[SOLVED] Temperature differences

[Teunis]

No this is not really about global warming.

On this Thinkpad W520 I can run three different KDE distro's, 16.04 and 17.10 are installed on the internal SSD, Neon is installed on an external (USB3) SSD.
17.10 is what I use most, Neon the least.

The past few days when I was playing around with PulseAudio and it's controls I noticed the temperature of the CPU was getting very high and causing throttling (above ~91degC).

I tried do do the same operations on 16.04 and noticed the temperature would be 10-20 degC lower.
I also noticed the temperature of the GPU would shoot up when the PulseAudio volume control and or equaliser GUI was open.
Closing them would bring down the temperature while the set audio would continue to function.

Next I tried the same with Neon and found it runs by far the coolest of the three options, like idling at around 55 degC where 17.10 runs over 95 degC and 16.04 around 75-85 degC.

It is especially with Firefox that I notice the throttling in 17.10 while on Neon it is really snappy.

All three use the nVidia390.25 drivers from the nVidia repository.

Regretfully the System Monitor only shows processes running on the CPU, not on the GPU.
As it is in this laptop the two processors use the same fan and the heat sinks must be pretty close together because an increase in GPU temperature will soon be followed by an increase in CPU temperature, even when the System Monitor shows no increase in CPU activity.

I've found various tools and especially commands that give information about the GPU.

sudo fuser -v /dev/nvidia*

Gives a list of applications currently running.

nvidia-settings -q GPUUtilization -q useddedicatedgpumemory -q GPUCoreTemp]

Tells me the amount of memory used and the temperature, same for:

nvidia-smi

But none that tells me which application is heating it up.

Anyone has ideas?

Oh yeah about global warming, I generate an excess of solar electricity so don't worry

[GreyGeek]

Is the fan coming on?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[vinnywright]

OK so generally the app using the most CPU is the cause of heat , or GPU ,,,

@hear just having "qpaeq" open dose not increase anything , "pulse audio volume control" will use a bit of CPU , but no GPU .

now what are you doing with the EQ and volume control ,,,,,,if I watch video with an app that will use VDPAU then the GPU (Nvidia) will do the decoding saving the CPU the trouble ,,,,,,this heats up the GPU a tad .



VINNY

[Teunis]

Yes the fan works, conky even gives the revs.

The problem is there even when idle with just System Monitor and the nVidia Server Settings on, 17.10 will be at CPU +80 degC, GPU +95 degC and the fan is on full blast.
While I type this I see CPU 86 and GPU 98 degC which is silly.

Neon running the same cools down to around CPU and GPU at 50 - 55 degC.

16.04 is around 75 - 85 degC.

All at idle.

I might try a reinstall, after all this is not Windows where you need umpteen reboots.

[vinnywright]

Yes the fan works, conky even gives the revs.

The problem is there even when idle with just System Monitor and the nVidia Server Settings on, 17.10 will be at CPU +80 degC, GPU +95 degC and the fan is on full blast.
While I type this I see CPU 86 and GPU 98 degC which is silly.

Neon running the same cools down to around CPU and GPU at 50 - 55 degC.

16.04 is around 75 - 85 degC.

All at idle.

I might try a reinstall, after all this is not Windows where you need umpteen reboots.

dose "top" show anything using a non normal amount of CPU in 17.10 ?

VINNY

[Teunis]

Nothing unusual in the various monitors I have tried.
Even the tuning that's possible in powertop doesn't show or do anything out of the ordinary.

There are moments that Xorg and Plasma shell are a bit power hungry but it never lasts long.

[vinnywright]

Nothing unusual in the various monitors I have tried.
Even the tuning that's possible in powertop doesn't show or do anything out of the ordinary.

There are moments that Xorg and Plasma shell are a bit power hungry but it never lasts long.

strange that ,,such similar systems would be so , different it their heat output ,,,,I havent spent a lot of time in my 17.10 install so IDK

VINNY

[Teunis]

Yes it is strange, there are minor differences in applications in use but these figures are at idle.

I'm probably hosting a sneaky Java Script crypto currency miner...

[chimak111]

...
I'm probably hosting a sneaky Java Script crypto currency miner...

Would a new Firefox profile or using an adblocker such as ublock origin help evaluate that possibility?

[Teunis]

Later today I'll try Firefox with a new profile, something I wanted to do anyway, at the moment it is linked to Firefox on 16.04.
It's unlikely to make a difference because the problem is there without opening Firefox.

[GreyGeek]

That's a crazy temp for the GPU at idle. I am idling at 27-28C on my NVidia GT 650M using the nvidia-390 driver. When running Minecraft it will hit 45-55C.

I have my Acer V3-771G setting on a triangular lift with build in fan that provides circulation underneath. It is USB powered and I have it on all the time while I am running because my CPU thermal past is drying out. The CPU will hit 85C while running Minecraft.

[Teunis]

I believe I've found the culprit!

It is/was a Plasma widget called Time Keeper, a clock and calender in steampunk style.

The reason I installed it was it has a sort of orrery, it shows the positions of moon, earth and sun.

Now I'm typing here with the temperature at 51 degC which is nice for a laptop.
The PA volume control, equaliser and KRadio are also on.

[GreyGeek]

Cool! "Literally!"
That's a good heads up. I love astronomy but I'm going to stay away from that widget.

How did you find it? Removing one widget at a time?

[Teunis]

I tried to remember when the temperature problem started and what I had done.

Widgets don't show up in the history list of Muon nor in the System Monitor where they are included in Plasmashell.
It took me a while to remember, the give-away was this widget was not installed on the other two distributions.