MSI Gl65 9SC (i5-9300h) Undervolting

[brian.3]

Hi, I have messed around with the settings on ThrottleStop in an attempt to balance the temps and FPS of my laptop. The laptop is fairly old and has an issue with extremely loud fans, even when playing low-end games. In addition, sometimes the fans will just start running super loudly out of nowhere. I'm hoping for any recommendations/improvements for my settings, as I am still very unfamiliar with the software and I do encounter occasional bluescreening. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Here are my current settings:

I am mostly confused with the TPL screen. Most recently, I've been working on the PL1 and PL2 settings, but I'm still confused as to what clamping does. I have found that clamping PL2 limits the C0% to 99.6%, whereas clamping PL1 pushes the C0% to 100%. I am also wondering what the Turbo Power Limit setting does. I have also tested with Cinebench R20 with no bluescreening, although the score is a little low (roughly 1750-1850), as compared to the 2000+ scores of other tests I have found online. The laptop usually sits at around 40 -45 degrees at idle, but it does occasionally rise to low 50s. During the Cinebench testing, temperatures peaked at what is seen in the first image, however it does occasionally rise to 90 degrees when playing higher-end games. Temperatures can also be low sometimes, but fans can be extremely loud still. Is there any way to fix this?

 

[unclewebb]

Your screenshot shows your CPU is running at almost 90°C at only 35 Watts. The cooling system is struggling. Have you ever cleaned out your laptop? If you replace the thermal paste I would use Honeywell PTM 7950.

If the cooling system can only cool a 35W or maybe a 40W CPU, why is the long term PL1 power limit set to 50W? Having PL2 set to 110W is completely overkill. That will just overwhelm the cooling system and the fans will scream. Try lowering both power limits to what your cooling can handle and do some maintenance someday soon.

You have Speed Shift Max set to 36 which slows down the CPU. Less heat is good but less performance is not. This is probably why your Cinebench scores are not up to par. Try using Cinebench R23 and ThrottleStop 9.7.

Cinebench R23

Cinebench is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms

www.techspot.com

If you blue screen then your undervolt is probably not 100% stable. Add some voltage and reduce your undervolt until the blue screens go away. Add + 10 mV at a time until your computer is 100% stable. Try -110 mV for the cache. That is the important adjustment.

 

[brian.3]

Hi, thank you for the quick response.
I have changed the CPU Core to -160 and the Cache to -110. I have also lowered PL1 to 35 and PL2 to 47, but I will continue to test more to see what works best. I have also changed the max Speed Shift value to 39. Although it runs at 45 watts now, it does seem to run much hotter, sometimes even reaching 96 degrees. Also, I was wondering if it was important to clamp either one of the PL values, and what it does.

I do clean it on a semi-regular basis, and it has also had a more professional clean from when I had it taken to a shop to repair a keyboard issue. It also got repasted then, which was roughly a little less than 2 years ago I believe. Before that, I had repasted it a couple months prior with Arctic MX-5, which I still have some left. Do you recommend repasting again, and if so, should I buy the new thermal paste due to how old the Arctic MX-5 paste is? Also, how many watts should the CPU be running at at 90 degrees? I believe for the i5-9300h, it is 45 watts, but I just wanted to confirm. Thank you.

This is what temps look like when running Cinebech R23. Also, the PL1 still seems to be highlighted red in the limits tab at times throughout the test. I believe it is throttling that causes this, but I'm not sure how to fix it, or if that is even the issue.

 

[unclewebb]

Arctic MX-5

It is almost uncanny. Every person that I help with laptop overheating problems is using the same thermal paste, MX-5. My conclusion is that this thermal paste should not be used direct die on mobile CPUs. It might work OK on desktop CPUs that use an integrated heat spreader. It seems to start to fail in less than two weeks when applied to mobile CPUs. I am not sure if it is the high temperatures that cause the problem or if it is related to the contact pressure between a mobile CPU and its heatsink. Why does not really matter. I just know that you should not be using MX-5. It is not worth the risk. Toss your old tube of MX-5 in the garbage and try using Honeywell PTM 7950 instead.

Here is a video that shows what thermal paste pump out looks like. This was with Noctua NT-H1 but MX-5 seems to do the same thing.

the PL1 still seems to be highlighted red in the limits tab at times throughout the test

I have also lowered PL1 to 35

Your CPU is doing exactly what you have told it to do. You lowered the PL1 power limit so now your computer is power limit throttling. If you try to run your CPU at full power, it will overheat and you will get thermal throttling. Lower the power limits and you will get power limit throttling instead. I am not sure what will work best. Either way the CPU will throttle and will not be able to run at its full rated speed.

Fix the problem. Replace the thermal paste.