Question Nvidia RTX 3060 (Laptop) Alternating Between Power Saving and ROG Boost OC Causing CPU High Temps

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R&B

Oct 20, 2021
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Hi, I am new to the forum. Recently I have gotten a new Asus ROG Strix (G15) laptop (CPU AMD Ryzen 5900HX + GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 115W TGP). I noticed that I have pretty high CPU temperatures when idling (ranging from 70degC to 85degC). I have heard that AMD CPUs tend to run hotter, but averaging out at 75degC at idle just isn't normal. Now, after realizing the abnormal CPU temperature, I also noticed that my GPU alternates between "power saving" mode and "ROG Boost O.C" mode almost ever few seconds. I then performed a few test and found that when using battery, the CPU idles from 40degC to 55degC. When plugged in, I can immediately see the CPU temperature shot up to aforementioned levels. I wasn't running any intensive software. The laptop is almost on idle, save for Chrome. Later on, I realized that it wasn't really running the laptop on battery or plugged in that caused this (in a way it is); but it is the fact that when I switched to battery, the laptop automatically switches to iGPU (integrated AMD Radeon graphics) completely. While plugged in, iGPU/dGPU is set to AUTO. This can be switched on and off in the Asus Armory Crate software (gaming software). I then proceed to plug in my laptop, and switched iGPU/dGPU from AUTO to iGPU only. And sure enough I see the GPU went into constant "extreme power saving mode", without any form of alternation between power saving and boost O.C. And CPU temperatures dropped to the vicinity of 45degC gradually. So to summarize what I observed:

a) when idling AND plugged in, with iGPU on AUTO - CPU temperature ranges between 70degC and 85degC (not stable). dGPU (RTX 3060) frequency alternates between "power saving" mode and "ROG Boost O.C (6000MHz)".

b) when idling AND plugged in, with IGPU on ON- CPU temperature ranges between 40degC to 55degC. dGPU is completely turned off (opening NVIDIA GeForce Experience prompts user to download driver. opening NVIDIA Control Panel will pop up notifying user that graphic cards is not detected). dGPU frequency maintain constant at "extreme power saving" mode. No ROG Boost O.C is observed anymore.

I do not think this is normal. When idling and plugged in, even with iGPU on AUTO, my dGPU should NOT be boosting, since I am not running any intensive graphics software. My dGPU usage throughout the entire time is 0% but Armory Crate is still showing boosting on frequency?

Has anyone experienced this? Asking for your kind help.

Thank you.

R&B
 
Hey there,

Welcome to the forum!

So, firstly, nearly all gaming laptops run hot, but funnily enough, AMD run cooler than Intel, for the most part. With that said, and decent gaming laptop with it's defined chassis and cooling system in a small envelope make it that anything with a 6 core or above CPU is guaranteed to be warm regardless of manufacturer.

Obviously, you have very inconsistent behaviour in terms of temps and performance. Have you tried uninstalling Armour Crate? And then monitoring your usage with HWInfo? Whilst sometimes Armour Crate and HP Gaming Hub and the like are useful (they can provide good boosts for CPU) they can also be unstable and cause issues. Maybe that might be the issue.

What windows power plan are you using? You might make sure your chipset driver is up to date, as this will ensure you have a Ryzen power plan to choose, which also may help. You can try 'High' performance mode too.

On the GPU side. Are all NVC settings at default? have you changed anything? Maybe do a clean install using DDU to uninstall the GPU drivers, then do a fresh clean install. Whlie your downloading drivers, ensure that the rest of your system drivers are up to date, and also check for a new bios, in case that is the fix.
 

Phaaze88

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No, that is normal - the temperature, I mean. You have:
-the thermal density of the die(7nm) is greater than ones before it; dissipating the heat has become increasingly more complex as we continue to shrink the chips.
-the cramped package that is a laptop.
-the Zen 3 cpus having a more aggressive turbo boost. I'm not sure if it's the same on mobile chips, but the desktop variants are designed to seek out higher boost bins, even up to 90C, before dialing back down to temperature.
-most laptops, the cpu and gpu share the same heatsink.
So there's a number of things adding up to that.

Ask yourself whether you really need that 'ROG Boost OC' active when both the cpu and gpu should already be capable of that on their own...
Sounds to me like it's needlessly increasing power consumption, which is already so precious on laptops.

Think of battery mode as a forced low power mode - performance is sacrificed to prioritize saving power and battery life. dGPU is disabled, because it uses more power than iGPU.
You may have forced low power mode forcing iGPU on

Armory Crate... I think that's in the same boat as ROG Boost OC - not really necessary. Looks pretty, I guess.
 

R&B

Oct 20, 2021
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Hello,

Thanks for the replies. Appreciate it.

keith12,
I have not tried a clean reinstall of the Nvidia drivers, and I might do it later. I am thinking whether its the Armory Crate software that is causing this. I select the modes I run in using the Armory Crate software- Silent, Performance and Turbo. I put the laptop in Silent mode when I am doing light day to day work, and set it to either Performance and Turbo mode when I am gaming.

Phaaze88,
I understand the fact that laptops tend to exhibit higher temperatures since everything is crammed into a small case, as opposed to desktop. The reason I do not think that is normal is because I noticed (in Armory Crate), that when I am doing normal light day to day work (mostly browsing), the GPU goes into ROG Boost O.C mode frequently, turning on and off almost every other second. Hence I used the word "alternate". It's literally alternating between "Power Saving" and "ROG Boost O.C". And that's where I noticed my CPU temperature would spike / hunt. The CPU temp will go from 50degC to 75degC, and keep hunting in between that range. On my previous gaming laptop (MSI), the GPU frequency will only be boosted when I was gaming, and that is normal behaviour. So when I get out of the game, and start doing light work, the laptop switches automatically to iGPU, bringing down all temperatures. I have asked my friend who also owns a gaming MSI laptop and his does not do this. It will only go into boost mode when he is gaming. Other times, his CPU temperature will remain approx. 40degC while idling.

I think you are misunderstanding the "ROG Boost O.C". This is just a mode that indicates my GPU is actually boosting. It is shown in the Armory Crate gaming software.

Now there's one thing I want to know, if you guys can help me out with- if I uninstall Armory Crate gaming software, how would I control my laptop's mode? Since I am using the software to control which mode I am in depending on what task I am doing (Silence, Performance or Turbo), how would I do this once I uninstall the Armory Crate gaming software? Because now, I can still play game in Silence mode, with the difference of the fan being slower, and my FPS capped at 60fps. I just want to know how will my laptop regulate between these modes without that Armory Crate software.

Thank you!!
 

Phaaze88

Titan
Ambassador
@R&B
If that is the case with ROG Boost OC, then it is some marketing fluff.
I already knew that this cpu 'overclocks itself', but the ROG Boost gave me the impression that it applies an OC on top of what the cpu already does. Overclock-ception...
That's needlessly confusing.
There's also Precision Boost Overdrive which gives the cpu 'permission' to pursue higher OCs/boost bins at the cost of higher power consumption... this is pretty hit and miss, as any extra performance can be negated by higher temperatures and power consumption.

Was your previous laptop, and your friend's laptop:
-an Intel? Try not to apply what you knew from that system to this one. It's a different beast.
-an older Ryzen? At the very least, the boost algorithm wasn't as aggressive on the older ones, and the thermal density wasn't as high either.
 

R&B

Oct 20, 2021
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Hi

So ive been testing my laptop on and off for the past few days. I am still seeing this "problem" (i dont actually know whether this is normal behaviour or an actual problem), where my GPU will frequently go from power saving mode to ROG Boost O.C, effectively boosting the dGPU, while I am actually doing nothing apart from browsing. Like I said earlier, this happens when the iGPU mode is either in AUTO or OFF. I found out that when the iGPU mode is in either of those modes, my laptop is using the dGPU. From Armory Crate, this is what i understand- when iGPU is in AUTO, the laptop uses the iGPU when using battery but it will use the dGPU when plugged in. I was using my laptop plugged in, and I would assume the laptop uses the dGPU. But from what I understand, it shouls use iGPU when dGPU is not needed (i.e not playjng games). It would also seem very abnormal that it goes into O.C boost mode when browsing on Chrome. So far I have not found any fix yet. Not a lot if into on this on Google either.
 
Dec 12, 2021
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Dumb question, but I have a similar setup, was wondering if it is showing the status of 2 different gpus, toggling between AMD and Nvidia, one in power savings, the other active?
 
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