Is it wise to overclock my Y500?

All the details of this specific laptop are in my signature (Lenovo Y500 i7-3630QM | 2 GB GeForce 750M SLI | 16GB DDR3 | 1TB 5400 RPM + 16GB SSD | 15.6" 1080p screen) but I want to know if it is reasonable to overclock this machine. I always will have this laptop on top of a 'fan cooler' if that means anything.

If it is okay to overclock, how would I go about doing so?

Thanks in advanced

Edit: I meant to make this a have a more generalized thread name, but I forgot so here is my second question:

Has anyone here used SkinIT? I have used it in the past, but SkinIT does not carry the Y500 as one of it's models and I'd have to use a generic 15.6" model. I am afraid of doing that, because the Lenovo logo on the front may make it look awkward. My question is: Do you think it'd come out fine & are there other websites that perform things like SkinIT?

 

You won't "damage" anything by overclocking. CPUs and GPUs have thermal monitoring and will shut themselves down (locking up your computer) if you push them too far. You would actually need to go out of your way to intentionally damage a CPU / GPU.

Overclocking will cost you a few hours of testing, tweaking, lockups, and rebooting. The only measurable benefit you'll get out of it is about 15% - 20% higher GPU performance at best. The real reason people overclock is because they enjoy the enjoy the process of tinkering, and the personal satisfaction that they squeezed every bit of performance out of their computer. It's like the guy who spends his weekends working on a muscle car. He does it because he actually enjoys working on muscle cars... not because he actually wanted the extra 15HP he got out of his engine.



P.S. In your signature:

The answer is to get the 256GB mSATA. Especially since they are relatively affordable at ~$205 for a Crucial M4 256GB mSATA SSD.

I'm guessing you're the kind of guy to ask "What is the best possible component I can buy, before I hit a point where I start just needlessly throwing money away?"

A 256GB SSD is more than enough storage & performance for what you'd want out of an SSD in any computer. So it makes sense to put that 256GB SSD on the mSATA slot, where you would essentially "max out" what you'd ever expect that mSATA slot to be used for in the next 4 years. Meanwhile, over those same 4 years, you can reliably predict that 2.5" SATA mechanical HDDs will continue to improve in capacity, performance, and affordability. It will take a LONG time before you can expect to "max out" what you can do with a 2.5" SATA drive bay.

 

Thanks a ton for the references and the answers. I am actually one of those guys who goes out every weekend and do little mods to my car, so I don't think I'd be bothered by this but I have no idea where to even start. 15-20% higher GPU performance seems like a TON, but I could be wrong?

If you have any idea where to start, please let me know!

 

Meh. 15% - 20% isn't really all that much. In the real-world, you're looking at a barely-noticeable visual difference. For example, that extra GPU performance will give you enough headroom to change in-game Shadow Quality from Medium to High. It's nothing absolutely revolutionary. You really need to specifically go out of your way to notice the improvement (e.g. by paying unneeded special attention to in-game shadows, or by constantly displaying the framerate counter). I'd say that those target the "personal satisfaction of knowing you're maxing out the limits of your hardware" person, and not practical-real-world performance.

 

Awesome then I won't waste my time! Check your PMs, btw.

 

Well when I overclock my 750m sli with nvidiaInspector 135+ on the core and 400+ memory I get around 9-13fps more on skyrim, and the reckoning tomb raider only get around 3-5 but sli isnt working on that game..

 

Well, I am completely clueless on where to even start to overclock! If you want to talk via PM and show me how, then maybe I will!

 

Just download nvidiaInspector then open the program go to show overclocking then change the base clock offset and memory clock then apply done..

 

No idea what you're talking about o.o.

 

Go here and download Nvidia Inspector 1.97.1 Download - TechSpot once you have it just do what i said in the post above its ez...

 

Wait could you show me the exact settings I should do? I don't want to break anything. Also, do I change both GT 750M (0) and GT 750M (1)?

 

Bump to the top.

Reposting question: Using nVidiaInspector, what should my settings be and should it be to both the 750M (0) and the 750M (1)?

Thanks.

 

Yes, you will have to change both of them...you may have to play around for what runs stable for your setup. I have gotten mine stable at +125 core clock and +300 memory clock.

 

Do I have to open this application and redo this every time I turn on my computer?
Also, why is the voltage offset default +6.3 on one and +0 on the other?

 

just turn the core clock to +100-135 and the memory to +300-400mhz don t have to touch anything else.... I run mine at +135 and +400mhz all the time never had any problems the ultrabay gpu will hit temps of 95-98c btw the main gpu will never go over 81c...

 

The only "real-world" performance relevant to a gpu is in gaming and graphics processing, so I don't necessarily see your point... a 20% increase in gpu performance is very significant, and in games, can make a rather huge difference in the quality and enjoyment of it, which is why we upgrade GPUs in the first place. Overclocking is useful when you need to squeeze out more performance from the GPU when it's otherwise not providing enough power. When the GPU is being pushed to its limits, that's when you can benefit greatly from the 20$ boost from overclocking.

So to the OP, if you use your system heavily and push its limits, then yes, there is no reason why you shouldn't overclock.

 

Well, 20% difference (in absolute best case scenario) means 140fps vs 168fps. Or 32fps vs. 38fps. Or bumping something like in-game Shadow Quality levels up one notch.

Personally, I've never been able to tell the visual difference. The only time I have personally ever noticed a difference in 20% is when it comes to benchmarks / framerating tools.

Don't get me wrong... I understand the appeal of overclocking. You basically squeeze out some extra performance, without buying additional hardware. All you put into it is the time it takes to tweak & play with software settings. But in my experience, the people who overclock video cards are the ones that enjoy the process of overclocking, and want the personal satisfaction of knowing they pushed their hardware to the limits.

My point is, you have to be the right kind of person to WANT to learn the process of overclocking and stability testing. It certianly isn't for everyone... just the computer gear-heads.

 

I did what they said with +125 and +300 and it took like two minutes, what was hard about it lol

 

98c is pretty hot! the area around the heat vents would be so hot to touch when gaming more than an hour. i hit those temps once. never to do it again. lol.

how about cpu temps?

 

I do +135/+300 and I game all the time on it. The temperatures haven't gone above 60c. I do have a cooling pad, but all it really does is keep it elevated. That's the key- elevation to allow cool air.

 

cool! that's unbelievably low! i bet you have ac on. good coolpad. or maybe perfect thermal paste. hmm. if your cpu, gpu's, and eternals are that cool, the heat's gotta go somewhere. how hot is the air blowing out the vents?

i have a cooling pad and my y500 is pretty well elevated and gets warm easily.

 

I do not even know what thermal paste is, lol. But yeah, my AC is always on as I live in Florida. Also, the air is very hot, but who puts their hand there?

 

thermal paste in short is what connects and transfers heat from the chip to the heat sink. is the air as hot as it burns your hand, or uncomfortably hot? mine's just blowing warm air. just makes my hands sweat. i also tried gaming with ac once, still the palm rest gets warm. could be be a cooling problem in my end.

 

So what are "ok" temps for the GPU? Is in the 70s ok? When I overclock to the 135/300, I get some nice gains. But its getting to int the 70s for temps and I am not sure when I should be worried.

 

70c is normal. that's even low for an overclocked 750m. depends on the game actually. the highest i reached with overclocked 650m is 80c playing far cry 3.

 

I have my nvidia inspector set to 135/300 for both my chips and my temperatures are 44c and 46c respectively. For the last two hours, I have been rendering videos in Sony Vegas and attempting to learn After Effects so it isn't just on standby. Anyways, the air is uncomfortably hot, it won't burn you. I literally have to go out of my way to feel the air, anyway. This laptop is not a "lap" computer (haha) and is best on a cooling pad on a desk or a table (classroom anyone?). I love this laptop.

 

the main gpu and cpu never go's over 81c as for the ultrabay it will hit 98c and thats with new Prolimatech PRO-PK1-5G PK-1 Thermal Compound and cooling pad game was skyrim both gpus at 97-98%.. Today was playing planetside 2 for 3 hours oc to 135+ and 450+ the main gpu hit 79c, cpu temps 78-82c and ultrabay gpu hit 88c..

 

I still do not understand how to overclock this. Every time I restart my computer it is deactivated and I cannot alter the settings. I am on Performance Level 2 (default) and whenever I try to do +135/+300 then click Apply clocks/voltage it resets the values back to 0. Ugh. Please help.

 

You know, interestingly the 314.22 driver didn't allow me to overclock at all whatsoever, and that's including using MSI afterburner & the .bat file method through nvidiainspector. But, I've found the 320.00 beta drivers are far more receptive to OC'ing (both the MSI Afterburner and nvidiainspector methods work for me on this driver). Idk if this applies to you but if it does I'd say it's worth a shot. Also, make sure that you have that Lenovo energy saving bull**** app thing (sorry can't stand when simple drivers aren't enough to drive a system) on Battery Fully-Charged Mode or else the GPU will be locked down in a power-saving mode.

Random: to anybody playing games with SLI and desperately trying to get rid of some of the more disruptive micro-stuttering, try turning hyperthreading off in the bios (if you have a 650m with modified bios). I've found that with hyperthreading turned on my games would stutter far far far more. I've read from bitsum (dev of Process lasso) that Windows, by default, may move some game threads to the virtual cores in an effort to better balance total CPU load, but does this to the detriment of the game itself since virtual cores are apparently quite a bit slower than the physical cores

Add to the fact that most games don't utilize more than 3-4 cores to begin with (GTAIV & Crysis 3 come to mind as notable exceptions), & you should get a more stable, less jerky gaming experience. At least this has been the case with my Y500 (& I've tweaked every single CPU/GPU setting I possibly can, working them in pretty much every combination in search of stutter free gameplay based around 60fps). Note that even before I turned HT off, my avg fps was indeed 60fps (with trip buffering), and after I turned it on, it was 60fps. What turning HT off aims to do is not so much improve avg FPS, but reduce much of the CPU-related stutter (or let's be real and not use buzz words; dropped frames) by forcing game threads onto physical cores and not allow windows to dynamically move them to logical cores.

tl;dr: If your games stutter like crazy (like Crysis, Skyrim, FC3, for example) and you have the 650m sli Y500 with modified bios, try turning HT off, & forcing triple buffered vsync (through d3doverrider) for a nice increase in game stability (Skyrim's in-game vsync is triple buffered, btw)

Please let me know if this alleviates some stuttering, and I'll try to do some FRAPS frametime benches today to capture some of my findings in a more visually pleasant form.

 

I am on 314.27. How can I update to 320.00? When I click 'check for updates' it responds with there are none. Thanks for all the help!

 

hey, no problem. I try to actually be helpful on forums, and not just say "update your drivers". Although, in essence, that's kinda what i did xD.

the link to the drivers can be found here: Drivers | GeForce
You can ignore any guides you find online about "clean driver install procedures" as they are all outdated and do not pertain to Nvidia's current driver packaging/delivery/installation. Just download the .exe, run it and choose the clean install option from within the installer itself to delete any outdated/modified game profiles and other user data.

Lastly, for overclocking I highly suggest downloading MSI afterburner for the sake of simplicity/ease. You can set your speed and be done. Otherwise you have to mess with nvidiainspector's method of .bat files, manually setting clock offsets, voltage, and pstates and all that which can be unnecessarily daunting for new users (considering the simplicity of what you're trying to do...)

 

Alright thanks. I'll give you your first rep rank and welcome to the forums. They are both downloading.

Edit: When I try and run the 320.00 driver update it says 'No 7z found' ?

 

Hmm, that sounds like a corrupt download, as I've never run into that issue before. When clicking on the downloaded file, does it at least load the Nvidia green/black themed installer window or do you get that error before anything else? If so, you may want to redownload the file.

hehe thanks for the rep btw

 

it does launch the GUI then after I choose the location it no longer works. Also no problem. You have more rep than me, idk how

 

yeah I noticed I went from 1 to 4 in a post. not sure how that happened haha.

Looks like it could indeed be a corrupt download, check: http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/29209282/nvidia-driver-will-not-intall-referring-to-7-zip-

Also, if anyone else tinkers with the 650m sli + hyperthreading ON/OFF (though I dont know why anyone would considering most have the 750m version now T_T) could you let me know? I'd like to compare results.

 

I found the problem. This driver does not support the 750M, but only up to the 740M.

 

Ah, I see. That would explain it sorry I didn't know as I don't have the 750m machine (ffuuuuuuuuuuu...)

I guess you're playing the waiting game :/

 

the Msi afterburner seems to be working fine. is there a way I can check?

 

What I have found is there is one P state in Nvidia Inspector that shows you that +135 option and the option for memory. I think it was P2, can't be sure. But it is usually the one it shows when you click the overclocking option. Anyway, on the OC screen at the bottom left there is a button to create a shortcut. So you can set the offset and just click the option to make the shortcuts. No bat file needed.

 

@ibebyi

is 320 overclockable for 650m? any performance boost? i still have 310.09 now and thinking of updating drivers, but i'm just worried coz it's beta, but i might look past that if the improvement is justifiable. thanks!

 

I upgraded from 314.22 because of some issues I was having with OC'ing ability. Something changed in that driver that didn't allow me to OC using any currently available method. However after having moved to 320.00 I have my GPU's both clocked at 1120/2600 and I haven't gotten a single artifact or texture corruption or anything like that. It's fast. Like really fast. I mean two stock 650m's in SLI is already like a 670mx so with both of them clocked higher than 660m's you're going to get some pretty great gameplay I have witcher 2 playing at 1080p tuned to medium/high-ish settings (certainly not low), and it never drops below 50fps, and usually sticks to my 58fps cap (w/triple buffer) which is what I consider to be playable (somewhat high standards I suppose ) The one and only thing I hate about SLI is the amount of attention each game demands as far as tweaking settings is concerned so as to eliminate the damn microstutter (I'm pretty sure I have a different settings combos of Triple/double buffered vsync, with/without AFR smoothing, different fps caps, etc. on every single game) And Unreal engine games and Source games tend to stutter more on SLI than other engines do, but then again UE and Source games tend to be easier on the GPU so I have it set to Single-gpu mode. See what I mean? :/

 

Any of you guys care to run 3dmark11 on just one 750m and then again on an overclocked single 750m?

 

Ok and I will show the Tomb Raider Benchmark to get an idea of "real world" gains. I am on the Y400 so the TR benchmark is with 768p resolution and Nvidia Experience optimized settings.

Stock:
3dMark11 : P2961
Graphics : 2725
Physics : 7677
Combined : 2331

Tomb Raider:
Min: 48
Max: 82
Average: 63

Furmark Temps after about 10 mins : 78C


Overclock (135/300):
3dMark11 : 3255 (+10%)
Graphics : 3062 (+12%)
Physics : 6226( (-18%)
Combined : 2625 (+13%)

Tomb Raider:
Min:54 (+12.5%) (+6fps)
Max:92 (+12%) (+10fps)
Average: 71 (+13%) (+8fps)

Furmark Temps after about 10 mins : 88C

So the overclock for me (and I could maybe go higher on the memory clock) gives me about 12% more FPS (about 6-10 FPS), at a cost of about 10C in temps. Of course it all depends on the game and settings. Playing around I was able to bump some things up but ultimately I stuck with stock clocks. But I do have some room in the future to bump up those clocks and maybe squeeze some performance for later games.

 

oh thanks, pretty good overclock. I see your physics score went down, think cpu throttled from heat or power draw due to oced gpu

 

I was getting CRAZY microstuttering, jerking, and screen tearing in Soure Engine multiplayer games and World of Tanks despite a high frame rate when running in SLI. Running the game off of one GPU fixed it, but World of Tanks is pretty demanding and needs the performance boost of SLI. Thankfully, I have found a solution for SLI. What I did was enable and then disable Vsync from within the game. I never use Vsync because the input lag severely affects my reaction time but the glitching was so bad before this fix that I considered using it. I have no idea why this fix works or why this glitching only happens in certain games. For example, it doesn't happen in Source Engine singleplayer games. The only downside is that you have to perform this fix every time you start up the game, but it's not too much of a hassle for me. Let me know if this works for any of you guys experiencing this same problem.

 

vSync does the same to me! I brought this up to my techy fried and he said I was crazy! I knew I wasn't seeing things.