Ideapad Y510P BF4 and COD Ghosts Issue with SLI

Just a heads up for everyone.

If you have a Y510P with SLI, you will have issues and cannot run BF4 and COD Ghosts. There is a couple of known DirectX and GPU issues right now with those games. If I disable SLI, I can run both fine with no issues. If I enable SLI, both crash anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.

There are a couple of workarounds out there, but none that are definitive. The issue seems to be with the Nvidia GPU switching back and forth with Optimus. Now, you can try to force the laptop to work with the Nvidia GPU's only, but that still doesn't fix the issue permanently.

So if you have those games and you are having trouble, join the crowd.

Oh, and I repasted my 755 Ultrabay again, and added a TON of IC Diamond, 24 Carat paste and it didn't help much. I added more because there seems to be a little space between the GPU and the heatsink. It did not make much of a difference and it still runs 98C.

SLI at this point is almost a waste of time in these laptops.

 

*Looks at sig*

 

SLI is fine. I can load both my GPU's at 99% for hours using Unigine Heaven or some heavy game such as Hitman: Absolution (much more GPU-heavy than BF4) and it never goes over 80C. That's with the overclock as well.

I played BF4 Beta and SLI worked well. Good scaling but Beta was extremely heavy on the CPU side. Ran for hours at a time and no crashing.

Why would the crashing have to do with Optimus if it automatically gets disabled on any SLI system?

If you have a defective Ultrabay (which it certainly sounds like you do) you need to either get it replaced or mod it to increase pressure on the die. That gap between the GPU and the heatsink is a big no-no and is the reason for your extreme temperatures. You can empty an entire tube of ICD on there but it's not gonna help; if anything it'll make it worse.

 

I am not the only one on here that has had a hot ultrabay. I will get it replaced, but I don't think it will help. It isn't the setup, it is an issue with the programming in the game itself and how it deals with SLI.

Might I ask what you are rolling your eyes at?

 

You're barking up the wrong tree. It has nothing to do with how the games are programmed and everything to do with your defective Ultrabay. Games use AFR (alternate frame rendering) for multi-GPU scaling which means GPU load is more on less the same on each card especially if there are just two of them. And if the game doesn't support SLI, your Ultrabay card won't even be used. Other than a manufacturing defect, there's no reasonable explanation for the huge temperature delta between your GPU's. I've repasted everything and my Ultrabay actually runs cooler than the CPU and main GPU most of the time, especially in CPU-intensive games where the excess heat from the CPU is spilling over to the main GPU due to the shared fan and heatpipe.

I'm at your statement that "SLI is a waste of time in these laptops" because I and many other SLI owners have no issues. You can look at the benches and temperature readings in my sig. Yeah, your experience with an overheating Ultrabay has been a common one since even before the Y510p, but then again the vocal minority who are experiencing problems tend to drown out the majority who aren't. Plus this laptop is of average build quality and QC definitely isn't great (I went through two defective Y500 units before finding a keeper) so manufacturing defects are par for the course.

 

You should roll your eyes at my Alienware 18 with the SLI 780's.

Anyway, I will contact them and get a new gpu and let you know how it turns out.

 

Oh yea,

I have 0 issue with the main CPU and GPU, they both run under 80C under full load. That seems to be kind of rare for these laptops.

 

You're still not using ThrottleStop huh?

 

Why would I? The games run perfect and I have no temp issues. There is no reason to run it. My CPU clocks at 3.3ghz when gaming.

Oh and I posted about the Alienware I own because I have 0 issues with SLI on it. I have all kinds of issues with the Lenovo in SLI. Now, maybe the Ultrabay is defective. I sure hope so.

 

Are you able to verify that in real-time from within the game?

 

Here, I've got an idea. Run 3DMark 11 and post the link to your result here. If your Physics Score is lower than mine, then your Turbo Boost isn't working properly.

 

It is known that the Y510p's ultrabay will trigger stuttering when it reaches certain temps, and this is not due to the general nature of SLI, but mainly because your GPU is running that hot.

I don't blame Lenovo for ditching SLI on the Y50.

 

Jobine,

I have never had any stuttering in games, they just crash after a certain point. I am going to call Lenovo tomorrow and get a new Ultrabay card. I don't really blame them for ditching SLI either in the Y50. If the Y50 was available now, I would return this one and get one.

Here is a 3DMark11 I ran.

scratch that, let me run one with your settings. I ran 1920 resolution.

 

That's not 3DMark 11, that's 3DMark (2013) Fire Strike.

 

Ok, one second, let me run it again.

 

Ok,

I ran the default test, it looks the same as yours I believe. How you scored higher, I have no idea, rofl.

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4700MQ,LENOVO VIQY0Y1

It says maximum turbo clock, 0. Weird.

 

I scored higher than you because my GPU is overclocked but mainly because your Physics Score is so low, which indicates CPU throttling, and that dragged down your overall score by quite a bit. Your 4700MQ should be scoring close to 8000 points, but the fact that you're just over 6000 tells me that there's quite a bit of throttling going on, perhaps to even below the base clock. This is an example of the out-of-the-box throttling/lack of Turbo Boost that affects the Y510p and it's why I've been recommending ThrottleStop this entire time. With ThrottleStop turned on and using the settings I showed you earlier, your CPU will be running at its full rated speed and performance will improve, but it will most likely overheat as well unless you've already repasted it.

 

I also have issues playing BF4 with my y500 in sli. The frame rate is fine, but I just can't get rid of the micro stuttering, there was an older driver that it worked with but DICE made a newer driver a minimum requirement for playing. Mine has two 750m cards though, what drivers do you use?

 

Also Oticeps, my graphics score is 500 less than yours and my physics score is almost 2000 less for 3dmark11 even with my gpu and cpu overclocked, could that be causing my micro stuttering?