GPU temp in S96Jm

Does anyone know if there's a way to monitor the GPU temp (X1600) in a S96Jm? I'm pretty sure mine is too warm... it's getting uncomfortable under my right hand... I'm curious as to how warm it's getting though. I suspect I'll be pulling it out and applying arctic silver soon.

Krista

 

I run my GPU clocks at power saver on both battery and balanced. Im on balanced for normal operation. Otherwise, on normal balanced, the gpu clocks run 2/3% speed and runs a bit hotter.

I only run my gpu full speed when i play games.

 

What tool do you use for that?

I put on some antec silver tonight, and I think it's cooler.. I know the processor is cooler... though there's still a very hot spot on the lower right edge of the silver by the keyboard, and the touchpad is pretty hot. Maybe I should put my old heatsink into this new model... I had an S96J, and they sent me back a S96Jm when I had to sent it in for warranty. It seemed cooler.

Speedfan shows HD temp of 38 and the other temp, which I'm assuming is the CPU at 41. Not bad... stayed there in WoW. Earlier today under mild usage at work, it just seemed to get hotter and hotter... cpu temp went up to 62. I haven't seen it higher than the 41 tonight. The fan seems to be running faster from time to time... I don't think it was kicking up into high gear before. Weird.

Oh well, seems to be okay now.

Krista

 

Something might be fishy about the cooling system if the fan is acting like that. You should be able to check the GPU temperature from the driver properties (XP: right click desktop, settings, advanced, GPU properties).

You should also be able to select power profiles for your GPU from that page. If the GPU temps are too high, run power saver profiles whenever you don't game.

Also check if you have the latest BIOS. It might have an updated fan policy that works better at cooling the GPU.

 

In catalyst control center, under powerplay. i select max battey life for both plugged in and battery. When i want to play a game, i select high performance in vistas power plans icon in the tray and this raises my gpu clocks to max default.

For checking clocks and temps on everything an anything, cept the gpu temps, i use everest. For really quick gpu clock veiws, i use GPU-Z. Im pretty sure there is no way to see the gpu temps, not that ive found anyways.

 

Yeah, I can't find anywhere to see the GPU temps. I'm not having any artifacts... It feels a bit cooler and the handrest and the cpu and HD are at reasonable temps now so I'm going to assume, at least for now, that it's all right. Hotter than I like but heck, it's a powerful vid card

I don't have Vista, but do have powerplay etc. I'm using Omega drivers atm. Going into the adapter or driver properties doesn't give me anything for temps. I suspect the S96J doesn't have a temp sensor on the gpu.

Krista

 

I got the newest version of speedfan. It found more sensors.

Right now while surfing the net I'm getting:
HD0 38C
Temp1: 39C (ACPI?)
Core 0: 51C
Core 1: 51C

Those CPU temps seem a little high to me, though I see people in the Z96 thread have gotten higher even at idle...

What do you all think?
Krista

 

Actually, those core temps look about right. What you should do is test full load temperatures. Downloading a stress tool like wPrime or SP 2004 Orthos will use both cores at 100%. Run it for about 10 minutes and monitor your CPU temperatures.

Unfortunately for the GPU I don't think the x1600 has a thermal diode to detect temperature.

 

Thanks. I downloaded prime95... only ran the torture test for a couple min and got up to about 64. I'll pick up one of the programs you mentioned and run it at 100%.

I thought maybe I put a little too thin of a layer of the antec silver on... and it was antec instead of arctic... That was last night. I'll give it a day or two to settle, then get some arctic if I think I want to push it lower

And yeah... you gotta wonder when a company doesn't want you to see the GPU temps

Krista

 

Since your system is running a dual core CPU, Prime 95 won't be able to run on both cores. Therefore it's not running it at 100% full load.

Well my W3V doesn't have a temperature on the x600 (x1600's ancestor) GPU so I'm not at all surprised.

 

I used mPrime. Got them both to 71 degrees on the stability test. I'm not happy but from what I've heard that's not too terrible.

I'll see how it is in another day or so before cracking it open again and applying AS.

Also, I've heard speedfan isn't the most accurate. I'll try a few other programs.

Thanks
Krista

 

You also need to understand that most thermal compounds ie AS5 and the like require a bit of a setting time, in some cases up too 200hrs of use before reaching full thermal transfer efficiency.
As AS sets you will most likely see a drop in temps, sometimes up to 5 degrees or so. Just make sure you are applying it correctly and you sound be good to go.

 

Yeah, as I said I'm going to give it a little time to settle in, but ... if I'm going to replace it with arctic silver I might as well do it sooner rather than later.

I put a couple scratches into the copper when I was removing the old thermal goop which I'm slightly concerned about, but they weren't bad... the thermal goop should fill things in.

Krista

 

If the scratches are deep enough to say catch a fingernail on, I'd take a small fine emery cloth and a bit of polishing compound or hand cream (as a fall back) and smooth it out. The cream is just to assist in a "wet" style sand/polish, but be sure to really clean it all off before applying TCM.

You don't want to risk having poor contact the those components

Here's a bit more thorough guide to lapping.
http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/lapping/

 

Hmm... interesting idea. Though considering my temps atm, I'm not sure I want to go to that kind of effort unless it would cause a large difference, mainly because I haven't removed a few of the small... (memory?) thermal pads on the heatsink, and doing that without getting those messed up would be close to impossible.

Krista

 

I think your temps are fine, and you shouldn't tinker with it anymore unless it's really needed. 71degrees on full blast is OK, I get 79-80 without undervolting from my Core Duo (V6J) and it's a larger machine (15").

About the GPU getting hot, I really think the best way is to have a driver that enables you to select power profiles for your GPU, and use a Power Saving profile when you're not gaming. Presuming your GPU does support power profiles, but I assume every laptop GPU should, right?

 

The S96Jm is a 15.4"

Yeah I'll clock it down when I'm not gaming... I guess it's not too hot, but I still think arctic silver would help a bit. I think my idle temps are around 53 right now and that just... irks me I know it can be better, but... if it's not going to hurt anything I suppose I shouldn't try to 'fix' it too many times.

Krista

 

The X1600 does not have a temp sensor(ive double checked on this one). Also how much AS5 did you put? usually is a rice grain worth of Arctic Silver on the chip then the Heat Sink...

 

Sorry I don't know why I was under the impression that the S96 was a smaller machine (12-13 incher). My idle temps are ~47 deg.

 

I put about that much... and spread it very carefully over the core on the CPU, and put a similar thin layer over the GPU chip. I tried to make it as thin as possible but still cover, and did the same with the gpu. I then put a very small smidge on the heatsink bits that would sit on top of them, then pressed it on.

I used the 'arctic silver' type directions... gotta wonder if antec silver likes it thicker...

The 'new' heatsink I got didn't look quite as nice as my old one. I might try putting that one on... or just try arctic silver... but I'm in no big rush, as from what I've heard the temps aren't extreme or anything.

Krista