!!!!Overclocking A MBP!!!

Is it even thinkable to Overclock the GPU of the Apple MBP?

I know it has noticeably bad heat issues but If so (Using Vista via Boot Camp) What drivers should i use for best performance, and what clock settings should i stick to. I might Probably do it using Rivatuner so what temps should I be looking for? (This excludes Overclocking the CPU..I'm not going there!)

It might Sound CRAZY but i really would like to hit the 5Kmark(3D Mark 1280 by 1024) with it.

If u think I should Stop while I am ahead Post "NO!" and a reason why.
The more the "No's" the less I will be convinced to do it
But..if u have any info to tell me how to do it please post away!

BTW: Its the 256MB 8600M GT GDDR3

 

Basically if you stay under 90-100 Degrees Celsius you'll be fine. And yes, I have heard people overclocking their Macbook Pros so it's not such a big deal...

 

honestly, I would just ask yourself if it is really worth your time, trying to get a certain score in a synthetic benchmark, you must have something better to do ^_^

 

Circa86 Why do u always spoil my threads?... this is the second consecutive time...argh

 

overclock it if you like, but benchmarks are a waste of time. i agree with circa in this instance

 

hey I apologize, feel free to do what ever you like, but you posted a thread that was asking opinions didn't you?

 

I've OCed my MBP and it works pretty well. Not really any different than with any other computer I have used. There are PCs like the ASUS g1s that hit even higher temps than the average MBP, so I don't worry to much.

Just...try to hit a an OC that doesn't go above 90 Celsius for extended periods...for sanity's sake.

 

May I point out the obvious that you're risking a $1,999/$2,499 piece of equipment for a few additional frames? It'd be safer to just lower the resolution or graphic options...

 

Correct. In my experience overclocking rarely leads to much in-game performance increase. In a desktop it's one thing, but in a notebook, I think you are just asking for trouble.

 

Well I wouldn't recommend doing it for such an insignificant increase in performance. The MBP gets bloody hot enough as it is during games. And it does play games well right out of the box. But if you're going to do it, consider something like a cooling pad so it doesn't burst into flames.

 

I've actually seen one of the members shoot out the GPU when overclocking with the same MBP 2.4 256mb 8600M GT Model.

Understand that even though your laptop is fairly good at cooling, you should be wary that there could always be undesirable consequences at any moments time.

btw he was OC'ing at 550/800 I think.

 

I will have to agree with the others that are saying, "don't do it". Your MBP is very nice and an expensive piece of machinery and although you may see higher results by measurements only I can almost guarantee you won't see any REAL difference while gaming. This is just the reason why Apple switched to Intel processors so the Macs will finally have exceptional performance. Also it's already been mentioned many times that Macs run Windows better than physical Windows machines so why OC and take a chance at something getting damaged?

 

uhh yeah 550 / 880 was me.

I was actually running GoW at the time, and the machine blacked out and was completely off and unresponsive for about 2 hours.

I think it overheated and the part forced itself off. For what its worth, I was in a relatively small room with poor cooling and i THINK i forgot to set my fans up this particular time. Normally it would be obvious if i forgot but it was pretty loud in there. Bagh.

Also- it doesn't seem that there was any permanent damage as everything runs fine now. I can even OC still (545 875 lol)

If you are going to OC:

Step 1: install smc fan control (osx application)
Step 2: set the fans at 5-6k rpm.
Step 3: reboot into windows without powering off the machine
Step 4: run windows OC app of your choice (rivatuner or atitool)
Step 5: run game/benchmark of your choice and enjoy

My stable clocks (if the only cooling method is the internal fan set at a minimum of @ 4k rpms through smc) are, in fact, 550 / 880 despite my prior issue. That was my fault for not forcing the fans.

With extra cooling help, like a cooling pad, or even an overhead ceiling fan or just a low temperature environment, you can almost assuredly attain higher clocks. I think 600 / 900 is certainly possible.

 

I was just fooling around with OC my 2.2 ghz MBP today because I was getting pretty bad performence in Bioshock when I first tried playing it today. I got a stable overclock at 500 core/800 memory although I am scaling back to 475 core/700 memory - the frequencies that NVIDIA lists for the card ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600M.html , apple underclocks this thing by default, I think its 3XX/5XX which either tells me that they really lack confidence in their cooling and/or they are very conservative)

 

ok- the default clocks for the 15" mbp are:

2d: (crap i forget, but its really low, of course... high 100's or something)

3d on battery only: 3xx / 5xx as stated above

3d plugged in: 470 / 635

Its still a conservative clock and honestly you should at least clock it up to Nvidia Spec. You can probably even OC the memory especially well beyond spec. And since this card has memory bandwidth as its first bottleneck, increasing that memory clock is a big deal.

 

Still yet, you're over clocking a graphics card on a notebook. When the graphics card blows it'll take the logic board with it. Than you'll pretty much need a new laptop, as it'd be costly to replace the damaged components and there's no guarantee when the logic board blows that it won't take a few other things with it.

Over clocking a desktop is one thing, but over clocking a laptop that wasn't designed to be over clocked to begin with is down right dangerous. The MacBook Pro wasn't designed to be pushed to excessive limits. While the fans can be manually adjusted, it still wasn't designed for that purpose. There's a reason Apple under clocked the graphics card to begin with. The chassis simply can't handle the card's factory clock speeds and cool it effectively.

*finds himself oddly worried about someone else's MBP*

I suppose if money isn't something you worry about, than over clock it, since you don't have to worry about consequences. However, if you can't afford to replace or repair your laptop should it fail or encounter problems, it's safer to just stay with factory clocks.

Also, may I point out that you're trying to over clock a graphics card that's rather mediocre for gaming to begin with. You can add as many turbo kits and intercoolers to a Geo Metro as possible, but it's still not going to be as good as a Lamborghini Murcielago. If you want a gaming laptop, you'll have to look beyond Apple. Something with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800m GTX, at least.

Finally, just because the system shuts down when the graphics card heat sensor triggers it doesn't mean the heat generated by the card didn't damage something else, such as the Logic Board, or the keyboard circuity, or anything else near the GPU and it's heatsink.

Sorry for rambling, but I guess I love my MBP so much I don't want to hear about anyone else losing theirs. *laughs* Save the MBP's, over clock an egg timer.

 

The real reason you're getting subpar performance in Bioshock is because you have the 128 MB 8600, rather than the 256 MB one found in the 2.4 GHz MBP. Overclocking may help a little bit, but you're taking a far bigger risk of damaging your hardware. It would be better if you simply toned down the graphical settings in Bioshock and/or lowered the resolution you're playing at.

 

thanks for your concern, I am well aware of the risks associated with overclocking as I have burnt out a graphics card in the past (thank god ATI replaces your graphics card for free). I would never want to kill my MBP as it is the only computer that I ever had that I genuinly liked. with that being said the "overclock" that I am doing is basically nothing. after 3 hours of testing, the GPU temp went up neglibibly so I am not really concerned. overclocking is one of those things that as long as your really careful (i.e. you understand how much extra heat these parts moving at greater frequencies create and the threshold of heat your system can withstand), you should not have any issues. and to be frank, it is ridiculous to have to scale back to the lowest resolution (800 x 600) in order to play a game at a playable rate on a $1800 system (which I would not have to do if apple simply kept the default clocks). I am now happily skipping along with medium settings with Bioshock at 1024 x 768

p.s. even though I have 128MB VRAM my system thinks I have 512 MB due to that cool NVIDIA technology that takes your extra RAM and allows the video card to use it. I am guessing that this is not nearly as fast as VRAM but it should help out the bottleneck your are talking about

 

Kk , overclocking wont kill your system.. It wont suddenly explode or blow up or anything , heck it may get hot.. up to 100c if your not carefull where the bios cuts out... and you may melt some stuff before you reach that point , but it dosnt suddenly blow

the worst you can do it destroy your video card , and need to buy a new mmx module..(still quite hard)

but the best of the worst you can do it just push it a little too far so the system restarts.
The worst ive ever manadge to do is push it a little too far and get artifacts everywhere.. and then when i restart the system and lower clocks artifacts still there , leave it overnight without battery and run really low clocks for a while and it sorted itself out , no artifacts and still overclocking fine...

 

I think you guys need to remember that you are using a midrange card, and with today's games, anything less than a high end card is going to have a hard time at high resolutions. As an earlier poster said, if you really want to game on a notebook with higher settings and resolutions, you will need a 17" with at least an 8800.

Overclocking a notebook, especially an Apple, is just asking for trouble. If the card goes, it will likely take the logic board with it. Anytime you do anything that changes the way the hardware was designed to run (including things like smcfancontrol), you run the risk of causing damage.

 

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8600gt is capable enough, especially with a little oc... just a little

 

128 bit bus, 'nough said, game over.

Edit: I'm referring to high-definition gaming of current and future titles. It's capable enough to play yesteryears games at high definition at 4xAA/8xAF, though.

 

you shouldn't be worried about what other's think about overclocking, I don't have any real reason to overclock, so I don't spend time doing it. If you have a legitimate reason to do it, by all means.

if you ask for other people's opinions you should expect to hear them, just treat it logically. if you feel you could gain some performance, and have the need to do so, there definitely is room to work with, as most manufacturers do slightly underclock from a GPU's factory specs, and there is often room to even go higher than the factory specs, but it more a matter of need and time spent, as it isn't a simple and quick process.