I9 13980HX Thermal Throttling

[Ouzmo]

I have an Asus ROG Laptop and despite my processor being undervolted it always thermal throttles and hangs around 95-100 degrees. My fans are at maximum speed and despite changing thermal paste and cleaning the dust off it is not improving.

[ricktheslickster]

Yeah ok, so what's the problem? You do realize we're talking about the best desktop CPU's that Intel makes right? And for some reason which I do not understand. so many people who are gamers, like to purchase these pieces of hardware in the smallest form possible such as a laptop,  with only millimeters of air space between parts, then they complain when their laptop throttles, or it's temps go high. I mean what did you expect? DId you expect a cool running CPU? If so get a desktop....No throttling? If so get a desktop. Quit expecting the impossible with these high end CPU's. You want performance, awesome graphics, and the fastest speeds of both of those pieces of hardware can deliver? Yet you purchase a laptop....Where's the logic there?

[ricktheslickster]

Don't just undervolt it, slow it down some also...People who use these same cpu's in their desktops,  are using water coolers to cool them off. They probably have over 6 BIG fans blowing air all throughout their systems, with plenty of space between parts. That's how you avoid throttling. Serious gamers, you know the ones who always win games,, I bet they are running a desktop PC. If you are trying to compete with people like that, yet are using a laptop to do so, you're just fighting in a game you will never win. In fact they are not only running a desktop, they are most likely over-clocking their systems to the max! Something you should never do, nor are you capable to do, on a laptop. 

 Until technology increases, to the point to where we have somehow figured out a way to refrigerate our water-cooling solutions, economically, a laptop will never out perform a desktop of comparable hardware. So if you are serious about winning games, operate a desktop.

[Ouzmo]

Unless I have accidentally maimed one of your loved ones I dont understand why you re being so condescending while assuming stuff about me.

Thing is I don't expect any of the things you mention and on the internet its not really clear whether my model of laptop is supposed to thermal throttle ALL the time and wanted to check if there is anything wrong with it. Also, I don't overclock it more than what ASUS has set it up on BIOS/Armoury. I am well aware of the differences between desktop and laptops.

[ricktheslickster]

 Oh sorry, don't take it personally, I didn't mean to attack you on a personal level. I'm a computer repair tech and I see this all the time, people bring me their laptop because it never runs as cool as they would like. And it never will. Not when you're using an i9 CPU in it. I was using your message as a springboard hoping more people would read it and get it in their heads that if you put a V-12 engine in a Ford Pinto, then you shouldn't be asking why it's so hot in the cabin of the car.

 So forgive me if I sounded condescending to you. I didn't mean to do that. I just don't understand, if you are aware enough to monitor your temps on your CPU and aware of throttling, then why did you buy this hardware in a laptop form? You understand that laptops do not use water cooling right? And let me take a guess, are you also running with discrete graphics? If so, then those two pieces of hardware running inside that laptop pretty much stacked on top of each other is going to generate a lot of heat. More so than what a basic air fan (especially those little ones in a laptop) are going to be able to control. And even if you never over-heat it to the point of destruction, all the other plastic parts within that laptop are going to become brittle very fast. You'll be lucky if the laptop doeesn't break apart within 3 years of use.

 And what gets me is it isn't cheap buying these high end laptops. Usually more than what it would cost you if you went the desktop route. And at least with a desktop, you can upgrade over time piece by piece to keep up with technology, but you can't do that with a laptop. Some do have their CPUs in a socket on laptops, but that type is fading away quickly. I've not seen any new laptops with that feature anymore. So whatever you buy, you are stuck with for the remainder of its life. And we all know just how fast new technology gets old.

So an i9 13980XT processor is crammed into the space of a laptop, and sometimes along side an Nvidia GPU to boot! And their idea of a cooling solution is two small 1/4 inch fans blowing air on a heat sink? What's wrong with that concept? I can think of many things wrong with it. And don't rely on the manufacturers to be sure you are spending your money wisely, as long as there is a demand for such devices AND the CPU has built-in throttling, you can bet your ass they will provide you with what you want. Whether it makes any sense or not. the max wattage of your CPU is 157 watts! not including the NVidia card that sits right beside the CPU! 157 watts is a lot of energy. Ever see a home surround sound receiver? Ever noticed how big those boxes are? And usually those receivers don't put out but 80 watts per channel Now of course there may be 5 to 7 sometimes 9 channels in those bad boys, but with the CPU your using 24 cores inside it. Now look at the size difference between those two devices. Those receivers wouldn't last 6 months if crammed into the size of a laptop.

 You mentioned that your fans are running at full speed, of course, they are. And you're wondering if it's normal for the CPU to be running at 100 C? Well, what do you think? Your mind is probably telling you that that's a very high temp for your CPU to be running at and you'd be right thinking that. So it has no other option then to throttle down the speed to hit a better operating temp. So then to ask, if throttling can be avoided....um, not really. Not without catastrophic circumstances. You may then ask the question, "then who the hell sells these kind of devices knowing all of this?" My response is, who the hell buys them?

[Makanana]

Ran into your comment and have to update you a bit. I don't think you have run the G18 2024 laptop much, but Asus did a really great job.  It was $1899US in January, and you got a 4080mobile, i9-13980hx gen with onboard GPU and dGPU in the software (without the Intel heating issues of the 13th and 14th gen the desktop ones were recalled over), 2650x1600 - 240hz monitor and guaranteed gCPU if needed, DDR5 etc etc. 

At the time building a desktop with rtx4070 and i5 -13th gen was around $3600 (prebuilt) WITHOUT A MONITOR!!!!, and maybe a deal for $3200 if searching hard.  At the time, I had a brand new Alienware M18 and an MSI desktop with a 3060ti i5-13th gen already in the house...  After testing the Asus G18, I took back the Alienware immediately to BEST BUY cause warranty. The problem the guy above has is with armory crate not the Laptop.  G-Helper will fix his problem, a program that you can't run on desktop. The G18 laptop is a beast, pushing 34-3600+/- on Cinebench, 1150-1200 on Nero Score, great benches in game, and stands side by side with my MSI desktop across the board.  I game HARD in a virtual world unlike most games (ULTRA HIGH Graphics on rendered on the viewer side live. SL if you are wondering).  At the same time I can run in game at high frame rates 80-300, film 4k in OBS, screen cast on Discord and talk to my GF, have a browser or two open, Gshader on,  render a 16 a gig video in the background with handbrake in 15minutes, live edit with Davinci Resolve and produce Ai samples in Comfy UI on a second monitor, all with keeping temps -85c CPU and -70 GPU.  You are correct that it's limited with size but you have no idea how far they have come with these portable machines. Its not an HP office laptop, it's an absolute beast that ASUS nailed on performance. 

I just purchased the Asus ROG Desktop for $1700 with a 4060super, i7-14700FK,  32gig Ram etc. etc 2 weeks ago for my GF and hers sits about 8 degrees on average lower than my G18 Asus Strix. The Zephyrus that students get are another story since its ultra-thin, but the Asus Strix for a 5lb laptop is a top gaming machine.  Obviously, nobody is going into competition with it, but they ARE going in with a $5000++ computer and monitor.  I just wanted to leave this review here for anyone else who sees your comment.  I highly recommend it and Im a heavy competition gamer, machinima artist, 3d artist in Blender and D5, Video creator using Adobe/Davinci/Handbreak/Flowframes and AI armchair idiot.  Benchmarks on it put it at 97 - 98 of the highest clock ratings (as of last summer). The cooling on it works very well if its tuned right right and not blocked,  and you can def undervolt and overclock it quite well if you want. I run a -30 to -80 max undervolt and overclock the core and memory up 200/300 stable. I can provide screenshots of my benchmarks that are higher than my BRAND NEW 4060super i7-14th genFK that was $1700, not including the $600 monitor for it that is only 144hz...... 

I can be on the bed, couch , hammock, Cottage, Park, Donut shop etc and do exactly what my top tier Desktop does for 95% of any AAA game.  Im not trying to convince you out of your profession as I have respect for the work you do, but things are closer with the G16/G18 to a desktop than most people think (as long as the settings are correct, and its not suffocating), keeping price comparison in mind for what you get.  

[Bachdev]

There is a serious problem, intel should seriously consider our article  https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/I9-13980HX-frozen-crashing-error/m-p/1640007#M78525