GPU won't overclock sometimes

Hello all, new to these forums

So I got my M14x about a couple weeks ago and love playing games on it. Wanted max capabilities from the GPU so I looked into overclocking and looked on multiple forums for the best numbers to use to push the GPU. I started out with MSI Afterburner and put the Core Clock to 745, Shader Clock to 1490, and Memory clock to 1080 as I've seen that these are the highest safest numbers to run it on. I only apply overclocking when I'm playing demanding games like Crysis 2 to play on max settings and sometimes other games as well and don't play for over like 5 hours (so far). At first it was working fine, fan loud but fine, always monitor the processor temperature and the GPU temp as well. They usually go up to 70-80s/70s respectively when playing Crysis 2 on max settings. I don't think those are high temperatures but I'm really not a 100% sure

So after a few gaming sessions on Mass Effect, Crysis 2, and the Witcher 2, whenever I try to overclock it with MSI Afterburner I will put it to those numbers but it will go back to stock settings when I click apply. It did this over and over again so I thought it was MSI Afterburner problem so downloaded EVGA Precision but it does the same thing.

So anyone know the problem here? Also can anyone give me any more tips to overclocking GPU because I'm new at this as well. Also what kind of temps for CPU and GPU are good for gaming times and any more things.

Thanks

 

I'm having the exact same problem, and can't find a solution

 

Are you on battery or AC power when it goes back to stock settings?

 

I got this problem too, but not at clicking the Apply, instead it is at when I first startup even I have the option "Apply Overclocking at startup" it still sometime just revert back to the stock setting, And I'm on AC power 95% of the time I use the laptop.

 

That happens to me a lot with MSI afterburner. I haven't tried any other overclocking program to see if it has the issue. But, I believe the problem is that the Nvidia driver software always clocks the gpu at different rates, depending on how much you're using the gpu. Like when you're watching a video, using java, etc, its clocked at 203mhz automatically. It's maybe cuz it changes a lot that it might not overclock to what you want it to, I check the overclocking status a lot with the gpu-z widget to see where it's currently at.
You can try the nvidia overclocking tools, or a different overclocking software like evga's version or asus's.

 

Ok guys, I've found a solution from posting this same post in overclock.net also searching by myself.

Problem I believe is with the Nvidia drivers on the m14x, even the ones you download from the Dell site (267 I believe it is). So you need to update them. Problem with that is the m14x has that double graphics card thing (forgot what it's called) that will use the dedicated one for less powerful things and the non-dedicated one, the gt 555m, for more demanding things. So when you do try and update your drivers from Nvidia you'll run into a problem where the driver will not recognize your card. To get the driver to work you can either unistall the dedicated one from Device Manager (wouldn't advise doing so...I didn't), or go to this link: Alienware M14x - Update Nvidia driver - YouTube , and follow the directions on it. From there you will be able to download the updates.

But another problem I ran into is the the latest drivers from Nvidia were not working for me, which is the 280.26. With those drivers installed, the m14x wouldn't switch to the GT 555m when needed. For example when I was playing Crysis 2, FPS were super low and never were that way since I overclocked the GPU and before it wouldn't do that. Soooo, you have to install the 2nd to most recent drivers, which is the 275.27. Idk the link for it but you can find it by googling it.

So far the 275 driver has been doing good and whenever I overclock with MSI Afterburner it overclocks. Also make sure your CPU or GPU is not already so hot when your trying to overlock as, from my experience, it prevents it also

Hope this helped

 

Ok so I was wrong lol. Well may have been partially right but I think I finally figured it out. You gotta be on yoru AC power, not the battery power. I think because it doesn't have enough power to overclock by the batter power. Hope this helped