Laptop Running HOT

[Jayngo]

Forgive me that I dont remember the exact specs on my laptop (I'm currently at work), but PoE is making my laptop run surprisingly HOT. What I believe I have off top of my head:

 

HP Pavilion dv7 2011 model

Intel core i5

2.67ghz 8gb ram

ATI Radeon 6370? (I forget the exact model)

Windows 7 64-bit

 

I was playing through Steam last night and the game was really bogging down my laptop which really surprised me. The weird thing is, I don't see any Graphics options to dumb down like most games have i.e. Changing from High to Low settings etc, etc. I tried changing screen resolution from 1600x900 to the other choices and this did nothing for performance.

 

My friend was playing the game on his Mac laptop (I don't know model, but it's only a few years old) and he was having the same issue.

 

I've played a lot of Diablo 3 on my laptop and that game makes it run hot, but there is a LOT more going on graphically in that game (or so I believe).

 

I turned off V-Sync in the options, but as of right now, I don't know what else to do to get a smoother gameplay experience and not burn out my laptop.

 

I'm just really surprised by this since I remember reading this game would be playable on XP 32-bit??? I ran "Can You Run It" before purchasing and I passed with flying colors. That sight is usually pretty accurate for games I play.

 

Any one have any suggestions? Maybe Obisdian needs to optimize the game better with a future patch?

Edited March 27, 2015 by Jayngo

[Lord_Mord]

Mine too.

 

Intel Core i7-2720QM 2.20 Ghz

6,00 GB RAM

Win7 64Bit

 

I've reached temperatures about 99°.

[Lord_Mord]

By the way: Graphic Card is NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M

[LadyCrimson]

Did you try using the console to disable AA? At least that way you can see if that's the heating cause.

 

Hit the ` key (US keyboards) to open console and type msaa 0 then press Enter. This does not hold between area transitions, however, so has to be repeated each time you do that in the game.

 

Alternatively, you can probably force it off via your GPU control panel by creating a GPU profile for PoE that tells the GPU to ignore application settings and keep AA off.

[Jayngo]

Did you try using the console to disable AA? At least that way you can see if that's the heating cause.

 

Hit the ` key (US keyboards) to open console and type msaa 0 then press Enter. This does not hold between area transitions, however, so has to be repeated each time you do that in the game.

 

Alternatively, you can probably force it off via your GPU control panel by creating a GPU profile for PoE that tells the GPU to ignore application settings and keep AA off.

 

 

 

I will try this when I get home. Been reading up on this suggestion today.

 

Not sure how to perform your second idea. Was hoping there was a way to go in to PoE files and set AA=0 in a notepad doc or such?

Edited March 27, 2015 by Jayngo

[Ekital]

Hmmm.. heating is an issue even for desktops. Didn't notice this until I looked at the temps now.

 

Both with and without msaa, I'm running in the low to mid 70s which is definitely not normal..

 

GPU:

 

CPU:

[Xaratas]

So yes, Pillars of Eternity use a surprising lot of cpu power which gets transformed to an surprising amount of heat.

Mostly the "this is not normal" feeling comes from the good power management of the cpu. If it isn't used at maximum it clocks lower, use a lower voltage and produces much! less heat. But if it is used to the max (which pillars do) it uses the max power.

 

To be Constructive:

Step 1: Blow the dust out of the air vents, a can of compressed air or a vacuum cleaner will help

Step 2: Put the laptop so that the air vents are free so the fan could move air in and out

Edited March 27, 2015 by Xaratas

[LadyCrimson]

Just to say, if a desktop PC is not liquid cooled (just fans) and ambient room temp is 75F+, today's gpu's running some games at 70-75C (at 1080 resolution at least) is actually quite "normal." The GPU can take it/nothing to worry about.

Not all games will run at those temps of course. But some may.

 

No clue what temp ranges are normal for various tiers of laptops, tho.

[LadyCrimson]

Not sure how to perform your second idea. Was hoping there was a way to go in to PoE files and set AA=0 in a notepad doc or such?

I'm an Nvidia person, so I'm not sure how Radeon card maker does it. I have the feeling they have pre-set profiles gained via updated Catalyst driver packages and if you wanted more control over or to make your own (like nvidia can do) a 3rd party program like RadeonPro might be required. I'm not sure on that tho...maybe someone else has better knowledge.

 

There's nothing like the typical "ini" file that I've noticed in the game directories...nor XML or .json file like some Unity games I've played have, so unfortunately I have no idea which files can be easily opened/edited manually, if any.

[cRichards]

Hey everybody, just letting you guys know that this has been reported to the team. It will be looked into to see if anything can be improved, but as stated before make sure your fans and vents are clean and unrestricted when playing the game.

[gt27mustang]

How do you check CPU temperature?

[Deadly_Nightshade]

By the way: Graphic Card is NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M

 

As someone who used to have a laptop that used one, this card runs very hot under ideal situations so it's not surprising that you're getting high temperatures.

[Jayngo]

So I ran the msaa 0 and I don't really know if that did much of anything. Also, I kept forgetting to enter it again whenever I entered a new location, so it's not the best solution I guess.

 

Thanks to the QA Tester for bringing this to the team's attention. Tonight I played for about 1 1/2 hrs, stopped the game and ate dinner to let the laptop cool down, then played some more.

 

I don't know, maybe I'm over analyzing this whole thing. I really need to check my CPU temp and check what FPS I'm pulling. I am so enthralled with the game I keep getting side tracked!

[Lord_Mord]

I cleaned my fan and deactivated aa. I don't know what was the main reason, but temperatur is now at about 60-80 degree. Not optimal, but at least I can play.

[Jayngo]

So, I have ordered a laptop cooler from Amazon. Should be arriving tomorrow. I really hope this game somehow gets optimized a little better....

[Sanquiz]

Forgive me that I dont remember the exact specs on my laptop (I'm currently at work), but PoE is making my laptop run surprisingly HOT. What I believe I have off top of my head:

 

HP Pavilion dv7 2011 model

Intel core i5

2.67ghz 8gb ram

ATI Radeon 6370? (I forget the exact model)

Windows 7 64-bit

 

I was playing through Steam last night and the game was really bogging down my laptop which really surprised me. The weird thing is, I don't see any Graphics options to dumb down like most games have i.e. Changing from High to Low settings etc, etc. I tried changing screen resolution from 1600x900 to the other choices and this did nothing for performance.

 

My friend was playing the game on his Mac laptop (I don't know model, but it's only a few years old) and he was having the same issue.

 

I've played a lot of Diablo 3 on my laptop and that game makes it run hot, but there is a LOT more going on graphically in that game (or so I believe).

 

I turned off V-Sync in the options, but as of right now, I don't know what else to do to get a smoother gameplay experience and not burn out my laptop.

 

I'm just really surprised by this since I remember reading this game would be playable on XP 32-bit??? I ran "Can You Run It" before purchasing and I passed with flying colors. That sight is usually pretty accurate for games I play.

 

Any one have any suggestions? Maybe Obisdian needs to optimize the game better with a future patch?

 

V-Sync is needed if you don't want put your machine working more than is needed... V-sync is a cap, if i disable it for example the game use more GPU than is needed, thats mean more Heat.

[Jayngo]

So, I don't really know that much about V-Sync in all honesty. From what I've read if I turn it on, there could possibly be more screen tearing (which is not a big deal to me in a game like this) and your Fraps take a hit? I still haven't checked fraps yet, but I know from seeing the characters run around it could be better. If I turn V-Sync back on, how much will fraps be hit?

 

Sheesh, I really wish Obisdian put more options in the graphics. Still don't understand why there is no Low/High quality options for graphics...

[TheForumTroll]

This topic comes up in almost every single forum at a games release. As always the answer is that a game can't make a "CPU run hot". It can use it at 100 % (sometimes without a good reason) but that doesn't make a CPU run too hot. If the CPU gets too hot there is a hardware problem somewhere. Dust, broken/cheap fan, etc. Even a dedicated burn-in piece of software can't make a CPU too hot if nothing is wrong. Now with that said, many games do use too much CPU with no good reason. This game though almost make my I5 yawn so either not happening to everyone or not a Pillars problem. I'll bet on the last option.

Edited March 30, 2015 by TheForumTroll

[LadyCrimson]

This topic comes up in almost every single forum at a games release. As always the answer is that a game can't make a "CPU run hot". It can use it at 100 % (sometimes without a good reason) but that doesn't make a CPU run too hot. If the CPU gets too hot there is a hardware problem somewhere. Dust, broken/cheap fan, etc. Even a dedicated burn-in piece of software can't make a CPU too hot if nothing is wrong.

Could you cite a source for that? I'm not sure I believe it. CPU's produce electrical current heat when doing stuff and if you go from doing no stuff to something that makes it do a lot of stuff, heat is produced/can spike. I've had CPU temp spike up rapidly in the space of several seconds when doing certain tasks even in a cold air conditioned room with the PC case covers half off and a pretty dust free machine. Like in this explanation:

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/281dty/what_exactly_causes_a_cpu_to_heat_up_more_during/

 

Regardless, the OP is using a laptop and there's not a whole lot of room in those for more fans or air circulation. So I'd guess it depends on CPU use, heavy GPU use adding to the overall temp inside making everything hotter (often the case with gaming, probably), the "cooling" design of the laptop, quality and condition of the heatsink/paste, and of course, as mentioned, dust. I've seen external extra-fan attachments or whatnot for laptops but have no idea if they work or not.

[TheForumTroll]

I'm not sure what it is you doubt and want a source on. Are you saying that modern CPU's can get too hot even under optimal conditions, running within specifications? They can't in general and it normally only happens if there is a hardware failure or a bug in the CPU (it happens). Any CPU worth its salt will of course also throttle down if it gets too hot for whatever reason. The problem with laptops is just that. Laptops. They aren't always made in a way to uphold the cooling requirements of the CPU. The manufacture of the laptop is to blame for that, not the game developer using the hardware running at 100 %. I know it sucks when it happens but trying to make a game developer use the system less is barking up the wrong tree. Any laptop that cannot run at 100 % without getting too hot is broken by design, hardware failure, dust, or all three.

 

Run something like IntelBurnTest to make the CPU run at 100 %. Then run something to make the GPU also run at 100 % (for example Furmark. We need the hot air from both to get a realistic picture). If either the CPU or GPU gets too hot or starts to throttle down, something is broken.

 

To fix a clean system getting too hot one could always try to downclock the CPU either in the BIOS or via Windows' Power Options.

 

For a source, look at the CPU's spec sheet., It has cooling requirements. My I5 for example need 95 watts dissipated. My cooler can cool up to 140 Watts. So since I have a proper cooled case and a lot of headroom on the cooler TDP I don't need any CPU fans at all. One has been removed, the other is turned off. Using the above testing method my CPU's (Intel I5) temperature max out at 70 degrees with passive cooling. In games like ArmA 3 it reaches ~60-65.

 

 

Here's a link:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/core-technical-resources.html

 

Datasheet vol.1 > Thermal Management

Edited March 30, 2015 by TheForumTroll

[Jayngo]

So my laptop cooler arrived yesterday. I played for about 2 hours and it made an amazing difference! I haven't checked temps but the laptop was MUCH cooler. I guess for now, this is making a difference and my mind is at ease now.

[gt27mustang]

Could you provide a link for wich cooler you bought?

[Jayngo]

http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-NotePal-X3-Cooling/dp/B0079T2KHG/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1428441167&sr=8-6&keywords=laptop+cooler

 

It had a $5 rebate when I bought it as well.

 

So far, so good!

[Plazmid]

Fantastic! (Yes, pun intended)

 

I'm glad the laptop cooler worked in your case.

 

Many laptops aren't really designed for intensive games. As pointed out in other posts, effective cooling tends to be an issue and many manufacturers take a gamble that most users will not push the hardware that hard in reality. But, some really do. Unity, as a whole, tends to really push hardware since it is graphics intensive. You have the CPUs working hard, and the GPU(s) also working very hard. That generates a lot of heat, which you can feel from a laptop streaming out the vents and the fan running at full tilt.

 

Not too far a stretch that many feel their system is running too hot since it probably feels hot from what was described. And the fans are most likely running loud. In comparison to how the laptop feels and sounds when you are not gaming. Makes sense to me.

[durbal]

If you want to keep your computer from running at max all the time, consider downloading MSI Afterburner (if you don't have an integrated GPU) or a program called dxtory and limit frames per second to something that will stop the renderer from going all-out when it doesn't need to.

 

I've noticed temps, oddly enough, rise the most during pauses with multiple spell-effects on-screen.  It has nothing new to render but seems to keep rendering them at full-blast anyway.  This is probably because there's a longer duration of effects than if the battle were short and minimal pauses were used.

Edited April 7, 2015 by durbal

[dorkboy]

In my nVidia control panel I created a custom profile for pillarsofeternity.exe , and changed the 'Vertical Sync.' setting to 'Adaptive (half refresh rate)' . (That's all translated from norwegian, so those may not be the actual names.. )

I'm guessing that caps the framerate at 30 (instead of 60).

At any rate, the GPU fan is now producing more of a Steady Breeze, instead of the previous Howling Gale. (Or so the external sensors attached to my head tell me..)