dell is upto you.

I think in hindsight, whilst I *really, really* like the feel, look, performance of my AW15, my experience with it has been seriously spoiled by the thermal aspects of it, and I dont think I would buy or even recommend another.
Click to expand...


wow thanks very much for that helpful information and I have read they have had overheating problems but yeah mine is getting to 100 degrees daily when gaming so I have started a support case with dell they can come and sort it and if no good I wil give it a go. I will still play games tonight etc hopefully doesn't take them long to get back to me.

thanks again Donnie and frank very helpful
 
Another thing you can do which makes a big difference is use the intel cpu tuning app to lower the cpu voltage. I lowered the cpu offset setting to -0.130v. Which made a notable difference to the temps but no obvious usability difference .
 
Donnie Fisher said:
Another thing you can do which makes a big difference is use the intel cpu tuning app to lower the cpu voltage. I lowered the cpu offset setting to -0.130v. Which made a notable difference to the temps but no obvious usability difference .
Click to expand...

I may have to ask you exactly how to do that as never over clocked or done anything along those lines of changing voltages etc

Also should i be ok to game for next few nights at temps of 100 until dell come out ? Soppose under warranty so should be hopefully doesnt shorten cpu lifespan

Thanks
 
Download Intel XTU from here:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24075/Intel-Extreme-Tuning-Utility-Intel-XTU-

Then install it in the normal way. When you run it, you need to allow it the normal admin access. Once open, it shows a load of values and sliders relating to the CPU and its voltages, wattages etc etc.

41trfEn.jpg


On the left hand side is the advanced tuning menu. When clicked, it brings up the adjusters for various CPU options. The simplest to adjust is the core offset voltage. Slide that down to reduce the CPU voltage. lower voltage = lower power = lower temps. Once you've adjusted it, then you click apply on the right hand side, and thats it instantly applied. -0.130 works for me, but YMMV, so try -0.100 first, and then take it from there. Most people seem to settle around -0.120 and -0.135 from what I've read.

You can also save profiles on the menu on the right ... which is fairly obvious to do. Once done, one of the quirks is that to load a profile, you need to select it, then hit the "show values" button so that the adjustments appear on the page and then "apply". Just selecting a profile will not automatically apply the settings held within the profile.

Going on from that, I've also adjusted "Turbo Boost Power Max" and "Turbo Boost Short Power Max". On each of them, I have reduced the value by about 4W. These reduce the max powers of the laptop when being hammered under rendering etc.

Important ...

Intel XTU adjustments dont appear to be persistent. So on reboots, etc etc the settings can fall off. So you need to monitor that the adjustments are applied ( easy done by having a profile saved ). You normally notice the settings dropped off cause the fans spin up a lot more, causing you to wonder why its heating up, then realising the settings have gone.



And Lastly ... I've found that in general terms, the AW really needs space below it. If its flat on a table / surface, then it doesn't seem to be able to draw enough fresh air into it to stay cool. Evne propping it up 1cm makes a maassive difference to the temps in general.

I do plan on opening mine up soon, and may well take photos / videos of the process. I know its already there, but the more information out there, the better.
 
Another thing, which you'll often see commented on in forums about the whole thermal issuse is variance in core temps. You can see this in the image below. There is a marked difference in the core temps whilst the CPU is going through a very short stress test. This is also indicative of the heatsink not being held evenly against the CPU die. Another reason for me to open the thing up.

zv5BWuP.jpg
 
Thanks again i may give that a try but think i will wait until after dell has been out incase they say voids warranty or something along those lines, aslong as doesnt damage the CPU at all wich it shouldn't sounds great, want thos laptop to last a good 4 year or so as just got from ebay, warrnty until end of novemeber so want all problems sorted by then want the cpu to last but from what i read 100 degrees it wont last long so thanks for the help will let you know exactly what dell respond with

You think will be ok to game for couple hours tonight and tomorro until they come out ? May try prop it up a bit like you say

Thanks dean
 
hi again dell told me to clean the vents etc what I have done, then install HWINFO64 what I have and run stress test and also turn off g-sync and lastly go into bios and enable CPU performance mode and OC mode level 3.
after doing these changes I had one game on total war arena and got temps of 103 degrees so sent mail straight back hopefully they get someone out soon as I shouldn't have to re-paste or adjust heat sinks etc especially when covered under warranty.

I have a couple of questions this shouldn't have shorted my CPU lifespan if sorted should it ?
also when ran stress test with dell support software the CPU was getting to 3.5Ghz does the software make it overclock to its maximum as CPU should only reach 2.9Ghz I have never overclocked as don't know what doing and want to make CPU last as long as I have machine so when I am gaming does it automatically go into overclock or stay at the standard 2.9Ghz ?

hope that makes sense
Thanks Dean
 
CPU's generally have protection built into them to back off the speed and power when temps raise too high. Thats fine for the odd occassion, but if the laptop is hitting the ceiling consistently there is the possibility of time its pushing too hard and bursts itself. This is where its important to have a decent cooling so that the heat can be taken away from the CPU quickly.

There are a ton of aspects to CPU and its speed.

In short, whilst a CPU may have an advertised speed of say 3GHz, that normally refers to the speed at which it can maintain without fuss. However, it can in certain occassions boost up beyond that to say 3.4GHz for short periods. The benefit of that ability is that for some high demand, but short time frame tasks, this makes the performance better, but its not something that it can maintain consistently as the faster speed results in higher temps ... which race you to the temp limit far quicker and when it reaches it, the CPU will back off the speed down to something it can maintain consistently.

Conversely, where there is little demand on the CPU, it'll slow itself right down to less than 1GHz to conserve power and lower heat.

Now in some laptops, the cooling system cant even cope will a non overclocked CPU running at 100% for a sustained period of time, and to counter it, the CPU may even slow down to below its normal labelled speed in order to remain under the temp limit. This is generally known as thermal throttling.

This process of switching frequencies happens very quickly, even multiple times per second, handled principally by the CPU itself.

Dont worry about overclocking. You should be able to run an AW15 stock laptop normally without it hitting 100degC ... and if you cant, then absolutely try to get it sorted by Dell.
 
Donnie Fisher said:
CPU's generally have protection built into them to back off the speed and power when temps raise too high. Thats fine for the odd occassion, but if the laptop is hitting the ceiling consistently there is the possibility of time its pushing too hard and bursts itself. This is where its important to have a decent cooling so that the heat can be taken away from the CPU quickly.

There are a ton of aspects to CPU and its speed.

In short, whilst a CPU may have an advertised speed of say 3GHz, that normally refers to the speed at which it can maintain without fuss. However, it can in certain occassions boost up beyond that to say 3.4GHz for short periods. The benefit of that ability is that for some high demand, but short time frame tasks, this makes the performance better, but its not something that it can maintain consistently as the faster speed results in higher temps ... which race you to the temp limit far quicker and when it reaches it, the CPU will back off the speed down to something it can maintain consistently.

Conversely, where there is little demand on the CPU, it'll slow itself right down to less than 1GHz to conserve power and lower heat.

Now in some laptops, the cooling system cant even cope will a non overclocked CPU running at 100% for a sustained period of time, and to counter it, the CPU may even slow down to below its normal labelled speed in order to remain under the temp limit. This is generally known as thermal throttling.

This process of switching frequencies happens very quickly, even multiple times per second, handled principally by the CPU itself.

Dont worry about overclocking. You should be able to run an AW15 stock laptop normally without it hitting 100degC ... and if you cant, then absolutely try to get it sorted by Dell.
Click to expand...

Thanks that was helpful so a Cpu will usually run a lot lower voltages and run faster when needed, i may go back into bios and change back to how it was as not really sure what i done when changed cpu performance mode.

Also dell been in touch and said defently overheating so will be getting in touch tomorro to change the heatsink and i asked of they will repaste the cpu. Also changing the keyboard as been having bother with w key so hopefully they come out next few days and i will just play red alert till then and keep eye on temps.

What are normal temps ? 80s ?
I will lover voltages like you say once it's out of warranty, i was debating getting warranty extended but sure its very expensive however i do want to keep for a good 4 year or so.

Keep you posted
Thanks again
 
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