Recoil III RTX Overheating Issues?

[samsul]

Hi,
I've recently bought a Recoil RTX laptop with the following specs.

Spoiler: Specs

Chassis & Display
Recoil Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)

Get Total War: Three Kingdoms & More w/ select Intel CPUs!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 Max-Q - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive
1TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 3210MB/sR | 1315MB/sW)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 3230MB/sR | 1625MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Card Reader (SD / SDHC / SDXC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Battery
Recoil II Series 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT UK MECHANICAL KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

And while it is functioning very well, I have some concerns about the temperatures it's reaching. The CPU regularly reaches over 90° C when playing even less demanding games (like Civ VI), I've never seen it get above 94° C but it regularly seems to hit this high. This doesn't feel right to me, I've spoken to PCSpecialist support and have been assured that all is well and I needn't worry but as much as I trust their (frankly excellent) support, I have this niggling doubt that something is wrong. I read a review from March this year which said that the laptop didn't reach above 70° C during a stress test, so my 94° C seems a little wild! I was wondering if anyone else had experience of high temperatures on the Recoil and if so what (if anything) they did about it?

Thanks!

 

[de4life]

Whilst the laptop should be able to handle those temperatures without any issue, I still wouldn't be happy if it was going above 90 regularly. Have you tried undervolting to see if that helps lower the temps?

 

[samsul]

Whilst the laptop should be able to handle those temperatures without any issue, I still wouldn't be happy if it was going above 90 regularly. Have you tried undervolting to see if that helps lower the temps?

I have not tried undervolting, no. I felt that I shouldn't really have to do that by default. So I have elected to return the laptop, as today was my last day with right of cancellation and I've been battling with the high temps for 2 weeks now.

 

[SlimCini]

I have not tried undervolting, no. I felt that I shouldn't really have to do that by default. So I have elected to return the laptop, as today was my last day with right of cancellation and I've been battling with the high temps for 2 weeks now.

Even though it might help, you shouldn't have to do that and you're not the first to complain about this. You've done the right thing. If enough people make PCS realise this is an issue, then PCS will put pressure on the manufacturers to sort it out or not use them anymore. And if enough companies like PCS do that then the manufacturers will sort themselves out or they'll lose money. Too often people simply 'make do' and the same substandard junk gets excused and accepted.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Even though it might help, you shouldn't have to do that and you're not the first to complain about this. You've done the right thing. If enough people make PCS realise this is an issue, then PCS will put pressure on the manufacturers to sort it out or not use them anymore. And if enough companies like PCS do that then the manufacturers will sort themselves out or they'll lose money. Too often people simply 'make do' and the same substandard junk gets excused and accepted.

Whilst I agree, I do think this is all down to not fit for purpose Intel chips, they just run too hot. I just can't see how they're going to move forward for the next 2 years whilst they're stuck on 14nm when their previous 2 gens of chips have been near impossible to cool effectively.

To the OP, if it were me, I'd be waiting for the Ryzen mobile CPU's to hit the mobile space. There are already some builds out in the wild with Ryzen 2000 series mobile chips which are just as good as Intel as they don't run into any thermal difficulties, but even more interesting will be when the Ryzen 3000 mobile chips hit the retailers, I think that's going to be a game changer.

 

[samsul]

Even though it might help, you shouldn't have to do that and you're not the first to complain about this. You've done the right thing. If enough people make PCS realise this is an issue, then PCS will put pressure on the manufacturers to sort it out or not use them anymore. And if enough companies like PCS do that then the manufacturers will sort themselves out or they'll lose money. Too often people simply 'make do' and the same substandard junk gets excused and accepted.

Agreed, I feel that considering the £1900 price of my laptop I shouldn't have to fiddle things just to make it behave "normally".

Whilst I agree, I do think this is all down to not fit for purpose Intel chips, they just run too hot. I just can't see how they're going to move forward for the next 2 years whilst they're stuck on 14nm when their previous 2 gens of chips have been near impossible to cool effectively.

To the OP, if it were me, I'd be waiting for the Ryzen mobile CPU's to hit the mobile space. There are already some builds out in the wild with Ryzen 2000 series mobile chips which are just as good as Intel as they don't run into any thermal difficulties, but even more interesting will be when the Ryzen 3000 mobile chips hit the retailers, I think that's going to be a game changer.

Interesting. Thanks, perhaps I'll bide my time on this then. Roughly when do you think these will start hitting the market?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Agreed, I feel that considering the £1900 price of my laptop I shouldn't have to fiddle things just to make it behave "normally".



Interesting. Thanks, perhaps I'll bide my time on this then. Roughly when do you think these will start hitting the market?

There are some models already out with the Ryzen 5 3550H CPU with the option of either AMD or NVidia mobile gpu, I'd go with nvidia.

I can only hope that Clevo and other chassis designers start to include them for their lineups.

 

[Shepard]

Some of you might have already seen it, but the Recoil now got a note that shows if someone orders it:

Due to the high performance components built into this ultra slim laptop, the exterior chassis temperature can reach approximately 45°C when running under full load. This laptop model has been fully tested and meets all thermal requirements, so performance & stability are not affected in any way. If you have any further questions about this laptop, please contact our sales team.

 

[darbyjack]

so performance & stability are not affected in any way.

Does thermal throttling not count as performance?

 

[de4life]

I have not tried undervolting, no. I felt that I shouldn't really have to do that by default. So I have elected to return the laptop, as today was my last day with right of cancellation and I've been battling with the high temps for 2 weeks now.

Yeah I agree you shouldn't have to do that, so returning the laptop was probably for the best. It would have just been interesting to see how far the temps dropped with an undervolt. Hopefully you can find a laptop that works out better for you.

 

[Oussebon]

Does thermal throttling not count as performance?

They're talking about the chassis getting hot, not the core temps of the CPU, GPU, etc. It would be possible for a chassis to get hot without the components inside necessarily overheating.

So if you are gaming and the CPU hits 100 degrees, for instance, that's not something I'd consider acceptable, and that's not what PCS's message there covers.