I’m currently testing the Dell G7 gaming laptop with the top end configuration, so
with overclockable i9 CPU.
With powerful specs like this just how hot does it get?
Let’s get into some thermal testing and find out.
As mentioned this laptop has the i9-8950HK CPU, Intel’s top end mobile chip at the
moment, so I’m expecting it to get quite hot once overclocked.
It’s also got Nvidia 1060 Max-Q graphics, the highest configuration of G7 available,
so expect different results with the lower end models with i5 or i7 CPU or with 1050
or 1050Ti graphics.
Thermal testing was completed with an ambient room temperature of 18 degrees celcius, it’s
cold here at the moment as it’s winter in Australia, so expect warmer temperatures in
a warmer environment.
At idle both the CPU and GPU were on the warmer side in the mid 40s.
While playing PUBG at default settings the temperatures rise as shown by the green bar,
and they’re not too hot.
If we apply a -0.150v undervolt to the CPU the temperatures drop back a bit, as shown
in the yellow, and we’ll see how this affected clock speeds in the next graph.
Overclocking the CPU and GPU in orange and red didn’t really change the temperatures
in this game, we’ll see why soon.
The full load stress test was tested with Aida64 and the Heaven benchmark running at
the same time with the fans running at default speeds, I wasn’t able to max out the fans
manually so haven’t tested that.
In all of the stress tests power limit throttling was present.
Even with the undervolting applied the CPU and GPU temperatures stayed around the same,
however the clock speeds do change while undervolted.
These are the average clock speeds for the same temperature tests just shown.
We can see why the temperatures just shown didn’t really change with the CPU overclock
applied, we’re not actually increasing the CPU clock speeds while overclocked, and this
was due to power limit throttling which was taking place in all of these tests, and is
why we never reached the full 4.3GHz all core turbo speed of the i9-8950HK CPU for extended
periods.
Undervolting did help improve this a little, but as the stock boost speeds aren’t being
hit we had no chance of seeing our overclock being reached.
The overclock and higher boost speeds will be more useful in different workloads, for
instance in single core applications, but when fully maxed out or even while playing
PUBG we weren’t really seeing notable differences, but it will vary between workload.
So how does this performance boost actually translate in games?
In the games tested the exact same Windows updates, game updates and Nvidia drivers were
installed so there shouldn’t be any changes other than the CPU undervolting and overclocking.
The same -0.150v undervolt to the CPU was applied, and for the overclock all cores were
set to 5GHz, as we saw earlier in multicore workloads we don’t seem to hit it anyway
due to power limit throttling, and the GPU was overclocked by 150MHz on the core and
100MHz on the memory.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature, and at ultra settings we’re just seeing
a little 5% boost to the average frame rates and an 11% increase to the 1% lows.
Far Cry 5 was tested using the build in benchmark, and again just a little increase in frame
rates, around 5% of an improvement at ultra settings.
Rainbow Six Siege was also tested with the built in benchmark, and again at ultra settings
there was around a 4% improvement to the average frame rates.
So we’re getting a little improvement, but nothing serious.
Most of it seems to be due to the CPU undervolt and GPU overclock than the CPU overclock,
as in some cases that wasn’t really being utilized as discussed earlier.
These are the clock speeds I got while just running CPU only stress tests without any
GPU load.
Power limit throttling was always present in this test, even while undervolted, so applying
the overclock essentially did nothing as it was already power limited prior to overclocking.
Intel XTU said it was sitting on a 45 Watt TDP and I wasn’t able to change this by
modifying the values in XTU, so I’m guessing it’s defined at a lower level and can’t
be changed.
At the start of the stress test for the first 10 seconds or so it was running with a 70
Watt TDP at about 4.3GHz on all cores at 90 degrees, so it seems like it can only handle
short boosts before being power limit throttled which by extension drops the temperature.
The laptop has a 180 watt power brick, so makes me wonder if they’re limiting it for
some other reason, as for the most part the temperatures are fairly under control.
I’ve got some Cinebench CPU benchmarks here, and we can see that we get a nice boost in
performance with the undervolt applied, as mentioned earlier power limit throttling was
present in all tests, even CPU only stress tests such as this.
For the same reason the overclock speeds under full load are never reached, so the overclock
speeds don’t differ much compared to without having them, but the single core speeds do
increase as the overclock actually helps there, but when you consider the i7-8750H CPU can
pass 1200 points in this test if there are no thermal or power limits it makes me feel
like the i9 isn’t really helping much in multicore tasks, but without testing the i7
G7 I can’t say if this happens there too.
Here are the GPU only clock speeds at stock and with my 150MHz core clock overclock applied
while running the Heaven benchmark, and we’re seeing just a little improvement.
As for the external temperatures where you’ll actually be putting your hands, at idle the
body of the laptop is sitting in the low 30s, fairly cool.
While gaming this increases to the low 40s in the middle and peaks in the mid 40s up
towards the back.
The stress test was a little higher, mid 40s in the center and higher 40s towards the back,
granted you don’t rest your hands at the back so the hotter temperature there isn’t
really an issue, overall I’d describe the keyboard as warm but not uncomfortable.
As for the fan noise produced by the laptop, I’ll let you have a listen to some of these
tests.
At idle it was completely silent, which probably explains the slightly warm idle temperatures,
while gaming was just slightly quieter than full load, but even under full load it was
noticeably quieter than most other gaming laptops I’ve tested.
These differences in performance shown aren’t hard and fast rules, there are different factors
which will vary results, primarily the temperature you’re running in, application of thermal
paste, and even the specific hardware which comes down to the silicon lottery.
You may not be able to undervolt or overclock your hardware the same as me, it depends on
the chip and it’s specific power requirements, so don’t just blindly copy my settings and
do some testing to find out where your stable point is for best results.
While you could probably improve the temperatures by swapping out the thermal paste based on
my results here it’s not really required, we were running cool enough due to the power
limit throttling that was taking place, but in any case this isn’t something I can test
with in a review unit anyway, the laptop needs to work in the same way for the next person
to receive it.
If I go ahead and remove the stock thermal paste and replace my own, I can't put the
old paste back, so the next reviewer would experience something different from what you'd
actually see with the product and unknowingly report incorrect information due to what I’ve
done.
Undervolting on the other hand isn't physically intrusive, and as we've seen it did improve
the performance and temperatures in this particular unit with no downside once you’ve got a
stable undervolt.
It’s a great way to get back some performance if you’re running too hot or facing power
limit throttling like we were here.
Let me know how much of a performance boost you’ve found by undervolting your hardware
and what you thought of the improvements here, and don’t forget to subscribe for the full
review of the Dell G7 gaming laptop as well as future tech videos like this one.