Asus ROG GL702ZC owners lounge

Ok guys... as you know, Asus released this laptop into the wild, and I got mine today.

https://www.asus.com/uk/Laptops/ROG-Strix-GL702ZC/

Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 1700
GPU: RX 580 (4GB)
RAM: 1x 16GB (2400 Mhz)
SSD: 256GB
HDD: 1TB
OS: Windows 10 home x64

I've set up the laptop in a basic manner and disabled all/most Microsoft info collections.
Having a bit of an issue with installing the latest graphics drivers on it.
After running the latest drivers utility, I keep getting an Error 173 saying: AMD installer cannot continue since AMD graphics hardware was not found.

The GPU IS installed however and there is AMD radeon Settings installed... It's an earlier version 17.6

Obviously, I want to update it, but for some reason the AMD software can't recognize the GPU... the OS sees it though and it's registered as RX 580 in Device Manager.

I could use some assistance.


UPDATE: I successfully installed latest GPU drivers.
You need to download and install the latest chipset utility from AMD's website and run it.
It will then offer to update the GPU

UPDATE 1: Still toying with settings and trying to undervolt the GPU and CPU - though I will need to learn how to properly use Ryzen Master utility to undervolt the CPU - and GPU... well, Wattman is not available in the global settings like on desktop (it might be an artificial limitation by Asus), so WattTool seems like the only option - but even that is wonky at best right now as the set voltage for the P state I'm targeting already is set on a low voltage (0.86) but seems to hit 1V according to GPU-Z (though it might be registering the voltages incorrectly).

 

Congratulations on the new all AMD laptop!

I've appreciated seeing your reports about the new laptop in the

AMD's Ryzen CPU's (Ryzen/TR/Epyc) & Vega/Polaris GPU's

thread, and I look forward to future reports here and there

 

Congrats on the new laptop, hope these aren't too rare as would be good to hear from other owners too! Maybe Asus Tech Support can help you with your undervolting, well I mean point you in the right direction. Looking forward to hearing some more updates.

 

For the time being, Asus Tech support is likely useless as I cannot even register the laptop on their website because the model number doesn't exist.
Also, their product support page for this laptop has no drivers available for download, no manuals, nothing.
I was wondering if it is common for a company to release a laptop with 0 support available on their website?

 

This is a copy/paste of my post in the thread link hmscott provided:

Something unpleasant that I discovered by installing the latest drivers.
I lost FreeSync.
The laptop comes with FreeSync enabled in original drivers, but by installing latest drivers, it's gone. Not just shut off, but registering as 'not available'.

I hope that this isn't one of those stupid OEM features that only work if you only use their drivers (Which don't exist on the laptop's/Asus website as of yet of course).
I'll send an email about this to AMD and Asus.

Also, I can't use Wattman. It's not showing up in the Global settings of Gaming portion (this is either intentional on Asus part, or the AMD drivers hadn't been properly set up yet for this gpu, which is odd to say the least as it should be easy considering its a desktop rx 580 - also this could be the reason for losing FreeSync).

The GPU seems to be already working on a low voltage as is, but it ramps up to 1V on 1077 MhZ (which seems to be the turbo frequency - but I don't think it needs it).
I also limited the target FPS to 60 in the drivers as the refresh rate of the screen is 60Hz and there's no point going over that on this laptop's screen.
Radeon Chill is operational it would seem.

I downloaded and installed Ryzen Master utility (for Threadripper) as the one for other Ryzen CPU's refused to be opened (something about a missing driver).
I got into it and managed to find voltage control, but I don't think that changing the Voltage actually did anything.
I ran Cynebench btw, and got a score of 1392
OpenGL score: 88-91 FPS

For now, I'm still trying to transfer all of my files and programs from the old laptop to this new one, so I'm nowhere near done.

CPU-Z results were interesting... a few % above reference results.

As for the GPU voltages... I was able to obtain WattTool, and once I opened it, I only saw 3 P states that can be altered.
The voltages are already pretty low, but GPU-Z does record the voltage going up to 1V under load - which is puzzling.

As for Ryzen Master utility... It's very peculiar.
I tried changing the voltages in Creator Mode, but it doesn't seem to be applying them.
And If I want to change voltages in Game Mode it asks me to restart Windows (which I hadn't done yet - and it looks like they are controlling the overall voltage for now, so I'll need to do that).

RyzenMaster utility is a bit odd. Never used it before so I'm still wrapping my head around it and trying to figure it out.

But, it's a very new laptop, so tools like these might need time to get adapted for them (except of course Ryzen Master utility).

 

I've had Asus laptops that were so new they didn't exist in the database for registration. Just report it, and they will be prompted to add it.

I've found it helpful to help them connect, from engineering through me to support, you can too

 

Interesting... could you elaborate on how I'd go about doing this?
Should I just send them an e-mail, call them directly, or something else?
I'm not sure where to access the support system tickets though.

 

Ha, I don't know why they're selling laptops which they don't even acknowledge as existing! Hopefully they will rectify this quickly & add the support options, etc for you laptop model very soon.

 

On a side-note, I'm digging the new laptop.
Even though it's a bit rough around the edges right now, It's really nice.

Btw... I was experimenting with Ryzen Master utility yesterday night and it would seem that Creator Mode DOES apply voltage corrections as requested, but I also had to increase the processor speed from base 3.0 to 3.2 GhZ.
At that point, it seems the voltages are being applied.

However, on just 1 core that turbo boosts, I was able to lower the Voltage from 1.1875 default to about 1.0875 V.
Temperatures might have changed when I was doing the same across all cores, which on 3.2 GhZ went down to 0.975 V stable across all cores.
I'll have to experiment more once I have all of the programs set up.

Go figure... my external HDD 2.5" 4TB seagate drive ended up with a battered inside of the cable (the larger USB cap, not the Micro 3 B one) just as I needed it most... so I had to order a new one. The larger USB end of the cable simply refuses to go inside the laptop's USB port (it goes less than half way in and just refuses to go more).
I'd prefer to wait for the new cable rather than force feed the cable (and I tried applying a bit of force to get it in, but it didn't work... so I decided not to try it again).

Anyway will have to get in touch with Asus support most likely.

 

I already had product registered, so I found a way through to file a ticket that way - using another product. Do you have another Asus product registered?

Another way is to call directly, here are some numbers - start in the Notebook support and explain your situation:

https://www.asus.com/us/support/callus

 

I'm in the UK though.
There is customer support available, but they are working from 9 to 5 it would seem.
I'll have to call them tomorrow.
I tried sending an email about Freesync issue and missing Wattman from the drivers... but I can't sent the e-mail as Asus UK is apparently experiencing maintenance updates still.
It might be a while (tomorrow most likely) until I can get anything done.

I managed to fire off an email to them.
I'll post an update with their reply.

 

Sent an email to AMD as well detailing the issue with loss of FreeSync functionality and non-existence of Wattman in the drivers.

EDIT: Scratch that, I thought I sent them an email but it just bounced back being an incorrect one.
I'll have to look for another one

 

Played Star Trek online for a while last night.
I used Ryzen master utility to set the clock speed across all cores to 3.2 GhZ, and reduced the voltage down to 0.975.
I could go a notch below that, but Cinebench wasn't stable below 0.975V.
On a single core, I can drop the voltage from 1.1875 to 1.0875 (or 0.1 V).
I'll have to carry out some stress tests to make sure these voltages are stable.

Temperatures were relatively good during ST:O gaming. The gpu spiked to about 77 deg C... but then dialed back to around 70 deg C. CPU was hovering around 73 deg c.
The fans ramped up quite high as I was playing on some points in the game, but then they dropped down a bit as I lowered the voltage.
They are quite audible.
I think if you're using the laptop for gaming, headphones will be needed (to drown out the fans) - otherwise, for anything else (browsing, light work, etc.) the fans are relatively quiet.

 

Could you post up some benchmark scores (e.g. Firestrike & others) when you've arrived at your final optimised tweak, that would be good to see how performance is?

I was just looking at the specs of the laptop in Post #1 of this thread. You've only got one stick of RAM in there, won't you get quite a boost to the CPU performance by adding another stick & making it dual channel?

 

The RAM upgrade will need to wait for a more favorable time (about a month or so) as I'm strapped for cash at the moment.
But I can certainly run Firestrike, etc. to gauge current performance and again when I get the RAM upgrade.
I don't think that dual-channel will affect CPU performance that much, but will see.

I was also able to update Windows to the Fall creator edition (finally). I downloaded Windows 10 assistant (or something like that) and after a while, it was able to update the whole thing.
Finally.
My Windows was constantly trying to do that ridiculous KB update failing each and every time. Even manual installation failed. So I stumbled upon that Windows 10 update assistant thingy and it worked.

Also, hdd cable came today... was able to connect my external 4 TB drive. Works great... am now in the process of finalizing installation of other software.

 

Guys, you might recall I sent an email to AMD and Asus about Freesync disappearing from the drivers, along with non-existence of Wattman.
Here's what AMD had to say (Asus hadn't replied as of yet) :

"Thank you for your email

The laptop manufacturer customizes the hardware to support the specific features and functions of the laptop and the display driver will be designed specifically to the laptop. Hence, I would kindly request you to get in touch with the laptop manufacturer to get the compatible driver and for the further guidelines.

The reason why I’m referring you to the contact the laptop manufacturer is because, the laptop uses the customized hardware. The laptop manufacturer could customize its hardware and it drivers to support the specific features and functions of the laptop, where the AMD driver could have the limited support for such product.

Thanks for contacting AMD."

So, those of us who have these laptops might be limited to Asus it would appear when it comes to FreeSync support on future drivers.
This might put a wrench into things as OEM's are notoriously bad for supporting their laptop hardware long term - though I don't know where Asus stands with this.
Point being here is little guarantee Asus will be releasing new drivers whenever AMD releases them.

However, there is something else to take into account. AMD has to release new drivers to support a wide range of GPU's and APU's they have (including mobile ones).
They had to have been working with Asus to make this laptop in the first place, meaning that they would eventually (hopefully) release drivers supporting the custom RX 580 inside it (especially since they have drivers for other mobile products) and possibly Freesync along with it (I mean, FreeSync was AMD's idea after all, although I know Asus assembled the laptop by customizing desktop components... but still - we would in that case either require LCD panel drivers that would accurately identify it along with it's Freesync features - something which would need to be cleared with Asus support/engineers - or knowing how Asus did it so we can replicate the feat ourselves).

I'm reasonably certain that Wattman functionality could be enabled by editing the drivers a bit to work with the custom RX 580, or we can eventually use WattTool or another program (provided that Asus doesn't include Wattman). The RX 580 is already set to relatively low voltages, but it DOES ramp up by around 120mv on load (reaching 1V in total when turbo boosting if GPU-Z is accurate). I really don't think it needs that kind of voltage on 1077 MhZ though, and besides, I always enjoy shaving off use of electricity and lowering heat emissions. Still, I don't think that the GPU would desperately need it... it's actually working quite efficiently. The CPU on the other hand... I still maintain Asus could have implemented better cooling like using 'lung' like devices or even a miniature water cooling for both the CPU and GPU, but it's not a big deal (just a bit of a disdain with how lazy/cheap OEM's are in 2017).

I have another 'problem'.
I tried a factory reset of the laptop in order to get the previous/original drivers installed.
No such luck. The F9 button upon bootup didn't work, so I downloaded a program with a workaround which brought me to the bootup utility where one could run the factory reset.
Found it, set it to only affect the OS drive, and it set out to work. It reached 40% and then it just stopped, saying it couldn't proceed.
Then it reset the system and undid the changes.
Wow... Windows on this thing is quite persistent. It's as if it's 'lodged' itself firmly onto the hardware and won't let go. First it was the KB update that didn't want to go through until I had to find a third option (aka the Windows 10 update assistant) because manual installation of the KB update failed much like the automated updates did... and of course Factory reset doesn't work.

I tried factory reset second time around and this time it couldn't find a factory reset image at all - which makes me wonder where did it find it the first time I tried it?

I guess I do a clean install of Windows 10... that's always preferable... but I want to make sure I have the drivers for everything on standby... and with Asus not having any up and running for this laptop... it's a bit iffy.

Oh well... I'll have to go back to setting up software and all and run benches.
Stay tuned.

 

Where did u guys get this laptop? Is it even released yet? I cant find for sale anywhere..

 

I m in UK, so I got mine from LaptopsDirect.
https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asu...-windows-10-laptop-gl702zc-gc104t/version.asp

It appears to be out of stock there for now.
Other vendors had it available as well such as Amazon and Overclockers UK (OC UK seems to have had it briefly though... a few days) when I checked last week... other than that, seems to be out of stock again.

Looks like the laptop flied off the shelves.

I'll be doing a comprehensive posting of benches and stuff over the next few days.

I have also been experiencing a minor issue it would seem which results in the laptop not waking up properly from sleep.
It activates, but then when I click to reach the password screen, the screen goes off (laptop continues running and is otherwise unresponsive- needs a hard reset).
I think this started happening due to the newest drivers I installed from AMD.
Might have to return to 17.10 instead.

 

Yeh looks like its sold out everywhere. How much did they sell for? Hopefully thell come back soon. And looking forward to your benchs. thanks

 

LaptopsDirect had it for £1565.96 at the time.
They also offered a £15 discount if a person subscribes to Which magazine for 1 month (no more), and one time £1 fee (non-recurring of course).
It was effectively cheaper than what Amazon or Overclockers UK offered even without 'Which' magazine subscription so I chose 'next day delivery' which bumped up the price by £10, but with which magazine sub I still saved £5 in total.

Since it was Friday, it was really pointless to order 'next day delivery' because the laptop was delivered on Monday... so I could have simply opted for a standard free delivery and waited a bit longer.

I just checked Overclocker's UK and seems their pre-order price jumped to £1650 vs the previous £1590 (mind you, this could easily be temporary... as I saw something similar happen on Amazon... the unit there went for over £1800 for pre-orders and when they got it in stock, the price dropped back to £1590 much like OC-UK had it originally for most of the time.

My advice is to wait until the laptop is back in stock and then get it as vendors might have certain discounts and stuff. Alternatively, if you are happy to pay the 'nominal' price for the laptop on pre-order, that's fine, just avoid inflated pre-order prices.

 

Does the rx 580 equal more towards the 1060 or 1070?
Are there any other issues with the laptop other than the drivers?
Seems like its only available in uk. Not a lot of personal reviews to make a decision

 

Unavoidable... been busy with real life I'm afraid to make a lot of personal testing.
However, to answer your question, the RX 580 in this laptop is more equivalent to GTX 1060.
It's about ~5% slower in DX11, and about 10% or more faster in DX12.
I'll run 3d mark today to post some scores, but the rx 580 is a desktop version downclocked to 1077Mhz to have a 65w tdp

 

So i suppose the rx580 is made with future games in mind?

How are the thermals thou? Do they get hot during high load?

So far i have only seen you gave feedback on this laptop on this forum. Hopefully there might be someone else that can give their input as well?

 

I had some issues with 3dMark and PCMark upon first install.
PCMark encountered an error at the end at video editing by being unable to access some kind of player.
I'll have to reinstall to see if it was a fluke as I tried installing 3dMark simultaneously.

Firestrike refused to run for some reason, but I was able to run Skydiver.
The results are a from my laptop running completely unrestricted (no 60FPS limitation in the drivers, etc.)

I think the results are really good, but there's a validation warning saying:
Your score contained the following anomalies

• - Graphics card is not recognized
• - Graphics driver is not approved

Once I get PCMark operational I'll try running it.
3dMark simply doesn't seem to like my GPU or the drivers as it cannot recognize either... probably because it's a custom version of RX 580 or a new system in general that they don't have in the database (much like Asus itself).

Plus the drivers I'm running are latest ones from AMD...

Other than that... I usually restrict FPS to 60 in the drivers while gaming as the LCD panel is 60Hz, so there does not appear to be much sense to push the GPU to its limits in games and takes more power - but I am planning on doing some gaming benchmarks (without the FPS limit) as well (at least I know the FPS limit in the drivers is working, as the score goes down by pretty much half if I enable it).

Incidentally, when I was looking for GTX 1060 online and its scores in Skydiver (the 6GB version) it seems it got just above 22 000 - mind you, that's with a i5 CPU... the graphics score however was 43594 (which is 30% higher performance) - mind you that GTX 1060 was also running on 1880 MhZ... so it was seemingly overclocked... but other scores for GTX 1060 point to it having just over 36 000 or 37 000 graphics score on desktop... so that 43000 score seems like an... anomaly.


I would say the RX 580 GPU itself has better DX12 and Vulkan implementation than Pascal... so it might be better, or more suitable for future games indeed, but that also depends on game optimizations.

I hadn't monitored the temperatures during this run, will need to repeat it sometime and provide that (I knew I missed something).

 

TimeSpy score:

 

I cannot run FireStrike or Cloudgate benchmarks unfortunately.
I keep getting an error of some kind.
It could be down to the software not playing that nice with my custom RX 580 and AMD's latest drivers.

 

Maybe one of your drivers isnt right. You had a clean install right? So maybe somethings wrong. But since nothing else is going wrong other than trying to get it to benchmark it maybe just ignore it until a real problem comes out.

Thanks a lot from your score!!!
Does seem to fall abit behind but could be cause of the down clocked rx580 =/

 

The RX 580 in this laptop is quite a bit downclocked actually... it boosts to 1077 MhZ... that's a difference of roughly 300 MhZ vs desktop RX 580.
The mobile 1060 is running on much higher clocks in comparison (about 1700MhZ)... but it's also made on a better manuf. process.
I can't help but think Asus should have improved cooling in this laptop... the fans are quite loud when playing games and benchmarking graphics...
I will eventually open the laptop and re-apply the thermal paste. That could easily improve thermals and lower the fan noise obviously.

I'd also like better voltage control of the RX 580. It ramps up the voltage to 1V under load even though it's technically set to 0.875V I think.
Something might be overriding the voltage settings, or I'm not getting accurate voltage readings from current software (Which wouldn't surprise me).

 

Would you be able to un-downclock it?
I assume the normal rx580 would be maybe as good as the 1060 with its normal clocked speed.

Is it possible to adjust it with msi afterburner or by doing so will it fry the laptop?

 

Here's the newest score:
It's now within 5% of other GTX 1060's.

I was able to increase the power limit in WattTool.
This result is with 20% power limit increased.
I'm gonna bump it up to 50% and see what I get. I'll monitor the GPU temps as well.

 

Some info for you bruh. If you already know it, then forget it
I don't know what AMD drivers you use now or have tested. But take a look on what the HP Omen with RX580 use. If you haven't tested this driver, maybe ask in proper HP thread/forum or other places like AMD. Or if HP themselfes have a own forum. Maybe ask for vBIOS as well. If this can be flashed on your laptop, I don't know. Seems the clocks boost 1266MHZ in HPBOOK.

Sky Diver - Fire Strike - Time Spy from leaderboard on 3dmark.com

 

FINALLY!!!

Asus uploaded drivers and BIOS updates for the laptop.
Downloading now.
First I'll take care of the chipset drivers and then the rest.
Apparently the BIOS update optmimizes system performance.
We'll see.

EDIT: GPU driver from Asus installed. Freesync is back online.

 

Just letting you guys now I successfully updated UEFI from 208 to 300 version.
Took a while for the UEFI to patch it, but it did.
It might be interesting to re-test the system under these conditions and see how it behaves.

 

That's great news!!

Thanks for keeping the news and new benchmarks after driver / firmware updates flowing

 

Its great having you constantly updating this thread about your progress and experience! Really appreciate your inputs

Hope to see improved results from the update!

 

I re-did the Skydiver benchmark, but there was no change (I suspect that scores 'might' improve somewhat with new drivers if Asus adapts them from AMD).
I have been in touch with Asus on FB over a live chat and asked about updating the chipset/gpu drivers to latest one from AMD, and also to see what (if anything) can be done to reduce fan noise while the GPU is under full load - somehow I don't particularly think having those fans ramping up that much is necessary.

Still, I was wondering that it could also be down to improper thermal paste application. I could potentially open up the laptop and re-paste it with mine.
I have Liquid Utra and Gelid Solutions Extreme Performance GC-3.
Unless there's a better thermal compound.

EDIT: Looks like Liquid Ultra is the best... but it offers maybe 2 deg C improvement over Gelid to be honest.
Not sure if its worth the hassle. Plus, It's been recommended to use a thermal tape as well to prevent leaking of the paste (which is a sound advice).

I might just get the thermal tape anyway as I'd like to sell my old Acer, so I can additionally patch up some blind spots in terms of heat.

EDIT2: FireStrike and a few other benchmarks still refuse to run for some reason. Meh, now that I have access to the drivers, I was thinking that doing a clean OS install might be in order - though Asus still needs to get the Wifi drivers up and running (the file they uploaded is broken it would seem, so I notified them of this and they said they will let HQ know).

 

Tnx for letting me know.
Though I don't think my RX 580 would be compatible for a bios flash. Different VRAM (mine is 4GB, the one in HP Omen has 8GB - might end up bricking the gpu).
The drivers might be usable though... but, it might depend on what kind of RX 580 is in that laptop... is it customized and part of the motherboard, or is it MXM?
Might be worth asking for the vBIOS though and the drivers.

Asus btw uploaded the drivers for my laptop (finally) and I have Freesync back (with an added bonus of new UEFI update which supposedly optimizes performance - but I can't find the release notes on that anywhere).
So there's that.

Looks like I can get within 5% of higher scoring mobile GTX 1060 in general if I increase power target to 20% in WattTool.
Though, in all honesty, I think its unnecessary.
Since the laptop's LCD panel is restricted to 60Hz, there's no need in making the GPU work more than this.
I'd be aiming to limit FPS using Radeon chill to 60 if gaming on the laptop or the living room TV which supports up to 1080p (but obviously no Freesync).

I think unlocking this GPU for more performance might come later once software has been modified to better recognize it and AMD also releases mobile drivers for custom/mobile RX 580.

That and I will probably repaste the thermal compound in this system... it might drop temperatures (and fan noise) by a good amount.
I'm apprehensive in using Coolaboratory Liquid ultra (even though I bought it a while ago) when Gelid GC-3 gets only 2 deg C higher temps in reviewed test (and is easier to work with).
It's not a problem of applying Liquid at all as I can get thermal tape to protect the surrounding parts of the CPU and GPU before and after application and prevent spillage - issue is apparently removing it form the copper heat sink as some people reported... that's why I don't know if its worth the hassle.

 

Interesting. Can you run Fire Strike? My 1350MHz/6000MHz 980M is 10% faster in FS (12118 vs. 11010 Graphics Score) than the NotebookCheck GL702ZC review unit, but maybe your numbers will be different. Seems like the 1077MHz downclock is hurting the mobile RX 580 a bit. Can you not overclock it back to stock base/boost clocks using WattMan or the latest MSI Afterburner beta?

 

You're welcome.

All should hunt for max performance

Depends on how well the cooling works. Some get up to 10-15C better temp with LM. If you want to go for Liquid metal, then go for Conductonaut. Coolaboratory seems to have batch problems or they have change the prescription for Liquid Ultra.

 

Freesync only operates at 60Hz in this laptop as that's it refresh capability, and the FPS going over 60 is useless and makes the GPU work much harder than needed (plus the extra power draw).
If the monitor was operating at say 90 or 100 HZ, I would agree with you on shooting higher, but there's really no need... especially with FreeSync in operation.

30 FPS to my eyes looks smooth enough for gameplay... 60 FPS is a good bonus to aim for in terms of 'absolute fluidity'... but anything over that is going beyond the LCD panel's limits and not really worth the wasted frames or power expenditure (let alone the fan noise unless you are benchmarking for pure numbers - I think Asus needs to release a new UEFI patch which would not force the fans to rotate to the speed they do but still keeps temperatures as low as they are now - I suggested this to them - and this would mainly be for situations in which you don't want to use headphones but still want to game without noisy distractions).

What do you mean Coolaboratory has batch problems? Can you be more specific and point to the explanation behind the batch issues?
As for how well the cooling works... well, that's the thing... cooling methodology is outdated (using copper pipes and fans in a day and age of water cooling, carbon nanotubes, synthetic diamonds and graphene to mention a few... but apart from that, temperatures appear to stay below 80 degrees C at full load around 75-77 deg C actually (which is by 7 to 10 degrees C better than my old Acer laptop - but still the fan noise can be distracting when playing demanding games without headphones).
That's why I'm thinking on replacing the thermal compound... because OEM's have a tendency to be 'sloppy' in their application while also using not a very good quality paste.

As for people achieving 10 to 15C better temps with LM.... is this vs Gelid? Because I saw comparative analysis in official reviews which stated that LM is only by 2 deg C better than Gelid.
Also, achieving 10 to 15C lower temps could be attributed easily to improper thermal paste application... plus insufficient cooling of surrounding components as other people covered up some voltage regulators as well using a quality thermal pad and it aided in reducing overall temperatures.

 

I can't overclock the GPU at all.
It only has 3 P states according to WattTool, the other 4 don't seem to have any values, and Wattman doesn't appear in the drivers (its possible Asus might include them later on, but they dropped the ball a bit on GPU cooling because they apparently have 3 copper pipes for the Ryzen 1700 and only 2 copper pipes for the GPU.

MSI afterburner beta is unreliable with this GPU (as might be WattTool) since its a custom RX 580... 3dMark doesn't even recognize the GPU because its 'new'.
I also can't run Firestrike benchmark at all... SkyDiver and TimeSpy work yes, but other benches in 3dMark just produce an error for some reason (the screen flickers a couple of times but then just produces an error and creates a score based on 0). Something similar happened to someone else years ago and the company behind 3dMark couldn't identify what was causing it.

 

First... None know exactly what is the real problem with Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra. But several users who prefer Liquid metal on all their computers have seen changes with CLLU. It is more watery than before. And it dries out vs what they have seen before. Something is definitely changed. Either there must be a change in the composition, or there may be problems with some parties/batches. I think more this is a change in the composition by Coollaboratory due better results with Grizzly Conductonauts. FYI Silicon Lottery who uses Liquid metal for their delidded binned chips... They switched from Coolaboratory to Grizzly Conductonaut a while ago. I know at leat they did it due better results with Conductonaut. Maybe they also know more than what they will tell regarding the change.

Second. You like many others... Looking at thermal paste results done on test bench or desktop's much better cooling. Not everything can be transferred to the notebook's much worse cooling(Low pressure, Low quality cold plate etc). @Mr. Fox can sitate me on this. As well bro @Falkentyne can tell a bit of his experience when he switched from top notch quality thermal paste to Liquid metal. The only 2 deg C you see several places doesn't always apply for Notebook's much worse cooling. You will also find a lot about this topic in the forum.

 

I got at least 10C (probably about 15C) better temps with switching from Kryonaut to Conductonaut on the CPU. Maybe 5C on the GPU though.

 

Hm... Conductonaut is a bit expensive, but seems to be worth it.
I guess I could give it a go when I decide to repaste... otherwise, I might just try Gelid first.

 

None should go on accord (go cheapo) with thermal paste. The last you should save your money on. 5-10C can help you one or 2 bin higher clock speed. F.eks Skylake/Kaby is around 85c the limits before this architecture being unstable.

 

Conductonaut / CLU / CLP are all corrosive aluminum eating, brick making, *electically* conductive thermal pastes.

Unless you are ready to eat the cost of the laptop due to errant drips of doom sailing over your motherboard, leave it to the professionals to apply and manage.

You will get enough cooling from non-conductive pastes, and you won't need to worry about the paste damaging your laptop.

Thermal Grizzley also makes Kryonaut which works great and doesn't eat aluminum or soldered parts

 

Well, I've seen online on how to protect the motherboard and CPU in general from accidental spilling (using electrical tape).
But you are correct in the sense that I'm not that ready to take the plunge and potentially damage a brand new laptop. That's why I was saying I'd likely go with Gelid instead which seems to be at least on par with Kryonaut from various tests.
And yes, while I understand that you can't directly translate those tests to laptops with inferior cooling, it at least gives you the confidence you will get much lower temperatures than with the factory default anyway.
Besides, I'm not planning on overclocking the CPU just yet... and there's a question if the power supply could even provide the needed power for that.

First I want to get another RAM stick to get dual-channel working properly, and when I do that, I'll think about using Kryonaut for example or Gelid.
I bought my Coollaboratory paste a while ago... it was over 2 years ago actually.

 

The factory default paste isn't bad with Asus laptops, it's best quality is that if you leave it alone, it will last for years without the temperatures degrading.

MSI / Asus pastes are designed to never need servicing for the life of the laptop. They won't win awards for lowest temps, but with the cooling design and performance range at stock + limited OC it's always been good enough for 99% of the owners.

The Intel CPU's run hot due to too high CPU voltage settings in the BIOS, so for them undervolting somewhere between -100mV and -200mV - wherever it's stable - lowers the temps another 10c out of the box and drops them below thermal throttling range.

As long as you aren't thermal throttling during use, heavy game use or benchmarks with full fan (100%), or heavy game use with Auto fan, you are ok.

Re-pasting will lower temps sometimes with MSI / Asus, but they are already doing well enough. Re-pasting just starts you on that cycle of requiring re-pasting again 3 months to 12 months, sometimes less than 24 hours as reported here - they made a boo boo and need to redo the re-paste, and that can happen several times till they get it "just right".

Why start on that pain train when running stock paste works well enough?

Unless you are looking to unlock power limits, hack the firmware on the BIOS / vBIOS and get into OC'ing and benchmarking as your full time hobby, like the guys rushing in to tell you to re-paste using conductive metal paste, it's a waste of time distraction away from your interests and use.

It's odd that all the Ryzen and Ryzen APU laptops except for one comes with single channel memory, slower memory at that, instead of fast dual channel memory, which will give Ryzen better performance, so yeah, I'd do that first too

Why did you get CLU 2 years ago? Did you use it on something else? IDK what the shelf life is, but maybe check with the maker before using it.

Also, before you crack it open to replace the RAM or re-paste, be sure and register your new laptop with Asus and ask them via a support ticket if either task is ok with them, and ask if it will void your warranty.

Oddly enough lately Asus has been telling people re-pasting does void their warranty - it seems to depend on which region Asus support you are in, but get the "ok" from Asus in writing before losing your warranty coverage, a few degrees C lower temps aren't worth losing your warranty.

 

I registered the laptop the moment the drivers became available on the website as I got a wind of the idea they updated their database.
I'll make sure to ask Asus about upgrading RAM though... however, usually, upgrading the RAM alone never broke any warranties (unless we're talking about Mac's) if I recall accurately.
As for re-pasting... that is a different issue but yes, I'd imagine it would break the warranty as I think some seals are in place that say 'do not remove, doing so breaks the warranty' - its another reason why I'm not so keen to open the laptop (Except to upgrade the RAM).

As for repasting... I actually got the idea for it as the fans in this machine can get really loud when gaming, and I figured that replacing the thermal paste would lower the loading temperatures even further.
But, as I said, I try to limit the GPU's FPS to 60 as there's no point going over that on this LCD screen because its freesync operates within 60Hz - this does help somewhat with the noise.

Apart from that, I wrote a suggestion to Asus on the fans being very loud and recommended they might try to experiment a bit to see if they can keep the fans on lower RPM's without affecting temperatures.

One other reason the machine gets loud during load is probably because it only has 2 copper pipes to take away the heat on the GPU (CPU has 3 copper pipes).
Voltages are already low on this laptop for both the CPU and GPU under load, so my options are limited.

I got CLU 2 years ago due to wanting to have a thermal paste that was at the time perceived to be 'really good'... but I was already using GELID at the time (and It still hadn't run out).

 

The seals on the outside are to keep people from opening up the laptop that don't have any experience inside a laptop, but there might be another one on a screw holding down the CPU heatsink.

That's why it's better to ask Asus. You should be able to do the storage upgrade / memory upgrade, breaking the first seal. Asus will tell you you are responsibile for any damage caused when opening the case and working inside. They will likely recommend an Asus approved service center to do the memory / storage upgrade, and then tell you Asus service doesn't do that as part of the warranty work

Asus used to be ok with re-pasting, but again it's always best anyway to ask the regional support that will do your warranty work.

IDK about the fans quieting down via re-pasting, if you are keeping the FPS down with G-sync, then it's already not getting hot, it's likely the Asus fan curves.

Do the ROG Gaming Center controls Fan control section have any options other than 100% fan and Auto? A custom setting might let you configure the fans to run quieter.

High Power gaming laptops all have loud fans when under heavy load, without listening to it myself I can't tell if you if they are abnormally loud, but I doubt it.

Is there are 100% fans setting, either by physical button on the keyboard or a setting in the ROG controls? The difference in loudness should be noticeable going from loudest auto while gaming to 100% fan, so it's likely already quieter than maximum fans.

Even if you re-pasted you'll need to get the fans settings / custom fan curve set up. Can you please screen shot the ROG fan controls, and the custom fan curve section, and post them? Thanks.