Dell G7 17 7700 i7-10750H 16GB RAM 512GB SSD RTX 2070 Max P 144hz Display

Lcatchthemall on 19/08/2020 - 21:23
Last edited 05/09/2020 - 22:22

For all of us that have bought this amazing laptop, here are some points that can help you set it up:

  • Change RAID to AHCI to avoid reinstalling Windows in the future if we use a second drive:
    Completely recommended to reinstall Windows from scratch as it will boost your battery life from 2 hours to up to 5-7 hours compared with the factory Windows.
    Youtube tutorial to change to AHCI

  • Mounting bracket, screws, and heatsink for secondary SSD: Thanks @PediatricLemon
    https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07RRNC5WD/ref=ppx_od_d…

  • To measure heat and wattage, use HWiNFO64 and RivaTuner server: Thanks @kml22
    Tutorial measure temp

  • To check the hardware inside, you can use CPU-Z:
    CPU-Z

  • Undervolting GPU guide for the Dell G7 17 7700: Thanks @Dipaty!

For some reason Dell has set in the BIOS of the GPU to automatically overclock up to 1900mhz when gaming (despite the GPU being rated at 1450mhz). However, when it does this it pulls obscene voltages through it, causing a lot of unnecessary heat with little to no real performance gain.
The solution? Limit the voltage that can be pulled through the GPU and thus, the maximum clock that it can push up to.

  1. Open MSI Afterburner.

  2. Press Ctrl + F to open the Volatge Frequency curvegraphic.

3.1. To limit the maximum GPU voltage to 0.8 and maximum clock to 1560mhz double click in the point and a yellow dotted line should appear like this:
https://imgur.com/a/Mu0ncSx

3.2. Select the point in the intersection of 1560 and 800 and click Ctrl + L, changing the curve to this shape:
https://imgur.com/L7xzHzf

A quick guide on how to use MSI Afterburner to limit the GPU voltage, view these video guides:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2xABgzp_1w
https://youtu.be/rV0tWKLAprg

  • Undervolting CPU guide for the Dell G7 17 7700: Thanks again @Dipaty!

Thanks to reddit users VanGoghComplex and Snoozehead for finding the intial fix and their thorough troubleshooting.

Initially, the laptop has undervolting disabled in the BIOS, but there is a way to unlock it…

PLEASE NOTE: I take no responsibility for any damage you may cause to your system, this is an "Advanced" process so proceed with caution.

If you're using BIOS version 1.2 (or earlier) you can skip Step 1 and use the values 0x3e for CFG Lock and 0xda for OC Lock.
If you're using a different BIOS version (or a different Dell laptop altogether) please follow from Step 1.

Step 1: Finding the correct values to change in the BIOS.
a) Download this Python script to extract the BIOS files from the dell bios exe file. https://github.com/platomav/BIOSUtilities/blob/master/Dell%2…
You will need to also install Python for this section to work: https://www.python.org/downloads/

b) Download UEFITool from this link to search in the BIOS files for the location of the values we need to find. https://github.com/LongSoft/UEFITool

c) Download the Dell BIOS file from the dell website that you currently have installed (if you're using an old bios version and would like to unlock undervolting then install that BIOS version first).

d) Download Universal IFR Extractor from this link to search for the names of the values we need to set to 0 in the BIOS to unlock the undervolt. http://bios-mods.com/pub/donovan6000/Software/Universal%20IF…

e) Place the Dell BIOS exe file in the same folder as the python script and then run the script. The script should open a command-prompt looking window, you'll need to type out the exact filepath to the DELL BIOS exe file. This will then create a new folder with the content files inside.

f) Launch UEFITool and then open (open image file) the first file that was extracted by the python script (in my case it's called "1 — 1 System BIOS with BiosGuard v1.2.0.bin").

g) Go to Action>Search and then go to the "Text" tab and type in "CFG Lock" (without the quotation marks). In the bottom section of the window it should find 1 result. Double-click the result to navigate to it (in my case it took me to a line that says "PE32 image section". Right click this line and press "Extract as is". Save the extracted file.

h) Launch Universal IFR Extractor and navigate to the file that you extract in "g)". This will save a text document with readable information. YAY! A document that we can actually read and isn't just code…

i) Open the file that was created in "h)"and search (CTRL+F) for "CFG Lock". This should take you to a line that will look something like this: "0x74FAC Setting: CFG Lock, Variable: 0x3E {0..". The section we are looking for is what it says after Variable: (in this case 0x3E).
This is your CFG Lock code. This is the name of the section that we need to set to 0 in your BIOS. A few lines under this section you should see a section that looks something like this: "0x74FCD Setting: Overclocking Lock, Variable: 0xDA {0.." This is the code for your OC Lock (in this case 0xDA).

Now that we've got our CFG Lock and OC Lock codes we can proceed to Step 2…
.
.

Step 2: Changing the values of your CFG Lock and OC Lock in your BIOS.
a)Format a spare USB drive to FAT32 on a GUID partition map.
If you're unsure whether your drive is GUID or not, go to Disk Manager in windows, right click the USB drive and go to Properties>Volumes and it'll say it next to partition style.
If you're unsure of how to change to a GUID partition map, please follow these instructions: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk…

b) Make a folder in the root of the USB (the main folder of the USB) called EFI.

c) Make a folder in EFI called BOOT.

d) Download this file (the one called grubx64.efi) and place it in the BOOT folder. https://github.com/XDleader555/grub_setup_var/releases/tag/v…

e) Rename the file to bootx64.efi

f) Reboot to your BIOS (spam F2 on your keyboard when booting up the laptop).

g) Disable Secure Boot in your BIOS. Save/Apply Changes and Exit.

h) Spam F12 when booting to load the One Time Boot Menu and select your USB Drive from the list of options. This will boot into the USB.

i) Once it has loaded, type in the following command (be very sure you type it in correctly): setup_var CpuSetup 0x3e 0x0
PLEASE NOTE: If you did Step 1 of this guide, then replace "0x3e" with the code you got for your CFG Lock. Make sure to keep the 0x0 there though as this is the command that turns the lock off.

j) Type in the following command (be very sure you type it in correctly): setup_var CpuSetup 0xda 0x0
PLEASE NOTE: If you did Step 1 of this guide, then replace "0xda" with the code you got for your OC Lock. Make sure to keep the 0x0 there though as this is the command that turns the lock off.

NOTE: All of the 0 in the previous points are actual zeros (the number, not the letter).

k) Type in the following command: reboot

l) Spam F2 whilst booting to load back into your BIOS settings and re-enable Secure Boot. Save/Apply Changes and Exit.
PLEASE NOTE: Some people have reported that they need to also reset the BIOS back to Factory Settings (not default settings) to make the undervolt unlock, but I personally didn't need to.

CONGRATULATIONS! You've just unlocked undervolting on your laptop! Give yourself a pat on the back ;)
Now please feel free to pick your favourite undervolting program (Throttlestop or Intel XTU), I personally used Throttlestop.

Here's a guide for Throttlestop: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/31385-the-throttlestop-guide…
Here's a guide for Intel XTU: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Extreme-Tuning-Utility-X…

Please remember to test your undervolts for stability using your favourite CPU intentive benchmarking software. I personally used Cinebench R20 and the built in tests of Throttlestop.

I personally have an undervolt of -100mv going right now, but I'm still in the testing stage.
You WILL have different results to me as this all relies on the good ol' silicone lottery - some people will be lucky and get laptops that can achieve a significant undervolt, and unfortunately some wont.

Good Luck!

PS: our eternal thanks to @kml22 for his efforts to clarify the 2070 Max P and all the info provided.

Computing 17.3inch Computer Dell Gaming Laptop

Comments

        • Dipaty on 22/08/2020 - 13:51

          No worries, feel free to let me know if you have any questions. It can seem daunting at the start but it's actually pretty easy. Just make sure you write down the commands in Step 2 exactly as they are written in the guide and everything should go really smoothly

          • Nick04 on 22/08/2020 - 14:55
            +1

            @Dipaty: Just did it and it works like a charm mate! Thank you for this. What I did instead of undervolting I limited my cpu multiplier to 4.0 After some time of testing it started to throttle. Then I limited now to 3.5. I am trying not to undervolt it and keep that as a last measure. Reason why is I managed to run all my games on Ultra even on stock CPU, so if the push comes to shove that I cant run games on ultra I will be returning back from 3.5 to 5.0 and then perform undervolting

            • Dipaty on 22/08/2020 - 15:23

              @Nick04: Awesome, glad to hear :)
              If you try out the method I put below to limit your GPU voltage and clock, you might be able to go up to ~4ghz on your CPU for an increase in overall FPS

              • Nick04 on 22/08/2020 - 15:43

                @Dipaty: Problem is I downloaded afterburn MSI, and it was really choppy like every second lagging it would show 0 then normal clock of my gpu then next second again 0 . Idk why it is doing that so I kind of gave up on doing that to my gpu. If you have any fix for that please let me know cause I could not find anything on google.

                • Dipaty on 22/08/2020 - 16:05

                  @Nick04: That's super weird. What changes were you doing in the app?
                  All I did was go to the voltage graph (CTRL+F), click on the point that I wanted to lock in (in my case it was 1560mhz, 0.8V) and then press CTRL+L. That should do it. However, I'd personally only load that if I'm gaming connected to AC power as MSI Afterburn will drain your battery from pinging your GPU constantly to check temps if you're not on charge.

                  • Nick04 on 22/08/2020 - 16:36

                    @Dipaty: I undervolted my cpu now cause it seemed to throttle even if i cap cpu down to 3.5. Now, even undervolted I am getting fps drops after 30 min of playing. Monitoring my temperatures GPU seems to be hitting max of 72 and CPUs are around 65-70. I undervolted -100. So do you think it is actually GPU that is causing fps drops and that I should look more into undervolting and limiting my GPU than CPU?
                    Thank you

                    • Dipaty on 22/08/2020 - 17:06

                      @Nick04: How low is the FPS dropping? If it's considerable… like the scenario I mentioned below then it's definitely GPU throttling.

                      • Nick04 on 22/08/2020 - 17:14

                        @Dipaty: I’d say below 20fps 100% and if stays like that unless I go to check my temps (minimise the game) and when I get back it keeps to run smoothly for next 5 sec and does it again. . I will be looking into that tonight and will post here how I go

                        • Dipaty on 22/08/2020 - 17:16

                          @Nick04: Yeah that's exactly what was happening to me - Give it a go, I'm confident that it should fix it for you too

                    • catchthemall on 23/08/2020 - 16:49

                      @Nick04: Hi Nick, what game are you playing and what are the settings?

                      • Nick04 on 29/08/2020 - 00:34

                        @catchthemall: Sorry mate didnt see this comment. I am playing Planet Zoo and new Total War. Pretty much everything is going ok now. Settings that I use are Throttlestop (where I lock my CPU multipliers to 4.0) and temperature only goes up to 75 which I am happy with given that Intel CPUs are limited somewhere around 100. Also, I use MSI Afterburner where I lock my speed at 1590MHz and 0.8V and it keeps it on good 65. I am not experiencing any throttling anymore so I am pretty much happy with laptop now. I am waiting for Cyberpunk 2077 to give it a proper benchmark and to see if laptop can handle it on ultra 30+ fps. If it does then I will be really happy haha.

            • schmuppet on 28/08/2020 - 18:48

              @Nick04: What are you using to change the multiplier? I seem to be able to do it in Throttlestop but it's greyed out in XTU.

              • Nick04 on 29/08/2020 - 00:31

                @schmuppet: I use Throttlestop. If it is locked in it too that means you will have to do this in this post. It is complicated process, I did it and it worked for me, but ofc do it on your own risk.
                For me it was locked in Throttlestop too until I did this stuff.

  • Dipaty on 22/08/2020 - 13:48
    +4

    For anyone who has experienced their FPS dropping to ~10 in games after a period of gaming (I've seen a few people on Reddit with the issue and it happened to me last night repeatedly (average before the drop was 135)).
    I've discovered a fix for it and why it happens to begin with.
    For some reason Dell has set in the BIOS of the GPU to automatically overclock up to 1900mhz when gaming (despite the GPU being rated at 1450mhz). However, when it does this it pulls obscene voltages through it, causing a lot of unnecessary heat with little to no real performance gain.
    The solution? Limit the voltage that can be pulled through the GPU and thus, the maximum clock that it can push up to.
    Using MSI Afterburner, I limited the maximum GPU voltage to 0.8 and maximum clock to 1560mhz and it's been running like a breeze (hitting the same FPS as before in Overwatch but sitting no higher than 64C). This also provides more headroom for your CPU as the heatsink for the CPU and GPU is shared in the laptop. Without making any other changes to my CPU, this is causing it to run 10C cooler in the same game - simply because the GPU is creating less heat!
    For a quick guide on how to use MSI Afterburner to limit the GPU voltage, view this video guide: https://youtu.be/rV0tWKLAprg

    • Gifwonder on 22/08/2020 - 17:09
      +1

      I might come back to this :)

      what games were you playing?

      i solved my instability, by not using intel XTU and using throttlestop to undervolt. for some reason XTU kept crashing under gaming, even at -50mv.

      throttlestop has been solid for me. currently sitting on -110mv. if that helps anyone as well.

      • Dipaty on 22/08/2020 - 17:15

        Nicely done - I actually had to lower my undervolt to -90mv as I had a few crashes since writing the guide.
        At the moment I only really play Overwatch (Ultra settings) so all of my testing has been done in there.

        • Nick04 on 22/08/2020 - 22:57

          do you still undervolt your cpu even tho gpu was causing problems?

          Or is this the case where I will have to undervolt both and if so, do you keep your CPU speed to turbo boost of max 5.0 Ghz or do you lower that to 4 or smth?

          One more time I just want to say thanks for helping out Dipaty.

          • Dipaty on 23/08/2020 - 03:22
            +1

            @Nick04: No worries, I'm happy to help :)
            Yeah, I do them all haha
            I undervolt GPU, CPU and limit my turbo boost.
            I'm currently using a scaled approach to limiting my turbo boost, based on the # of active cores. at 1 core it's set to 5ghz, slightly getting lower with each extra active core until it's set to 4.4ghz with all cores active.That way I get full boost for work, but when gaming I don't really need much more than 4ghz.

            • clokeyyy on 27/08/2020 - 14:23

              @Dipaty: I'm still experiencing moments when the RTX 2070's clock rate drops from 1560mhz right down to 300mhz making gaming unplayable, thats even after i limited the voltage curve in MSI Afterburner and not using the G button on the keyboard, if i do press the G button, it returns back to normal for a brief moment but goes back down once again, it also happens regardless if i'm undervolting the CPU by -90mv or not
              Please help its getting infuriating very quickly haha

              • Dipaty on 27/08/2020 - 15:09
                +1

                @clokeyyy: This happened to me yesterday too - it looks like it's one of the Windows Updates (KB4566782) is causing the issue. I'm not sure why, but this seemed to stop the issue for me.
                Try uninstalling the update and if the issue goes away for you, as it did for me, then block that update from installing again.
                https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/3183922/how-to-temp…

                • clokeyyy on 27/08/2020 - 19:11

                  @Dipaty: Having no luck removing that update, everytime i try it seems to fail, sometimes with a error code 0x800f0905
                  any suggestions ?

                  • Dipaty on 27/08/2020 - 19:22

                    @clokeyyy: From doing a quick search online, it sounds like that error is usually caused by 1 of 2 issues: either you have another update installed that has superseded this one / uses this one as a prerequisite - or, you have corrupt system files.

                    Do you have a restore point that you can load from before this update was installed?

                    Please note, I may be wrong here and it could be from a different cause as I don't have any personal experience with this error. Either way, if you have a restore point saved, that'd be your safest bet to fix this.

                    • clokeyyy on 27/08/2020 - 22:18

                      @Dipaty: I am going to attempt a fresh install of Windows 10, pretty extreme yes and i have verified i have no corrupt system files, not having the best experience so far with this laptop considering i've only had it for two days :(

                      • Dipaty on 28/08/2020 - 03:36
                        +1

                        @clokeyyy: Fair enough, just make sure you download the file from the link above and use it to block that specific windows update from installing again

    • Nick04 on 23/08/2020 - 01:38

      Could you please take a screenshot of your curvature in MSI afterburner? I watched the tutorial and still a bit confused. Also is GPU in this laptop max P or Q?

      • Dipaty on 23/08/2020 - 03:16

        Yepp, here you go :)
        https://imgur.com/a/Mu0ncSx

        • Nick04 on 23/08/2020 - 12:25

          sweet, will be doing this. Thanks for the screenshot

        • Nick04 on 24/08/2020 - 01:24

          Did this today, just for some reason I have 1590 locked on 0.8, should I be lowering that to 1560 or it doesnt matter?

          Also just wanted to say that when I did this I didnt even have to undervolt my CPU. I just locked my multipliers to 45 and played for straight 8h and didnt have any issues. Games like Planet Zoo and Total War were running 75-100fps. Gpu temp was 65-67 while CPU was 75-80. I might undervolt CPu just to try to keep it also under 70 if 75-80 are hight temperatures?

          • Dipaty on 24/08/2020 - 04:34
            +1

            @Nick04: Doesn't matter, it's just the voltage that's important tbh

            75-80 aren't crazy high… But if you don't lose any stability with undervolting the CPU, I'd do it anyway to prolong the laptop's overall life - the more power that it pumps, the quicker the parts degrade. So keeping temps under 70C should give you a longer lasting and quieter laptop (fans don't have to work as hard to keep temps manageable).

    • Nick04 on 31/08/2020 - 22:45

      Now I am back again, everything was going good but now I installed Hitman 1, played it last week for couple of h everything seemed to run ok. I am undervolting my cpu -100.6, limiting turbo to 40. Also I am using MSI Afterburner to lock my GPU to 1590 0.8. Everything was going great last week.. What I am experiencing now , I just went to play hitman and maybe 15 min in game my GPU seems to throttle even tho temperatures of both cpu and gpu are now around 60 (I am running both throttlestop and and MSI Afterburner. Is anyone experiencing this? I also noticed that part that is just under the connecting piece between laptop and monitor is getting really hot that I cant even hold my finger on it.
      I am really starting to consider to return laptop and get my money back because it just seems to be one problem after the other.

      • Dipaty on 01/09/2020 - 06:13

        Have you checked to see if you have that windows update installed (KB4566782)?
        If you do, uninstall it and stop it from installing again.
        That should fix it.

        • Nick04 on 01/09/2020 - 08:39

          will give it a shot. What us it with this update that it needs to be uninstalled?

          • Dipaty on 01/09/2020 - 13:06

            @Nick04: For some reason it's conflicting with either the video card bios or driver (not sure which) and the issue usually goes away after uninstalling this particular update.

      • catchthemall on 01/09/2020 - 20:36

        Did you do a fresh install of Windows?
        Asking because all my problems with graphics card throttling went away (was playing ac odyssey and having the same issue). So I think hardware is ok, it is just all the bloatware that comes as default.
        I'm gonna download hitman and see if the same thing happens to me so we can rule out my theory.

        • Nick04 on 01/09/2020 - 21:29

          If I do fresh install of windows, would I have to go through all of this procedure of unlocking undervolting etc?

          • catchthemall on 01/09/2020 - 21:42

            @Nick04: No mate, what you have done to the BIOS is already there, it won't change, so you will have to reinstall Throttlestop and afterburner and set the values again (and all your software). It doesn't give any pleasure doing it, I know, but it is so much better after that it is totally worth it.

            Still, downloading hitman, if you want a positive confirmation, I would wait until tomorrow.

            • Nick04 on 01/09/2020 - 21:50

              @catchthemall: Thank you for doing this, if you can confirm how yours is running that would be great. Honeslty, first three trainings I had 80-144 FPS, it all started somewhere in mission 1(at the fountain),2 and 3, where in some scenarios it would just be 30-45 (not even big lands or crowd, just looking at certain wall or smth like that). Never the less, I ll wait for your confirmation and one more time thank you for checking on this. I think laptop could use a fresh windows install, only thing that will bother me is losing my games from steam haha. I will probably end up doing it over weekend because odysey is much more demanding than hitman so it should be running smooth as butter hah.

              • catchthemall on 02/09/2020 - 22:38

                @Nick04: Finally finished downloading it, epic offered it as a freebie so had to try it, haha.
                Well, after 3 hours of gaming, running at ultra, here are my findings:

                • Framerate is quite good, almost always above 65 and highest to 144.
                • Fountain scene is not bad, dropped to 61
                • Got 35 fps in the show walk…it freaked me out. So, got out of the game, quicked the turbo in (had it disabled in Throttlestop) and the second time I went in, it is around 64 fps. Seems the game is heavy on cpu.

                Will play a little more tomorrow and see how it goes.

                • Nick04 on 03/09/2020 - 01:09

                  @catchthemall: I played it a bit today too and it kept fps above 60, Average 80, and Highest 144, lowest was 58 at one point for couple of sec nothing crazy. Now, on the show walk I had constant 75 but I do have my turbo on(limited to 40). Idk if game is poorly optimised or what. Thanks for checking this mate. I will probably be reinstalling Windows next weekend as I just ordered new 2 TB SSD for laptop. It could be just this one game cause I am also playing planet zoo which is much more demanding ( all on ultra ) and it actually runs on smooth 60 fps. Same with Total War Troy, in battles I am getting 80-100 fps (ultra settings) . I guess it just varies from game to game and how it utilises. Recent Avengers game I saw people with 2080ti compaling that they are getting average of 60fps because of poor optimisation.

                  Thank you one more time for help, I guess I am sticking with the laptop as I think fresh windows update will bring everything back to normal and maybe I just ***ked smth up 2 days ago when I was playing because today everything seemed to be ok.

  • Gifwonder on 23/08/2020 - 15:41

    ii come back after a crash playing COD, nad my RTX 2070 temperature is 130 degrees

    so my gfx card was way overheating, rather than my cpu causing crashes.

    I'm having trouble getting MSI afterburner to give me access to voltage /undervolt control. its all greyed out

    • catchthemall on 23/08/2020 - 16:45

      Hell, that's a lot of heat!
      What were your settings? I thought COD was not that demanding, I am so wrong. The only game I have found trouble at the time is AC Odyssey, when the character gets out in the wild and it rains or close to a huge city, frames drop to 10 even though temperatures are still around 60s. So I guess the game is way too demanding to play it in max settings.

      About the Afterburner, I have updated the guide at the top, which @Dipaty has done and shared. just make sure to watch both videos and press CTrl + F to change the curve

      • Dipaty on 23/08/2020 - 18:04

        Your issue with AC Odyssey sounds like the GPU throttling (as per my above guide). I don't think it has anything to do with the game itself. For some reason this can happen even when the GPU is at lower temps - it's a BIOS issue according to my research and is also present in other DELL laptops.

        Gifwonder, let us know where you have issues in Afterburner - try taking a screenshot and uploading it to imgur (or a similar site) so we can see where you're being blocked.

        A little bit of group troubleshooting and we should be able to resolve it :)

        Also, are you elevating your laptop to help with airflow when gaming or sitting it flat on your desk / lap?

        • Gifwonder on 23/08/2020 - 23:33

          Alright。

          So following everyones instructions

          -90mv on CPU,and limiting turbo boost to multiplyer of 42
          MSI afterburner locking it at 1560

          stable :)

          pity it takes so much work to get these things stable, and it cant come out of the box like this. works great otherwise.

          • Dipaty on 24/08/2020 - 00:08

            @Gifwonder: Yeah it's a shame they don't do a day of stability testing on the batch before sending them out - but you'd only get service like that from a custom laptop builder - I believe Aftershock offer that service on their laptops, but none of the mass manufacturers do.

            Just keep in mind that your CPU might be able to handle a more aggressive undervolt than mine and a higher turbo boost multiplier (that's why they call it the silicone lottery, you never know what you'll get) - if it was stable at -110mv (other than that episode in COD with the GPU nearly frying itself), then I think the only thing you needed was the GPU undervolt so it doesn't fry itself like you saw earlier.

            You could theoretically go back to your previous settings in Throttlestop and it should (hopefully) be fine now.

        • catchthemall on 24/08/2020 - 12:12

          I did lock the GPU with 1560 and 0.8, that's the reason I think it is a game issue. I still haven't had any issue playing Battlefield V with max settings. Also, I have been looking around if the game has any issues and I could find plenty of people with similar problems:

          https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/forums/geforce-graphics…

          I might just give up playing that one. Thanks for all the help!

          • Dipaty on 24/08/2020 - 14:47

            @catchthemall: Ahh fair enough, as long as it doesn't happen with any other games - you could safely say it's a game issue. Particularly if it's predominantly happening with Nvidia GPUs - perhaps it's not optimised well for the current driver?

            • catchthemall on 24/08/2020 - 16:57

              @Dipaty: Yeah, that is what people were saying, no issues until the last update. But anyway, pretty happy playing other stuff, going to leave that aside for a while.
              Also, undervolted the CPU to -80mV, seems stable and not getting more than 65º in default settings, quite nice!

              • Dipaty on 24/08/2020 - 19:03

                @catchthemall: Awesome! Glad to hear :)

              • Simonnn on 26/08/2020 - 20:55
                +1

                @catchthemall: I've played around with undervolting my CPU to -80 and even -100mV, no issues with stability however I find that the CPU still floats around 100c while playing the game at max settings.. I was expecting the temps to go down a little at least! Have you or anyone else had experience with CPU temps and Battlefield V?

                • Dipaty on 27/08/2020 - 15:22

                  @Simonnn: Which thermal profile are you using and have you tried lowering your turbo boost clock?
                  My CPU hasn't gone above 70-ish since undervolting my CPU, GPU and limiting my turbo boost.

                  • Simonnn on 28/08/2020 - 10:20
                    +1

                    @Dipaty: I've tested on Balanced and Performance thermal profiles in the Alienware Command Centre.

                    CPU is undervolted by 100mV and turboboost 42 on all cores. GPU has also been capped at ~1590 in MSI Afterburner from 0.8 onwards. I seem to be hitting the 90-100 degree range no matter what I do in the more graphics intense games.

                    It was starting to make me think that my CPU undervolt wasn't actually working, tried to verify this in HWMonitor however don't seem to be able to see any voltage readings under the CPU section :(

                    If you aren't successfully in unlocking undervolting via the BIOS, does ThrottleStop have the voltage options greyed out? I was wondering if there was another way to verify if my undervolts were actually in place or not!

                    • Dipaty on 28/08/2020 - 13:40

                      @Simonnn: It sounds like it may not have worked.
                      To double check, in throttlestop go to FIVR - then on the top right you'll see a table, look at the column labelled "Offset" which should show your undervolts. Here's an example:
                      https://imgur.com/koqLoy8

                      If your BIOS mod didn't work, try again and make sure you use the text commands in the exact way they're typed out, it's case sensitive.

                    • schmuppet on 28/08/2020 - 19:22
                      +1

                      @Simonnn:

                      GPU has also been capped at ~1590 in MSI Afterburner from 0.8 onwards

                      You need to lock it at a specific point on the graph, if you just flatten out the tail of the graph (which is what I think you've done based on "0.8 onwards") it'll keep pumping volts into it but just not increase the clock speed.

                      • Simonnn on 28/08/2020 - 20:17

                        @schmuppet: This might have just done the trick for me kind sir! I've just quickly mapped each point out instead of holding ctrl and moving the tail of the graph as mentioned elsewhere in this thread - a quick test in Battlefield V seems to have brought the CPU temperatures down to the 80-90 degree range instead of 90-100 !

                        My focus the whole time was on the CPU undervolt, without realising that I perhaps done the GPU side of things incorrectly! Will do more testing and report back, either way thanks for the help so far guys!

                        • schmuppet on 28/08/2020 - 20:51

                          @Simonnn: Just click on the point that aligns closest to 1560/800 and hit control-L to lock your gpu to that point. Click the tick on the main window to apply and away you go.

                • catchthemall on 28/08/2020 - 14:14

                  @Simonnn: I think as Dipaty, the undervolting is not working.
                  In the tab Fusion in the Alien Command Center, you can see the voltage, and it should be around 1.2 with turbo and 0.6 without it with -80.
                  Also, how hot is your room?

                  • Simonnn on 28/08/2020 - 14:41

                    @catchthemall: Thanks for the replies guys, I'm always so impressed by how helpful the OzBargain community can be! My room temperature is ~15 degrees at the moment, pretty chilly down here!

                    What I have done since my last post is updated my BIOS to v1.20 (from v1.0) and completed the entire process (even including step 1 again, to which I found the v1.2 BIOS file I was using did have 0x3e for CFG Lock and 0xda for OC Lock as per the guide).

                    Out of curiousity I then reduced the voltage to -125mV across the CPU Core and CPU Cache and experienced a BSOD during some time in Battlefield V, which to me most likely shows that the undervolting is working? good news, I guess ..!

                    However, going back to an 100mV undervolt, I'm still experiencing the 100 degree temperatures in Battlefield V - attached is a screenshot of the aforementioned Alienware Command Centre showing a voltage of 1.06 under load and a screenhot of my FIVR settings:

                    https://i.imgur.com/nAJmom1.png

                    The one part I wasn't too sure about was the turbo ratio limits, does setting all the values to 42 as per my screenshot the correct way of locking the multipliers?

                    I'm hoping I have missed something obvious in my settings, either that or Battlefield V on ultra settings and RTX ON is just a bit of a beast to run even with undervolting on this laptop..

                    With that said though, I don't seem to be experiencing any performance loss due to thermal throttling - have just been trying to get the temperatures down.

                    • Dipaty on 29/08/2020 - 19:40
                      +1

                      @Simonnn: You can either limit the turbo in the way you've done or take a scaling approach (50 for the first one, 48 for the 2nd, and so on until you hit 42 on the last one as most games these days will utilise all cores.
                      That way you'll have full turbo boost in general day-to-day tasks and a limited boost in games so you don't have thermal issues.
                      Another factor, as mentioned in the above comments is to make sure you've locked the voltage of your GPU in MSI Afterburner. That way you don't pull more than 0.8 volts. This will also lower your CPU temps when you're playing graphics intensive games like battlefield v with RTX on. As the GPU and CPU are sharing the same heatsink, much of the heat from one is being shared with the other and thus lowering the thermal output of one, will effect the other too.
                      If you're still having temp issues, make sure you're raising your laptop off the desk so the fans can access enough air (this alone should drop temps quite a bit), and if it's STILL not great, try lowering your turbo boost to 40x (4.0ghz) and your GPU voltage to 7.75 - however you may start to see slightly lower FPS by lowering the GPU voltage further.

  • aprofessionalpirate on 23/08/2020 - 22:26
    +2

    Thanks OP and everyone else for the info. I've undervolted my CPU at a conservative -80mV and it's run without issues so far and maxing out at 90C instead of 100C I was previously getting.

    Also, I'd recommend disabling auto BIOS updates in case Dell ever releases a firmware update which blocks the undervolting workaround.

    I did this through BIOS setup (hit F2 on startup) -> Update,Recovery-> Set 'Enable UEFI Capsule Firmware Updates' to OFF.

    I also limited my GPU but instead of limiting it to a specific voltage/frequency (which seemed to make the card always run at the frequency, also had to press CTRL-L instead of double click like it says in the instructions) I just pulled my graph down so it maxes out at 1500MHz:
    https://i.imgur.com/L7xzHzf.png

    You can set it like this easily if you hold CTRL and drag down the last point on the graph with the mouse (which will bring down the other points too), then apply the changes to get the curve to flatten.

    GPU maxed out at around 70C after this change, though I only tested on game so far (Minecraft RTX)

    • Dipaty on 24/08/2020 - 04:44
      +2

      Yepp that's another way to go about it so that the frequency can still clock down when the dedicated GPU isn't in use. I only run MSI Afterburner when I play a game so I don't really mind that it locks in the frequency, knowing that it can never surpass the voltage I set. In your method it can still use high voltages in theory, it just won't clock up any higher than 1500mhz. The GPU BIOS is a bit weirdly designed so I prefer to give it as little wiggle room as possible (purely personal preference).

      And yes, thanks for putting the BIOS info up there, I forgot to mention it in the guide. Though, if Dell do release a new BIOS, you should still be able to use the same fix, you'll just need to do it again from the start.

      I'm personally keeping an eye on them because the laptop is so newly released, a new BIOS update might fix the GPU throttling issue (sometimes the GPU can throttle well before it hits the temp cutoff). But that might just be hopeful thinking haha

      • aprofessionalpirate on 24/08/2020 - 23:09

        Yeah that's the downside that it could be increasing the voltage/temp for no good reason. Wish there was some way to set a max voltage for the GPU rather than locking it to a fixed value. I prefer to leave MSI Afterburner open all the time in case I forget to launch it before playing a game.

        Ah yeah I wasn't sure if they could block it completely so didn't want to take that risk. I guess you could always downgrade the BIOS in any case (I hope). Keep us posted if you find any nice improvements in newer revisions though!

        • Dipaty on 27/08/2020 - 16:57

          Yeah I agree, it's a bit tedious.
          I leave MSI Afterburner open at all times (auto launch with boot). Which makes sure that I see the CPU temps, GPU temps and speed. This reminds me to load profile 1 as I'll see the speeds fluctuating (which I've saved with the locked in GPU speed/voltage) and then when I close the game I just hit reset on MSI Afterburner to unload profile 1 and go back to normal speeds/voltage - which will also allow the RTX 2070 to stop working altogether at idle to save on power usage.
          One thing to note - I have noticed that my fans spin at idle when I forget to unload profile 1, and after I unload it, the fans don't need to spin at idle at all.
          This method may seem annoying to some, but I prefer it for the peace of mind that my GPU definitely wont use too much voltage when gaming and crash for no logical reason.

  • nataz6 on 24/08/2020 - 11:51

    I've been having trouble when playing csgo and occasionally the gameplay will stutter. I've found by turning off the G button will stop the stutter and then I can turn G back on and it's fine for a while.

    Has anyone any ideas what might be doing this or what tests I could run? I haven't changed any settings, straight out of the box.

    • catchthemall on 24/08/2020 - 12:17
      +1

      Did you do the GPU undervolting with Dipaty's guide?
      The G button increases the performance and the GPU drains more energy, so I reckon must be the 1900 boost Dipaty mentioned.

      • Gifwonder on 24/08/2020 - 12:56

        This above!

        The G button increases the performance of both CPU (turboboost) and the GPU (overclock), resulting in overheating (even if fans are 100% speed)

        1) undervolt ur CPU
        2) Lock your GPU Frequency
        3) limit your CPU turbo boost multiplier

        obviously you are throttling like everyone else- either from heat, or from voltage.

        • nataz6 on 24/08/2020 - 21:14

          Thank you for the replies. I played csgo again this afternoon and had terrible stutter. Played up for a while then eventually settled with G button off. I'd say it's temp related as room temp was 26-28c.

          I'll try locking the GPU frequency and hope that works. I'm not real keen on under volting CPU, was hoping a non GPU intense game like csgo would be fine.

          All that aside, I'm really happy with the g7 and the stepup from 60hz to 144hz is magic for fps :).

          • clokeyyy on 28/08/2020 - 12:52

            @nataz6: Unlocking Undervolting isnt hard at all, scary but as long as you are triple sure that you are carrying out the right commands, it would take you less than two minutes to complete the process (as long as your bios version is 1.20)

  • catchthemall on 25/08/2020 - 13:54

    What are your temperatures in idle? I'm getting 46 for the CPU and 48 for the GPU, outdoors where temperature is 14 degrees

    • nataz6 on 25/08/2020 - 17:24

      Approx. 28c room temp. Plugged in, idle for 1 hour, no screen dim and balanced profile. CPU 70c and GPU 57c.

      • Dipaty on 27/08/2020 - 15:32
        +2

        Holy moly, CPU idle temps of 70?
        There's something massively wrong here.
        Are you sure that the system is at idle when you checked that? If so, it sounds like your heatsink wasn't applied correctly by Dell because your CPU definitely shouldn't hit those temps when not under load.
        I would contact Dell to see if they can send out a technician to look at it. Your CPU shouldn't idle above 60 at most in my opinion - and that would be in a very hot environment. Mine personally idles around late 40s like catchthemall's, occasionally idling around early 50s on a hot day (I'm in the Gold Coast and we occasionally have random heat spikes for a day or two, even in winter).

        • nataz6 on 28/08/2020 - 23:41

          I'll have to learn how to record temps better at idle and during gaming and report back.

          I have however followed your instructions on limiting the GPU which even after I still had fps dropouts in csgo. Then I uninstalled the windows update you discussed and all good.

          Thanks for all your great work in this thread Dipaty, much appreciated.

          • Dipaty on 29/08/2020 - 01:58

            @nataz6: No worries bud, any time :)
            Throttlestop should be able to record your CPU temps whilst your using your laptop for general tasks and when gaming I highly recommend MSI Afterburner with RivaTuner (it comes with MSI Afterburner) to show your temps and FPS whilst gaming. Just search for a guide on google "set up MSI Afterburner OSD" (OSD = On Screen Display) and it'll explain everything to you :)

  • yellowfever on 25/08/2020 - 16:57

    does connecting the G7 to an external monitor, and closing the monitor lid, decrease power and strain and increase cooling on the CPU & GPU? Or it has no impact?

    • Dipaty on 27/08/2020 - 15:34
      +1

      I haven't tried this myself but in theory it should decrease it by a little bit, but not much if it all.
      The biggest impact would be to raise the laptop off your desk with a stand or something like that so the fans have easy access to cool air.

  • bypeng on 25/08/2020 - 17:03

    Has anyone noticed that the wifi speed of G7 is much slower than the wifi on iPhone? especially the upload speed. I got 109/27.9 Mbps on the phone but only 77/0.12Mbps on G7. Problem?

    • SpewinMate on 26/08/2020 - 12:28
      +1

      Try fast.com. I've always had these weird issues when using speedtest.net on Dell laptops… if anyone could explain why that'd be great :D

      • Dipaty on 27/08/2020 - 16:59

        I've noticed that the wifi is generally less stable than other devices I have around the house. Not just in speed tests.

    • Subere on 28/08/2020 - 11:48

      Yeah I'm noticing that my upload is dialup speeds for some reason. Not sure if its got to do with the KillerWifi app and how it prioritises things or what. I'm getting less than 1Mbps when it should be closer to 25Mbps.

      Edit: When plugging the power in, speed was as expected. So its a power management thing when on battery. Now I'm trying to figure out where the Wireless Adapter advanced power options are since they don't show up where they should.

      • Dipaty on 28/08/2020 - 13:33

        Ahh nice find, let me know how you fix it - I haven't started using the laptop on battery yet but I will be using it for work soon so this'll be important for me to fix too.

  • clokeyyy on 25/08/2020 - 22:27

    Hi everyone

    I received my order today, i purchased a 1TB A2000 Kingston NVME SSD to go with it, I've managed to secure the new SSD using the bracket on the existing 512GB SSD included in the laptop, getting into gaming straight away blew my mind in terms of performance and frame rate so I'm really stoked with the value of this laptop

    Temperatures straight out of the box wasn't amazing but not too bad, the CPU did hit 100c at the start but it did stabilize to the mid to high 80c after a few minutes and once the fans started ramping up

    There is a obvious high pitch whine you can hear from the fans spinning when gaming which is getting annoying quickly haha

    I did run into a blue screen issue pretty quickly within five minutes of playing Shadow of The Tomb Raider and engaging the G button on the left top side of the keyboard, the blue screen error was " WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR" it does seem to be a issue with the GPU clock rate set by dell by default, I've since unlocked undervolting of the CPU and currently testing a undervolt of -90mv and successfully undervolted the RTX 2070 according to the guides in this forum

    Currently still testing though but i'm hopeful the issues can be all straighten out!

    • bypeng on 26/08/2020 - 15:48
      +1

      Did you mean the original SSD does not need the bracket to secure it?

      • clokeyyy on 26/08/2020 - 19:27
        +1

        Yes the original solid state drive is a M.2 2230 form factor solid state drive which doesn't need the silver bracket to secure it in place, it already has a screw holding it in place in the right position due to its reduced form factor

        This is the original SSD https://www.lambda-tek.com/Kioxia-KBG40ZNS512G~sh/B43816914

        • bypeng on 26/08/2020 - 19:42
          +1

          so you need to provide your own screw or the screw comes with the laptop?

        • bypeng on 26/08/2020 - 19:57
          +1

          I know what you meant now after seen a photo from the post of the deal. There is no screw to hold the 2nd SSD only the bracket to cover it. I hope Dell will send us the proper kit for it.

          • clokeyyy on 27/08/2020 - 19:50
            +1

            @bypeng: Doing this however is causing further problems lol, now my OS 512GB SSD which doesn't have the bracket is getting really hot like 78c degrees
            FFS!

  • Modesty on 26/08/2020 - 16:17

    how different is this graphic card

    NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR?

  • clokeyyy on 27/08/2020 - 00:58

    Is anyone else experiencing a high pitch fan noise like this ??
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVQugP18M8I&feature=share

    • Dipaty on 27/08/2020 - 15:37

      Have you raised the laptop off your desk?
      My fans are loud when gaming but yours seem a bit louder in the video

      • clokeyyy on 27/08/2020 - 19:48

        That wasn't my video but my fans sound like that, it only whines when the fans are approaching maximum speed or when i press the G button

        • Dipaty on 27/08/2020 - 20:13
          +1

          Fair enough, but the main part is - are you raising your laptop off the desk so they can easily pull air in? That should decrease the noise from the fans if you're not already doing it.
          You can easily achieve this by propping the back of the laptop up with something (like a thick book or a stack of coasters or something like that). Just make sure that it's not covering the vents on the bottom of the laptop. This will also cause temps to drop a bit when gaming.

          • clokeyyy on 27/08/2020 - 22:14

            @Dipaty: Yeah i am, ive used these 20mm Rubber Feet Adhesive Mounting Feet and attached them to the bottom of the laptop
            https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/8Pcs-20mm-Rubber-Feet-Adhesive-M…

            and i've used a Coolermaster Notepal X3 laptop cooling pad too, the fans still make the high pitch noise and the laptop is not overheating

            • Dipaty on 28/08/2020 - 03:43
              +1

              @clokeyyy: Hmm, no idea then - sorry mate.
              How do you rate the cooler master x3 though? Does it help thermals at all and is it large enough for the laptop?

              • clokeyyy on 28/08/2020 - 12:14

                @Dipaty: The X3 works great, I've had it for years now using it for my old Alienware 17 R4, it was bit of tight fit but it worked well for that laptop, it also helps with the thermals on the G7 too, i've noticed a few degrees drop in both CPU and GPU and the system fans are quieter which helps in my situation.

                • Dipaty on 28/08/2020 - 16:34
                  +1

                  @clokeyyy: Fair enough, I've been looking for a decent cooling pad for a little while now. Hoping to find something similar to the CM Notepal X3 (with a 200mm fan) but that can elevate the laptop much higher, like a normal laptop stand.
                  It's weird that it's so difficult to find something like this.

        • F1ProjectOne on 29/08/2020 - 01:22
          +1

          It's common on many G series laptop from what Ive observed, I've had the G5 SE and this G7 doing some kind of high pitch noise from the fan but not as whiny as the one on the video though

          • Dipaty on 29/08/2020 - 01:59
            +1

            @F1ProjectOne: Yeah I had the G5 15 SE as well, and now that I think about it was a bit whiny too.

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