AW M15x Throttling Issue Investigation - Stock clocks and overclocked.

Hi guys, I decided to take the plunge for the M15x, I have been reading this thread beforehand, and I would like to say thanks to everyone who identified the problem and solved it, especially joker and unclewebb.

Before it arrives, I want to clarify something, i just nid to switch off stealth mode, make sure my powermizer isnt on, install rivatuner and throttlestop, configure riva tuner and run throttle stop when i play cpu intensive games.

Is that all ? Do I nid to get other stuff done ?
And wad the stock clocks for the 260 ? I do not nid to re-flash the firmware in order for it to run at its stock speed, yes ?

 

you dont have to mess around with powermizer on M15x, everything else's good

550/1350/950
core/shader/memory
you dont have to flash to run it on stock, yes.

oh, and MAKE sure your alienware fx fusion setting is on HIGH performance, and under that advanced settings, GPU tab, make sure both, plugged in and battery to MAX Performance.

and WELCOME TO M15x community! :-D

 

Thanks alot. Can't wait. Haha, too fed up waiting for the ati 5-series refresh. So much for directx 11. Does anyone has an estimate on when the 5 series will arrive ? I'm scared that the moment i receive mine, dell announces the update then i'd probably curse myself. haha

 

that's usually how it happens, murphys law and all

 

Yeah, i think that's my only "potential" regret.

I love my M15x but i'd be pretty annoyed if the refresh is anytime soon >_<

 

and i love mine, but i'm future proofing myself with an m17x r2 soon, i really wish i could have both just for the hell of it though.

 

The warning that comes with throttlestop kinda freaks me out. Is the power supply that comes with the M15x adequate to run throttlestop without causing any damage?

 

yes it is, especially as your running a 720, u'll be perfectly fine, only 920xm have to think about the possibility of worrying about that.

 

The big scary ThrottleStop warning is directed at the Dell XPS 1645 guys with their totally inadequate 90 watt power adapters. What is the M15x power adapter rated at? 150 watts isn't it? That gives you lots of headroom so your CPU and GPU can both run at full speed. 90 watts isn't adequate for that so that's why there is severe throttling on the XPS 1645 when fully loaded.

 

Good to know, thanks.

Only other problem I have is that I can't seem to use the GPU fix without disabling driver signature enforcement in the advanced boot options which requires me to hit F8 on boot-up and select it everytime I want to play a game (using Windows 7 64-bit)

Not a massive problem, but a pain in the butt. Anyway around this?

 

It should never ask you for a drive signature during boot. Disable UAC and see if it still gives that problem.

 

Disabled UAC and it still causes a problem. When I open rivatuner without Driver Signature Enforcement turned off the program will tell me that I have to turn it off to allow driver level changes or something like that and will start up but not allow me to tweak any of the settings I need to use the GPU fix.

 

Reinstall rivatuner and let it install the driver, that's probably the reason.

 

Still no dice. I reinstalled Rivatuner with windows normally first and the vista64 driver (I think that's the one) would not install because it isn't signed and my version of Windows requires all drivers to be digitally signed (Good ol' Microsoft; screwing the little guy if they don't pay to have their drivers verified by Microsoft). So I uninstalled Rivatuner and restarted Windows with driver signature enforcement off and then re-installed Rivatuner and it installs without error as expected. I then restart Windows and boot it up normally this time, try Rivatuner and again no I can't tweak the neccesary settings. So I found a way to disable driver signature enforcement without having to use the advanced boot options every time I want to use the GPU fix, but I don't know what sort of security risk this could pose to my system; I suppose if I'm careful with what I install then I should be ok.

 

Which version of windows 7 are you using?

 

Home Premium. Thanks for helping me out in all this btw; you're a champ.

 

Give this a shot: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/724/RivaTuner_x64_signed_Drivers.html

Also take a look at these posts:

1. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5704185&postcount=686
2. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5704270&postcount=690

 

Worked a charm. Thank you

 

Sorry to go OT but what games actually make your M15x's throttle. I've still havent noticed any throttling/

 

Depends on your configuration, I've seen L4D2 and WoW reported. There are others that I can't recall right now. If you keep CPU/GPU logging on, you will probably notice it with a CPU/GPU heavy game at some point. The system will throttle anytime the GPU hits peak load or the CPU approaches >80% for a short sustained period which sucks. That's why a two part fix was needed.

 

Hmm.. In rivatuner I go to put in 550/950/1350 but I cannot click on the box to type in the numbers. The only real way can be changed in by using the slider. The slider only lets me put it to 551/950/1347. Pretty annoying so does anyone know why I cannot type in the exact values myself?

EDIT: Also when I start rivatuner it says it doesnt recognize my display driver when I'm using 195.55... What's up with that?!?!

 

Changed my drivers to 186.81 and still get this message when rivatuner starts up:

Warning! Riva Tuner has not been tested with the currently installed display driver. It is strongly recommended to upgrade Riva Tuner to a new version otherwise it may not work properly because the driver is not officially supported.



Theres a pic of the closest I can get my clocks to the 550/950/1350 settings. I could really use some back up here boys : (.

 

What version of Rivatuner are you using?

I used to use this version on my desktop computer which has support for the 190 drivers.

http://www.techpowerup.com/101824/R...verclocking_Arena_2009_Edition)_Released.html

The programmer of RivaTuner has been working on other projects lately like MSI Afterburner. Everyone needs to earn some money sometime.

 

Use the left and right arrow keys to move the slider by single digits.

 

The download link uncle provided led to the same download source that Joker has provided as well. Thanks but that didn't fix anything.

Annd while I had hoped you could click on those arrows you cannot.

 

use the keyboard's left and right arrows, put your mouse over the scale you want to adjust, then leaving the mouse there, use the keyboard's arrow. That's how i was able to be precise with the numbers.

 

ok guys, need some help

I flashed the newbios file and all is well.. now i try to overclock to 650mhz in rivatuner, the clock is set for a split second(when i look at gpu-z).. then it goes back to stock 550mhz again.. I do this while running bad company 2 in the background...

any help is appreciated!

 

Make sure force constant performance is checked. If that doesn't help, try restarting your PC and trying again.

 

Hmm, i just flashed the bios myself a few minutes ago and notice that my GPU is a lot hotter now than it was before the flash and i haven't even touched the clock settings yet...

Anyone else having this problem? I used to idle around 50-55 and now i'm idling 56- 62.

 

Well I've been overclocking cpus/graphics card for a while. Not familiar with this OC but doesn't this BIOS flash increase the voltage going to the GPU? So naturally if you're giving it more volts it's going to be runnning a little bit hotter..

Arch: Do you have a cooling pad? If no, you might consider getting one.

 

I do have one. I was playing some borderlands for about 15 minutes and it peaked at 77.

I can't imagine how much hotter it'll get if i played any longer.

 

When you flash the card, it will default to 1v for 2nd level 3D clocks so you will have higher temperatures. That's the trade off that needs to be made for higher OC capabilities with the M15x. If Dell had no bios limitations, this wouldn't be necessary. 77C is nothing to concern yourself with. The max operating temp on these cards is 110C.

 

Wow, 110c?

That's really impressive, thanks for the clarification. I was under the impression that once it starts hitting around the 80's it's dangerous.

 

Thanks to everyone who helped me out in order to get this going.. one last thing.. I know I have to have TS on for it to be enabled but do I have to have rivatuner running in the background as well? Thanks in advance!

 

You need to run rivatuner each time you reboot (or check the option that lets it start with windows automatically) to enable the fix. Once it's enabled, you can exit out.

 

Just got check in mail today had my m15x for 4 months, DELL would not reurn through normal channels, Filed BBB Complaint sent certified letter to State Attorney general. No lawsuit nothing just a polite letter.

Today I got a check with my $3,000's back but no word or instructions on how to return my throttled M15x I guess I will keep it until they ask for it back, they have my address.

For now Cash Money in the BANK. Will NOT buy until 32nm Core i7 Quad.

 

Thanks, this fixed the low FPS I was experiencing in a crowded Dalaran.

and corrupt05, see you on the bad company 2 battlefield once the beta is done downloading!

 

thanks dude, that did the trick...

think I'll flash it at 675/1675/1100 1V..seems to run stable..

bad company 2 is a joke on this thing runs terrible at 1600x900 high 1xAA...

 

hows it running at 1080p ?

 

Bad company seems to give low fps on a lot of systems. It will probably get better after a few patches.

 

You need to turn off HBAO. When I first started playing that's what caused me to get low FPS. I also turned down effects and shadows to medium just to get absolutely no fps issues at all.

 

Ok guys I've created 2 bios files that have the 1V 3D clock and are overclocked as follows:

650/1650/1100 1V 3D clocks (more safe OC)
675/1675/1100 1V 3D clocks tested for 4hrs straight BC2 and 1hour Furmark test (max temp was 88C during fm)

Basicly after you flash, you won't need to install any apps, it will automaticly go to those overclocked mhz after you start playing a game and automaticly return to 2D clocks once you exit. I would suggest you do run GPU-Z to confirm the clocks while playing a game and you will also see the temperature its running at.

Instructions on flashing are on the first post and page of this thread.

USE AT OWN RISK! I will not be responsible for any damage caused by flashing this bios, nor if anything goes wrong during the flashing.

HAVE FUN

 

thanks a lot, dude, highly appreciated

 

Pre-flashed clocks will not stop the throttling. The 1v mod for 2nd level 3d clocks is only intended to unlock overclocking WHILE using Rivatuner. I would recommend against flashing your system to preset 3d clocks unless you want the 3d clock to always ramp up that high. Not all GPU's are made equal so keep this in mind.

 

of course, thanks for your concerns, joker

 

So the 1v mod does not fix the gpu throttling??

I thought it does, uninstalled rivatuner, and when running furmark stability test and gpu-z I did not see any throttling at all.

 

there is no gain up the voltage from 1v to 1,03v for up the frequency ?

 

Edit: Oops, this post was supposed to go in the M15x Lounge

 

Nope it doesn't. If it did, I'd have just posted the vbios files long ago and been done with it. The video card voltage has nothing to do with throttling. It's a system bios based problem and the only way to circumvent it right now is to use RivaTuner. Run furmark w/stability xtreme burn, 16xaa, 900p (or higher) with P95 small tft's and watch it throttle right away.

 

Now, when you run furmark to test stability do you use the same settings you used for testing throttling? Just curious is all.