Recoil 3 III Laptop Power throttling

[mohasi]

Hi there,

I purchased a recoil 3 laptop in 2019, it's still going strong. I was playing ME1LE today and my 1660ti GPU is power throttling. I found out using MSI afterburner.

The options to increase voltage are not available, I've enabled it in the settings to no avail. There is some temperature headroom, I'm getting max 70 degrees, I think it can go to 75, shouldn't be much of an issue. I wouldn't run it hot consistently it's just some demanding scenes that drop very low FPS which I want to improve.

I see nothing in BIOS either (which is too basic btw). Any way to allow increase in voltage?

Thanks

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi there,

I purchased a recoil 3 laptop in 2019, it's still going strong. I was playing ME1LE today and my 1660ti GPU is power throttling. I found out using MSI afterburner.

The options to increase voltage are not available, I've enabled it in the settings to no avail. There is some temperature headroom, I'm getting max 70 degrees, I think it can go to 75, shouldn't be much of an issue. I wouldn't run it hot consistently it's just some demanding scenes that drop very low FPS which I want to improve.

I see nothing in BIOS either (which is too basic btw). Any way to allow increase in voltage?

Thanks

Hiya, could you post your full specs from the order page please?

 

[mohasi]

Chassis & Display	Recoil Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)	Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)	32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive	500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
1st Storage Drive	NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader	Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
AC Adaptor	1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable	2 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery	Recoil II Series 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste	STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card	2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Bluetooth & Wireless	GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options	1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language	PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT

 

[Aza]

Daft question, and possibly completely unrelated, but when was the last time you repasted and gave it a good blow out?

 

[mohasi]

Daft question, and possibly completely unrelated, but when was the last time you repasted and gave it a good blow out?

Never, it's not in a dusty environment. I think that's unrelated though as the temps are ok, and it's not temp throttling but power throttling.

I did open it a year ago to add an extra SSD, seemed pretty clean inside.

It sits inside a spacious closet of sorts. The screen is off, I only use an external monitor using display port.

I get 144fps in much of the game, but when I hit an open area or intense action it can drop pretty hard to around 70 odd. Freesync on the monitor can't help with such huge drops, I noticed on such scenes its power throttling. My wish is that I cap the FPS to 90 or so, so the GPU would have plenty of room normally and remove the throttle so that in intense scenes it can hit 85+. That should be easier for VRR to handle. Setting the cap too low, like 70 seems like a waste.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Never, it's not in a dusty environment. I think that's unrelated though as the temps are ok, and it's not temp throttling but power throttling.

I did open it a year ago to add an extra SSD, seemed pretty clean inside.

What are you using to see temps, and under what stress test?

It's almost certainly thermal throttling if you haven't serviced it, needs a repaste once a year to keep temps optimal.

 

[mohasi]

I'm using after burner, in which you can enable various charts, one of which indicates power throttle. It happens in game in intensive places, but not in others. Temps stay around 70 when it is power throttling and even when it's not. For example I could stand in one place, at 144fps for an hour and it will not say power throttle on the chart, but as soon as I turn around the FPS tanks to low 80s and it says power throttle immediately.

Also, even with temps in 50s, if I start up furmark, it says it's power throttling immediately, no need to get to 70.

These all indicate it's the juice to the GPU and not temps.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'm using after burner, in which you can enable various charts, one of which indicates power throttle. It happens in game in intensive places, but not in others. Temps stay around 70 when it is power throttling and even when it's not. For example I could stand in one place, at 144fps for an hour and it will not say power throttle on the chart, but as soon as I turn around the FPS tanks to low 80s and it says power throttle immediately.

Also, even with temps in 50s, if I start up furmark, it says it's power throttling immediately, no need to get to 70.

These all indicate it's the juice to the GPU and not temps.

That's GPU, but what about CPU? That's more important here, if the CPU is thermal throttling it will power limit the GPU to help bring temps down.

You need to stress with Prime95 and record temps during a load for 10 mins.

 

[mohasi]

That's GPU, but what about CPU? That's more important here, if the CPU is thermal throttling it will power limit the GPU to help bring temps down.

You need to stress with Prime95 and record temps during a load for 10 mins.

Good point, I'll check the CPU and report back.

 

[mohasi]

The CPU temps reach a max of 89 degrees using prime95 in all that time though the power throttle indicator did not trigger.

Starting furmark though, even with low CPU temp (40s) and GPU temp (low 50s) instantly says power limit. This time I'm using tool called hwmonitor.

Please see picture.

1654557014171.jpg

drive.google.com

 

[SpyderTracks]

The CPU temps reach a max of 89 degrees using prime95 in all that time though the power throttle indicator did not trigger.

Starting furmark though, even with low CPU temp (40s) and GPU temp (low 50s) instantly says power limit. This time I'm using tool called hwmonitor.

Please see picture.

1654557014171.jpg

drive.google.com

It's not really possible to tell anything from that, were missing cpu clock speeds and load percentages.

What version of Windows are you on? And did you order with windows or without?

Don't be too concerned with the GPU, that's the symptom, but you don't worry about symptoms, you try to find the root cause. If you concentrate only on the GPU, you'll miss other pointers.

And of course, the obvious question, is this on battery or plugged in?

 

[mohasi]

It's not really possible to tell anything from that, were missing cpu clock speeds and load percentages.

What version of Windows are you on? And did you order with windows or without?

Don't be too concerned with the GPU, that's the symptom, but you don't worry about symptoms, you try to find the root cause. If you concentrate only on the GPU, you'll miss other pointers.

And of course, the obvious question, is this on battery or plugged in?

It came without Windows, I am using my own licenced copy. It is Windows 10 Pro v21H1 which is pretty recent update. I always run it plugged in, set to "best performance". It is a clean install, fully updated, with minimal software, just a single game. I am also using a clean install of the latest NVIDIA driver v512.95 for 1660ti mobile. Just the driver, nothing extra.

I would have taken screenshots of the prime95 run but all PC cores were 100% so could not take a screenshot, was not easy stopping that run. I think I will run the furmark again later today and record it as a gif, that might give more insight.

Also worth mentioning, the only setting I found in the BIOS, is an overlock for the CPU, it is set to -0.5mV underclock, I think that was by default.

Thanks again.

 

[Aza]

Alt+Print Screen key when its running, open Prime95 and HWMonitor, resize the windows so you can see HWMonitor clearly and its showing the details you need then start Prime95 running.

After about 10 mins, while its still running, just press those two keys. You can then paste the image into something like Paint.

 

[SpyderTracks]

It is a clean install, fully updated, with minimal software, just a single game. I am also using a clean install of the latest NVIDIA driver v512.95 for 1660ti mobile. Just the driver, nothing extra.

21H1 is very outdated now, I would suggest upgrading. Also, do you have control center installed as the system won't work properly without it.

I would have taken screenshots of the prime95 run but all PC cores were 100% so could not take a screenshot, was not easy stopping that run. I think I will run the furmark again later today and record it as a gif, that might give more insight.

We don't need a screenshot of Prime95 or Furmark, those don't have any relevant information, it's the output on HWMonitor that's relevant.

And as said, don't focus on the GPU at the moment, we don't have enough information to know if that's the root cause.

 

[mohasi]

Alt+Print Screen key when its running, open Prime95 and HGWMonitor, resize the windows so you can see HWMonitor clearly and its showing the details you need then start Prime95 running.

After about 10 mins, while its still running, just press those two keys. You can then paste the image into something like Paint.

No worries, I'll do that also.

Update:

21H1 is very outdated now, I would suggest upgrading. Also, do you have control center installed as the system won't work properly without it.

21H2 released 4 days ago according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10. I have 21H1 with all of the updates since it came out, it is not base 21H1. Upon further investigation it is older than I expected, I might try updating, but if nothing else works. I do not have control centre installed, but will install it.

 

[SpyderTracks]

No worries, I'll do that also.

Update:

21H2 released 4 days ago according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10. I have 21H1 with all of the updates since it came out, it is not base 21H1. Upon further investigation it is older than I expected, I might try updating, but if nothing else works. I do not have control centre installed, but will install it.

Until you have windows properly configured, it's pointless doing any troubleshooting.

You need the latest control center direct from clevo, not the one in your PCS downloads as that will be well out of date by now. That's remembering this is a clevo chassis and not a tong fang, but you can tell by the chassis label on the underside, I'm fairly sure it's a clevo.

 

[mohasi]

Until you have windows properly configured, it's pointless doing any troubleshooting.

No worries, Ill do a clean install and update to latest. By "Control Centre" did you mean "Gaming Centre"? I have that available as a download from PCS for my laptop, v2.0.2.8_STD

 

[SpyderTracks]

No worries, Ill do a clean install and update to latest. By "Control Centre" did you mean "Gaming Centre"? I have that available as a download from PCS for my laptop, v2.0.2.8_STD

What's the chassis model number on the label on the underside?

 

[mohasi]

The long number on the bottom is GK5CP6Z2200104385

 

[SpyderTracks]

The long number on the bottom is GK5CP6Z2200104385

Oh, ok, it is TongFang, in that case, yes it's Gaming Center from your PCS downloads.

When you're clean installing use the latest image from Microsoft, don't use an old one and update, that's a very "unclean" way of going about it

Download Windows 10