MBP 2010 m330 Overclocking (bootcamp)

This post is just a beginning so expect this one to get cleaned up and detailed. I'll start with the basics and clean it up later as I have time. Please post your CPU/Memory and Shader settings with a 3dmark score along with your CPU speed as not all of us have the same.

This guide is for overclocking in Bootcamp.
***Overclocking can void your warranty and damage your video card***


1) Install your fan in bootcamp.

The version 1.9 conflicts with bootcamp and goes to 20% CPU usage at times. I would try the official version first and if you don't get that, stick with the SVN. The next update should incorporate the fix. The link I posted, I pulled from a SVN build at lubbo's sorceforge site: SourceForge.net Repository - [lubbofancontrol] Log of /trunk/Release/LubbosFanControl.exe. This one is an even newer version

I've posted a backup: Download from: Hotfile.com: One click file hosting: LubbosFanControl.exe This version is older and not at the official location so I would recommend against it if the first works fine.

2) Fan Control Settings (screenshot will be posted):
2 Fans - 2 GPUs...
Lower temp threshold: 40C
Upper temp Threshold: 70C
Left and Right fan:
Min: 1200 RPM
Max: 6000 RPM

70C kicks the fan up enough to keep me at no higher than 80 when benchmarking

3) nVidia Drivers
Using currently 197.45, it's been a while since I updated this so post your version if it works. I'll update mine and this post as well

4) nVidia system tools (for ntune or system performance)
NVIDIA DRIVERS 6.06

5) overclocking (basic):
Go into your nvidia control panel (right click on desktop) and go into performance and device settings. There are warnings you will have to read.
Here you can overclock, but be careful. My limits are 675 Core, 1117 Memory, and 1485 Shader. I did small increments and stressed tested until I found one that started producing artifacts or caused the drivers to fail. After that, I backed off by about 5-10%. Save this to a profile.

5b) overclocking (advanced):
You may have noticed that my memory limit is beyond what nVidia allows. I went to the profile folder: C:\Users\ME \AppData\Local\NVIDIA Corporation\nTune\Profiles and edited the profile with notepad. I could bypass the limits and it crated a stored profile I could edit. Be very careful. Here's what I changed under [GPUSettings]:

GPUCOREMHZ0=675
GPUMEMMHZ0=1117
GPUMEMMHZMAX0=1200
GPUSHADERMHZ0=1485


6) Load profiles:
DO NOT LOAD ON STARTUP...saves you some pain. from the link in the advanced above, create shortcuts to your desktop and click on your desired profile. I would copy the the standard profile in case you don't need the power. The GPU does still step down, so this isn't entirely necessary. I would also create a folder shortcut if you want to play with it more.

7) Stress test it:
I use MSI's Kombuster and stability test it. It also makes a good quick benchmark.


Notes:
I've noticed the GPU is very inconsistent with performance.
-When you restart your computer, the results for all your previous tests can be invalid...start over.
-If the driver crashes, your tests will be invalid, start over
-If the driver crashes, you may not be able to overclock until the next restart

The GPU components also seem to be underclocked by Apple and when you bring them to design rating, you can't overclock very much at all...eg 1066 designed memory, I've overclocked to 1117 and Apple clocks to 790. This fits with the them that this card is already by design overclocked. to bad the memory isn't GDDR5 or we could overclock like mad...the GPU seems to be where the punch is on this card.

Sorry about the poor quality, but I will clean this up. Feel free to PM me any questions or recommendations.

 

strongly recommend nVidia Inspector over Nvidia System Tools for OC'ing.

after you find and set your favorite overclock clock speeds, you can save the configuration. the app will create a shortcut so that when you reboot and come back to Windows, you only have to double-click that shortcut to get your favorite settings loaded. it also shows you all the relevant GPU info like GPU-Z does. it's fantastic.

and I haven't tried it, but I assume you could put that link in your Startup folder to have it auto-run every time you log in.

edit: my OC settings are very similar to yours. I think 667/1064/1468. something like that.

 

I've tried that utility and I've had problems as it won't let me reach the clock speeds I have with nvidia's tools. That said, you can just create those shortcuts that I mentioned above and drag them into the startup folder...but if you go too far and the system crashes on boot, you'll have to go into safe mode to delete that shortcut. But yes, once you finetune it, the nvidia tools are pretty much the same but don't have the unavoidable clock limits (at times)...someone might know how to bypass them. Yes, nvidia doesn't have the GPU-Z info either.

One thing you can do with nVidia over inspector is that you can have it autoload profiles with certain programs and drop back into an energy saving mode after that program closes.

 

interesting.

system tools wouldn't let me OC to those levels. maybe I was doing something wrong. I'll look into it.

 

Did you manually edit the profiles with notepad like I mentioned...or I should have if I didn't?

GPUCOREMHZ0=675
GPUMEMMHZ0=1117
GPUMEMMHZMAX0=1200
GPUSHADERMHZ0=1485

Those are the values I changed.

 

I foresee lots of n00b's ending up with a pile molten medal

Great job BTW, if I had a Macbook I'd do it.

 

Hmmm, have you don't any gaming benchmarks, I wonder how much you can improve your performance while still keeping the gpu under 80 C?

 

Turns out it can improve quite a bit before hitting that 80C mark. I limit my temps by the benchmarks...3dmark for me specifically and stress them using the utility above. I hit 80C with what seems to be around 40-50% increase...I need to check that number exactly because in reality, I think that's too high.

In real world, I've been playing Starcraft 2 and high settings and I notice a huge difference between standard and overclocked. Overclocked is a very smooth gameplay. It also only runs around 60-73C depending on what's running at the time which is really good.

Finally, I think this nVidia card will fail the drivers before it gets too hot, provided you are running the fan control correctly. I can only get it over 82C if I don't have the fan control running. If I do have it running, if it goes to high, it stability fails before it reaches 85C

 

Any way to set lubbo fan control to automatically startup with the computer?

Also he's posted version 1.0.0 now so 0.1.9 is out of date.

Here's another clincher. I'm using NvidiaInspector and whenever I overclock, the score seems to DECREASE! This is after fresh rebooting too! It's very sporadic; at one point I had topped out around 7350 in 3dm06; I wonder if it is my driver version 258.96.

 

Apple also probably undervolts. I would bet that's why your seemingly low level overclocks are hitting instability. What are your voltages?

 

Thanks, yes the version was just updated so I will check that out and update the post. I've check the performance and I'm getting 40-45% performance increase.

Also, yes, you can set up lubbo's fan control to autostart...just throw it in startup. I'm going to look at some other things to do with it shortly.

 

I spent some more time wrestling with it today and here's what I found:

My highest 3dm06 is just a hair under 7.5k but this is at the "standard" 1280x1024 resolution.

Nvidia inspector is kind of a crap shoot; it seems like it works sometimes and doesn't others, I recommend staying away from its "shortcut" feature for overclocking.

The latest 259.31 drivers are horrible for my setup; we're talking around 1k loss in 3dmark 2006!

Ntune/nvidia performance tools works best, I found out that 6.0.2 is an older release and did not work at all. 6.0.6 is the latest and seems to work fine with 258.96; the settings will not stick after reboot however.

 

Sorry, I didn't mention it earlier, the 330 seems to have more stability issues than temp issues...meaning that if you have the fan set up right, you'll crash it before you fry it. It function much like an airplane stalls, google Cl curve (C sub L).

Your performance will increase to a point, then start decreasing and becoming inconsistent as you continue to overclock. It will eventually show artifacts and finally a driver crash or system lock. That's why when we find a max, you drop it back 5-10% on the overclock. You might actually have to rerun every test. I'm using Kombuster to do quick benches to speed up the process.