New Alienware 14 gpu core clock potential throttling issue even with low cpu/gpu temps

07-15-2013 UPDATE!!!

I was able to stop the 66-68c throttle in two ways


1.) First is to use the FN+F5 to disable the switchable mode and just go into dedicated/discrete mode only. Meaning the Geforce gpu is in control always and this might be good news to people that wants to use an external 3d Monitor since 3d monitors do not work with HDMI if optimus is enabled and intel graphics is in control but I cannot guarantee this since I haven't tried it yet. Anyway, on discrete/dedicated mode only, I was able to test the games on the same time frame and even longer and my frames per sec never dropped and the msi afterburner graph of core clock never went below 901mhz. No more throttling!!!

- The only problem with this Is that everytime you want to use your laptop for productivity work and battery or surfing, you need to FN+F5 again to go back to switchable mode and have to restart because staying in discrete/dedicated mode drains your battery fast even when idle or just surfing because the NVidia gpu is in full control.



2.) Second one is to use Nvidia Inspector (thanks to NYCEIS) if you don't want to use the FN+F5 approach. Dell/Alienware or possibly Nvidia are the ones that set the limit at 66c and all you need to do is apply the default on the show overclocking option on the NVidia inspector and you are good to go since it sets the gpu temp limit up to 95c. After testing all the games again, the temps finally got over the hump of getting stuck in the 66-68c temp limit range that it was originally set at and my gpu temp never went over 72.

- Fan noise went up a lil bit with this but it was not loud like the M14x R1/R2. Now I don't know if the settings of the Nvidia Inspector will stay once you set it in in the event you need to put your laptop to sleep or need to restart or shutdown.
- Another important info, from NYCEIS findings, the NVidia inspector only works with the default NVidia driver that the AW14 came with. Updating the NVidia driver somehow disables the ability to work the inspector magic.










OLDER Original Post

Looks like there is a problem with my Alienware 14 and I don't know if you guys are having the same issue. It has something to do with the GPU Boost 2.0 and gpu core clock.

I had MSI Afterburner running in the background when game was running and the gpu usage clock was constant at 99-100% so that wasn't the issue. Even had hwinfo and the cpu never throttled and all 4 cores was at constant 3.2ghz-3.3ghz.

Now here is the problem I discovered and it had something to do with the core clock of the gtx 765m gpu. We know that the base gpu core clock speed of the 765m is 800-850mhz and it goes higher than 850+ with gpu boost 2.0 and the max it went to is 901mhz.



Now here's what happen in the first 3 minutes of testing a specific game and what happened when I was observing.

At 901mhz, I was enjoying max fps and full performance on 3dmark11 and I was getting a score of 4,100 just to get that info out of there. Testing of WoW standing in the same spot without any people that way i'll get the same steady frames per sec and I won't have to blame the fps dipping up and down because of how many things or other players are on the location. Now here is the problem, the first minute on WoW on the same spot running at high settings at FULLHD, the frames per sec was steady 85fps simultaneously with the gpu core clock at 901mhz. And then after the first minute, my fps dip from 85fps to 70fps with the core clock dropping from 901mhz to 797mhz simultaneously, then at 3 minutes, the fps dip again from 70fps to 45fps with the core clock dropping from 797mhz to 588mhz simultaneously.

Now when all of this was happening within the 3 minute frame, my cpu temps are only at 87c and was running perfectly fine at full speed at 3.2ghz on all 4 cores and it was steady and the gpu temperature was at 67-68c. The thing that I don't understand is that my gpu usage is still constant at 99-100 so I know that wasn't the issue but the damn core clock was dipping lower and lower.

Now I understand if the core clock goes from the high boost range then back down to the base of 797-800mhz then back up again, but this one went way below the base gpu core clock speed and at 588mhz core clock, my suppose to be steady frames per sec of 85 to a terrible laggy 45fps.


What in the hell is going on here? Remember when all of these was happening, the gpu usage was 99-100% straight on the msi afterburner graph, my cpu speed was also steady 3.2ghz all 4 cores no throttle. My temps was 87c on cpu and gpu temp was at 67-68c.


Is this a glitch or some kind of gpu temperature throttling limit that Dell/Alienware put again? Did they purposely design to throttle down the gpu core clock speed when the gpu temps reaches 67-68c? If that is a yes then I am severely disappointed. All current owners of the new Alienware 14 should do the same thing and test it with any game that you prefer, make sure to use hwinfo and msi afterburner graph to monitor and test and i'm sure you'll understand what i'm talking about.


I'm including a snipping tool shot of the msi afterburner graph screenshot of my Alienware 14 so you guys see what i'm talking about





OR

http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz166/alcalite/Gpuboost2coreclockissuefpsdips_zps399982b8.jpg

 

Hi Colpolite,Thanks for your finding but do you think this problem exists for all the 14s?It will be an issue if it does That said,cos uld you please confirm or double check this by playing any other games which are GPU intensive??are you using a cooler for the laptop or closing the vents by chance?

I have an order for the same which will be comming next week and this is making me feel bad..throttling issues ....

 

@ Anveh. Yes I tried CS:GO just several minutes ago and it presents the same issue with the fps dipping low and the gpu core clock throttling down. I think Dell/Alienware put a 67-68c throttle limit of some sort but i'm not sure. Hoping it is a glitch and hoping other Alienware 14 users with gtx 765m would test it too.

 

Crap - that's the same temp limit Dell put on their new Alienware 17.

What CPU do you have?

 

I'm getting probably next week my AW14 as we are the first owners some bugs are expected, I remember a lot of bugs with my M15x, they fix it later with some updates

Enviado desde mi LT26i usando Tapatalk 2

 

i7 4700mq. Let me do some more testing, a guy from Alienware launch thread said it's something to do with Optimus but i'm not sure but i'm going to test it some more.

 

Try nvidia inspector. See if the bios temp limit is set and see if you can boost it. This is exactly what's causing throttling on the 17's.

 

Is this in "switchable" mode or discrete? If its optimus related, maybe running discrete only with fn+f5 (I don't actually have the system, but I think that was the key combination listed in a review) would help?

 

Have any of you with this issue try the new EVGA k-boost feature to see if it locks the clocks?

I just received mine today. This is not a game changer for me considering my m18x is my powerhouse and this is to replace the work of my m11x as a "netbook".

 

I wish it is something related to optimus and not some throttling/heating issue...

 

Could you also provide a link to that forum?Thanks...

 

It also has to do with the vBIOS. If memory serves me right, you need to flash your GPU's and install a modded one. The issues should disappear, however, temperatures will get much hotter.

 

Hi J Dre,could you please let us know how to flash the GPU and install a modded driver?Thanks..

 

I found this tutorial, it should help: Flashing Your Video Card's (GPU) BIOS | Bjorn3D.com. Warning: Proceed at your own risk! I'm not responsible for any damage done to your GPU. If done improperly, this is a possibility. Do your research, read up on it, and make sure you know exactly what you are doing before proceeding.

You can get a modded vBIOS from Tech Inferno: http://www.techinferno.com/downloads/

 

Thanks for the above links..but I couldn't find a modded vbios for 14 on the above site.

 

It may be too new. You might have to wait a while.

 

Why Why Why this machine is so hot. I expected a lot from it when I heard it's made by metal case, which I expected would lower the temps, I'm sad guys because I like to buy this machine so bad, but it seem that this is gonna be bad investment, I feel like Dell/Alienware getting lazier and lazier everyday. They throwing into the Alienware 14 everything, fool the noobs by showing them "Here I have a bunchs of good hardware for you in a little device", but forget that there are still a lot of people with knowledge and they see this product as a lazy work.

 

FWIW, I'm quite happy with my 14. Even overclocked, the GPU is not getting above 77. I wonder if the OP has a bad fan or bad paste job or something. If you are considering the 14, I would not let what I've seen *so far* discourage you.

N

 

Can you find another 14-inch laptop with better cooling, a better screen, better audio, a better keyboard, better GPU, and better warranty? I would not buy it because it's almost the size of a 15-inch gaming laptop, but it still offers the best "package" of any high-performance laptop under 15-inches.

 

I think I may have this throttling issue too.

When playing BF3, after around 5 minutes of gameplay, my game starts microstuttering. I have not yet monitored temps yet... I'll look into it

 

I understand what you are saying that this is a beast with high performance. However, can you please look at Asus G46vw 14 inch gaming laptop. They might not have the GPU or CPU as good as the new Alienware 14 but in term of cooling and GPU, they beat the old Alienware m14x (Gtx 660m vs. gt 650). Asus has dual exhaustive fan systems, which make the system run very cool and quiet with long battery. I'm sure when they release G47, it will be for sure beat the Alienware 14. The only reason that make me want to have Alienware 14 is its look.

To me, this is some sort of lazy work from Alienware, they could have improved the Alienware 14 much much more before releasing. I have been saving up money for this system but kind of frustrating to see new posts everyday and mentioning the "hot heat" coming out from Alienware. One person on this forum, jwolf77 did a quick temperature review and said the idle temps always around 55-60 degree Celsius~130-140 Fahrenheit. Man, that's not good temps at all. Dell has put all the beast piece of hardwares in the market into this system but that's it, that's all they did I think. And with that 55-60 degree Celsius at idle, I don't think re-pasting using IC diamond will do much

 

I can't believe dell again make a gaming laptop that could not do games... Jesus. Mine is arriving tomorrow and I have always worried about it.
Yes we can apply other cooling solutions to it by ourselves but what is the point to purchase the laptop if we have to do DIY anyways.
Seems sager, clevo custom laptop is the only solution now.

 

I totally agree with you. I purchased it too, and mine is arriving tomorrow. I hated it when they build a laptop with cool specs but could not even make it run properly. You can solve the problem by yourself though, get some after market thermal paste and apply it to the processors yourself. I've seen a temp decrease about 5-10 degrees Celsius is normal. But again, why don't dell do it better and why let us customers do it ourselves.

 

Thread Update In the very first post!!!! 2 working fixes for the 66c-68c gpu core clock throttle!!!

 

hey,Thank you so much:thumbsup:

 

I'm beginning to think Dell doesn't actually test their systems at all.

 

My idle temps have been 48 or lower, so it might be worth repasting if you get temps that high

Edit: I'm running windows 8 for whatever that's worth

 

I can confirm the newest beta drivers are compatible with Inspector, as was mentioned by someone other than me (props to them) in the owner's lounge. You might want to include this in your updated first post

GeForce 326.19 Beta Drivers Released | GeForce

 

Are you able to overclock with Inspector? What version of Inspector are you using? I can't get it to overclock at all with 326.19 and Inspector.

 

The overclock doesn't work with inspector, but you can still fix the temps. If you want to overclock, download this, which I have also confirmed as working (again, credit to the guy in the other thread.... I will look up his name tomorrow >_>)

MSI Afterburner
Click "download the latest BETA" and it will work

EDIT: LOLOLOLOL I just checked the other thread and you are the person I got all the info from haha, sorry for telling you stuff you already know. I repped you btw, thanks for figuring all that out

Have you gotten the temp settings to stick? I think my laptop defaults to 95C as the limit in discrete mode, but if I go to switchable I get the 65 again. Every time I restart I have to bump it back up

 

LOL - no worries. I was hoping to find an overclocker that will let me adjust the voltage under 326.19 but no luck so far. YOu can create a startup shortcut with either tool to set the temp limit at startup

N

 

My understanding is that on a full stock (delivered drivers, no MSI Afterburner, eVGA Precision, etc) Alienware 14, with Optimus enabled, the throttling starts at 66C, yet with discrete GPU mode only, the throttling starts at 77C. Is that correct?

 

We would like to look into that a bit further. Anyone experiencing this, contact me on PM.

Please include a log file(you can use any program like GPU-Z), service tag and phone number.

 

What do you need to see exactly in the log file? Just the throttling at 66c? Stock driver or the new nvidia 326.19 beta driver?

 

Stock conditions (driver and vbios), and yes please make sure it shows the throttling.

 

These throttle points are set in the vbios.....

 

I do see the throttling now.

With 765M GPU discrete mode enabled, I can't reach the 77C threshold mentioned in the previous forum posts. I can only reach 68C and thus see no throttling:


With Optimus enabled, I quickly reached the 66C - 68C range and noticed the throttling instantly:


This is on a completely stock Alienware 14 system with no adjustments to the vBIOS or GPU drivers. It was plugged in during the tests with High Performance power scheme enabled.

GPU-Z Result Snippet (from when the throttling started):
Time, GPU Core Clock [MHz] , GPU Memory Clock [MHz] , GPU Temperature [°C] , GPU Load [%]
12:01:06 , 901.5 , 1002.4 , 67.0 , 99
12:01:07 , 901.5 , 1002.4 , 67.0 , 99
12:01:08 , 888.4 , 1002.4 , 67.0 , 99
12:01:09 , 783.9 , 1002.4 , 67.0 , 99
12:01:10 , 692.4 , 1002.4 , 67.0 , 99
12:03:29 , 692.4 , 1002.4 , 67.0 , 99
12:03:30 , 601.0 , 405.0 , 66.0 , 37
12:03:31 , 405.0 , 202.5 , 66.0 , 99
12:03:32 , 405.0 , 202.5 , 66.0 , 99

 

We have been having the SAME problem on R2 for over a year now too. these cards should handle way past that. I have logs as well if you need me to upload them, although they look exaclty the same as above. I really wish Alienware would issue an update for these systems to remedy this.

 

Is there a different thread tracking throttling in the Alienware 14 (2013)? I ask since there's been no update since July.

I've had my Alienware 14 for less than 2 weeks and I get throttling with Optimus enabled or disabled.

I'm guessing it's because I'm using the newest drivers from NVidia. I was going to try the beta drivers tonight.

 

Maybe you'll find something here that is useful.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...te-affected-after-long-use-4.html#post9452022

 

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