Undervolting GT75 with i7-8850H to lower temperatures

Hi Guys,

Apologies in advance if this question has been asked and answered. I did search on the forum with many helpful answers. I wish to know whether the suggested solutions apply in my case.

I am still using the stock settings that MSI provides with the GT75 laptop (i7-8850H, 16GB, GTX 1080, 256GB-SSD, 1TB-Sata HDD). That includes the firmware such as the MSI Dragon Center. As of now, Dragon Center provides Turbo (Overclocking), Sport (Boosted CPU, Boosted GPU), Comfort (Boosted CPU, Limited GPU) and ECO (Limited CPU, Limited GPU) options. If I understand the modes correctly, the boosted mode essentially fixes the clock at the highest possible frequency for the CPU. The GPU clock varies as per the demand. I would have expected the CPU clock to adaptively vary as well, however I do not observe that. I notice that the CPU temperatures are on the higher side in the boosted modes even when the CPU utilization is very low (during gaming for instance). I am wondering, is there a more efficient way of keeping the temperatures low and achieving on-demand performance.

I found some solutions mentioned in the threads:

1. Get rid of Dragon Center. Apparently it is a sorry piece of bloatware, a result of lazy programming. It does things it is not supposed to, to the BIOS. If I take this advice, and uninstall Dragon Center, how do I control the CPU and its fans. Will the fans just run at full blast with no defined profiles? The Intel Extreme Tuning Utility comes to mind. However, I am not certain if it also gives fan control. The MSI Afterburner utility may be used to control the GPU and its fans. My end goal is not to overclock. I just want a good control over the temperatures.

2. Undervolting was mentioned in some threads. While I understand the principle behind using a negative offset voltage, there are other parameters (max current) that I do not understand. Additionally, there seems to be two ways of undervolting: using the BIOS and using intel's utility. Is one more desirable over the other. Is there a cookbook recipe for the GT75 laptop. Setting offset voltage, current, power, etc? Again, if this has been answered in a post, I'll be very glad to be referred to it.

3. Adjusting the CPU ratios. The Dragon Centre currently sets them at 40x for all 6 cores in the ECO mode. In the Sport mode, it uses a custom combination ranging from 43x to 37x. Has anybody worked out an optimum combination of ratios for low load and high load situations?

4. Thermal repasting: I found controversial view on this approach. Some believe it's a must while others believe it's an extreme step for a problem that can be solved with simple undervolting. Personally, I do not look forward to the prospect of opening up my new laptop and applying a new paste, but I may if it's the only option.

 

If you haven't already, you should ask your questions here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-official-msi-gt75-owners-and-discussions-lounge.806253/

 

I personally uninstalled Dragon Center as it messes with settings and use Silent Option program to control the fans instead. I have undervolted in Intel Extreme Tuning to -0.080v atm and you can also set your multipliers there if you desire.