I present to you Firebat's Blade 15! (144hz/i7-8750H)

Firebat246
Here are some comparisons before and after the paste and thermal pad job. I have been meaning to post for you guys. First 2 are stock paste/pads. These are 30 min Farcry 5 runs with a -.140 to the core and 190/200 on GPU.

GR8-Ride
I just checked my machine, ran some benchmark tests, and I'm hitting at least 55W+ in CPU package power in the system. I have not repasted my system at all, and I'm maintaining boost clock up to 3.9 GHz on all 6 cores (albeit with some high temps).


Patrick

hypoidgear
Fire Bat, are you still experiencing power limit throttling with your new unit? Both before and after the repaste? From your screenshot, it seems like you are getting power limit throttling when under load. Also were you able to maintain the 3.9GHz boost speed on all 6 cores under load with only 45W?

I have the same power throttling issue as your previous unit, and I repasted it with kryonaut, but didn't solve the power limit throttling issue. Right now, my temps are excellent, but my long term power limit seems to be capped at 35W on Synapse Balanced mode and 45W on Gaming mode (which it should be 60W from XTU). My windows power setting is set to Balanced btw. With all 45W, my CPU doesn't boost past 3.2GHz. So do you think I should get my unit replaced? Anyone here has a workaround that doesn't involve locking the turbo boost multiplier? (I tried locking the multiplier in TPL page, but didn't affect the CPU clock speed, still doesn't go pass 3.2GHz).

It seems like many people are having the same power limit issue (https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/8sqxoe/razer_blade_15_power_limit_and_edp_other_ring/). I tried to contact Razer support, but so far they can't even confirm if the CPU is designed to maintain the 3.9GHz 6-core boost clock. I have friends who own Dell G7 and XPS 15, same CPU across all of them and they have no problem maintaining the boost clock, what is Razer doing!

GR8-Ride
So, in light of your question, I just ran 6 back to back to back benchmark runs of Cinebench R15, with HWInfo64 running in the foreground so I could watch the output in real-time.

I do use multiple profiles in Throttlestop to maintain temps while gaming, but one of my profiles (default, actually) is bone-stock (no undervolt, no turbo limits, nothing...).

Across 6 back to back runs, I saw all 6 cores boosting up to 3.9 GHz, and CPU Core #2 did hit 99C (rest were 91C or below). So my one core did thermal throttle.

When I check power, my CPU hit a peak package draw of 57.281W.

No repasting or anything done to mine, and in this case, it was running completely stock settings, Windows Balanced Power mode, and Synapse 3 set to Gaming Performance mode.

So in my case, I can hit boost clocks and stay there the entire time Cinebench R15 is running, and it seems to be pulling full power.



Patrick

GR8-Ride
Ahh, now I see what you're experiencing. I was just playing Doom for a bit (using my "Gaming" profile in Throttlestop). And I noticed that my CPU power draw never exceeded 36W. I forgot to check what my boost ratio was, but given the lower power draw, I'm pretty confident that it wasn't boosting up to 3.6 GHz (my peak turbo ratio under TS for my "Gaming" profile).


Patrick

telecasticfakeshow
So if they fix this issue, ideally we should be getting 3.9 GHz with all 6 cores running indefinitely (at 45 W TDP minimum) without any throttling right?

The first blade 15 I got on late May had bad thermals (reaching 100 C) and severe power throttling on numerous tests despite undervolting.

My current blade (manufactured July) on its first fire strike test got intermittent thermal throttling throughout and a power throttling spike just as the physics test portion ends, but out-of-the-box score is 14,158 with max CPU package temp of 95 C, max GPU temp of 73 C (already better than the undervolted first blade). It is summer and I don't have air conditioning so I guess it's not that bad? This is on synapse gaming mode at 5k rpm fans.


Setting CPU core & cache to -133mV, speed shift to zero, GPU overclock (core +200, memory +600 MHz), I got improvements to score (14,718) and temperatures (max CPU package at 90 C, GPU at 70 C) and zero thermal/power throttling.


Cinebench runs (scores range from 1079 to 1182) are a bit short so I also did CPU stress tests on XTU.
Still at -133mV, and default max turbo of 3.9 GHz for 6 active cores:
[indent]cinebench CPU test run:
[indent][indent]synapse gaming mode:
[indent]3.88 GHz @ 66 W
eventual power throttle (just before the run ends) to:
3.25 GHz @ 45 W
max package temp: 84 C[/indent]
synapse balanced mode:
[indent]immediate power throttle to:
3.25 GHz @ 45 W
eventual power throttle to:
2.75 GHz @ 35 W
max package temp: 70 C[/indent][/indent][/indent]
XTU CPU stress test:
[indent][indent]gaming:
[indent]3.85 GHz @ 55 W
eventual intermittent power throttle (after ~1 min) to:
3.6 GHz @ 45 W
max package temp: 81 C[/indent]
balanced:
[indent]immediate intermittent power throttle to:
3.6 GHz @ 45 W
eventual power throttle to:
3.1 GHz @ 35 W
max package temp: 73 C[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]

testing with max turbo lowered to 3.6 GHz for 6 active cores:
[indent]cinebench CPU test run:
[indent][indent]gaming:
[indent]3.58 GHz @ 55 W
eventual power throttle (sometimes the run ends fast enough before throttling) to:
3.25 GHz @ 45 W
max package temp: 78 C[/indent]
balanced:
[indent]immediate power throttle to:
3.24 GHz @ 45 W
eventual power throttle to:
2.8 GHz @ 35 W
max package temp: 70 C[/indent][/indent][/indent]
XTU CPU stress test:
[indent][indent]gaming:
[indent]3.58 GHz @ 45 W
no throttling
max package temp: 73 C[/indent]
balanced:
[indent]immediate intermittent power throttle to:
3.4 GHz @ 40 W
eventual intermittent power throttle to:
3.0 GHz @ 35 W
max package temp: 70 C[/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]

Also note these are all with stock thermal paste (won't repaste if I don't have to) and fans set to 5k rpm. Normally I just set speed shift to 128, and lower the fans to 4.8k rpm with synapse gaming; automatic when balanced.

Firebat246

I wouldn't call 3.9 throttling... that is normal for running on all 6 cores. The 4.1 really is if you are only running 4 cores.

GR8-Ride
Actually, I think it will only hit 4.1 GHz if you're running on two or less cores. Running 4 cores the boost max drops to 4.0 GHz.


Patrick

Joikansai
So it’s marketing “throttling”;) who use only 4 cores in 6 cores cpu, I think no one, intel should marketing it 3,9 because casual user only use as it is and take a look at value that they advertised, or stated boost up to 4,1 on single core usage.

Joikansai
I see. Btw how Far Cry 5 runs now? It’s maybe because summer temperature over 30 here CPU now hits high 90ish, I hate looking at HWINFO now;) Though game runs fine, but I feel like i barbecuing my Blade lol:)

Joikansai
Do you still have Blade 14 7700HQ? Since I don’t have it anymore, when I’m not wrong I didn’t hit 90 on that Blade, I played also Battlefield 1 and AC Origins on that. Yes you’re right I don’t have a plan repasting my Blade atm, don’t see great result yet, I think they do right job with cooling system now, stress test is fine on max 70ish only cpu temperature on games and maybe SSD on default are high wich can easily be done with thermal pad, though I’m too lazy doing that;)

GR8-Ride
So now that I've had this system for over two weeks, I think I'm mostly done with the benchmarking / testing / tweaking side of it.

I was running MSI Afterburner to see if I can squeeze some extra score in FS, but I realized that I wasn't really getting any better scores. With the stock (Razer) 389.04 drivers, I'm getting scores of 13,917 running stock config on my Blade 15 (no undervolt, no turbo boost limits, etc). I had noticed earlier on that I had gotten some scores into the mid 14,xxx (peak of 14,445) mark, but I've never been able to reproduce that score. MSI Afterburner, even running +160 Core (max I could get to run stable) and +699 Memory, I only got up to 13,940 on FS. So that leads me to believe there is some significant power throttling going on, if a significant overclock on Afterburner isn't getting me anything in FS or Heaven (Heaven, for some reason, still seemed to report stock Core / Memory speeds).

While I have been tempted to go back to XTU to see if I can improve the numbers at all, in reality, there is only so much benchmarking one can do....at some point I want to just use the machine for work, and to play some games on it. And I do like how I can create auto-loading profiles within Throttlestop for conditions (ie, I can create a profile that it will switch to if my CPU peaks above 90C, for example, and I have a specific profile for battery power mode that disables Turbo boost, and gives me 8+ hours of battery life).

As to repasting, I've thought about this myself, but temps aren't bad, and I can limit them to below 90C with a Throttlestop profile setup for gaming (-0.125mV undervolt and Turbo Boost max at 3.6 GHz vs 3.9 GHz). Doom, Crysis 3, and Battlefield 1 all keep the temps below 90C, and no thermal throttling of any cores. If I had more confidence in a liquid metal repaste I might try that, but given the risks, it's just not worth it. Any other repaste is likely to just result in basically the same scores, which tends to make me think Razer did a reasonably good job on the initial paste on both CPU and GPU.

I did throw a couple of Silverstone thermal pads onto the SSD (2TB M.2 Samsung 970 EVO), as my temps when playing games rose up to 89C occasionally on the SSD itself. With the thermal pads in place, I have not seen a temp on my SSD above 53C.

I have to say, about the only complaint I have about this machine is that the keyboard can sometimes feel "slow", like I missed a key or something. All of the keys work perfectly fine, but I occasionally wonder if I'm almost typing faster than the keyboard can keep up. I do like the feel of the keyboard just fine, and it's far, far better than the Apple MBP keyboards of the past year or two. And it's still not anywhere near the keyboard quality that you'd get on a Thinkpad X1 Carbon, for example (still my favourite laptop keyboard).

Otherwise, I'm pretty much thrilled with this machine. I just need Razer to get some spare 230W power supplies in stock so that I can leave one in my home office, and one in my actual office, and then I don't have to pull my big power brick out of my laptop bag unless I'm remote.



Patrick