Overclocking my XPS M1530

Hi there,

I just received my XPS M1530 2 days ago, an love it. I had alot of help reading other people's post to make the right decision. I also read about the overclocking capability of the 8600M GT DDR3.

Now I have been overclocking with driver 174.4

With standard clocks and using the nvidia plugin, running the included stability test for 10mins. I get (clocks 475/700) idle 58/59C and a max temperature of 73C

Now when I overclock to 650/875 (which is a huge overclock imo) I idle at the same (I can see the clocks jump to 275/300 and even to 168/100) and after the 10min. stability test I get a max temperature of 74C. So just 1C more.

Is this normal? I can see that it does overclock (GPU-Z and the Nvidia monitor).

-Does correctly overclocking (so no artifacts) shorten your GPU life?
-Is there a way I can change my FAN settings? (greyed out in nvidia tool)
-Is this a good overclock or too much GPU and too little memory?
-Are these the fastest drivers? (UT3 performance was a little dissapointing)

I should also note that i have the 9cell battery, so the laptop is lifted of the table (which provides better airflow)

Greetings,

Victor

 

overclocking with no artifacts means u have not reached the absolute limit of the GPU silicon properties, which is much safer than running with artifacts and crashing. but overclocking does decrease your GPU life, and there is no quick answer to how short your GPU will live. 2-3 years shouldnt be a big problem (just my 2cent).

as for your memory, i think you can push it a little further, i've seen people running at 900MHz without issues. GPU core is very close to the edge. i clocked mine at 650MHz too, some pushed all the way to 690MHz which in my opinion again, is a little too risky.

New drivers are constantly pumped out from nvidia, you just have to test them if you want the latest and fastest. no quick way as well.

 

Thanks for the reply

I did some more testing. When I run UT3 (1280x800 texture 4, world 3, OC'd @ 625/800) I get a pretty stable 50-60fps and the max temperature I get is 75C (also stable).

3D Mark 06 (1280x1024, std settings) normal = 4300
OC'd @ 625/800 = 5100
OC'd @ 650/875 = 5300

Temps never come above 75C, 75C is max after long time gaming. Pretty good temp I think?

-Victor

ps Why does your memory get a 5,6 (and I see you have 2GB DDR2 667 RAM) I get a 4,8 (lowest score) with my 4GB DD2 667 ?

 

Hi, what spec is your laptop?

 

M1530
Intel Core 2 Duo 2,4Ghz
4Gb RAM (DDR2 667) (3,6Gb used in Vista 32)
8600M GT DDR3
7200Rpm 200Gb
1680x1050

 

Is that a T7700 or a T8300 CPU?

 

It is a T7700

 

The laptop is fast enough why shorten it's life with minimal speed improvements and increased heat. Besides you'll probably void the warranty if it ever conks out on you and DELL finds out about it.

 

beats me. i used to get 4.8 for memory too, but after i disassemble my laptop, applied artic cooling mx-2 thermal paste on both CPU and GPU, the memory score shoots up to 5.6. i have no idea what happened. at first i thought it was a WEI mistake, so i re-run the WEI test 3 times and still it's 5.6.

if u noticed my WEI score on HDD which im really proud of. 5.5 for a 5400RPM drive with a massive 320GB space. beats the hell out of any 200GB 7200RPM drive thrown at it. pretty nifty eh..

 

Contrary to what others say... YES it WILL shorten your GPU's life!!!
Heck, it will shorten your notebooks life!
Heat is the main thing that wears out the gpu, motherboard, cpu and surrounding area & overclocking your gpu/cpu does that.
The gpu is already putting out a lot of heat... why add to it, especially for marginal gains? Your NOT going to see that much improvement in your games or whatever.

So... why shorten the life of your componets in your notebook?

Ok, now I'm waiting for the OC fans to flame me.

 

IMHO save OC'ing for your next desktop project. Overclocking a laptop (especially one that is less than a week old) risks flushing a great deal of money down the toilet.

With a desktop you can replace the parts that breakdown. If you cook your CPU just swap it out. Likewise with your motherboard, GFX card, RAM. Because a laptop is a packaged unit it's MUCH more expensive to replace these parts. And Dell won't cover your warranty once you overclock your notebook, which is easy enough to discover because such things are recorded by the system!

 

Ok thanks for all the replies, but I got to help some misunderstandings out of the world:

-I overclock during COD4 and UT3 to 625/800. I get a max temperature of 1C higher than the standard clocks

-I get over a 10fps boost in both COD4 and UT3

When done playing I return to normal settings.

-Victor

 

Did more testing, with the marble test (posted somewhere elso on this forum).



So the new question arises, what about overclocking without temperature increase?

And to make it even more interesting, if you guys are seriously worried about that 1C (and I don't mean this offensive, I appreciate your input), than what about the Asus G1's I read about who reach (not-overclocked) 85-90C!

Also my m1530 doesn't use its full fan speed if on the std clocks (maybe cause of the 9cell, better airflow?) only when I overclock, and then it maintains 74 or even lower.

I tried the ik8p(something) program but that doesn't allow me to control my fan speed, anyone had any succes with manually controlling the 1530' fans?

-Victor

 

And how is it recorded by the system exactly?

Also what is stopping anyone formatting before a return?

 

If your gear is fried.. can't reformat your drive anyways. Dell has a system scanner program and it only works if you have the original installation. HP has this too BTW.

 

You don't need to use the same laptop to format a drive though.

 

They can tell if you fried your GPU by oc'ing it. The hard drive is the least of your concerns, you can find another similar laptop, format and pop it back into yours and send it back but that wont do you any good.

 

Ok we're getting a litte offtopic here, as I said in my previous post the max temperature I'm getting is 1C higher than with the std clock speeds. And the ASUS G1S have temperatures of 90+. So I think the whole 'frying of the GPU' is less of concern for me than for ASUS owner's?

 

Maybe so, but I'd like to know how they can tell or prove that your card was "fried" by overclocking. What if the card naturally died because the thermal contact was rubbish in the first place and the nature of the fault was down to Dell?

How can they determine a fault from an overclock from a fault that has genuinely happened?, again even if a thorough format was done so they can't prove anything that might have happened from the operating system.

 

They can't tell. I've been overclocking for years, including on air, watercooling, and custom built phase change setups that got my video card to -60C. I've had tons of hardware die, both on it's own and of my doing. I have never had a RMA denied. There is no way for them to tell the card was overclocked unless they have some peice of software running that logs all of the changes to the gpu clocks, in which case reformatting (which is the first thing I do to every pre-built syste I buy), would blow that program away.

Anyone telling you that they can tell if it was overclocked just by looking at the hardware is wrong, period.

 

Yeah I figured the same, the melting of a GPU could be done by tons of scenerio's (sitting in Phoenix @ 2Pm playing UT3 on your lap).

 

Thats the point I was getting at

 

So anyone out there who also overclocked his/hers m1530 without any temperature change? Or any overclock guru out there who can tell me if its still bad to overclock, even if there is no temperature change? And again my question, what about ASUS G1S owners, who idle at my max temp. and play @ 90degrees.

 

-60C... wow that's really cold!!! Which far out planet is this computer in? LOL

 

lol -60C, you could overclock like crazy then

 

hmm playing Crysis on medium with DX9 gives me a smooth 40fps (overclocked to 625/800) and still no temperature change!

 

well my max temperature ever now is 79C so thats still well below other people's 8600M GT's, this thing is a beast 5300+ 3dmark06, you gotta love it!

 

I am using a Vostro 1500 with a 8600M GT DDR2 @ 675core 1350shader 550mem ( 4810 3dmark06 @ 1280*1024) but what i have done is bought one of these - http://laptoping.com/wp-content/notebook_cooler_s.jpg under my laptop and my temps never go above 50 C, you can pick them up for a mere £25 and they are very compact and fit in nicely with your laptop bag.

.... that is what i call a cool running overclocked laptop.

 

Still doesn't beat the -60

But the DDR2 runs also much cooler than the DDR3 from what I have seen so far. But I'm still interested in the 'temperature argument', as the ASUS G1S runs constant at a 90C+, will that cost their GPU and laptop life?

 

Ok more weird progress. I deleted my drivers, and installed 169.09

3dMark06 went from 5270 to 5136 (so lower)
and temerature went from 79C max to 74C max (5C lower!)

This is offcourse using the same overclock

 

what did you guys get for stock 3Dmark06 scores? and was it on the free basic edition? I am asking because i am getting 4074, seems low to me...

 

I had 4498 stock with XP and original Dell drivers

 

scores and specs in sig

Depends what your native resolution is on your screen and what resolution to run 3dmark06 at.

 

if the temps stay the same and you're not artifacting, you're probably ok. most of these parts have a life expectancy approaching a decade...so if it decreases the lifetime of it a little, who cares? sounds like the o/c you have is not drastic, so catastrophic failure isn't likely.

i think conventional wisdom nowadays is that if it's stable and not overheating, any lifetime decrease is going to be negligible (at least for non-extreme o/c).

having said that, i do agree with the guys who say it's more risky on a laptop, you stand to lose more. anecdotally, there are parts that have failed after a couple of years of o/c'ing. there are parts that have failed without o/c'ing, so who's to say? i had a gfx card that artifacted once (really briefly) when it was stock, never did it again. i o/c'd it, 4 years later (conveniently recently out of warranty), the mem died and it started artifacting all over the place. by that time i didn't care, what was once a $500 gfx card was easily replaced by a $100 gfx card that was twice as fast.

you pays your money and u takes ur chances. me, i prolly won't o/c my 1530. i have a desktop for gaming .

 

corujo712, native resolution is 1680x1050, the free version of 3Dmark06 only lets a resolution of 1280x1024. could this be the reason for my lower scores? can i also ask what driver you use?

 

With no OC running Vista w/SP1 & driver 174.31 I get 4113 with rig in my signature. I'm sure it would be higher with XP though.

 

Just a kwik newbie Q: my 1730 arrives in 48 hours so I'm in countdown mode. I won't be using it for gaming, so is there ANY reason to turn SLI on? Main uses will be graphics, video FX, movie editing, etc.

Also, since I'm not gaming, should I just stick with Dell or NVidia drivers and update as they come? Would using the laptoptogo ones enhance anything for my uses?

 

Yea, im pretty sure thats why. I have a native res of 1440x900 and get 4512 with the latest drivers from laptopvideo2go (174.31 i think). 3dmark06 is only a benchmark so don't worry about it too much.

 

so with my system overclocked to 575/800 from the default of 475/702, my 3dmark06 score went from 4074 to 4799. this is with 174.12 driver. Is it pretty safe to turn on these clocks only when gaming (cod 4) and turn them off when not?

 

I have no problems thus far. I get about 10fps extra with overclocking, so thats cool, but for the moment I don't really need to overclock. I mostly play UT3 which I can run at all settings max with 1440x900 and my minimums are 20fps+ and average above 30, so thats good!

-Victor

 

im running UT3 in 1024*768 all settings on 1 / low.

You just need to be able to aim so fast and cannot live with 30 frames

native is 1440*900 the game doesnt look bad at all with those low settings and it runs great. I am still considering the m15x but ill prolly stay away because of th very bad customer service, and he m1730 is.. well 17".
I think this system fullfill me needs of gaming. World in conflict runs great at 1440*900 medium/low settings and i still think it looks good. Also i thnk the fan as great on this system. Very quiet even on max rpm.
I would still like to try overclock it just for fun and see how it runs. Is tere a guide somewhere? Links to programs?

 

1530 vs M15x

Honestly, had the M1530 in my sig for about 50 days now. Because of some problems dell is willing to refund my entire purchase. I've been playing UT3 and a couple of other games but I can't help thinking this GPU is NOT future proof at all.

The alienware M15X just dropped $300 in price. And if you get the basic 1499 configuration it is pretty much the same asthe M1530 Except I got my 1530 with blu ray. Of course, i'll be giving that up for the m15x (blu ray) BUT I still have the option to get the blu ray in the future installed on the m15x.

See, the thing is that the M15X is FUTURE PROOF - you can upgrade the GPU in that thing no problem.

I've maxed out the OC on my 1530 and can get a max of 5300+ on 3dmark06 @ 1024.

I dont think that's gonna be enough for the next 2 years for games.


So, long story short. I can get the m15x which is upgrade proof for the next few years OR drop the 1530 in 2 years.

Really don't know what to do.

 

I have the 2 year accidental too. I think i will sell this one in a year or so then see if all problems are fixed with the m15x. I know this system isnt that great for gaming, but it's ok and graphics still look good in 1440*900 low/medium 2 x AA. I rate FPS higher than visuals. Also the m15x is 1200$ more for me and no dansih keyboard. And i dont get 2 years accidental for the 1200$ extra. This system isn't great but ill stick with it.

 

Hey guys i just bought this laptop, was thinking of playing crysis in it, im new to this OC thing so....after reading some "how to.." things i decided i wanted to OC the 8600....

-Crysis (1024x768, medium settings)= 18-23 FPS- STOCK (475-702)

-Crysis (same res/settings)= 21-32 FPS - OC using RivaTuner (600-850)

Temp never was above 75c
Tried OCing it at 600/900 but when playng crysis i was getting lots of artefacts and it'd freeze forcing me to hit the power button (lol) so i tried it twice and after getting the 2nd system freeze i stopped tring.

So my question is....
-what can i do in order to rise my FPS in crysis without getting into game settings?
-talking about OCing, ive seen some of you have the core speed higher and the memory speed lower...why is that?
-if i do that is there any chance of getting more FPS in crysis?
-And finally....is there any chance my system got damaged when i OCd 600/900?....havent seen anything different and i dont remember of smelling smoke or anything.

Ty in advance.

 

cod4 runs fine like 30-60fps with settings on low anyway?
if you were to get 10fps more with overclocking and putting a few more settings on would it be worth it?

 

Overclocked I get 20-30fps on ALL settings completely maxed out. By turning down AA/Anti-filtering a little I get into the 30-40s during intensive gun battles.

So I don't see how you need the settings on low.

 

60fps need i say more?