The M15x throttle? The final solution!

Don't forget you still have to pull the centre pin out on the adaptor.

 

Ah, I see. Just pull the pin from the adaptor, not my PSU. Gotcha. Thanks a lot!

 

Please let us know how it goes.

 

It has already been tested Wasserman. It works fine. Perhaps Dell can provide their own version of this plug for their adaptors. That would be a nice touch.

 

My order shipped a few days ago. Excited to see my laptop running at top notch again. Thanks for all these posts!

 

Got the adapters in the mail. Currently scrounging around my tool set to try and find something to pull this pin out with..any thoughts? Thanks.
Also, I see that some of you overclocked your 920xm. Anything you set via bios or did you use a third party program?

 

Yeh I use throttlestop. Download here Download ThrottleStop 6.00 | techPowerUp
Very nice programme although I'm on v5.00 so v6.00 might be a little different.

 

Throttlestop is a must. Stock the 920xm is slow at 2 ghz. Using throttlestop a few clicks later and you can run up to 3.3ghz across all cores and 3.6ghz on 1 or 2 cores. Huge jump.

Right now with a voltmod I am managing 3.7ghz across all cores and 4ghz across one or 2 cores.

You have to OC otherwise the 840qm is the same.

 

So I pulled the pin on the adapter I bought and it doesn't seem to power my laptop. My 240w psu plugged in directly works just fine but my leds don't light up when its just the adapter. The adapter sits in the laptop loosely but I'm assuming that's normal without the pin. Any ideas guys? Has anyone else had a similar issue?

 

Nope pulling the pin makes no difference as to how it sits in the socket. Can you show us a picture of your adaptor you did only pull the centre pin right?

 

Yep there is only one pin that I can see. I'm not at home right now so i can show a picture later. I grabbed the center pin on the end that plugs into the laptop with some needle nose pliers and pulled until it popped off.

 

The adapter I purchased was one you linked to from ebay. The L shaped one.

 

The one I bought from amazon works fine. I hope it works out for you. There should be only one pin to remove on the end that plugs into the laptop. Maybe it will be more clear once you show us a picture.

 

I have follow all the posts in this tread,
Hi TricksterMatt , is your 840pro works fine in your m15x? I thought our laptop just have sata2 which will limit the ssd performance. how is the benchmark of it?
Also, King, how is 2d and 3d clock issue? Is it solved?
(BTW, I am new here, can anyone tell me how to show the system specs under every reply？

 

The 840 Pro should be fine, it just is limited to SATA II speeds. (250~MB/Sec) I have a Seagate 600 Series 480GB SSD and the performance is also SATA II so I prefer this one because I got it for a good price. Or I would have had a Samsung 250GB EVO SSD. I am running an AMD Radeon HD 8970M and the clocks are fine with a vBios update and pulling the pin off the crappy adapter that I bought from amazon. You can go edit your system specs on the bottom of your posts by editing your signature. You can edit your signature by clicking on User CP on the top, then on the left hit edit signature and type in what you want and click save.

 

Yes the throttling is solved.

 

actually,as shown in the pic...I cant find edit signature ...may be I am new here and dont have enough privilege?

 

SATA II doesn't really limit SSD where it counts. Only sequential reads and writes which simply aren't important in everyday use for 95% of people. 250mb/s is plenty fast when we do.

As for random reads and writes etc SATA II not yet a bottleneck as far as I know.

 

This didn't work for me.

 

Then you didn't follow the guide properly. It is tried and tested and definitely works! Why so miserable. We can help but you just seem to want to whine in different threads!


On the go from my iPod touch

 

Hi guys, would like to ask a question about my m15x which i am upgrading to a 7970m.

I am currently having:
Alienware M15x
Intel core i7 920xm
Radeon 5850m
Intel SSD 520 180GB
Stock 150W power supply
210W power supply PA-7E

I just purchased a Radeon 7970m from ebay and am going to install it.
As you can see, i have read the whole thread on this throttling issue and bought the recommended power supply.

My questions are ( Let's assume I did not pull the center pin of any of the power supplys):

1. If i were to run the 920xm at stock and the 7970m also at stock on the 150W power supply, would i run into throttling issues? From my understanding of the forum, the throttling issue only occurs when you try to overclock. So, i am thinking that if no overclock is done, then the 150W power supply is actually sufficient. Of course, the 210W power supply would logically be sufficient as well. Am i right?

2. If i were to overclock either the 920xm or the 7970m by a certain amount and use the 150W power supply, then throttling may occur when the 150W is not sufficient to meet the power requirements of the whole rig. In that case, I should use the 210W power supply to prevent throttling. Correct?

3. There is a certain point where you overclock by so much that the power drawn would exceed the 210W power supply and the 7970m won't get enough power (throttling occurs). In that case, I should remove the center pin from the 210W power supply or alternatively, purchase a L-shaped converter. Correct?

4. In other words, if i do very minimal overclocking, theoretically, I actually do not need to remove the 210W power supply's center pin at all because my m15x would be drawing less than 210W. Is this right? The 920xm has a TDP of 55W while the 7970m is 100W. So, that leaves 55W of headroom to spare before you need to remove the center pin in order to prevent throttling.

Appreciate your help and all the effort the community has put in to get the 7970m working well in our aging m15x's which we just can't bring ourselves to give up.

 

1. You would probably be fine running both at stock in terms of throttling but don't run the CPU at stock at all or it will prove a big bottleneck in games.
2. 150W PSU has around 15% headroom in terms of power output so you should be able to do a bit overclocking but since you have the 210W PSU (which can't charge the battery anyway?) just pull the pin and use that.
3. I run my 940XM at 3.3Ghz and 7970M at 900/1400 and power usage doesn't exceed 200W. As I said, 210W PSU should have 15% headroom built in too, particularly as its a hefty brick.
4. 210W PSU can't charge battery anyway so there is no reason to keep the central pin in.

Seriously, you definitely should overclock your 920XM to at least 3Ghz minimum. Why would you only do minimal overclocking? And why not pull the pin?

 

Thanks for the reply fatboyslimerr.
I was just asking those questions so i could be sure i have the right understanding of all that i had read.
I am new to upgrading the graphics card. .
So, i think my first goal would be to install it properly and make sure everything works well and is stable at stock clocks for both the CPU and the GPU.
This is before i even think about overclocking anything.
Thanks for the replies again.

 

Also the 7970m will throttle regardless. You must either game on the 210w with pin pulled or on the 150w using L adaptor with pin pulled on that.

Also if you exceed the power supplies limit the psu will shut off and the laptop will also switch off in an instant. Better to use the 210w to game and definitely oc the 920xm as fatboy said.

 

I tried googling for this L adaptor - no hits. Someone please give me a link?

Re: 150W + L adaptor
Would that be sufficient for 3ghz 920xm + stock 7970m? Of course, I pull the pin on the L, not on the brick.

**EDIT: Found it. Now to try ebay.

 

Yes the 150W should be sufficient if you take the 7970M down to 0.975V from 1.05V stock. At this voltage you can still run at stock 850/1200mhz and get good performance in all games.

Yes you pull the pin on the L. If you pull the pin on the 150W adaptor you will not be able to charge your battery anymore. With L engaged you won't charge battery but you will get throttle free gaming experience.

Simply put; L for gaming. No L for charging/no gaming.

 

So i connected the PA-7E charger to my m15x (did not do any changes to the laptop besides this) and found that i immediately get throttling both on the CPU and GPU.
My m15x performed ridiculously slow.

So, i pulled out the center pin on the PA-7E. This solved the problem. CPU (920xm) and GPU (5850m) are back at the usual performance.

A minor problem is that ever since swapping to the PA-7E, i have started to get minor flickering on the external monitor i hook my m15x up to (Dell U2412M). Its not horrible flickering that gets in the way of me using my laptop. But, it is slightly irritating. Any ideas why this is happening?

I am waiting for my thermal pads to arrive before i install the 7970m. Perhaps putting in the 7970m will solve the problem.

I am using a displayport cable to connect the m15x and the external monitor btw. Drivers are the latest catalyst 14.4.

 

Could be some EM interference? Any other electricals near your monitor? Is the charger near your monitor? Does the flickering stop if you unplug jack and run off battery?

 

Thanks for the reply fatboyslimerr.

Thing is this:
Displayport + 150W stock power adapter = no flicker on external monitor
Displayport + 210W PA-7E (which is humongous in size btw) power adapter = flicker on external monitor
Position of the adapter is the same for both cases.

Anyway, here's an update.
I couldnt get around the flicker problem with the 210W adapter. So, i plugged an old VGA cable in instead.
This worked perfectly and i was surprised it can output 1920X1200 resolution just as well as my displayport cable formerly did.

So, problem is not solved. But, it has been successfully skirted around.

 

I've had a chance to play around with the L-shape connector and get the middle pin removed. I've also set throttlestop to set my cores to 24x across all 8 on my 920xm. I am using a 560m GPU (aftermarket on EBAY) and I am still having driver crashes about 20-30 seconds into any game I play. If I use Nvidia Inspector I can get playable clocks by downclocking to 1090/1410, but I am giving up a bit of power to do so. I have tried everything I can think of to play games using the native GPU clocks without driver crash. I am using a 100-240V PSU (the cord itself might be from another laptop but I doubt that matters).

Is there anything you can think of that might be causing my driver crash? I am using the correct modified bios for my GPU driver updates, but I have always had this problem trying to play games at the native GPU clocks. I always have to downclock considerably. I wanted to get this adaptor and was expecting to not have these issues anymore? I just completed a fresh Windows 7 install tonight and was looking forward to being able to play at the native GPU settings. Again, if I downclock it my games run with no issues..but I really would like to run it at max.

Should I consider upgrading my GPU again to a more stable card? The 560m, while pretty good when downclocking, isn't meeting my expectations.

Am I doing something wrong? Please advise.

 

Need some help from the experts.
I successfully installed the 7970m i got from ebay in my m15x.
CPU 920XM is running at stock and the GPU is running at stock voltage 1.05v.
However, the GPU gets really hot when gaming. 80 degrees celcius plus. The laptop doesn't shut down, so its working well.
But, I am not comfortable with these temps and want to lower the voltage to 0.975v as i see some others have done.

I tried to use MSI afterburner to change the voltages but apparently, afterburner only allows me to change the GPU clock and memory clock. Voltage option is greyed out and not available. I guess this is unique to a 7970m in an m15x.

So, I am guessing that flashing a new vbios is my only option?
I am a total noob when it comes to flashing a GPU with a new vbios and i am totally afraid of bricking my new 7970m.

Am hoping that one of the pros here can help me with a step-by-step guide on how to do a flash of my 7970m to 0.975v.
I also don't have a copy of the relevant bios that i would be needing.
My current vbios is 015.022.000.001.000000.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

PM sent. I assume you have a M15x?

 

Replied to you via PM king of interns. Thanks alot for offering to help!

 

Anyone see my questions on the previous page? Thanks again!

 

I don't know anything about the GTX 560M other than it was a pain in the to get working properly. There is a very long and old thread on this forum about GTX 560M in M15x, perhaps give that a quick check through.
Are you able to update GPU drivers then modify the inf file?

TBH the 560M will really really hold you back in games. Consider getting a more powerful GPU, such as AMD 7970M that is just plug and play. Also a user here recently had success with an AMD Firepro M6000 for a bargain price.

The people that probably know most about GTX 560M in M15x have long since moved on from the M15x's....most likely.....

 

Ok, I'll probably just look into getting a 7970m then. No modified bios or anything required? Just plug and play like you said? Thanks.

 

Well I would advise flashing an undervolted vBIOS so the card runs cooler but the card is plug and play without any driver mods. 0.975v is the sweet spot IMO.

Sent from my One S using Tapatalk

 

Thought i would post this for the benefit of anyone else considering a 7970m upgrade for their m15x.
Here's a 3dmark11 score of my system where i tested the following configuration (everything at stock):

i7-920xm (stock)
7970m (1.05v, 850mhz, 1200mhz) (stock)
8GB ram
180GB SSD
210w power supply
i.e. this is the performance you can expect if you run everything at stock.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-920XM Processor,Alienware

Pretty good score when i look at the comparisons with people with similar setups in 3dmark11.

Please note however that this config (running at stock) results in thermal shutdowns because the GPU gets too hot (at least for my system) during gaming. I have no other extra cooling besides the normal fans that originally came with the m15x.

I have since undervolted the GPU to 0.95v and underclocked it as well to 800mhz GPU clock, 1100mhz memory clock. I am gonna try to get the temps to the low 70 degrees celcius region during gaming.

 

Without any cooling mods you should be able to keep temps around 70c at 0.975v. I would suggest you open the laptop and repaste the gpu there must be something amiss!

 

Work on getting IC Diamond 24 thermal paste. Also make sure that the GPU die is making proper contact with the heatsink. I had issues with my 8970M not sitting well with the heatsink which caused excessive heat.

 

Ok, i have found out the stable point for my m15x after upgrading to the 7970m.
Here's the 3dmark11 score of my system where i tested the following configuration:

i7-920xm (stock multipliers. No changes made at all)
7970m (0.95v, 760mhz, 1025mhz)
8GB ram
180GB SSD
210w power supply

CPU temps (65 degrees celcius thereabout) and GPU temps (low 70 degrees celcius) were good and exactly what i wanted to be at during gaming.
CPU and GPU fans were tuned to run at high speed using hwinfo.

Going 775mhz, 1025mhz on my 7970m results in CPU throttling. Dropped it to 760 mhz and problem was solved.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-920XM Processor,Alienware

Compared to running the 7970m at stock... i didnt lose out on much in terms of the 3dmark11 score (about 300 points less only).

 

I would look into your PSU. I have a 210W PSU and I have my 920XM clocked at 3.6Ghz and my 8970M clocked at 900/1250 @ 0.975V. Even at 3.2Ghz on the 920XM, you should be able to get stock speeds on your 7970M @ 0.975V. (Which I believe is 800-850/1200)

I would also look into getting this l-shaped adapter so that you can use the full possible power from the PSU. Right Angle Connector Converter for Dell HP Compaq Laptop Power Adapter LC90B | eBay At this point, I would check to see if your PSU is defective. If your CPU is untouched, you should be able to run your 7970M at stock without throttling even on the stock 150W adapter.

 

Thanks for the comments gotmilk70

My setup shown above is actually already using a 210W adapter with the center pin removed. So, i am not too sure how it is that i get throttling at 775mhz GPU clock. But, its no big deal as i am happy with the performance i am already getting at 760mhz (GPU clock) after taking into account of temps.

Btw, when i say throttling, i am referring to the 920XM throttling down to x9 multiplier on all 4 cores when i set the GPU clock to 775mhz.
The 7970m doesn't throttle.

 

CPU shouldn't throttle unless you've got throttlestop set up wrongly. What TDP/TDC are you using? Take a screenshot of throttlestop?

 

I am not using throttlestop. My 920xm is running completely at stock.

Can see my setup in post #341.

 

Sashimi please download throttlestop. It is pretty silly to get the xm if you don't at least bump it to 3ghz in games. As you are now the 840qm would perform just as well.

We are your friends here and we want to help. Listen to us if you want to get the most out of your machine.

With throttlestop you can very easily set the CPU to never throttle. Then you should be good to bump back up to stock clocks. Also the memory cannot be under clocked at all. You can flash it all you like but it will remain at 1200 MHz.

 

Hey guys, really appreciate all the help. Without all the nice people and all the informative threads both here at NBR and Techinferno, i would never have been able to get this 7970m upgrade done.

Now that i got everything working well, i just wanna enjoy my games at high FPS and high settings for a little while before i even think about overclocking.
I did have to do some troubleshooting and trial & error here and there. But, it was well worth the effort.

I realise i am not maximising the potential of my setup. But, truth be told, i am happy with the performance i have gotten from the upgrade (even though my 7970m is undervolted and downclocked).

Btw, i am using MSI afterburner to set the 3D GPU clocks at 760mhz and the memory clocks at 1025mhz on the 7970m.
Voltage could not be amended using afterburner. Had to flash the vbios.

GPU-Z and HWinfo both show these clocks when i game. So, i think afterburner really does work at adjusting both the GPU clock and memory clocks of the card.

 

Fair enough. If you are happy then we are happy! If you meet a demanding game then at least you have the cpu/gpu horsepower when you need it.

 

The only one that ever throttles from my gtx 780m and 920xm combo is the CPU. I think it's a power issue, but the my 240W adapter doesn't evet get warm. I need to get a power meter.

 

I think you are experiencing far different problems to the typical M15x throttling. I think you might be pushing limits of PSU. Make sure stealth mode isn't on? he he he he