Overclocking

So to start, I did try searching on the forums for this and EVERY search inquiry returned no results. I don't know if something is up with the search or what...

Anyways. I mainly use my MX14 for WoW. I'm starting to notice some lag, especially in the 25 man dungeons. Even with settings at their lowest, save for Particle Effects on Fair.

So, I'm thinking it might be time to get into overclocking. Is there a guide here anywhere with how to do it, and what is safe levels without voiding your warranty or breaking your machine?

I could have sworn when I bought this machine it had overclocking options in the BIOS menu, but I recently upgraded to AO5, and now can't find them.

I have i7 2860 2.5, 8gb 1600, and 3gb gpu.

Also, as a side note, lately the fans on this computer have been going crazy. Even on the lowest settings. It seems to have only happened over the last few weeks though. When I bought it, I could leave the factory settings "unplugged" settings on and have it run for almost three hours before dying. Now, with the same settings, I cant get it to stay on for more than an hour unplugged with the same settings and not even using it. I can hear the fans going crazy the entire time too. I've tried the canned air to clean them out but it didnt make a difference.

Thanks in advanced.

 

That oddly strange i run wow on ultra just fine with i7 2670qm , 6gb 1600mhx and 1.5gb gpu. , anyways to overclock i just used the nvidia driver you can find
It here NVIDIA DRIVERS 5.05.54.00, i set mine to 700/1080 and i get temps of 75 after an hour or so of max setting LoL or nfs

 

Wow. Have you changed anything that I might not have done, CPU/GPU repaste? Would turning my turbo-boost off affect my gaming? I'm assuming not.

 

So which OC do you mean? But as what I have read I think you might mean the GPU, because the CPU multiplier on the older version of SB are locked so I'm not sure for the newer SB series whether it is locked or not, but even if it can, I do not recommend it, because the i7 is already run hot so if you OC it more, chance that it might help increase the heat faster and thus resulting in an overheat situation, and another is the GPU cannot be overclock in the BIOS because it is a dedicated and separated GPU, I think the overclock option you see might be the CPU.

Anyway, for the Overclocking program, I can recommend either the MSI Afterburner or the EVGA Precision, you can use flalex's link, but it is not supported. I also OC the GPU, and the setting I had is 800/1600/1080 (I use a Modded/Custom VBIOS to achieve this setting) for 3D App/Games and 600/1200/900 for 2D App/Games, for the two program, you can both set on what type (2D app or 3D app) to use the setting on, as what I did. The average temp I get with the 800/1600 is between 60C - 75C while the 600/1200 is between 50C - 60C on most games I play such as Battlefield 3, NFSWorld/The Run, Skyrim, Fallout, etc... But those temp can also affect by the room temperature and the environment.

For the Turbo Boost, no it will not affect your in-game performance, because I've tried that on BFBC2 and the only thing I notice is the heat, it decrease dramatically, however there is another thing I also notice, which the performance on everyday task such as virus scanning, copy and paste (large files only), accessing a folder full of stuff in it, it all feel a bit slow down. But that's the exchange for cooler laptop which for me it is very acceptable exchange. And I also recommend you to turn the Turbo Boost off because it really help cool the CPU by 5C - 15C (depend on if you have either a laptop cooler or room temp/environment) and since most nowadays game are quite graphic demanding, so it is a good trade off to turn it off for better cooling.

 

noticing lag in wow on low settings?! Dude, sounds like you're using the intel GPU rather than the nvidia one

 

I've already changed the Nvidia settings so that it uses the Nvidia for both WoW.exe and Launcher.exe. Is there a way to check beyond that?

I feel like it might be an issue tied to the fan. When I'm doing the 25's, I get crazy lag while the fans are on full power, but for brief spurts the game plays lag-free and the fans slow down to normal. That never happens for more than a few seconds though. If the gpu is getting too hot, will it throttle itself?

+Rep for both first answers that had solutions.

 

There is a way to check during game, if the game really use the GT555M, and you can find it in the NVIDIA Control Panel see picture below. What it do is to display whatever activities that involve using the GT555M, you can see it active especially during game. and the one next to it is the 3D Setting, under that one, you can enable a setting say "Show PhysX Visual Indicator" now what it do is similar to the one in the picture except for it showing the PhysX activities from programs/game that is using the PhysX at that time.

 

Alright, I turned off turbo-boost. Fans seem to be quieter.

Downloaded MSI Afterburner, but the difference doesn't seem to be very noticeable so far in game. I set it to 700/1400/1080.

What would be the downside to just turning the sliders all the way up to 770/1540/1170? What would I need to watch out for? GPU Temp?

Also, I have confirmed that the game is running on the GPU.

Thanks for your help.

 

Yes, the only enemy of Overclocker are those temp, so the higher you OC, the higher chance the heat will increase, so does the overheat chances too, so you might want to install some CPU/GPU temp program to monitor the temp, for me I use OpenHardwareMonitor for normal temp monitor as it has a temp monitor gadget that you can pin on the desktop and Real Temp for temp alert.

 

But you will not be able to pull that triggers to the far right without getting crashes, artefacts, hangs... unless you use a vbios modded bios, but that would void your warranty.