Alienware 15 R3 1070 Thermal Throttling/Fps Drops

Hello, i have an Alienware 15 R3 with 7700HQ and GTX 1070 and it suffers from thermal throttling and FPS spikes. Basically the temperatures of CPU are all the way up to 100c on full load while the GPU reaches 90c. The problem is that when it hits the 100 mark on the CPU the games start to freeze for a couple of seconds. You cant play any game properly (PUBG or R6 Siege you name it). On PUBG and all Ultra the FPS is 116 and after hitting the temps it starts dropping to 5-10, then back up, then again and it goes like that forever. I have repasted the laptop with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut and it did not help a single bit. It still reaches the 100c on CPU. I have tried undervolting up to -0.125, disabling turbo, enabling/disabling CPU performance mode in BIOS. I have read that replacing heatsink could be a viable solution, but isnt there any workaround to just stop the game throttling?I dont mind the temps as long as i could play a game properly which i cant. Any advice?

 

Pretty sure a dead CPU is way more problematic than the stuttering u're having. Which will be the result if you keep on playing with 100c.

It's the typical Alienware Heatsink syndrome. Repaste it and your temps will be good again, it has to be good thermal paste otherwise it won't change anything. And you need thick paste, kryonaut is to thin, it won't help against the horrible heatsink fit, either get ICDiamond or TK3.

If you do a graphics only test, u'll see how the CPU temps rise because the heatsink has the vaporation point on the CPU and uses it as a heatsink.

 

Clean the heatsink, if possible replace the thermal pads but at least use new thermal paste (i recommend ICD7) and it should be running much better.

 

What do you mean by clean the heatsink?It doesnt have any dust on it and i cleaned the vents with compressed air. I will try to replace the thermal pads and apply a thicker paste, but Danishblunt, what is TK3?I cant find any IC Diamond here in Lithuania, so would try to go for the other one?

 

My bad, meant Pk3.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Prolimatec...616380?hash=item1a145a5e3c:g:TFEAAOSw7ehXSmzX

Just order online, ICDiamond is easier to find, and cheaper.

 

Use vsync or something to limit your FPS and/or lower your settings so your system doesnt have to work at 100% all the time. Its not ideal but it will keep your temps a lot lower until you can work something else out

 

Actually this does help a little, but the temps still are very high.I need a reliable solution such as a thermal pad and thermal paste replacement.However i was amazed that Kryonaut did absolutely nothing to the temps...

 

You sure you applied it properly? temps that high seems like the heatsink isnt making proper contact

 

You could also undervolt your cpu some more, you might lose some overall speed, but this will be made up for by the fact that you wont throttle as much and your temps will be way lower

 

I did undervolt the cpu by -0.125 to no avail. As for the application of Kryonaut i think i did it properly, but the layer on the cpu was pretty thin.I do have a spare Cooler Master Value V1 paste somewhere, but that is cheap and as far as i know it sucks on high temps.

 

Kryonaut isn't that thick of paste. Phobya worked a lot better for me.

 

Okay, after reading many comments and suggestions about these models i have decided that Kryonaut must be one of the best thermal paste and MUST work. So i have disassembled the laptop again in order to try and use the rice grain and line method on GPU and CPU respectively. This time i saw a thick layer of dust on the vent grill through a small hole. I have opened the vent (3 tiny screws on each of the vents) and what do you think?There was a HUGE clogging of dust in the vent grills, they were fully covered by dust buildup, therefore i cleaned the dust with some tweezers, qtip and isopropyl, repasted with the beforementioned methods, reassembled and voila, the GPU does not exceed 68c degrees on Furmark, while it reached 91 before, the CPU did not go over 71 in that test. Aida 64 goes all the way up to 96 but that is what most of the laptops do in that test anyway (its not average, just max temp on hwmonitor - it sits at 86-90). I hope my experience (or inexperience actually) will be a lesson to other users having similar problems like i did.

PS. I have done some PUBG and R6 Siege testing and the GPU reaches 80 while CPU maxes out at around 90 which is more than enough for me. I have uninstalled ThrottleStop and did not undervolt anymore, turbo is enabled. I did not change the thermal pads as well.

 

No it isnt one of the best pastes for these laptops to work. First of all Kryonaut starts to degrade after 80c (its mentioned in their spechseets). Second it is not very viscose and very suspectible to pump out. So if your heatsink isnt perfectly flat, you can redo the repasting within weeks or months depending on how severe.

Use ICD7 or Mastergel maker Nano.

 

Thanks, i will order ICD7, but the main problem was definitely the dust buildup which i should have cleaned prior to my first repasting!

 

Yeah dust can be quite a problem for modern laptops. to enlarge the cooling capacity they use thinner fins.

 

Or Gelid GC-EXTREME will also work ? @rinneh

 

Better than kryonaut at least in these laptops.

 

I have Gelid GC Extreme applied on my HP Omen laptop and temps of CPU get to around 78- 83c degrees while gaming WWII COD or Far Cry 5. I7 7700HQ CPU.

 

In general the top pastes, such as Kryonaut, Gelid, Phobya nanogrease, CM mastergel maker nano, ICD7 perform in 1 to 2 degrees of eachother in ideal circumstances. But the less viscose the paste the higher the chance of the paste pumping out (looks like drying out). The composition also matters ofcourse. But ICD7 is by far the most viscose paste out there and very long lasting.