NOVA - Optimizing perf, noise and temperature

[maxff9]

Hello,

I have a Nova 15.6" with Ryzen 5 3600 + RTX 2070M.
Everything seems fine with the laptop but I would like (need) to optimize further the settings to reduce the temperature and noise (fans) while keeping good performance. The laptop will be used for casual browsing and gaming. I'd like to keep it silent if I only browse internet.

I am a total noob about those topics and I will ask your help if you don't mind. I hope this will help future users.
I have 3DMark, Clevo Control Center, Ryzen Master all ready and all drivers updated.

• Use 3D Mark Firestrike to check the performance. Stock benchmark done.
• Check temperature with Ryzen Master, HWinfo (?), Control Center (?).
• I read that in Power Options, it could be useful to set the Maximum processor state to 99%. Is loosing the turbo boost will kill my perf ingame ?
• What custom fan settings do you have ?
• I read about entertainment, quiet, performance profiles ? Which software does control this ? What does it do ?
• Underclocking CPU ?*
• Underclocking GPU ?*
• What are good/normal temperatures for the CPU and GPU ?

*really not sure about that, don't even know how.

Thank you in advance. I'll start the tests tomorrow I think. I will obviously answer my own questions by reading on my own. I will update everything once I know more and have good results.
@FeVieira @demon28 sorry for the notifications guys but I saw you already know a lot about that !

Full specs:

Spoiler: Full Specs

Nova Series : Écran large LED mat 15,6 pouces 144 Hz 72 % NTSC Full HD (1920 x 1080)
Processeur AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core (3,6 GHz-4,2 GHz/36 Mo CACHE/AM4)
16 Go Corsair 2666 MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8 Go)
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 - 8 Go de RAM vidéo GDDR6 - DirectX® 12.1
1 To SSD PCIe M.2 INTEL® 665p NVMe (jusqu'à 2000 Mo/sR | 1925 Mo/sW)
Lecteur de carte mémoire Micro-SD intégré
1 ADAPTATEUR C.A. 230 W
1 câble d'alimentation européen, 1 m (C13/14)
Batterie lithium-ion détachable à 4 cellules série Nova
PÂTE THERMIQUE STANDARD POUR UN REFROIDISSEMENT EFFICACE
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
GIGABIT LAN ET WI-FI INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2,4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
1 PORT USB 3.2 (Type C) + 2 PORTS USB 3.2 + 1 PORT USB 2.0

 

[FerrariVie]

Answering some of your questions:

• Check temperature with Ryzen Master, HWinfo (?), Control Center (?).

You can use any of those, but I like using MSI Afterburner because of the in-game overlay... a lot better than ALT+TAB'ing to check those stats.

• I read that in Power Options, it could be useful to set the Maximum processor state to 99%. Is loosing the turbo boost will kill my perf ingame?

I wouldn't do that, as there are better ways to bring temperatures down. It's like you're paying for a Ferrari and using it always on the first gear (ok, not that dramatic ), but you're going to limit your CPU to non-boost levels and you could have saved money by buying a less powerful CPU instead. If you paid for it, then use it

So when you're doing less demanding tasks, you need to change the profile in control center to Quiet (or even Power Saving?). That would be the daily usage profile. Then, when you want to game or render photos or videos, switch to the entertainment profile. The performance profile should be used only when noise is not a problem and your task is very demanding, as it will use as much power as the CPU can handle (basically an overclock) and ramp up the fans accordingly. I would avoid performance even for gaming, entertainment should be good enough.

This should be enough to help you with noise and temperatures, but please let us know in case it isn't. There are a few other things we could try, like some of the next bullets.

• What custom fan settings do you have ?

I don't use Control Center anymore as I wanted to have more control over power and fan setup (instead of a few pre-defined profiles). So I have a third-party fan-control software (Obsidian Fan Control, costs €30) and use Ryzen Master + Zen States to set up the CPU. My Ryzen 3 is very limited and I'm also very finicky with fan noise for daily tasks, so that worked best for me.... I can underclock and overclock according to my needs, instead of sticking with 4 fixed profiles.

• I read about entertainment, quiet, performance profiles ? Which software does control this ? What does it do ?

It's in control center, as I've mentioned on the first bullet. It only limits CPU power, so it will look like the below (might vary slightly, but in theory, it should be like this):

Profile​	PPT​
Power Saving​	32W​
Quiet​	45W​
Entertainment​	65W​
Performance​	88W​

All those will start to gradually throttle (and lower PPT) after they reach 81°.

• Underclocking CPU ?*

Lowering PPT will make your CPU underclock to keep it under the wattage. By how much it will underclock will actually depend on the number of cores being used and CPU usage % at each moment. Another way of underclocking is by using manual OC in Ryzen Master (that's what I use), so you set up a maximum voltage per core and a maximum clock, while the PPT will get adjusted to reach those settings. The problem is that Control Center used to override Ryzen Master's settings after a few minutes, so it was useless to use manual OC and that's why I got rid of CC altogether. Not sure if newer versions of CC will have the same behaviour, have not tried since.

• Underclocking GPU ?*

This is where you will get your temperatures down for real. Check this other thread for more info on how to do it:

Undervolting an RTX 2080.. ?

Hey guys, I've been playing Dishonored 2 at max settings lately, but my RTX 2080 seems to be a bit hot for my liking. It's not a super demanding game and the GPU still reaches temps between 86°C and 89°C maximum (with rare peaks at 90°C). I would like to know if temps like that are actually ok...

www.pcspecialist.ie

• What are good/normal temperatures for the CPU and GPU ?

I like keeping mine below 75° for CPU and 70° for GPU, but that is a personal preference. I would say that below 80° for GPU and 85° for CPU should be good enough.


Just wanted to address one more thing that you didn't mention: memory overclock. You can get that 2666Mhz CL18 to about 3200Mhz CL17 or 3600Mhz CL19 . If this is something you're willing to do, let me know and I can give you some tips and send some useful links.

 

[maxff9]

Wow thanks that's a lot of info there. I'll read more carefully your post and simultaneously check on my laptop. You made me save a lot of time.

 

[FerrariVie]

• Underclocking CPU ?*

The problem is that Control Center used to override Ryzen Master's settings after a few minutes, so it was useless to use manual OC and that's why I got rid of CC altogether. Not sure if newer versions of CC will have the same behaviour, have not tried since.

Just to update you on the above. After I've written that and also based on @Heartfeltdawn 's observations, I decided to try the latest version of Control Center, together with Ryzen Master and my fan control software.

I can confirm that it now works indeed, so CC is not overriding either Ryzen Master's or Obsidian fan control's configs, while still being on the background and allowing me to use the keyboard LED features and keyboard shortcuts. Of course, I'm assuming that messing with the custom fan curve in CC will then overwrite Obsidian's (or changing power profiles will override Ryzen Master's), but the point here is that you can still Over/Underclock (and more importantly: undervolt) using Ryzen Master without needing to get rid of Control Center (which was the case in the past).

 

[maxff9]

I read carefully your post and started to look into the above-mentioned softwares and I didn't feel able to do anything.
I did some benchmarks in Borderlands 3 (there is an ingame benchmarking tool), the fans were WAY too noisy.

So if I reduce the fans speed, the temperature will rise. And I therefore have to change the power/clockspeed of my CPU/GPU to balance that. Right ?

I see that you got the results you wanted. I can maybe apply the same on the GPU and then use your CPU information to adapt them to mine.
I'll follow your link to undervolt the GPU.
Could you show me how does your fan curve look ? In the Clevo Center, the options seem very limited to adjust the curve. We can only move 2 points and not create more (or I am wrong ?).
At the end, we just want to prevent the fans to go to maximum speed unless absolutely necessary.

 

[FerrariVie]

I read carefully your post and started to look into the above-mentioned softwares and I didn't feel able to do anything.
I did some benchmarks in Borderlands 3 (there is an ingame benchmarking tool), the fans were WAY too noisy.

Which power mode were you using in Control Center when doing that?

So if I reduce the fans speed, the temperature will rise. And I therefore have to change the power/clockspeed of my CPU/GPU to balance that. Right ?

Right (for power/voltages). However, you need to assess if your laptop is too hot because then a repaste with better quality solutions (Noctua NT-H2 or ThermalGrizzly Kryonaut) would be preferable first. But I do agree that the default fan setup of control center is way too loud, even if the temperatures are under control.

I remember that your temps on Firestrike looked a bit too high, so maybe that's the reason for the high noise? You can download Hwinfo and leave it on sensors-only mode in the background while playing or running that borderlands benchmark, just as hwinfo records max figures (clocks, voltage, temperatures of CPU, GPU, etc.), and that can help us to identify if you indeed have temperature issues or not.

Could you show me how does your fan curve look ? In the Clevo Center, the options seem very limited to adjust the curve. We can only move 2 points and not create more (or I am wrong ?).
At the end, we just want to prevent the fans to go to maximum speed unless absolutely necessary.

This is not my actual fan curve, but that's a printscreen that I found on the internet of the same third-party software that I'm using, just to give you an idea about how many customization options it gives you:

 

[SpyderTracks]

You don't want to be underclocking / overclocking anything on the GPU and preferably not the CPU either, you're just nerfing performance unnecessarily. If you're underclocking, you may as well have spent half what you have done on an i3 and a basic GPU, it's entirely pointless.

Overclocking the GPU will void your warranty.

The ONLY thing you want to do on a laptop is undervolt. If done properly, you won't reduce performance at all, just improve temps and therefor lower fan noise.

 

[maxff9]

Yes sorry I am not yet fully comfortable with the terms. I wanted to mean undervolting and not touching the clockspeed for now. Thanks for clarifying !

@FerrariVie Actually I am not sure which power mode (Clevo CC) I was using. I thought it was automatically changing the mode depening on the software (gaming, browsing) in use. Do we really have to manually do that ?
I think I was on the upper mode (quiet ?). I don't want what parameters the power mode changes and if I apply some changes in voltage and then change the power modes, what is happening ?
If I understood well, I can change my settings with Ryzen Master, Obsidian and MSI Afterburner (can I do it with the NVidia software for the GPU?) and Clevo CC won't interfere unless I open it and click on some shit. At this point CCC will only be useful for the keyboard LEDs. Any alternative to get rid of CCC ?

Thanks for your input, that's a lot of information to process and I'll have to check by myself to learn. I'd like to avoid the repasting process, seems very annoying to do !

 

[FerrariVie]

Yes sorry I am not yet fully comfortable with the terms. I wanted to mean undervolting and not touching the clockspeed for now. Thanks for clarifying !

@FerrariVie Actually I am not sure which power mode (Clevo CC) I was using. I thought it was automatically changing the mode depening on the software (gaming, browsing) in use. Do we really have to manually do that ?
I think I was on the upper mode (quiet ?). I don't want what parameters the power mode changes and if I apply some changes in voltage and then change the power modes, what is happening ?
If I understood well, I can change my settings with Ryzen Master, Obsidian and MSI Afterburner (can I do it with the NVidia software for the GPU?) and Clevo CC won't interfere unless I open it and click on some shit. At this point CCC will only be useful for the keyboard LEDs. Any alternative to get rid of CCC ?

Thanks for your input, that's a lot of information to process and I'll have to check by myself to learn. I'd like to avoid the repasting process, seems very annoying to do !

I think we should try stock settings first, meaning not undervolting or using custom fan curves. If stock settings (when correctly configured) work well for you, then the other stuff will be only improvements rather than firefighting, which are totally different paths.

The power modes in control center won't change automatically, you need to change it yourself. There is no way for the software to know how much noise and power you will need, so it's just a couple of clicks to change that (you don't need to open the whole tool, if I'm not wrong you can right-click on the tray icon and quickly change profiles from there.

A quick explanation on the profiles:

• power-saving is to be used when on battery (not that it helps much, anyway ), but you could try that in case quiet mode is still too noisy;
• quiet mode will reduce power consumption and noise, should be used for daily tasks when just browsing or doing light office work;
• entertainment mode is to one to use when you need more power (like gaming).

So make sure you're not using performance mode, as that is to be used only for benchmarking or when noise is not an issue. Give it a try on those profiles and let us know the results. Let's not mess with Ryzen Master and Afterburner for now, until you've tested that.

 

[maxff9]

Thanks again for the explanation. Pff too busy those days, couldn't sit and use my laptop.

I repeated the test. Entertainment power mode. All stock.
I also monitored some stuff (way too many stuff) with HWinfo.

Temp max GPU = 73°C
Temp max CPU = not found in the log (wtf ?)
Performance Limit - Power: Yes (always )
Performance Limit - Thermal: No (always)

Chassis and Spec	Firestrike 3DMark	Graphics	Physics	Avg. GPU Temps	URL
* Nova 15" / R5 3600 / RTX 2070 Mobile	17530	19589	18457	67°	Link

It's true that's easy to switch the power modes with CCC with the right-click. After the test, I am writing this post with Entertainement mode still ON. There is noise but very OK. But I don't see myself having more noise even with my headset on. I'll try to play a bit tonight to see how I like it !
Please ignore this post, I'll come back with more soon haha!

Edit:
I played like 45min on GTA V. (Damn it, first time playing a TPS on computer and GTA V has so many controls haha). The game ran very smoothly (75 fps average), the fans were very noisy but it was not so bad with my headset on.
After finishing playing, I checked the temperatures in CCC and it was ~50°C GPU and ~60°C CPU and slowly going down. I believe it is ok so I may reduce the fans speed ? My friend who has the exact same laptop told me the 68% speed was the critical point for the noise.

Edit2:
What do you guys think about stuff like those ? We stick them to the exhaust to suck more air. Seems very portable and reviews are good. Still annoying to install and have more gadgets but if it removes the noise problem without impacting the performance, why not.
Picture:

Spoiler

 

[maxff9]

I edited my previous post.

I watched the video for the GPU undervolting, very interesting. Please correct me if I am wrong:

• What matters for performance is the frequency.
• To reach higher frequencies, the manufacturer planned to increase the voltage.
• Sometimes, the function freq(voltage) is not adapted to the actual GPU. How to verify this ? Read the RTX 2070 specs and compare with the curve in MSI Afterburner (better alternatives?).
• Lower voltage = lower temperature
• We can reduce the voltage and keep the highest frequency possible. Same perf, lower temp = epic win
• ...
• Profit

I didn't get yet the "Power Limit Throttling" that the guy speaks about. The second part of the job is to set a fixed minimum frequency higher than the stock minimum ? Is that right ?
Very interesting all that, I am actually having fun learning those things.

Plan:

1. Run HWinfo without running anything and write down GPU clockspeed and voltage min - avg - max.
2. Run HWinfo with Firestrike benchmark and write down GPU clockspeed and voltage min - avg - max. Now we have the limit of my very own GPU.
3. in MSI Afterburner, make the curve flat after the max freq is reached to not give more voltage (the highest freq is already reached).
4. In progress of editing

 

[FerrariVie]

Edit:
I played like 45min on GTA V. (Damn it, first time playing a TPS on computer and GTA V has so many controls haha). The game ran very smoothly (75 fps average), the fans were very noisy but it was not so bad with my headset on.
After finishing playing, I checked the temperatures in CCC and it was ~50°C GPU and ~60°C CPU and slowly going down. I believe it is ok so I may reduce the fans speed ? My friend who has the exact same laptop told me the 68% speed was the critical point for the noise.

Ideally, you need to check the temperatures while playing, because as soon as you alt+tab or close the game, the temps will go down gradually. So since you're interested in undervolting the GPU, then you'll need MSI afterburner anyway. That same tool has an overlay that allows you to show values from a lot of different sensors. Example:

I basically use GPU temperature and clock + CPU temperature and clock + FPS.

Edit2:
What do you guys think about stuff like those ? We stick them to the exhaust to suck more air. Seems very portable and reviews are good. Still annoying to install and have more gadgets but if it removes the noise problem without impacting the performance, why not.

Never heard about those before, to be honest. But isn't it something that will make the noise go up even further, since it's another fan that's actually external to the chassis and will be closer to your ears? I might see that being useful for a laptop with a poor cooling solution where even when fans are at 100% it's still keeping CPU/GPU on high temperatures. However, that's not the case of the Nova, which you cannot stand the noise of 100% fans, but they're amazingly good at bringing down those temps.

• What matters for performance is the frequency.
• To reach higher frequencies, the manufacturer planned to increase the voltage.
• Lower voltage = lower temperature

Those are 100% correct.

• Sometimes, the function freq(voltage) is not adapted to the actual GPU. How to verify this ? Read the RTX 2070 specs and compare with the curve in MSI Afterburner (better alternatives?).

Well, ideally you should undervolt and underclock until you're happy with the noise x temperature x performance ratio. The starting point is the power limit throttling clock, which can vary but for me was something between 1605 and 1620Mhz. To know which clock your specific card will reach power limit is by adding the power limit throttle to the overlay in Afterburner, so when playing the game you'll notice it activating almost always at a specific frequency.

The power limit point is the ideal one to start with because every volt you're adding is not being throttled by anything, so it's as efficient as it can get. After that point, you can still get more performance if you add more voltage, but every mV added is less efficient and will not increase the performance on the same level as before the power limit throttle.

Then, after identifying that, you can start the undervolt by that point, play your games (the heavier, the better) and check temperatures, noise and performance and start raising the max limits on the curve until you're happy with the results. If I'm not mistaken, my power limit was at around 1620Mhz and I'm using the clocks at around 1650 or 1700Mhz, depending on the noise that I want at each time. You can also create profiles in afterburner, so in this case I'm sorry, but it's one more right-click profile change for you . But that's optional, you can keep just one profile activated all the time.

• We can reduce the voltage and keep the highest frequency possible. Same perf, lower temp = epic win

Not exactly the same performance, let's make this clear. You will drop the voltage, but your card will also not reach those max frequencies that it was when stock. However, also remember that those frequencies past the power limit are not very efficient, so that's why I think it's so interesting and it gives good results. In the end, it will drop your FPS a bit, but it will also drop the temperatures by quite a lot, so that's why you need to tweak it until you're happy with the final results.

I didn't get yet the "Power Limit Throttling" that the guy speaks about.

I explained about the power limit throttle above, hope it helps you to understand.

The second part of the job is to set a fixed minimum frequency higher than the stock minimum ? Is that right ?
Very interesting all that, I am actually having fun learning those things.

Not exactly. What you're going to do is to limit the maximum voltage and frequency that your GPU can reach to something closer to the power limit throttle frequency, as that is going to improve the efficiency of voltage x frequency x temperature ratios.

On the below image, the grey squares and grey curve are the stock values of an RTX 2080, while the red is one example of a profile that is going to limit the voltage to 950mv and the clocks to something close to 1800Mhz:

If you want to add a second profile that is going to limit it even further (just for educational purposes as this is too low), then you would need to adjust the curve to follow the green line instead (a bit over 825mV and below 1600Mhz):

Glad to know that you're finding it interesting to learn those things, I also found it myself and amazed by how efficient the laptop can get when you tweak the right settings. I'm more than happy to lose 5% FPS and 10° out of the GPU (and around 5° on the CPU) when I want it to be quieter (like when there's someone else in the room), while leaving it on stock when I'm all by myself and using noise canceling headphones

 

[maxff9]

You took a lot of your time to explain me all this, I appreciate.
Just one question for now. Is it fine to use the benchmark option of Borderlands 3 to record the data ? It's like some landscapes with characters shooting stuff, quite boring but this would represent actual gameplay, right ? That's the most recent game I have, and I wouldn't like to play while looking at performance number. It would kill the fun for me.

For the small external fan cooler, yes this would add noise. Only to be considered if 1) can't tweak the settings to my liking 2) stuff is less noisy than the NOVA fans.

i'll read the rest more carefully when I have time. Too much work those days :/

 

[FerrariVie]

You took a lot of your time to explain me all this, I appreciate.
Just one question for now. Is it fine to use the benchmark option of Borderlands 3 to record the data ? It's like some landscapes with characters shooting stuff, quite boring but this would represent actual gameplay, right ? That's the most recent game I have, and I wouldn't like to play while looking at performance number. It would kill the fun for me.

Never tried that benchmark, but I would say it should work indeed. It's just because normal gameplay has fluctuations of clocks and usage, so in case the benchmark mimics that, you're good.

 

[maxff9]

Hey, I took a day off and found time to check a bit my laptop. I should have asked you to take a day off too to help me. Haha I am joking, you are great help already.
I've run the benchmark of Borderlands 3 with the highest settings.
GPU max voltage : 1.069 V
GPU max temp : 75°C (it ran 5-10min only)
GPU max freq : 1905 MHz
Average decibels (recorded with my phone) : 75 dB

The OSD was activated with Afterburner and it was display LIM POW almost all the time (I remember some frequencies such as 1710 and 1740 MHz).

and this is the default curve freq(voltage)

 

[FerrariVie]

Hey, I took a day off and found time to check a bit my laptop. I should have asked you to take a day off too to help me. Haha I am joking, you are great help already.
I've run the benchmark of Borderlands 3 with the highest settings.
GPU max voltage : 1.069 V
GPU max temp : 75°C (it ran 5-10min only)
GPU max freq : 1905 MHz
Average decibels (recorded with my phone) : 75 dB

and this is the default curve freq(voltage)
View attachment 22256

So since you're reaching peaks of 1905Mhz, try using that as the first tentative of limiting the max voltage. The first square that hits the 1905Mhz looks like to be something between 1000 and 1025mV, but you're reaching 1069mV. So if you're limiting it to 1905 and the voltage to 1015 (or whatever value is in the curve), you're already undervolting it without changing frequencies (or changing them slightly) with no perceivable drop in performance.

To do that, simply flatten the curve before the below point, apply the changes and test it again to check differences:


If you couldn't see any change in temps, voltage or noise, start flattening the curve a bit earlier (maybe 1800?) and do it again (apply and test), until you're happy with the results (remember that performance should also be taken into consideration).

The OSD was activated with Afterburner and it was display LIM POW almost all the time (I remember some frequencies such as 1710 and 1740 MHz).

Yeah, my power limit starts kicking in at around 1635mV (don't remember the exact number)

 

[maxff9]

I will use the average FPS of the Borderlands 3 ultra benchmark as indications of the performance.
Last trial with stock settings was 60.45 (+- 14.00) FPS.
I'll flatten the curve

I don't understand your last sentence.

And also I don't understand very well the "Power Limit" actually. Does it say "the GPU doesn't receive enough power" or "It is useless to give more power to the GPU as it reached its limit" ?

 

[FerrariVie]

And also I don't understand very well the "Power Limit" actually. Does it say "the GPU doesn't receive enough power" or "It is useless to give more power to the GPU as it reached its limit"?

It's kind of "anything above that limit will be less performance efficient than what it was below the limit", since you don't have much more power left to be used.

And what I mean by "performance efficient" is: for every mV you add, you're getting slower performance increases than what you were getting below that limit. Example with fake values, just for educational purposes:
below power limit (assuming it's 1620Mhz): +15mV = 1 FPS = +1°C
just above the power limit (between 1620 and 1720Mhz) : +15mV = 0.6FPS = +1°C
a lot above the power limit (above 1720Mhz): +15mV = 0.3FPS = +1°C

Desktop GPUs will reach the power limit at much higher clocks than laptops, simply because they have a much higher TGP (max power) and can achieve higher clocks while still being performance efficient. The curve is the same for both laptop and desktop versions of the same card (since they share the same chip), but they don't have the same TGPs and on laptops I believe it's important to tweak it if you want to drop noise/temps, at the expense of losing a bit or performance as well.

 

[maxff9]

Flattened the curve (used your instruction to do it fast and clean).
GPU max voltage: 1.019 V
GPU max temp: 74°C (it ran 5-10min only)
GPU max freq: 1890 MHz
FPS average: 61.8 (+- 8.7)

The benchmark is not long enough to evaluate properly the temperature I think. As soon as it's over, the temperature goes back to 40-50°C.
Not sure what to do!
I didn't see GPU use going above 98%. Is that normal ? And Lim Power was almost ON all the time (normal I guess).
-------
I made the following curve.
This idea is to set the max freq (1905 MHz) at 0.918 V (1.018-0.100, I took out 100 mV to see).

And I got this:
GPU max voltage: 0.919 V
GPU max temp: 73°C (it ran 5-10min only)
GPU max freq: 1890 MHz
FPS average: 61.70 (+- 8.7)

Some I could reduce the voltage by 100 mV and keep the same performance. Temperature is the same but the benchmark is short. I would imagine that after one hour of gaming, we would see a difference ?
Going to reduce further the voltage to see where is the limit.

 

[FerrariVie]

You're not seeing much of a difference because you max limit is still too high... your card won't sustain frequencies above 1700Mhz for a long period anyway, so benefits are minimal at that point (you still dropped 1 or 2 degrees there). If you want to drop it further, you need to flatten the curve before that... try bigger jumps, like at 1800Mhz or 1700Mhz and you'll see that both performance and temps will drop.