Gaming laptops and fan noise

[Rusty]

Any of yous lots got or had a gaming laptop?
I thought I'd treat myself (promotion at work, yay) so got one.

However, even when idling it can sometimes ramp up it's fan to really high levels. I windered if this was normal?
Should I tweak the fan curves to let it run hot but quieter? I've never had one before so maybe (as it was a cheaper returned model from overclockers.co.uk) that it has something wrong with it?

I'm hoping it just needs some TLC to get it right as it's a lovely thing (masshoosive, as I really wanted a 17" screen)

[Raid]

I don't think there's a catch-all rule for these things; some laptops are just packaged better than others. I've had non-gaming laptops that were incapable of being powered on for more than 5 minutes without the fans audibly kicking in.

Maybe try reading reviews of your specific model, see if anyone else mentions it.

[Drarok]

What temperature targets has it been given? They might be unrealistic so it's panicking as soon as the chip gets remotely warm.

What temps is it running at when idle-ish, and what CPU even is it?

If it's near-enough brand new (excepting the returned then re-sold bit?) it's not likely any thermal paste has dried out yet, so unless it's been applied wrong I'd be staying focused on software and config for now.

[Rusty]

I've removed some bloatware. Flattened the fan curves and it's much nicer.

If I'm round my girlfriend's and need more piece and quiet I'll try the 'discrete GPU' only route too.

[Wrathbone]

I’ve had a couple of gaming laptops. On my older Razer laptop, the fans did still make a fair amount of noise when idle, especially in hot weather. Unfortunately it got worse and I discovered that the battery pack was swelling to dangerous levels, which was causing some serious overheating.

On my newer Lenovo model, it does sometimes get noisy when idle if it’s doing background stuff, but generally it’s very quiet outside of demanding games. Worth bearing in mind that gaming laptops are built on the assumption that they will get hot regularly, so it’s not necessarily a problem if they’re getting in the high 80s / low 90s under stress. My Razer was doing that when idle, though, which is not good.

[Drarok]

If I'm round my girlfriend's and need more piece and quiet I'll try the 'discrete GPU' only route too.

Pretty sure that's the opposite of what you want? Discrete GPU means it'll use the "real" GPU instead of the CPU, so now you have two heat-generating devices powered on.

2 fans going vs 1 going harder… worth experimenting with I suppose!

[Rusty]

I was thinking of just youtube browsing or the like with discrete turned on.

I tried it and it seemed to just ignore the discrete bit and fired up the nvidia GPU anyway when I started a game to test it.

I was hoping to try a small undervolt but it seems the laptop has that pretty much locked down. The bios doesn't have many options.

Just for info it's this one:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/medion-e ... 29-md.html (I got a refurbished one)

[Raid]

...you realise discrete *is* the gaming GPU, right?

[Rusty]

I did not. I thought discrete was the onboard one!

[Drarok]

...you realise discrete *is* the gaming GPU, right?

That’s what I said!

[Rusty]

Well, discrete is a silly name then A big eff off GPU and noisy fan is not discrete

Thanks peeps

[Drarok]

Well, discrete is a silly name then A big eff off GPU and noisy fan is not discrete

Yes it is. It is not discreet though.

Discrete: separate or divided
Discreet: polite and careful

[Sly Boots]

Meanwhile, in geography:

Spoiler

Dis Crete:

[Rusty]

Well, discrete is a silly name then A big eff off GPU and noisy fan is not discrete

Yes it is. It is not discreet though.

Discrete: separate or divided
Discreet: polite and careful

oh
my
god.

I never realised that! And there's me thinking I was a learned gentleman!

TIL