*OFFICIAL* Alienware 15 R3 Owner's Lounge

Hi everyone, I bought a secondhand AW 15 R3 and it has really bad heat problems and I don't know what to do anymore.

Here are the specs:

core i7 7700hq
GTX 1070
15.6 inch fhd GSYNC Panel
16gb ddr4 ram
256gb m.2 nvme + 1tb 2.5hdd


the problem:

Both CPU AND CPU are experiencing dangerous high temps during load. Before repaste CPU would go as high as 96 degree Celsius while GPU would go as high as mid 80's degrees (this was during a GPU stress test via Furmark, and yes the CPU heats up too for some reason)

What's weird is when I use Furmark to stress test the GPU, the CPU temp also heats up and it even has a higher temperature than the GPU. Do take note that there is not much load on the CPU but it's heating up so bad.


Remedies I have tried:

-undervolt cpu to -0.160mv via intel XTU
-undervolt gpu to 0.75v via msi afterburner curve profile
-repaste gpu and cpu to thermal grizzly conductonaut



After the remedies I did, I am still experiencing extremely high temps. These were my temps during a run of Furmark once again after approximately 10 minutes:





after closing furmark:







At this point I really don't know what to do. I would appreciate your help!!

 

Furmark is a power virus, keep using it and you will kill your GPU...

Load your GPU with some realistic benchs, not with furmark..

 

Here is a 5 minute play of PUBG.



something seems really wrong with this laptop

I tried using another program. I used OCCT's GPU 3d test.



There is no load at all with the CPU but anytime I run a graphics intensive app which would generate heat for the GPU, the CPU follows and gets heated up too. I can also feel my keyboard area being extremely hot.

Perhaps the problem is with the unified heatsink? Is this a common issue with the aw15 r3 model you think?

When I tried running a CPU intensive program like Prime 95 and choosing smallest FFTS test, the CPU temp is heating up just fine with temps of just up to 76 degrees Celsius while the GPU is pretty much not affected and it seems quite cool at 54 degrees.

If it is a unified heatsink issue, the gpu should heat up the cpu and vice versa?

 

Yeah, the well known TRIPOD Heatsink Mess.

The Ugliness with Unified Heatsink.

 

The TRIPOD heatsink mess is about the uneven core temps right?

That's something I've e long accepted but what's weird to me is my GPU while on load(running gpu app such as furmark) is causing my CPU temps to go high and even higher than the GPU but when I do the same with my cpu (running prime 95)load temps, the GPU seems fine.

 

Never run Furmark. Rather test with this setup!

GPU will always get cooling priority with Unified heatsink in an so called gaming-book. But from what I can see... Gpu is hotter than normal for this model.

 

Hi thanks for the tip.

I did what you told me and these are the results:

 

Thanks. More as expected. If you replaced Stress Gpu test in Aida64 with Heaven 4.0 benchmarks (Stress FPU + Heaven) I expect the GPU temp will increase and throw out more heat on Cpu. Only fix is new quality thermal paste and be sure the thermal pads is in correct thickness. I would replace pads with newer from Gelid/Arctic.

 

Hi, I already replaced my thermal paste with thermal grizzly conductonaut and I also replaced my thermal pads with k5 pro vicious thermal paste for thermal pad when I showed those results. Should I replace my thermal pad? I do have some arctic lying around

 

from what I understand... You use K5 Pro instead for thermal pads. This means that thermal pads can't be the problem child (too thick/stiff thermal pads will raise the heatsink off the die). But thick paste as K5 Pro instead for pads won't do that. I would repast as this seems as a thermal paste problem. Could also be a warped/uneven heatsink. Maybe do a repaste with a soft thermal paste, screw down properly, then open up again afterwards to check how the paste spread. If it looks good, do the final applicatin of new paste/liquid metal and pads/K5 Pro.