Laptop overheating issues

[ShOckShOt]

Hello all, i have an alienware x17 laptop, with an rtx 3070 and 32 gb ram, intel i7 processor, i have big overheating problems when the game runs, even at the start of the game with an empty map, in addition to the initial problem of having to manually set the graphics card compared to the one integrated in the geforce panel.

are there any settings to improve its performance at an exaggerated level of overheating?

[TickTockBent]

This sounds more like a problem with your laptop than with the game. Have you checked that all of your cooling fans are working and functional? No exhaust/intake points blocked? That is a beefy GPU to be in a laptop but hopefully they correctly sized the cooling for it. I've never used an Alienware but it looks like it's just a Dell rebrand and Dell is generally pretty good about system design, at least they were when I worked with them a while ago.

[ShOckShOt]

Originally posted by TickTockBent:

This sounds more like a problem with your laptop than with the game. Have you checked that all of your cooling fans are working and functional? No exhaust/intake points blocked? That is a beefy GPU to be in a laptop but hopefully they correctly sized the cooling for it. I've never used an Alienware but it looks like it's just a Dell rebrand and Dell is generally pretty good about system design, at least they were when I worked with them a while ago.

thx for replay but no, this laptop have great gaming performance, it's a beast. With many other game much more heavy I don't have these problems,this game it's very heavy, or badly optimized, but I thought that having bypassed the selection of the graphics card compared to the integrated one, I could do something else in relation.

in the geforce settings i mean, because in the game settings there are few selections

[Neutron]

Originally posted by ShOckShOt:

Originally posted by TickTockBent:

This sounds more like a problem with your laptop than with the game. Have you checked that all of your cooling fans are working and functional? No exhaust/intake points blocked? That is a beefy GPU to be in a laptop but hopefully they correctly sized the cooling for it. I've never used an Alienware but it looks like it's just a Dell rebrand and Dell is generally pretty good about system design, at least they were when I worked with them a while ago.

thx for replay but no, this laptop have great gaming performance, it's a beast. With many other game much more heavy I don't have these problems,this game it's very heavy, or badly optimized, but I thought that having bypassed the selection of the graphics card compared to the integrated one, I could do something else in relation.

in the geforce settings i mean, because in the game settings there are few selections

The truth is there are very few games out there as intensive as this game, maybe distant worlds 2 and such, but this game does a lot of calculations in the background you're just not privy too, too many people make the mistake that pretty game means more taxing on performance which isn't true.

Also, your laptop can be a beast a much as you want, but the laptop will always suffer from temp issues because of the innate issues of the form factor it's built-in.

But enough of that, please give some performance metrics, like FPS, temps, and so on, you can use a program called HWInfo for info on computer parts like CPU and GPU.

[Vimes]

Start a fresh map and use Ctrl and F7 to see the FPS. Then exit.

Make sure the option for V-sync is ticked in the games start up menu, as you note the laptop is overheating at the start.
Take a look at your FPS at the start of a fresh map. See if that has changed.
When in a new game press Ctrl and F7 to display your FPS. If your laptops refresh rate is set to 120Hz then your FPS will lock to that at max with V-sync enabled. If it still overheats at the start then you could set the laptops refresh rate to 60Hz, locking the FPS to a max of 60.

At the start of a fresh map tho there is little in terms of GPU or CPU demands, unless V-sync was not enabled. However if it was using the integrated GPU that could account for some of the heat.

This game "picks up" what GPU to use, typically for a laptop or for those with a GPU enabled on their CPU, if the appropriate one is not selected within Windows. On my desktop PC, for example, I disable the integrated GPU.

Maybe this helps you, I posted it last year....

https://steamcommunity.com/app/784150/discussions/0/3410930328912566175/#c3410930328914958749

[High King Lemur]

The argument that the game causes your laptop to overheat is completely invalid. The game uses a lot of resources, that's true, but it's your laptop that's overheating - i.e. it's the hardware's fault, not the software. If it's an issue for you, fix your laptop.

[TickTockBent]

Exactly. Any system should be designed with enough cooling to handle 100% load. If your graphics card is overheating it means the cooling is insufficient or is somehow hampered, maybe by dust or a blockage or just poor airflow.

[vajeeking]

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000131532/resolving-a-high-temperature-or-overheating-issue-on-alienware-notebooks-purchased-after-2016

[ShOckShOt]

Originally posted by Vimes:

Start a fresh map and use Ctrl and F7 to see the FPS. Then exit.

Make sure the option for V-sync is ticked in the games start up menu, as you note the laptop is overheating at the start.
Take a look at your FPS at the start of a fresh map. See if that has changed.
When in a new game press Ctrl and F7 to display your FPS. If your laptops refresh rate is set to 120Hz then your FPS will lock to that at max with V-sync enabled. If it still overheats at the start then you could set the laptops refresh rate to 60Hz, locking the FPS to a max of 60.

At the start of a fresh map tho there is little in terms of GPU or CPU demands, unless V-sync was not enabled. However if it was using the integrated GPU that could account for some of the heat.

This game "picks up" what GPU to use, typically for a laptop or for those with a GPU enabled on their CPU, if the appropriate one is not selected within Windows. On my desktop PC, for example, I disable the integrated GPU.

Maybe this helps you, I posted it last year....

https://steamcommunity.com/app/784150/discussions/0/3410930328912566175/#c3410930328914958749

Thx Vimes, before opening a new discussion I obviously did a search in the previous messages, which led me to change the integrated gpu from the dedicated one, in fact the first few times I opened the game it ran with the integrated one and lagged a lot, later I solved this with manual selection of the dedicated graphics card.

I noticed an improvement if I use the SOVIET.exe to launch the game, now I try as you say by removing the vsync, and maybe I limit the fps, since it shoots at 100 130 160 fps, maybe by limiting it to 60 I get a further improvement, moreover, as soon as I minimize the game, when I come back I find a white screen, which forces me to restart everything, this is also not normal.

on what you other guys are doing, I can guarantee you that the pc has no software or hardware problems, I certainly play little compared to years ago, I have had this pc since Christmas 2021, but everything runs on it without problems and with excellent performance even at temperature level, I can understand that factorio is not heavy, but a bf2042 runs very well, despite being quite heavy (even after the various patches) lately I've tried tarkov, it runs at maximum without problems, even cyberpunk.

I use the pc to render and draw 3D cad, never had such high temperatures.

I'm happy with the help you're giving me to solve the problem, the game is very interesting and it shows that they're doing it with love, I hope I can fully enjoy it!

Now I'll try what Vimes recommends and I'll update you.

[Vimes]

Originally posted by ShOckShOt:

Originally posted by Vimes:

Start a fresh map and use Ctrl and F7 to see the FPS. Then exit.

Make sure the option for V-sync is ticked in the games start up menu, as you note the laptop is overheating at the start.
Take a look at your FPS at the start of a fresh map. See if that has changed.
When in a new game press Ctrl and F7 to display your FPS. If your laptops refresh rate is set to 120Hz then your FPS will lock to that at max with V-sync enabled. If it still overheats at the start then you could set the laptops refresh rate to 60Hz, locking the FPS to a max of 60.

At the start of a fresh map tho there is little in terms of GPU or CPU demands, unless V-sync was not enabled. However if it was using the integrated GPU that could account for some of the heat.

This game "picks up" what GPU to use, typically for a laptop or for those with a GPU enabled on their CPU, if the appropriate one is not selected within Windows. On my desktop PC, for example, I disable the integrated GPU.

Maybe this helps you, I posted it last year....

https://steamcommunity.com/app/784150/discussions/0/3410930328912566175/#c3410930328914958749

Thx Vimes, before opening a new discussion I obviously did a search in the previous messages, which led me to change the integrated gpu from the dedicated one, in fact the first few times I opened the game it ran with the integrated one and lagged a lot, later I solved this with manual selection of the dedicated graphics card.

I noticed an improvement if I use the SOVIET.exe to launch the game, now I try as you say by removing the vsync, and maybe I limit the fps, since it shoots at 100 130 160 fps, maybe by limiting it to 60 I get a further improvement, moreover, as soon as I minimize the game, when I come back I find a white screen, which forces me to restart everything, this is also not normal.

on what you other guys are doing, I can guarantee you that the pc has no software or hardware problems, I certainly play little compared to years ago, I have had this pc since Christmas 2021, but everything runs on it without problems and with excellent performance even at temperature level, I can understand that factorio is not heavy, but a bf2042 runs very well, despite being quite heavy (even after the various patches) lately I've tried tarkov, it runs at maximum without problems, even cyberpunk.

I use the pc to render and draw 3D cad, never had such high temperatures.

I'm happy with the help you're giving me to solve the problem, the game is very interesting and it shows that they're doing it with love, I hope I can fully enjoy it!

Now I'll try what Vimes recommends and I'll update you.

Best of luck with that :)

I do use a application RTSS to purposely limit the FPS to 70. No point in it being any higher but every point to reduce power and heat.

You need to run the game with the Window option ticked. At your full resolution. That allows you to alt-tab the game without issues.

[Novu]

On a game like this you can get away with 30fps. You can set max FPS in the Nvidia control panel.

[Vimes]

Originally posted by Novu:

On a game like this you can get away with 30fps. You can set max FPS in the Nvidia control panel.

Good point.

[ShOckShOt]

ok, so, in the meantime, thank you all for the exchange of opinions and ideas to solve the problem.

I played with the nvidia control panel settings, I set the fps at 60, I start the game with high graphics settings, in window, 1920x1080 resolution and I start it with 64bit win8.1/win10, now the temperatures are normal , (all, between cpu and gpu it is well below 70 degrees) excellent performance (at least for the test at the start of the new map, today I will finally try to play) no lag, and even better, if I minimize to follow the tutorial on yt the game doesn't crash, so I'd say excellent result!

[Vimes]

Great result, remember as the map fills and becomes more complex limiting the FPS to 30 might help, up to a point. In terms of heating etc.
There'll get to a time where that will no longer apply.