RAZER BLADE 2014: temps

Got my BLADE yesterday and it's a great looking laptop, after setting everything up I loaded STEAM and played BIOSHOCK 2 on ULTRA and it ran butter smooth but my temps seemed high:
GPU topped out at 85 but the concerning part is the CPU was in the low 90's, didn't notice any throttling or anything but my CPU temps were high and the fans were blasting pretty loud while gaming, while browsing and not gaming the fans were pretty much silent.
Anyone else get CPU temps this high?
Will try INTEL XTU and try under volting the CPU to try and lower temps later tonight and will see how it goes.
Anyone repaste the CPU/GPU and get lower temps?
It's day one so not sure if the paste has to cure but I would love to see lower CPU temps, GPU temps never topped 85 so they seem OK but the CPU needs some work.
I really don't want to return it.
Can you guys post your temps too for comparison?

 

This seems like a common experience

 

I'm seeing similar temps, played Fallout New Vegas at native with everything maxed for an hour and hit 94-95 CPU, mid to high 80s GPU.

Looks like normal. I'm getting the same silence on light use then it turns up as needed when gaming. I think those 94-95 degree temps are brief, I looked at the graphs and that looks like a spike which causes the fan to kick in to high, which then cools it to high 80s and the fan slows a bit again,

 

IMO, it's temperature spike caused by a fan curve that is not quite aggressive enough [my opinion]. I'd do a stress test with XTU and watch for a spike followed by increased fan and lower consistent temp.

 

thats exacty what it looks like on mine. If the fan kicked in sooner, it could keep that max temp a bit lower, but perhaps thats what razer intended.

 

I have pages and pages of snark aimed at the computer illiterate that I'd absolutely LOVE to splatter all over the page as a response to why the fan profiles are so . . conservative, but in all fairness:

They're in spec. TJunction of the 4700HQ is 100c. The spec sheet doesn't define this as TJMax, so my GUESS is that 100c is where the processor starts to throttle, which would make thermal shutdown [TJMax] something like 105c [which is consistent with it's offerings from the past several years.

Still, for a lot of us old timers, and/or those of us that build/overclock desktops as a hobby, it's been beaten into us over and over again that the higher the temperatures the more the stress on the silicon and the less the lifespan of the chip. I CANNOT bring myself to believe that that's no longer true, especially in light of the fact that this shiny new electronic toy cost an absolute boatload of cash. It'll probably be replaced in a year. . but the thought that it won't actually LAST ten bothers me. . . ESPECIALLY if I perceive that high temps are going to be the cause.

I'd *LOVE* to see Razer offer a BIOS or firmware update that either creates a [completely optional] BIOS/Firmware update that adjusts to a more aggressive fan profile *OR* give us an OEM set-and-forget fan curve option [I'd REALLY like to see one that'd write it to the firmware so i can set my own profile and not have to deal with a TSR program like Afterburner or NVInspector.

I know, I know. . wishful thinking

 

I ran uniengine valley for a bit (20-30 mins) and watched temps/freq ( wow are those fonts small at 1800p ). GPU got to 84 then fell down to 82 when the fans hit their fastest. CPU was in the low 90's (one core hit 93, the rest were 90-91) max according to HWMonitor. I have to admit I was hoping the fans were quieter, they are definitely more noticeable at load than my Samsung Gamer 7. Temps are similar though.

I lifted the back slightly off the lap desk and the intake noise is much increased but it also helped temps a little, not enough to justify the increased noise.

There was no throttling, I also notice zero coil whine. The panel is fantastic, and the gamer 7 has a great panel, I have zero regrets there which is good.

It's worth it for half the weight and thickness with twice the GPU power. I just hope my wife doesn't complain next time I'm gaming next to her on the couch. We shall see.

Oh, almost forgot. The trackpad is the best trackpad I've ever used on a Windows notebook, it's really good. The buttons are actually quieter than my gamer 7, but a smidgen louder than my 2011 mpb 13. I have no issue with it, they have a nice feel.

Overall I'm thrilled with it. My only niggles are the fans are a little louder than I hoped and some Windows apps need to get on the HiDPI train.

(Edited..)

 

Does anyone else feel that the machine gets way to hot specifically when I'm just doing day to day browsing the keyboard and area below it get very hot along with the rest of the machine where it is uncomfortable to use. And when gaming it becomes even more extreme. Its so bad I am considering returning it. thoughts?

 

I don't really think my observation below is all that likely, *but*...

What if, due to the higher-thermal-tolerance design of these latest mobile CPU's and chipsets, the system designers are spec'ing slightly differently-designed fans that trade off long-term reliability when run at higher speeds for quieter performance when run at high speeds for short spans of time?

If this were true, it seems like allowing users to design fan curves which keep the chips unnecessarily (according to spec...) cool over longer periods of time would risk premature hardware failure of either the fans (by running them too frequently at too high speeds) or the chips themselves (when a fan fails prematurely and the chips overheat due to lack of cooling).

Just idle speculation...

 

Very interesting to see a different perspective from mine.

My use case must be a bit different from yours:

1) I've always used a metal stand with rubber feet to sit the laptop on. This then sits atop a 5-inch tall padded lap-pad which then sits on my lap. The whole contraption keeps about 1.25-inches of air space under the rear of the laptop, and about .25" below the front, while the lap-pad itself keeps the laptop at comfortable typing height as I sit slightly reclined in a comfortable chair. I'm quite convinced this setup is what has kept a series of MacBook Pro laptops performing without failure through extremely heavy use (at times, I use a computer 18 hours a day for periods of 10-14 days in this fashion). I think the air underneath the machines really helps the fans do their jobs more effectively.

2) I think as a result of #1 above, the Blade is maintaining lower CPU/GPU temperatures than I'm reading others report on this forum. Despite gaming sessions running FNV and Skyrim on the most demanding settings for 2-4 hours at a stretch, I haven't seen max CPU/GPU temps reach 90C yet, nor has my palm rest or keyboard gotten as warm as I'm accustomed to on my 2011 MBP 17-inch. In addition, the cool-down after gaming is, as far as I can tell, nearly immediate compared to that of the MBP.

3) As far as fan noise, I may just be used to the jet-plane-type ramp-up of fan noise on the MBP 17-incher I've been using, but these fans seem quiet to the point of inaudibility to me. If I've got the speaker volume at a normal level, what little fan noise I'm experiencing is virtually completely masked by the game sounds during gameplay.

4) Trackpad -gosh, I'll have to differ with you here. After 2 days of irritation to the point of wanting to throw the machine across the room, I've given up, and disabled the trackpad completely, using the provided tray-software. I obviously use a mouse for gaming, but the accidental button clicks and almost total lack of effective palm-rejection of the trackpad itself was resulting in several-times-per-minute mishaps while both gaming and trying to do other stuff like coding and/or writing text with my machine. Good riddance to that thing, I say! This was a bit of a surprise to me, because I hadn't considered that palm-rejection would be so inferior to my experience with the trackpad on the MBP, or that the buttons (which, of course, don't exist on the MBP, since you "click" the pad itself) would be so easily and frequently accidentally triggered by my preferred palm-rest position.

5) Agree totally on the HiDPI issues. Even some of Microsoft's system dialogs (device manager/system settings dialogs/etc) are not usable at 1800p. I have finally given up on this as well, and am running Windows 8.1 at 2048p with the display scaling set to the middle position of the "Smaller-------------------Larger" slider. For me, this has provided the best tradeoff between resolution, clarity, and usability of non-HiDPI-aware applications.

But, like you, I'm thrilled with this machine, and the experience while gaming, even on my older, non-FPS games, is very, very noticeably better and smoother than the 3-year old MBP.

 

I wont quote your entire post to save sapce.

1. If the temps were out of control I might consider some feet to raise the back further off of my lapdesk, but when I did that the cooling system noise was so much louder that I had to throw that idea out.

2. My GPU/CPU temps on my sammy are high 80's for GPU and 90's for CPU. It's been rock stable for 2 years. I would expect these temps won't hurt anything on the Blade. It's always good to have lower temps, that's not debatable, I'll continue monitoring them as I play more games, if it looks dangerous I'll take some action. Mid-high 80s on gpu and low-mid 90's on CPU seems fine to me.

3. Yeah.. it's all relative. I was hoping for less obtrusive, but I'm not shocked, just slightly annoyed that it isn't a different sound signature. My wife sits a couple feet away from me when we're on the couch together and I'm just waiting to see how the reaction to a gaming session is. The Samsung I have is quite a bit quieter under load (albiet it's 17" 9lb, to be expected). But talk of 42db and the fact that it was the same as the 2013 model was bandied about. It's not me I'm worried about since I always wear headphones, just my wife. I suppose what I can say about it is the sammy was truly a low key whooshing sound even though you could hear it. The Blade 2014 definitely has a higher pitched whine that the sammy does not, it makes it much more intrusive. Again I'm only comparing it to what I'm used to, I'm sure its similar or perhaps even better than other thin and light gaming notebooks.

4. Wow. The only thing I had to do was change the two-finger scrolling direction and turn off "tap to click". Nothing is ever as good as a macbook trackpad, but this is so much closer than I've ever seen on any windows notebook that I'm just happy with it. It was responsive and accurate so far in all my usage. Maybe it's because the samsung's trackpad is so much poorer. The fact that I was using it for about 5 hours so far without a mouse last night and I didn't even notice the trackpad was a testament. I usually get frustrated with windows trackpads within the first 10 minutes, I simply forgot all about it until I realized when I was done for the night that I never got angry with it.

5. Yep. Time will heal the HiDPI wounds. So many notebooks with 3K and 4K panels coming this year is a good thing. Chrome is my number one problem child right now. The beta channel version works great in HiDPI except for an annoying bug where you cant move the window sometimes. I'm so invested in Chrome and google's ecosystem that I can't switch browsers, I'd rather deal with the HiDPI issues until they fix it, can't be long they are making great progress.

I just realized I totally HiJacked the "Temps" thread with non-temp stuff. I'll stop talking about the rest of the laptop.

 

I know this is a bit off topic for this thread, I have mensioned it in other threads aswell.
I havent gotten my own razer blade yet (currently shipping to Sweden), but I will try the settings descriped in article below (mid page) for chrome. That should make chrome work reasonably well already now.
AnandTech | Scaling Windows - The DPI Arms Race

 

Tried Intel XTU tonight and stressed tested the CPU at lower voltages for 15 minutes and passed gotta say it helped quite a bit, played Bioshock 2 on ultra settings max res and this is what I got. Not bad considering it used to be in the low to mid 90's before when gaming.
Fans noise seemed better managed also.

 

Nice!
I will definetly undervolt my Blade 2014 aswell.
What is stock volt, and what did you change it to ?

 

Not exactly sure what stock volt is but I undervolted by around -.84 , but every CPU is different and some can be done more, some less. if you do try it make sure to run the stress test for at least 15 minutes and see if it passes. Use at your own risk.
Will run more tests later and good luck

 

With stress test being a longer game session then. I normally never install any benchmark programs.
I will get mine next week, it will arrive at my USA address today, and they then I need to forward it to my swedish address (since razer don't support global shipping).
Damn, I really hope I don't get a defective unit, it will be much more hassle to get it returned and recieve a new one..

 

So this may be a noob question but I can't seem to undervolt using the software. The core voltage under manual tuning > core is set to default and it will only let me increase it and not decrease it as the slider is already all the way to the left. Is there something obvious I'm missing?

 

Use voltage offset:

 

Yes that's exactly what I did, gotta say it does help. Before CPU Temps were in the low to mid 90's during gaming and now they are in the high/mid 80's, still higher than I would like but still much better than before.
Would love to see more people try and report back, just make sure to stress test for 15 minutes and have it pass.

 

I've never used this program before. Once you set the voltage you want it will be saved after reboot? I mean you don't have to manually apply each boot or set the program to autostart?

 

You know I first thought that at first but you do it once and it's set until you restore factory defaults.
Did it help your temps dajohu?

 

I haven't even checked yet, but I love mods like this, reversible, does not hurt performance, easy, and lowers temps. I just need to take some before temp readings, find a stable voltage then retake the temps.

Thanks for this! I would have never known about it if you hadn't posted this.

 

The latest version will always save it unless there's a crash, BSOD, or other anomaly then it will reset. Earlier versions would reset the values on reboot or out of sleep even, but the last two iterations work fine.

 

I was just playing around with Wasteland 2, that's one of the games that causes my Blade to ramp up to the "annoying level" Fan setting. I downloaded Intel XTU and under-volted the CPU, as well as cut down the multipliers. What I've discovered is that it has nothing to do with the CPU temp, unless it's byproduct of the connected heat-pipe solution. I got the CPU to stay in the mid 80s. But, every time the GPU reaches 85c the fans kick up to the next fan speed which is the one that causes my wife to look to the side with the evil-eye. It does this regardless of CPU heat it seems. I'm not saying the CPU being hotter won't cause the GPU to perhaps slightly heat up more, but it seems 85c on the GPU is the crossover. Same happened during Kombustor, right after the GPU hit 85 the fans ramped up.

Oddly enough, Dark Souls doesn't push the hardware much at, GPU never got over mid 60s so the fans stayed quiet.

 

I've noticed my GPU never tops 85c whatever game I have tried on it yet but you maybe right about the fans ramping up once it does hit 85c, before the CPU under volt it seems the fans ramped up more frequently and for longer duration but after not so much and for a much briefer time.
Wish there was a way to play with the fan settings.

 

Can anyone post their XTU settings / experiences? I don't have any experience with adjusting CPU power, and arbitrarily just started using -70 mV. Anyone find a "sweet spot" that works for them?

 

Every CPU is different but I reduced mine by .-84mv and it seems to keep my CPU in the mid 80's when gaming.
Just use the built in stress test tool and see if it passes and find a stable level.

 

Sorry, like I said I am new to this - but what do you mean to see if it "passes" the stress test? What am I looking for

 

There is a guide here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gigabyte/741764-gigabyte-p34g-undervolting-guide-intel-haswell.html

It's for the gigabyte p34g but just apply the same steps.
Just pick the how low you want to go and click apply. Start by reducing by 40/50 increments and then after stress testing and see if it passes start again lowering by 5/10 increments at a time and test each time to see if it passes each test until you find a desired level.

 

Yep, I did a video here with the earlier version of XTU and ThrottleStop. But now that XTU is "fixed" Throttlestop isn't really needed. It applies to the Sager notebook, but software is the same.

<iframe width='560' height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hRtFy7FpQF4" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Ok I undervolted to -82 mV , and now running KSP max settings is keeping temps in the low 80's without the fans kicking into their annoying high gear. I haven't noticed any performance decreases and so far things have been stable with no crashes. I haven't tried messing with the other voltage settings. Anyone else want to post their experiences ?

 

So... uh... I've been playing around with XTU, and I have reached -100mV and the stress test passes. Still have not gotten a crash or blue screen.

Is there like, a safe threshold? Or if I could go lower, should I?

 

I'd like to know too. I'm at -70mv now and haven't had any problems yet.

 

Hmmm... I've reached -110mv and still no crashes or BSoDs.

Now, I haven't read - nor can I find - much info on XTU, and just for kicks I lowered both the Dynamic CPU Voltage Offset and the Processor Cache Voltage Offset to -110mV.

 

I have 1 core that has a much higher temp reading than the other 3. The max temp difference that I have seen so far is 8°. Anyone else notice this as well?

 

That's pretty typical of multi-core CPU's. 8C is a bit of a stretch but not uncommon to see 5-6C variation.

 

Not much I can do about it unless I want to disassemble it and do a repaste, which I dont. Has anyone messed with the multipliers yet? I noticed that if I set the 3 core and 4 core multiplier to 31, that my system will run at 3099mhz for a while and them all of a sudden it will clock down to 2100mhz with no obvious reason, and stay that way. I would think that it is in response to high temps, but I see higher temp spikes before the actual poiint of down clock. Any idea what its doing?

 

What are you guys using to stress test?

What are you using for tracking core temperatures?

Any other utilities you have added to track performance/data?

 

If your happy with your temps at that level there is no need to go lower. How much did temps drop at that level?

Glad it worked out for you
How far did your temps drop?

 

I see XTU has a built in stress test...

 

That built in stress test didn't seem like it was stressing the CPU very much when I tried it.

 

Yeah I noticed that too, I was using the computer the whole time and wasn't any slower, which you'd think it should have been if it was using most of the CPU time.

 

I was looking at task manager, it wasn't a very heavy load..

 

Use Prime95 LargeFFT if you want to push your CPU.

 

It takes mine to 100% in task manager, but it's just funny how I can keep on using my computer and I'd never even know anything else was running.

I did google it and saw other people saying that it isn't a very good stress tester.

 

So what if we're never happy with our temps? I would prefer my CPU temp be 10C but that wont happen so I want it as low as possible, which will also keep other components cooler and the system as a whole cooler.

I think what we're asking is, is there a safe level to drop the voltage (like maybe -200mv under normal conditions for this CPU) or can you just keep going until you start having crashes of some sort? I thought it was going to be like -50 or -60 mv but I see it's easy to get -100 and I would rather not find out I've ruined my CPU after the fact.

I dropped mine to -100 tonight and did back to back 15 min stress tests to try to get an idea if my temps dropped or not.

90C max for first stock test.
84C max for -100mv test.

Same test, same time and same conditions, -6C! Wow, I'm worried about going lower until I find out more info but I am very impressed. That could keep the 870m from throttling (as much) and the whole system a few degrees cooler. I also noted that during the 2nd tests the cores stayed at about 2900mhz the entire time and in the first test they jumped around between 2600-2900mhz. So not only is it cooler but is also is faster. Fans may stay off longer too but I don't care about that


**OK I found out what happens when you go too far. One time DOTA2 crashed to desktop, so I restarted and the next time the whole PC rebooted on its own. I went back to -60mv from the -100 I was at and completed the session. I'll keep an eye out for spontaneous reboots and crashes I guess.

 

The fix to this?

1) Open up your Razer Blade.

2) Remove the processor, and, if possible, your GPU.

3) Put them in the fridge (not freezer) for 2 hours.

4) Boil until soft.

5) Eat it!

Your Blade's temperatures will NEVER go above 25 C after this!



On a more serious note, this was probably intended.
I hate it when you're doing mere Microsoft Word or casual web browsing (eg. Youtube in 1080p) and suddenly the fans start blaring.
I'd rather have a warm laptop over a loud one that distracts me.

Then, if you don't like warm laptops and would rather have a loud one, use SpeedFan to change the temperature and RPM settings for your fan.

 

Does SpeedFan work with the RazerBlade? Speedfan hasn't worked with many laptops since I can remember.

 

Not willing to try since XTU does a fine job reducing temps.
Ever since I installed the fans seem less busy and don't ramp up to full power when gaming as much.
I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about how much it would help with temps but it worked wonders for my RAZER, GPU never top 85c and CPU temps are now in the in the mid 80c's when under heavy load/gaming.
Makes an already great laptop that much greater

 

Even though I was able to pass the XTU stress test at -100mV, I left it at -80mV because... I don't know... part of me thinks too much undervolting could be as damaging as overvolting.

In any sense, I've been running Prime95 x64, Large FFT, for the past 25 minutes. HWinfo reports the max temp as 89*C in one of the cores, but it stays mostly in the mid 80's.

I'm okay with it!