# i7-8750H Undervolting... The Thermal Wars Continue



## LLIacTa (Sep 8, 2022)

Howdy!
So, my baby here is a *Asus STRIX 2 GL703gm* (apparently memorized it after all the googling I've done, wow) ... Bought it in 2019 so it was made 2018ish? 
*i7-8750H* .... yeah... I know a lot of folks have been here asking about this bad boy. I know because I've read a lot of them, but none with my specific situation, and being the non-educated muggle I am - I thought maybe to post here!

I was playing FarCry5 years ago and realized how HOT the vent was - and I started getting concerned for the long-term survivability of my machine, I try to get 5 years out of a laptop... Ever since then Throttlestop has been my frontline weapon that I utilize in order to keep my notebook at reasonable temps.  87-88C maybe? ... instead of 97+(!!!)

In 2021, if I remember, there was a BIOS update pushed from ASUS that locked the the BIOS in such a way that it broke my undervolt, and after struggling a bit with it - I was able to roll back the BIOS using a file I downloaded from ASUS before they have apparently disowned my model, deleting their old versions of BIOS as well... 
So I now have a *downgraded BIOS* and a Throttlestop undervolt! 

ALRIGHT so pre-amble over, I'm a redneck and I've been teaching myself so - apologies abound if I made a mistake but here is the situation:
I wanted to play a game with friends. CPU, with a *-144.5 mV *undervolt on cache and core - was CRANKING 96C + when I was in the game. That's a problem for me.
I had a thought about Turboboost and started poking around. Sure enough, there is a way to limit it, so I thought maybe to try and lower it a bit to get thermals to my *arbitrary target (88C max).

Found many posts and 2 videos, ended up setting my PL1 and PL2 to "twenty-four"*, because the dude in the video said to do it. TS Bench was ok, system is also idle stable. 
Limit Reasons show redline PL2 on Core and EDP other on Ring ... never anything else - the notice just flashes Red when the system is under any kind of load (opening a browser tab), and in game there is NOTICABLE stuttering that was not present before tinkering with TPL values. the PL2 and EDP still flash red while the game is running.

So ok, *"Twenty-four" seems like a bad bet so I raised them to 36*, not sure why but there we go .... also set core and cache to *-140.6 mV *... TS bench stable PL2 and EDP still yellow solid and still flash Red, but for a fraction of time they did before... Game performs much better in fairly idle locations (3rd person action game), but still giving Red Limit reasons on PL2 Core and EDP Ring, respectively. 

Am I on the right track? Once I get solid yellow Limit Reasons that fluctuate very little - everything is good?
Do I need to increase the FIVR Core and Cache voltage - or can I just raise the PL2 - since that is the only one giving problems? 
Any help is appreciated - so far it's working so - I'll keep tweaking until maybe someone here can put my mind at ease! 
I just want to stop my CPU from redlining 95+C temps in certain games, to hopefully get max temps about 10C lower. 
Thank you!


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## unclewebb (Sep 8, 2022)

LLIacTa said:


> also set core and cache to *-140.6 mV*


For the 8750H, the core and cache voltages do not have to be set equally. Some users get better overall results by limiting the cache to -125 mV or -130 mV. This allows them to set the core to -175 mV or -200 mV. Do some Cinebench R20 or R23 testing when playing around with different voltages. Check for any improvements in performance or temperatures. This trick seems to lower the voltage during some AVX loads which can help some games too. 



LLIacTa said:


> CRANKING 96C + when I was in the game. That's a problem for me.


Keep in mind that Intel sets almost all of their CPUs to start thermal throttling at 100°C. They consider any temperature less than this to be a "safe operating temperature". If peak core temps up over 90°C were not safe, Intel would have lowered the throttling temperature years ago. I never hear about Intel CPUs dying from heat exhaustion. Most users worry too much about their CPU temperature. No need to. Intel CPUs are quite capable of looking after themselves. 

Most Asus laptops use a PROCHOT Offset value to set the thermal throttling temperature to less than the Intel recommended 100°C value. What does ThrottleStop show on the main screen for the PROCHOT (processor hot) temperature?

Some power limit throttling is OK. Laptops with Intel mobile CPUs live on the edge of thermal throttling or power limit throttling. I am not sure which one is better or smoother or if it makes much of a difference. Throttling is throttling. If you really do not want your laptop feeling like an Easy-Bake oven, you can lower the power limits to whatever values you like to control the heat. I prefer max performance but I can understand that some users are willing to sacrifice some performance to help control excessive fan noise and heat.


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## LLIacTa (Sep 9, 2022)

Thank you Unclewebb, you really put a ton of work in here and I very much appreciate your reply! 


unclewebb said:


> What does ThrottleStop show on the main screen for the PROCHOT (processor hot) temperature?


It indeed shows PROCHOT 95 degrees on the main panel of Throttlestop, in red, lower right side.



unclewebb said:


> Keep in mind that Intel sets almost all of their CPUs to start thermal throttling at 100°C. They consider any temperature less than this to be a "safe operating temperature". If peak core temps up over 90°C were not safe, Intel would have lowered the throttling temperature years ago. I never hear about Intel CPUs dying from heat exhaustion. Most users worry too much about their CPU temperature. No need to. Intel CPUs are quite capable of looking after themselves.


Yes and Thank you - absolutely understood. I tried to specify that it just concerns ME, as a budding advanced user with limited experience...  No doubt that I am concerned even more when just about ALL of the other gamers I know all say *".....wHaT??? NINETY FIVE DEGREES?? No dude you're gonna fry your system!" *... I've read this statement before on other forums too, that these CPUs are designed to handle it, and I really only notice when playing some games - during the warmer months when indoor temps rise above 80 somewhat frequently... So... Yes in short - Thank you for the information and for entertaining my concern - even if there is little reason to be concerned on my part!

OK - I'm downloading Cinebench and will poke around - thanks again Unclewebb!


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## unclewebb (Sep 9, 2022)

LLIacTa said:


> you're gonna fry your system!


The next time someone says something like this in a forum, ask them for some examples.

Intel has been setting the thermal throttling temperature to 100°C since their Core i CPUs were introduced in 2008. If CPUs were frying, Intel would have reduced this specification to prevent any problems from happening. For the 3rd Gen, Intel did the opposite. They increased the throttling temperature from 100°C up to 105°C. After the 3rd Gen Intel went back to using 100°C for the 4th Gen through 12th Gen. Was 105°C causing any problems or did some engineer just prefer a nice even number like 100?

Intel CPUs do a great job of looking after themselves. With Asus reducing PROCHOT to 95°C, your Intel CPU will be extra safe. Thermal throttling tends to work very smoothly. The CPU speed is automatically adjusted hundreds of times per second so maximum performance can be maintained while always keeping the CPU on the safe side of 100°C. No worries.

Edit - Went back through my archives to find some high temperature testing I did on a 3rd Gen CPU. Both the CPU and Intel GPU were fully loaded and both were getting a little warm at 101°C. Some Asus software was complaining at the lower right part of the screen. Both the CPU and Intel GPU were happily running at full speed with zero throttling. 



http://imgur.com/qtZ7qWh


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## LLIacTa (Sep 10, 2022)

This is fantastic - I stand informed and with this post - any of the guys talking about "long term damage" can read here from an expert! 
Thanks for mulling over the issue and sharing even more confirmation - you're a legand!
Kind regards, have a great weekend!


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