M15x 7970M throttle FIX !

EDIT: After a lot of testing along with the help of other M15x users namely onego and ssj92. I am happy to announce a fix for the gpu throttling issue in the M15x. Here is the final update to reflect my findings.

The How and Why

1.) It isn't really the voltage that matters in my findings (up to a certain point naturally in M15x case 1.05V is perfectly fine)

2.) It is down to the way you load the GPU. If you load it 0-100% stress instantly and I mean in game 100% stress then the card throttles almost regardless.

3.) It is sensitive and the process does differ from game to game.

Method (with examples FC3 + Cry 3)

1.) With FC3 it works best to run gpuz render then quit and run game after 30 secs and let it sit at menu for another 30 secs to warm up using hwinfo to control fans (native fan control) then load into game.

2.) For Crysis 3 the game doesn't run the card at 3d clock speeds until the game literally starts so it is best to spool up the fans with hwinfo and load into the game. Once you have the game loaded and are ready to hit enter to start the gameplay you actually alt tab out and run the render tool in gpuz to get the clocks and voltage up. 10-15 secs is enough then quit render alt tab back in and hit enter fast not giving card enough time to drop clocks. The game runs without a hiccup even with cpu at a massive 23/23/25/27 OC and 87W tdp and the gpu at 900/1400. 950/1450 also works but not necessary as 900/1400 maxes the game smoothly.

The trick here is to allow the gpu voltage circuits time to acclimatise to the new 3d voltage before adding the stress of 100% in game load.

Conclusion

For a long time everyone thought the throttling was 100% to do with the cpu but it really isn't. The circuits are simply more sensitive due to the heavy load on it with powerful cards. Stepping up the actual load on the card in a gradual manner and therefore the power needed gives the circuits a much needed chance to keep up and provide the card with the power it needs.

As we test out other games using this method I will try to update this first post to explain how to remove throttling. Each game has to be manually worked out as no game runs the gpu the same initially. The key trick is to simply allow a gradual increase in load to the gpu rather than a sudden one.

Enjoy running your high end cards in this old beast

 

I'm going to try this right now!

 

Wow! Could you tell us which software did you use to limit the voltage of the GPU? Or did you flash it with a custom vbios? If so, can you kindly provide the vbios? The lowest voltage settings provided in the vbios pack by svl7 is 0.95V!

 

vbios flash.

Too bad my card isn't stable even at 1.0v. Even at stock 1.050v with stock clocks sometimes it throttles down to 450mhz even with low temps. I can't even get the cpu above 18x without loosing performance.

 

Any luck people? I haven't been able to test this out properly yet. Really short on time

Would love to hear some success stories!

 

BSOD'ed on 0.925v @ 750/1300 and 0.925v on stock clocks. Going to test further.

EDIT: The BSOD was due to my CPU multiplier being too high. Going to re-test ><

Alright.. OC'ed the CPU to 25x (above 25 and I'd get BSOD's) at 750/1350 0.925v with maximum GPU utilization of 65.9% (Max temp at 60 degrees [10 degrees cooler than 0.975v] ). Tested with Assassins Creed 3 and the game ran smoothly without any sign of throttling. Just uninstalled FC3 few days ago since I had already finished it and the only game I could test with was AC3! Anyway at 25x multipliers the maximum temperature was around 85-90 degrees Celsius, but most importantly there was no sign of throttling!

EDIT :-

Just tested out the setup with 3dmark 11 :

1. CPU OC'ed to 25x Flat with 72/72 TDP TDC settings @ 0.925v 750/1350 with a maximum combined score of 4818 @ P5601 @ Graphics Score 5757 - No sign of throttling at all!

2. Tested the same setup with 0.95v. Instantaneous throttling in the combined test with a maximum combined score 2845 @ P5526 - Graphics Score @ 6275

 

Eggcellent work !!!

Now it is time for you to find your max stable core frequency at 0.925V and then push the memory to 1400mhz ;D

Judging by your scores the memORY oc　DOES INDEED BRING PERFORMANCE UP TO STOCK LEVELS AND PERHAPS BETTER IN GAMES WHERE BANDWIDTH IS IMPORTANT.also heat is down meaning heatsink can keep memory cooler.

great news!

 

+1 rep for this

 

Have been busy lately with very little time to test. The maximum clocks I can get with 0.925V is 775/1400 with the CPU OC'ed to 74/74 TDP TDC. Anything more than 74 and I will start to get throttling! Maximum Combined score at 5011 with CPU score at 5390.

 

The core will use more energy than the memory even with GDDR by a good margin so you are always going to have a greater effect with core tweaking.

It's a shame we don't have memory voltage adjustment because even in low voltage mode (which it is locked to) the 680M the memory can reach 1250-1300mhz.

 

Nice find and try King. Tried this out and running 800/1500 stable at 0.925. Still can't max out my cpu but much more consistent when pushed to mid 70s tdp. And performance is actually about the same for gpu score as stock benches.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

Good effort mate! 800mhz stable at 0.925V? Sounds great!! At 800/1500 the card should actually perform better than stock due to the much increased memory bandwidth

Perhaps at such high speeds the memory does consume more power than 1200mhz. Enough to limit the CPU still.

 

Yah I think the memory is using a little more power as my combined score and cpu score actually dropped from c4500 and cpu 18000 to c3000 and cpu between 14000 (85/82) and 17000 (75/75) although gpu hit 22000. Also 3dmark11 p5900 with beta11 so as good as stock clocks.

I'll have to mess around with it some more although I usually don't need a high cpu gaming unless I pick up fc3

Still cool idea man and it's impressive the core can run near stock at 0.925. That's a huge undervolt from stock.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

I was hopeful it would run near 800mhz but the fact that is does at 0.925V is awesome! Perhaps you can try 5mhz increments and see if you can squeeze a little more out of that voltage!

Now our 7970M's can run within the 70-75W tdp threshold the M15x can provide to its GPU.

I still haven't had time to test this whatsoever! So incredibly busy!

 

Anyone have a sec to upload a vbios with 750/1300 clocks so I can give it a try? Mines totally stable at 1.0v 900/1300 but I cant touch throttlestop whatsoever or I get throttling. I really hope this idea is the winning solution. I'm dying to actually use my 920xm...

 

Haven't yet tested higher but I found I could run 80tdp/tdc at 23/23/25/27 stably with no throttling at all for a long time! 85W caused heavy throttling. 80W is plenty though to run the tdp/tdc values I listed.

Loafer send me your email in a PM and I can get you a vbios file. I highly recommend you to get the vbios patcher though!

This idea is certainly the winning solution if you want stock 7970M performance and OC headroom up to 80W tdp/tdc which should get your 920xm up to speeds where cpu horsepower in game won't be an issue. The 8000M series should be a fair bit more efficient so I think we will have even better results with the new gen.

 

Here you go :

750.rom

Clocks at 750/1300 @ 0.925v

 

Ah perfect mate! This will help many!

 

Well I finally got to see what really bad throttling is like. Yesterday while playing BF3, my gpu kept going to 450mhz every few seconds and back so I lagged really badly. This was all at stock too so I don't see why it was throttling. I even had throttlestop enabled for the cpu.

One thing I think it could of been is the PSU. It was burn to the touch hot. As for regaining performance around 750/1300, it seems it runs worse than 850/1200. By like 5-7fps worse. Tonight I'm going ot try BF:BC2 and see if this throttling happens again,but i'll use my 240w PSU first to rule that part out. If not, i'm going to flash 0.925v @ 700/1200 and use msi afterburner to try and get 750/1300 then 750/1350.

What's really confusing me is that this is the first time it's ever happened to me, then again I had reverted back to the 12.8 WHQL drivers.

 

Yeah 5-7 fps less is about right as the at 750mhz the core clock has been reduced by nearly 12%. An increase in memory clock does help offset this but not by much.

Unfortunately this what we have to do! I am in fact a bit tired of this GPU and the fiddling required in our M15x to get workable performance! I hope the next gen is better however I won't hold my breath.

Maybe we shouldn't install any better than decent mid range cards. EG: 6870M or 660M etc. The power draw of these cards isn't so great.

 

So I've used 0.925 with various clocks (Core: 725/750/800 and Memory: 1250/1300/1500) and still ran into throttling but only for CatZilla, 3dMark11 and Hitman. Since I clean installed the other day, yesterday I spent a few hours with different clocks at 0.95v and adjusting my XM using prime95, unigine, catzilla, and tsbench. Here I've found a lower setting than even before I was using 0.95v although still with a small CPU overclock

GPU: 0.95v @ 800/1300
CPU: 65TDP/55TDC @ 22/22/20/20

Now obviously this is a small XM overclock. I was only looking for the near limit of how near stock I could run the 7970m with a small OC and have both run at 100% without throttling. Do agree, it gets a bit tiresome to keep tinkering. There were some m17xr4's on outlet last night for 1600 with 3620qm/7970m/wled and one with 3720qm/660m (yuck)/wled without coupon. Would be a great buy with a AW outlet coupon

 

Only thing with that is, we would have to lower the graphical settings to work with games at a fluid framerate. My 7970m already makes it perfectly for steady 60fps gaming. Less powerful cards would ruin that. I actualy game at 75hz, it's so much smoother and the 7970m cuts it there enough to play smoothly.

What really bugs me is the fact that this didn't happen before for me and now in bf3 and bf:bc2 it does. And I run at stock, no oc at all.

Does it throttle at stock? When it doesn't throttle in 3dmark11, that's when we'll hit the sweet spot.

 

Here's a 3dmark11 run from a few minutes ago.

P5826
Graphics: 6088
Physics: 5470
Combined: 4757

Throttlestop Log

Okay so it looks like for 3dmark11 that 65/55 can support 4cores at x20 for CPU and Combined tests. For GPU tests in 3dmark11 jumps between high 19-21s indicating the power may be slightly low. Considering stock is 55/55 and 24/23/17/17, im going to change to 24/23/20/20.

 

This is my 3DMark11 score from awhile ago. It's stock on the GPU and the CPU was at 23x. I was never able to replicate that score ever, no matter what I tried.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-950 Processor,Alienware score: P5823 3DMarks

Here's a quick run I just did, GPU at 950/1300 and CPU at 21x

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5481912

 

Nice, looks like the combined did throttle a little based on score. Its funny how 3m11 detects the QS/ES 920xm's differently, in your case at a desktop i7-950. Its entirely possible that as we push our circuity to its max power limits, that the motherboard is deteriorating at an accelerated rate, meaning theres issue supplying voltage the same, so possibly runs like that we can't reproduce now. Its only a guess and my thoughts -- don't take it as any sort of fact.

In my case, I never could complete a 3dmark11 run with stock voltage to the 7970m without throttling. And when I first installed; once I hit throttling, I had to reboot and power drain else GPU would stay in a throttling state. Now this was several months ago when I first bought a Clevo 7970m. Since then I've gotten to a point where im not looking for a extreme 920xm overclock how I had pre-7970m nor how I ran in a g73jh. Only a balance of performance for gaming without throttling and bad stutters. So, I'll be trying out my current setup with guildwars2 to gauge the consistency and whatever new poison comes


Edit: of course I would love to see others inputs on their experiences with undervolts, overclocking, stock runs, and throttling when using the 920xm with 7970m on a m15x! From there we can all learn our balance point and what to push.

 

Wow this is impressive....I finally beat my old score.

Btw my 920XM is oem from dell. It came with my computer.

So running the 920XM at 19x with 62/62 and running my 7970m with 950/1300 yielded this:

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-950 Processor,Alienware score: P6112 3DMarks

That's my new highscore and that's at my default voltage of 1.050v.

 

It didn't throttle in the combined test at that OC?? Also was your cpu set to 19x across the board? I will have to try to replicate your success!

 

No throttle what-so-ever. I looked at the core clock constantly and it stayed at 950mhz.

Also my multipliers were: 25/24/19/19 @ 62W/62A.

 

I couldn't do that for FC3 throttled constantly, I think 3d11 isn't a good real world test. However at 25/24/19/19 at 65/65 I tried 775/1350 at 0.925V. Perfect.

 

The other thing to watch, is the real-time voltage for the GPU in HWMonitor. Is it actually staying at 0.925V under CPU+GPU load?

 

I had the chance to up to core to 800mhz with mem at 1350mhz and it seems pretty stable indeed at 0.925V. A few dips here and there but not proper throttle. Will tweak the cpu some power and see what happens.

Looks like finally the M15x cam enjoy modern games at max settings and fluid frame rate.

 

Short lived success actually. It seems at 800mhz although the card doesn't physically throttle the game (far cry 3) seems to be more sluggish.

It think when the card is running a frequency close to the max a certain voltage can support it can't run properly. I will take the core down to 790mhz and see if it makes any difference.

Maybe sweet spot will be to find max stable clock speed at 0.925V and down peg it back 10 -20 mhz or so.

I think this is good research as it will help us with future overpowered GPU upgrades for the M15x

 

Actually the 800/1350 is fine lol. The trick here is to remember to use HWinfo and set both cpu and gpu fan to max speed. Now the game doesn't even hiccup!

It might be worth trying higher voltages with max fan speed as it seems to make the M15x much more stable for gaming.

 

What sort of temps do you get set at max speed?

 

800/1350 the temps are 60C with fans at max.

 

Well that's very safe temps wise, those power limits must be really frustrating.

 

Power limits indeedly frustating makes me want to trade for comparable performance despite the build is so great otherwise!

 

Hey this is a pretty cool thread, I admit my question is slightly off topic. I have been using my 7970m for many months now at stock clocks, I think i got tired of frying old GPUs . But the problem is I downloaded crysis 3 open beta and I want more POWER but when I open some OC programs I have used in the past (msi afterburner, sapphire trixx, and evga precision), it doesn't give me the option to OC. I'm not sure if this is a problem since I vbios flashed down voltage a while ago, because I haven't even been looking into OCing for so long. If this is a common problem with this GPU or something, please help me. And I might try that OCing reccomendation btw .

 

You can become a member of TechInferno and then dl SLV7's Vbios Patcher program.

Thus you can change voltages and core/memory clocks. Beware though you won't be able to OC the 7970M successfully in the M15x. Your CPU GPU combo currently allows you to run stock clocks stably with a GPU undervolt due to your CPU consuming less power than the 920xm HOWEVER overclock further and or up the voltage and you encounter instant throttling to 450/300 throughout!

It kinda sucks. I am still playing around for a sweet spot. I think 790/1350 @ 0.925V with CPU at 73W TDP and 20/20/25/27 is very workable in FC3 with no throttling and good performance. When I up the core to even 800mhz though I get sporadic throttling.

I want to try 800/1325 and see if that works but that will be the limit for my 7970M until I upgrade as for me the CPU OC definitely makes new games much smoother.

The next gen combined with an undervolt at stock clocks and even a small OC should allow us to use the 920/40XM properly without throttling due to more efficient design and lower power consumption. We shall see. I hope so.

 

Ok I think I am a member of techinferno, ill check out that program, sounds strange. I thought i used to be able to OC my 7970m though, I mean now there literally is no option to OC it in any OC program I try. I just want to try OCing maybe the ram a bit I think it will be easier to run higher textures in crysis 3. As you make clear, OCing the core will probably just make it super unstable. Currently I don't have any stability issues and max temps are under 70 C. I just want to see what I can do, but I can't even do that.

Hey I looked on techinferno I couldn't find the vbios patcher program. Could you provide a link please? Thanks.

 

Try using MSI Afterburner. After installing the program, go to: C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner

Look for a file called: MSIAfterburner.cfg
Open that file in notepad and go down to the line that says "UnofficialOverclockingMode" should be under [ATIADLHAL] and change the value to "1"

Save it and re-open the ap, you can now overclock.

 

Were you seeing issues with it throttling back and dropping frames to about 14-20 FPS for about 3-5 seconds?

 

Thanks for that tip about editing the msi afterburner cfg. worked like a charm! Strange though, I reduced the clocks manually and it caused artifacts. But can you please provide a link to that vbios program on techinferno?

 

Thought I would give an update on this.

I gave 0.95V a try just for a laugh thinking it wouldn't be any good but it turns out to be opposite. So far tested 825mhz/1325mhz with temps topping out at 70C and staying average of 68C after 3 hours in FC3. 920XM set to 73/60 and 20/20/25/27! It didn't throttle WHATSOEVER

This is basically stock 7970M clock speeds with large boost in memory speed mated with a stock clocked desktop i7 920. Not bad

850mhz I know isn't stable fully on my 7970M at 0.95V but I may tweak it some more and see what can be done still pretty chuffed. If we can do this with the 7970M in the M15x and run the cpu at at least an OC we finally can properly look forward to the refresh 8970M coming soon.

Not only a decent boost in gaming performance but more cpu OC headroom means the M15x can live up to its potential.

 

AMD have stated no new chips this year unfortunately (maybe just at the end).

 

Well I am discovering new tricks to avoid throttle!

I now tried 825/1350 with same cpu settings at 0.95V and wonderful no throttling for the whole gaming session.

One thing I do now when I enter the game however is to wait until the fans fully start to spool up. During this time (the first 30 secs or so) I don't do anything too taxing. After this point (maybe it makes no difference waiting for fans but I do it anyway) the game will never throttle and runs perfectly even if I do huge firefights or explode 10 cars at once

I will take it the memory in 25mhz increments up to 1400mhz and if stable will start work on the core!

Another year to wait Meaker? Oh well we have time then

 

I suppose! My system is loving the thicker cable on my 240W PSU, playing with no issues at 4.2-4.3ghz cpu and 1140mhz GPU @ 1.087v

 

Lol showoff!!!

 

Tried your CPU and GPU clocks with no throttle as well in Hitman 3. Interesting

 

It is a delicate matter though. Yesterday I fired up the game fast before the fans properly spooled up and got some throttle. Once you get it once it comes again and again. If you can get the fans up to speed around when you load into the game then it seems the first throttle is avoided which in turn means a throttle free gaming experience.

The first time I ran FC3 for 8 hours straight when I first installed it I ran is at 0.97V at stock 850/1200 and the cpu was set to 23/23/25/28 with 85W tdp set! I didn't get any throttle then either.

Putting the pieces together here there seems to be a close relationship between fan behaviour and throttle behaviour for me.

What about you Onego??