M15x GPU Overclock Thread

I noticed a lot of discussion of overclocking in the owners lounge and benchmarking thread, so I thought we could use one place to consolodate all of the overclocking talk

So, feel free to post your highest clock speeds, performance tips, GPU Bios, voltage upping tips, etc. in here.

So far my best and most stable OC (for the 260 of course) have been 700/1100/1720. This is without any voltage increase. I've been curious to try upping the voltage, but I haven't quite summoned up the courage for a BIOS flash yet. I also haven't seen my temperature go above about 72C or so, so I should have a little room for a voltage increase.

 

Currently testing my GTX 280 SLI

stock volts, both GPUS @ 660/1020/1650

 

Eeek, I've noticed some hissing and whining from my GPU since the OC, so I may have to back the clocks down a bit until I can get the voltage up.

 

just get a replacement for your fan cause the same happened to mine also replace the thermal paste which is what im going to be doing soon hopefully MX-3

right meow im using driver 197.45 clocks 650/1100/1625 smooth fps in borderlands at 1080p everything on high noAA and no occlusion (roughly 40_55fps does tend to go high 30's when coming into t bone junction and sledges mine).

 

Nah, it's not that fans, it was coming from the GPU itself.

Anyway, I've updated to 197.16, and seem to be getting more stable clocks. I'm running at a nice stable 700/1100/1700, which should be good enough. Crysis Warhead is playable at 1600x900 with all settings on enthusiast, but it's kind of choppy. 1366x768 seems to give me a good balance between performance and quality. Other than that, all my other games are running smooth

 

What is a safe overclocking to do to my 240M, with an intel i7 @ 720 in an M15x?

 

i haven't seen any oc numbers for the 240 yet, 240 owners are not the oc type.

 

You'll need to find that for yourself.

Any overclock should be 'safe' provided the GPU temperature isn't going above 80C-85C under full load. You could probably go further too but that's the real safe roof.

 

The noise from the GPU is coil noise. Thats normal. Got it a lot in my M17x R1. Nothing to worry about. Just keep an eye on temps when your OCing. Thats the only thing I'd be worried about.

 

Meh mine's 600/1000/1500. Starts artifacting if i up any more.

 

Having some problems OCing the GTX 260M on mine. It seems that nVidia Control panel will randomly reset my clock speeds to default, and refuse to let me change them again:
"The changes made were invalid and will not be applied."

I've uninstalled, re-installed, run CCleaner, Uninstalled, installed v6.05 but the problem persists. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Use Rivatuner or Evga Precision instead. I use Precision exclusively and it has yet to fail on me.

 

Ahh my post didn't post. Make sure your not on battery and ensure that your on high performance. Make sure your GPU setting is on high performance as well. That can be found in the command center power settings.

 

Yup. My M15x is perpetually plugged in and in High Performance mode.

Do I have to uninstall the nVidia tools before I install EVGA Precision?

Edit: I've installed Precision, but how do I raise the max clock speed? My previous ones were 625/1050/1650 but Precision cuts off at 615/1230/481. Any change made to the clock speed and pressing "apply" will result in a reset of every clock speed.

 

I'm interested in a answer on this too, when I try to use EVGA Precision it cuts my clocks in the same type of odd fashion. I don't mind using the control panel but even when I select to apply the changes on windows start up it seems to not save, and when i go into the control panel I never see a way to load my settings even once I'm under stored profiles, so everytime I game I have to manually reset my clocks.

 

I give up. I'm uninstalling everything and running it stock. At least until I get feel the need for speed again...

 

just do a hard reset

shut down
unplug battery
hold power button 20 secs
restart see if that helps

 

Honestly, the NVIDIA performance panel has been working fine for me, that's where I do all my overclocking. Currently at 650/1100/1650 with no throttling issues

 

Sorry for being a noob (even though I over clock)
the 650/1100/1650 stands for clock/memory/?

 

GPU Core clock / Memory /Shader.

 

I'm at 675/1100/1575
I should push more the shaer clock though.. Every time I try to reach 700 on the core clock, my GPU downclock itself, even though my temps are still good..

 

those are pretty impressive clocks for the 260m. i doubt you can get 700 on core and still be stable.

 

Try these clock settings 650/1100/1650... Gtx260m can be oc to these clocks easily... And if you want to push the gpu clock to 700 and more you will have to flash the gpu bios..

 

I find that my GPU starts throttling at around 650/1050/1600 now

Guess I have to push back a bit. Hopefully we'll one day see a throttling fix- the RivaTuner fix causes more problems than it solves.

Also, for anyone who's wondering why the NVIDIA control panel won't let them change clocks, try turning stealth mode on and then off again. It should let you change the clocks after that. I was having the same problem and that fixed it.

 

My Nvidia control panel doesn't even have the Performance side bar, it only has 3D settings, Display and Video & Television. Where do you guys find the settings to OC in Nvidia control panel?

 

desktop>right click> nvidia control panel

 

Make sure you have the latest version of may. The right one will have a few extra tool with it, sorry haven't used it in awhile.

 

Ok I messed up big time....like really big time...I downloaded the newest version Nvidia driver which is 257.21 and for some strange reason I can't even open it. I thought drivers were supposed to be installed automatically? I went to device manager and uninstalled the Display Adapter then clicked on Scan for hardware changes in order to roll back to the original driver. However I now cannot even see nvidia control panel when I right click. Anyone? (Sorry I went off topic)

 

Sounds like it didn't uninstall correctly. Let me dig out a useful link for you... Windows 7 I assume?

 

when you uninstall the driver the nvidia control panel will be lost. after you uninstall the driver run ccleaner to clean up the registries and reboot. then install your new driver and reboot, everything should be fine.

 

Damn, he beat me to it... Couldn't find the link anyways. Good advice, I'm pretty sure that should work!

 

Lol thanks for your help guys, ^^ when I uninstalled the driver, the screened turned pitch black and I started panicking, in a surge of panic I just shut off the power by holding down the power button and rebooted, everything is larger now, for some strange reason I can't even install the driver. (Sorry I'm a noob when it comes to more advanced things) Can anybody link me to another thread that tells us how to install drivers, after last night I really don't want to mess up.

 

nvidia drivers are pretty easy to install, pretty much just run the install exe. and reboot. everything got bigger because the driver is unistalled.

 

Not sure if the drivers have unistalled due to the premature reboot but seeing as the resolutions out it sounds like it (don't panic btw) just boot into windows use any of your prior saved driver .exe files to roll back to your previous drivers and go from there. you can scan automatically for updates within the device manger remember, take your time, and browse the forum for advice on what drivers suit your device and go again.

 

That's the funny thing, there is no .exe file, I thought there would be as well but apparently there isn't one. It's the new driver, I went to the nvidia website, and found the claimed latest driver which is 257.21, however, in the website next to the file download it says WHQL, what is that?

 

WHQL means that it's certified by Microsoft I think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHQL_Testing

Adam

 

I see, so now that I have this WHQL thing what do I do, there's no execute file or anything there's not even a file extension. It's just a blank document that asks me to choose the proper program to open it with or use the web to find a suitable program for it. I downloaded it from the nvidia website.

 

Hey guys,

My buddy just gifted me a copy of Tales of Monkey Island collectors edition, though I'd love to play it on my desktop I'm not as stationary as I used to be. I installed it on my laptop and set it to 1080p resolution and 9 quality which the 260m should handle perfectly fine.

I started playing the first chapter and it gave decent performance but now the second chapter is just bad. Sub 20fps, tearing etc, so I grabbed EVGA precision and it's telling me my card is running at 414/828/300. I've tried overclocking a bit with Rivatuner and no luck on getting those clocks to change.

I've changed the settings to performance mode on the drivers, and set the laptops power profile to high performance.

Is there something that I'm missing? I've overclocked many video cards in the past, though desktop cards, and never ran into anything like this. I've installed multiple drivers with no changes.

 

Have you tried changing the clocks with Evga Precision?

Adam

 

Yes I have, on the righthand bar in EVGA it says 550/1350/950 but on the lefthand side where it shows the graph with speeds/temps 414/828/300. When I change something lets say I OC to 600mhz on the core it'll reset back to 550 and on the lefthand side nothing will change, it's the same with Rivatuner, if I change the speeds and press apply nothing happens as soon as I press OK it'll reset back to defaults. it's VERY annoying.

 

try hitting the stealth button a few time, that should reset it.

 

I feeling like such a freakin' idiot. Thanks, I hate stealth mode. Rep for you!

Edit: Clocks in EVGA are able to change but the value on the lefthand side don't change.

 

I have a question- I just downloaded the ATI overclocking tool for the 5870 (which I hear is usable for the 5850) and since I'm not an expert on overclocking, I was wondering what a safe increase would be? Here are the default settings-

 

i would say about 750/1050 would be safe for daily use.

 

The regular default clocks for the 5850 are 625/1000. The clock settings shown on your screenshot is a reduced level activated by PowerPlay. So, first disable PP (in CCC), which should raise the clocks and, importantly, the voltage to the default levels. Then you can safely raise clocks to 700/1000 (stock 5870 settings), then 750/1050 (used by some as permanent mild o/c settings) and on to 800/1100 (decent o/c for the 5850). Beyond that, it depends on the card. Many 5870's and some 5850's can use settings in the 900/1100+ range and beyond. Just take it in stages. If you go too high, it'll just scramble your screen or crash. Restarting will return the clocks to stock levels.

Edit: Inap, didn't see your post.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to set mine at 750/1050 for now and see how it goes.

 

Just for benchmarking, really. I'm curious to see what the stock clock speed-vs-Mild OC difference is.

 

Just overclocked my 5850 with ATI CCC overdrive "auto-tune" function. The auto tune determined that the most stable overclock is 795/1190. I am more than pleased and I think that's more than good enough for me. The highest temperature my gpu reached at 100% load for at least an hour was 94C. That's with stock thermal paste and the 6-cell battery. I am just about to benchmark, I'll have my scores up soon.

 

I got my 260M comfortable at 700 but it didn't reach 750 if I remember right.. I think I flashed the bios incorrectly and bricked it so decided to settle back at 640 which is what I would consider safe for a 260M. 750 is extreme in my experience!

 

The only thing I'm curious about is why does my Fraps indicator never go above 60fps?