How do I keep my MSI laptop cool?

[winsoft]

Model - MSI Thin GF63 12UCX 15.6″ IPS Core I7 RTX 2050 144Hz Gaming Laptop
Spec -

• 12th Gen Alder Lake i7-12650H processor
• 15.6″ FHD (1920×1080), 144Hz, IPS-Level
• NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4050 Laptop GPU 6GB GDDR6
• DDR IV 8GB (3200MHz)
• 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD Gen4x4
• Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201(2*2 ax) + BT5.2
• Windows 11 Home
• 3 cell, 51 Battery (Whr)

 

[GerKNG]

either clean and repaste, buy a cooling pad, undervolt (throttlestop) or just live with it.
having modern chips running at 90+°C might look bad but it's completely fine. even long term... (except if it throttles and you lose performance)

 

[P4-630]

How do I keep my MSI laptop cool?​

Avoid gaming....


Otherwise clean out the dust bunnies from the air vents and try throttlestop to get your temps down.

 

[eidairaman1]

Thats a notebook. They all throttle.

 

[Bomby569]

keep the air vents clear, clean the dust, and just enjoy it. It's a feature not a bug

 

[AsRock]

Understand how the air gets around the laptop and then buy a laptop cooler, and even then it's going get toasty.

 

[dgianstefani]

Repaste/repad with 12-15 W/mK at least, and good paste.

Conductonaut extreme is ideal if you also use thermal grizzly shield, otherwise go for MX6.

When I was a laptop gamer I used a Razer aluminium laptop stand, and fixed a USB-A NF-A12x25 underneath it, plugged into the USB hub of the stand, this was much quieter and more effective than any of the laptop cooler stands on the market which use cheap crap fans, the Blade 15" I was using ran 200 W continuously with no issues.

Undervolting with Throttlestop and Afterburner is also a good idea to fix the conservative V/F curves stock laptops come with to ensure stability across 1000's of chip qualities.

 

[bug]

Model - MSI Thin GF63 12UCX 15.6″ IPS Core I7 RTX 2050 144Hz Gaming Laptop
Spec -

• 12th Gen Alder Lake i7-12650H processor
• 15.6″ FHD (1920×1080), 144Hz, IPS-Level
• NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4050 Laptop GPU 6GB GDDR6
• DDR IV 8GB (3200MHz)
• 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD Gen4x4
• Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201(2*2 ax) + BT5.2
• Windows 11 Home
• 3 cell, 51 Battery (Whr)

I figure, if you don't plug it in or start it, it will stay at room temperature. That's pretty cool.

 

[dgianstefani]

Thats a notebook. They all throttle.

No, only most of them and the ones that aren't well looked after.

An intelligently chosen laptop that's taken care of (repaste straight from factory) and has the right software setup (clean OS, no bloat, fan curves and voltages set correctly) doesn't throttle, and gets better than stock performance.

 

[bug]

No, only most of them and the ones that aren't well looked after.

An intelligently chosen laptop that's taken care of (repaste straight from factory) and has the right software setup (clean OS, no bloat, fan curves and voltages set correctly) doesn't throttle, and gets better than stock performance.

This one's got an H-series CPU inside. It's going to throttle.

 

[dgianstefani]

This one's got an H-series CPU inside. It's going to throttle.

That's an assumption.

The reality is it depends on the laptop and the user.

I also had a laptop with an H series Intel in it, along with a 2080, and it didn't throttle.

Laptops are a bit more involved than desktops if you want them to run optimally. A desktop user can be lazy/ignorant and their temps will likely still be fine due to having a huge case, and excess of cooling. There's no physical limitations to the desktop. A laptop user needs to work with the form factor they have, simple adjustments to allow airflow like using an appropriate stand, repaste/pad, and a mild undervolt will fix the majority of issues and result in little/no throttling, depending on the laptop.

You shouldn't just run everything stock as it came out of the box with a laptop, like you do with a desktop, it's not as forgiving a platform. Even macbook users have fan control software they resort to.

 

[bug]

That's an assumption.

The reality is it depends on the laptop and the user.

I also had a laptop with an H series Intel in it, along with a 2080, and it didn't throttle.

This one has a 45W base TDP (manageable), but a 115W turbo TDP. Couple that with bare laptop BIOSes and you probably can't find a setting that will keep it from throttling.

 

[dgianstefani]

This one has a 45W base TDP (manageable), but a 115W turbo TDP. Couple that with bare laptop BIOSes and you probably can't find a setting that will keep it from throttling.

You don't use laptop BIOS's to do anything tuning wise, you use Throttlestop or Intel XTU.

115 W turbo is also manageable, most non-bargain bin gaming laptop cooling systems can handle ~150-250 W of load if the pad/paste application and airflow is good, considering most laptop GPUs top out at around 100-150 W hardlimited, this is workable.

The Razer Blade 15" I used had a single huge vapour chamber that covered both CPU and GPU, so as long as airflow was good (ventilation is through keyboard and the bottom vents, it could remove the heat fast enough.

The issue most people run into is having a laptop that is full of dust, with stock thermal paste that has never been changed or inspected, OS full of manufacturer bloatware that has been patched in place many times by Windows Update, crappy driver setups and stock V/F curves that are extremely conservatively biased towards stability, binned against the lowest % of chips.

A USB 5V fan placed appropriately to ensure cool air intake, combined with the other solutions I and others have mentioned will fix these issues.

A stand like this is great, you plug a type C into your laptop, then run displays, peripherals, cooling fans, etc. from the rear rather than side, so it's much cleaner. Also allows access to cool air from underneath and has space to fix a standard 120mm PC fan in, that can also be plugged into the dock.

 

[64K]

I agree with everyone to get a laptop cooler pad. The unfortunate thing about laptops is that they don't usually work well just sitting on the lap because it blocks some of the vents on the underside. That's why you need a laptop cooler pad for gaming. You can pick up a nice one for $25 to $30. Well worth it imo.