Faster render times in Maya - i7- 740

Hello all,

I'm a student studying animation and own a M15X.

I'm using Maya on a daily basis, and am wanting to know how I can fully utilise my CPU for faster renders.
I just did render passes which took 10 hours with the CPU maxed to 100%, just for a 15 sec clip...

However I'm not sure if that was with the "turbo boost" feature enabled?

Specs:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz
Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850
750GB HDD @7200
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
9-cell battery

I'm aware that the CPU turbo boosts to 2.9GHz, but am not sure if it is doing so when rendering with all cores at 100%?

Do I have to overclock it for it to run at 2.9Ghz? Or does it just realise that it needs the boost and automatically kicks in?

If I need to overclock, will it void warranty? And what precautions do I need to look out for?
I don't want to kill my system, nor have the money for a new processor (by the way; what processors would I be able to upgrade to, if I do somehow get the money?)

Thanks a bunch for any input.

 

Turbo boost is anchored to the design power of the chip (TDP). The 740QM has a TDP of 45w; once it reaches that, turbo turns off. If you're rendering all cores at 100%, you'll get no turbo boost. There's also no way to overclock a non-XM level chip in this machine. Sorry.

 

Solution:
Aquire a 920XM or 940XM (personally I'd go with the 920, it's a better bang for you buck and you can OC it)

 

Ah, fair enough.

With the 920XM or 940XM, how much would I be able to OC them to?

How much quicker would it make render times?

Cheers for the feedback, guys.

 

Well this is really a question of how comfortable you feel with overclocking? some variables to consider are power, heat and stability. in order to overclock you have to raise the power to to maintain stability in exchange for higher temps. its just a matter of finding a set up that you are comfortable with, when i do video encoding i use 3.0ghz across all cores @80tdp it gives me good speeds at acceptable temps(below 80c is good for me).

well considering that your 740 turbo run as 1/1/6/9, meaning that @4 core it was running at either 1.73 or 1.86ghz(because @ full turbo on 1 core you get 2.9) i would say it would make quite the difference switching to an xm and running at 3.2ghz at 4 cores

 

Its good that they cost about $270 on ebay now. I might actually upgrade that and ram and be set for another 2 years

I wonder if someone will stick some 7XXXm series into the m15x

Mexic, how are the games treating you? Do you run max settings alright?

 

All max except for bf3 which is on high, i like having fps over 35 constantly

 

You can do 8 threads 100% @ 3GHz under 80C!?

 

During encoding co% fluctuates(throttlestop), i can only get it to stay at 100% during cpu benching and stress testing

 

So, pro's and cons on the 920XM or 940XM???
What have you all experienced heat-wise?

I personally don't feel comfortable replacing the CPU, but I'm interested in doing so...
Would I be able to get a Dell technician to? I'm thinking the overall process would cost a whole lot more...
I'm just thinking cos I have 2 years left of support and warranty...

or would it be better to take to a 3rd part tech?

How about energy consumption in regards to upgraded CPU and 16GB ram?

 

I do it myself. I was always a desktop PC builder but, when I saw the m15x, I knew I was gonna buy it. At first, it took me 2 hours to paste and re-paste the m15x. Now, it takes me 30 min or so to clean up the fans! 3rd party and dell techs usually don't know what they are doing! I don't trust em' one bit! I say, do it yourself. You got a great forum like this one to help you RAM doesn't increase your power consumption, cpu does. Its a pretty big jump! I think it eats up 75watts. Not sure though...

 

Now since you got a 6990m in your rig you can't use the 940xm because the gpu throttles correct?
Does the 920xm not do that?
I have a 560m that I want to add to my m15x soon and in future ill put a 6990m when newer cards can be put into my sager 8180.
I currently have a 720 cpu

 

my gpu doesnt throttle, now ive heard of practically all nvidia gpus throttling during games but none of my ati cards have

 

Ah, fair enough... I might have to go annoy my techy mate who has built a fair few PC's for himself...

CPU will probably be something I'll wait a few months for, maybe mid-year I'll get one and then i'm sure I'll be posting a lot of threads with millions of questions...

So if I get a 920xm and OC to 3.0Ghz, that means that the base rate will be 3.0Ghz instead of 2.0Ghz?

 

uhm.....not necessarily Under load, you will see the clocks pick up. Although, I never really saw mine go up at all. Multiplier goes up to 15x and thats it :\

And, yet another reason to buy amd over nvidia No throttling!

 

Really it fluctuates? Using Handbrake I find my CO% only fluctuates once it gets to the last 5%. At 67W tdp I can keep the temps under 80C at 100% but only 20x not 22x which is 3ghz or so.

 

It entirely depends on your encode settings. Sometimes IO can be the limiting factor.

 

So what are the voltages and wattages I need to look out for when Overclocking?

 

You can't adjust the voltage, only the power draw. Every chip is different, the key is to keep temps under 90c. You can use the alarm setting in Throttlestop to help control that.

I run 68TDP for normal use and 80TDP for heavy CPU-only tasks.

 

Those are indeed safe limits to set. I have run for hours at up to 95C at 87W tdp however so i think this is safe too. Basically the chip will hard throttle before you reach temps that are dangerous to your hardware.

I have also heard that the 920xm is simply a unlocked desktop i7 920 which people have overvolted massively with proven stability. This leads me to believe the XMs can take the abuse and high temps we give them because the voltage set on the xm chips is lower than what they can take.

 

Ah nice, I like, I like...
well then, this is now most definitely on my wish list for say, July...

And with the 16GB ram I'll be getting soon, it'll run really sweet... Faster render timeeeesssss!!!! woot!!!!

The dreaded Maya and After Effects will pain me no more!

 

Absolutely! You won't regret the upgrade. As I type these posts I have an encode running the cpu at 3.06ghz x 8 (more than 1ghz faster than the 740qm lol) and I am not pushing it to its limits! Just want it to finish before bedtime lolz

The 740QM just can't do these kinds of tasks justics.

 

Cheers all.

rep +

XD