***The Official MSI GT80 Titan Owner's Lounge***

Pretty sure I still have the recovery partition, I think it just only works when Windows 8 is installed, something for people to keep in mind.

So I just made a stupid mistake but I'm all set now. Raid0 working, but I just put it on all 4 drives because I was running out of patience.

I'm sure none of this would have happened if I didn't make one, stupid, dreadful mistake. After installing the raid, I didn't only change the boot type away from Legacy to the other one, I also changed the sata mode back to ahci from raid... whoops! Stupid, thought I had to change both options back. I'm sure that's the only problem and otherwise the Win10 USB drive I had setup would've worked.

I can't go back to Windows 8. Even though Windows 10 has obvious problems, there is something really wrong with the DPI/zoom settings that cause blurryness that I talked about before.

Couple things to keep in mind about Windows 8/Windows 10 stuff - The BurnRecovery Software won't likely work as ISOs/USBs unless you have like 5 of them, you are better off burning those ISOs if you're ever going to use them.

If you clean install Windows 10 your key for whatever reason becomes invalid, it's a known issue they have been "working" on for over a month

 

Any decent tool even the free ones you can find should lead you through the process, you are not required to use MSI's software after all.

 

Meaker, there is no reason to suggest people not use MSI BurnRecovery.

It's tough enough getting people to make a recovery backup, even when it takes 1 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive, one click, and 20 minutes.

MSI BurnRecovery comes installed, and the MSI Reminder app pop's up and keeps reminding them to use it, and still people end up not doing it and lose their recovery partition.

Suggesting people download and install additional software to do something they don't realize they need to do, introduces too many hurdles for them to jump.

Using the already installed MSI BurnRecovery is simpler and is faster than installing Macrium Reflect, learning how to use it, and following the steps required to create a restore boot/recovery USB device. And, Macrium Reflect is much more involved to use on the restore.

One button to start BurnRecovery vs many inputs and decisions and clicks to use Macrium Reflect.

 

Head tracking, used in games like project cars, arma 3 etc.

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

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chronoshift, Windows 8.1 as it comes on the GT80 has a couple of easy things to change / uninstall to avoid the blurriness. Text is sharp at 100% Desktop setting.

Uninstall the MSI Scale app, and when the MSI Boot config popup comes up change from 125% default to 100%, then uninstall MSI Boot config and MSI Reminder.

Go to the Display Control Panel and check the set Scaling for all monitors - "Let me choose one scaling level for all my Dsplays", and then select 100%.



You can then use ClearText, go through the visual setup, and that will darken text as you desire for reading.

You don't need to go to Windows 10 for clear readable text

 

Here's what I got on the new raid0

 

lol, windows 10 has worse blurry text problems than windows 8... i just hate windows 8, like everything else about windows 10 for the most part besides the blurriness

 

Can you show some samples with blurry text?

 

chronoshift, looks good, 3x RAID0 performance as expected.

We use CrystalDiskMark 3.0.4 to compare performance, the different versions show different results.

Here are the M600 x4 and Evo 850 x4 results with CrystalDiskMark 3.0.4:

M600 512GB x4 CrystalDiskMark 3.0.4


Evo 850 500GB x4 CrystalDiskMark 3.0.4


Many measurements have been done with 3.0.4, and are easy to compare going way back.

For example, here is the M600 512GB x4 on CrystalDiskMark 5.0.2, which shows a much higher result:



It's nice to see the higher result, but difficult to compare against years of previous results.

There are 2 things you can do to improve the score, optimize using a good optimizer like Raxco Perfect Disk (30 day demo free), and use Intel RST tool to enable Write Back cache. That is how I get my highest scores.

 

chronoshift, Windows 8.1 / 10 can be made much more livable with 1 improvement, use ClassicShell to restore the StartMenu.

Then you can have clearer text again under Windows 8.1, and wait for Windows 10 to mature - along with all the drivers and apps that need fixing. Truly, it is too early to move to Windows 10

Did you use a tool like CrystalDiskInfo to watch the temperatures of the M.2 SSD's?

The idle temp for 2 Evo 850 M.2 drives, SD0 and SD1 slots occupied, is 45c. My 2.5" Samsung 840 Pro is 34c.

 

There's a setting for resolution in display settings. It is 125% or 150% by default. If you lower it to 100% you will remove the blur issue.

 

I didn't have any or many blurry issues with Windows 8 and used Classic Shell as well, however Windows 10 is just cooler/nicer, don't feel like going back!

I've tried the resolution settings mentioned, the windows10 dpi fix, cleartext, pretty much everything, many times, it's still not as clear as it should be.

I don't really have an example, but an easy test is to use all Windows10 default settings, everything should look fine in Microsoft Edge, Windows Explorer, etc, Chrome might be weird, but install Skype it is 100% a noticible blurryness. You have to go into Skype.exe properties and disable high DPI scaling then it's fine. So it's either do this for every program you think is blurry, or use the other fixes mentioned above which still do not provide a totally clear screen.

Also the fix for scaling to 100% isn't great because then it goes from not being blurry to being too small on my eyes to read! And most things don't take up most of the screen. I am a chronic multi-tabber but prefer just one window per screen, not this new age multi window look, which I don't use on my Note 4 either.

 

ok, had to scoop one of these up via newegg (open box 980m SLI for $2599) but with 20 days left uncertain if keeping. Love the mechanical keyboard, but it is a monster... Also, my 3dmark11 scores of around 11500 or so aren't higher than my old Aorus x7 Pro (970ms). If I'm not mistaken some of you were posting scores in the 1600s or so. I only have the 2.6ghz cpu, but wondering if i'm missing something else here? running the 353.60 driver since the latest 355 keeps causing a crash. maybe i just thought the Titan would net me significantly higher scores than a 6.7 pound Aorus? Weighing returning it and just getting the X7 Pro with G-sync. still, the keyboard is the beez-kneez.

 

Ya something is going on since a stock Titan sli pulls 13000+ at stock clocks in 3dmark so I would think 16000 in 3dmark 11 isn't asking to much at all.

I would first look at temps and power profiles being active. What cpu does it have so we know what to expect?

Test and tune thread here also
http://forum.notebookreview.com/index.php?threads/773245/

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johnnobts, if you read the many benchmark results, beside the scores you will see numbers like 980m +135 GPU +350 Mem, and XTU settings 41x x 4 -20mV 37x cache +0.9mV.

Those are the tuning settings for the GPU/Memory and CPU. Increasing performance by using the MSI Afterburner for GPU tuning, and Intel XTU (Extreme Tuning Utility) for CPU - to unlock/restore core/cache multipliers.

That gives us the bump up from stock results.

I don't have your CPU, so I don't know what the additional multiplier increase is, but you can download and install XTU 5.2.0.14 (6.x for Windows 10 gave me trouble on Windows 8.1 so stick with the 5.x series for now), and look at the Manual Tuning settings for what maximum CPU cores multiplier and cache multiplier you have.

On the 4700HQ series I could max out core multipliers, while also undervolting the CPU, but with Broadwell 5950HQ I can only run stable at 40x x4 cores with 37x cache - before I need to start adding voltage - overvolting - instead of undervolting - but then the gains are partially lost to heat.

You will need to experiment to find the top multiplier for your CPU, but when you do, please do publish the info here and/or in the Fire Strike results thread for the GT80.

As for the GPU, typically Nvidia GPU's will run at full GPU clock increase available of +135 - although some examples of the GPU's might only do somewhere between 120-130 to start, before they "burn-in". Mine would only do +120 GPU and +250 Mem to start, but after a few hours of running I was able to bump up to +135 GPU and +385 Mem (but run at +350 outside benchmarking).

Also, one simple tweak you can do immediately, is to run the High Performance Power Plan instead of the default Balanced Power Plan - for me that gives a 3-5fps or more boost for many games and also boosts the scores in benchmarks.

Here are the downloads:

XTU 5.2.0.14 - Intel is only hosting the new 6.0.2.2
http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/MOTHERBOARD/Intel/Intel-Extreme-Tuning-Utility-52014.shtml#download

MSI Afterburner 4.1.1 - clock the Downloads tab...
http://gaming.msi.com/features/afterburner

The Aorus is cool looking, but hot running, large means more cooling space and hopefully longer life.

And, is the Aorus providing GPU upgrades for the next 2 generations of Nvidia GPUs?

Please come back and let us know how it works out

 

johnnobts, did you get the SLI-253? If so you got a great price, as newegg still has them for $3239.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152808&cm_re=gt80-_-34-152-808-_-Product

And the SLI-263 goes for $3699.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152807

With tuning, my SLI-263 got 18,281 on 3dmark11.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10169847

The CPU does make a difference, so select the High Power Plan and run the tests again, and see if you get a nice bump up.

Then try tuning the CPU/GPU as I posted earlier.

For the price you got, you should pursue making it work right

Even if you need to RMA to MSI to get it right, it would still be worth it.

Please come back and let us know how it works out.

 

Well, I still have a couple weeks to keep the GT80. Its the 2.6ghz haswell cpu. I'm hoping to get my hands on the Aorus Pro with G-sync next week as well and make a decision. Its nice to have a good line of credit and free restocking and returns with newegg.

 

Lol you can do that?

 

why wouldn't he be able to? Haha. Newegg has a 30 day return policy

 

The 4720HQ with 980m should be scoring around 13600 on stock. GPU scores should be around 19200+ and CPU scores around 9600. Your CPU should be running at max turbo speed on stock, basically 99% of the time, so you are actually on 3.4+ghz cpu.

Aorus will surely run into temperature issues faster than the titan, but other than that, 970m SLI is 20 or so % shy out of a stock 980m.

 

I know exactly what you mean regarding the blurryness in Windows 10. Something is definitely wrong. It happened to me on my GT80 as well as my lenovo. Between updating drivers, I saw icons get bigger and looking sharp, but after rebooting, I got the smaller blurry icons, or weird titles in windows/folders that simply look off the frame.

Personally I can't use Win10 yet. It seems worse than 8.1 with classic shell for me, and I have even less options/ have more difficulty locating alot of things. To each their own, but for me, windows 10 is still very buggy/slow experience. My Lenovo T540p with Core i7 4800mq and a Samsung 850 evo 500GB actually feels slower with Windows 10 than with Windows 7. So I use it with my work machine but I reverted my titan back to windows 8.

The only faster thing I noticed was with my titan, which was a faster boot. Everything else is the same or slower.

 

Hi guys!

I've had my gt 80 titan 253 with the broadwell 5700hq and 980 sli now for almost 2 weeks now, LOVE IT!

I only have 1 complaint.... it seems in any game, doesn't really matter what (i've tried smite, blops 3, gta v, the new dirt rally and bf4) I get ever so slight stutter every 15-25 seconds. I haven't had an sli system now for about 5 years but i dont remember this type of stutter.. it's very slight but definitely noticable especially in fast moving games... the games are all installed on the m.2 in raid 0 that it came with.. I was wondering if anyone else has noticed this and what i might be able to do in order to fix it... Thank you all in advance!

 

I have a GT 80 980m sli and broadwell cpu. I have upgraded the memory to 32GB and replaced the original m.2 ssd and HD.

The issue I am having is that I cannot seem to figure out how to flash the BIOS.

I boot up into bios using F2, select the bios update function and point at the BIOS flash file on a USB stick. BIOS tells me it has to reboot and I agree. The GT80 reboots, the KB flashes red twice, but the screen stays blank. Then the GT 80 boots normally.

I am at a loss, any help is appreciated.

P.

 

Just a few things to start troubleshooting. Do you have v-sync enabled or disabled? Have you tried a completely clean install of the nvidia drivers? I would install MSI afterburner and do some logging to see if you can pinpoint anything.

Do not use Avast antivirus either as it has cased issues of this matter too.

 

psimoon, you were very detailed about the steps you took, but didn't mention unzipping the BIOS file. You need to copy the unzipped bare file to the USB flash drive.

Before you do this, can you please post the BIOS you are on, and the one you are trying to update to?

One of the Broadwell BIOS updates reduces the power down temperature from 105c to 100c, which will affect your thermal throttling - it will happen sooner.

The 5950HQ/5700HQ CPU's are rated from Intel for 105c, the old Haswells were rated 100c. I am not sure why MSI has taken it upon themselves to mess this up, but be warned.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/87716,87720

After updating I started seeing Thermal Throttling at settings I didn't see it before.

I opened a case with MSI support, and I got a zip file from MSI support to downgrade the BIOS back from MSI in only 1 hour - amazing response time.

I can't tell if it helped. It's possible the 105C->100C setting tweaked by the BIOS update didn't revert when reverting the BIOS to the original version.

I wouldn't update unless you have an actual fix in mind that is done through a BIOS update.

MSI says don't install a BIOS upgrade unless directed by MSI support. So you should ask them whether you need to update your BIOS, before you do it, and no I didn't ask

My original BIOS was E1812IMS.10F updated to E1812IMS.113, and then rolled back to E1812IMS.10F.

If you aren't tuning your CPU with XTU/TS, and don't want to explore running faster than 41x, then don't worry about it, and go ahead and follow through with MSI about updating your BIOS.

As a further note, the TDP of the CPU at 47w really doesn't allow the CPU to reach it's full performance, as configured with MSI's BIOS. The 5950HQ CPU can be tuned to 44x/43x/43x/43x but as set up by MSI it won't reach that. Also, the max cache setting seems to be 37x, anything above that reboots immediately.

This all may be due to my particular 5950HQ, if anyone has managed to get their 5950HQ to run faster than 41x without thermal/power throttling, please let us know

Please come back and let us know how it works out

 

Not using any anti virus, have used the guru 3d to remove drivers and re install a clean slate... i have xtu installed but no modifications to it at all. also i stopped the msi hardware polling because i thought that might have been the issue... I'm really at a loss right now, have tried disabling the realtek audio, same effect... i'm really beginning to worry here

edit: this is noticeable where vsync is on or off.... i dont really use vsync... but i do have it on in smite, tried it with it off and same result... I'll have to see if i can get decent log file from afterburner to see if you guys can see anything.... it seems to me it might be cpu related or hard drive... not sure

edit 2: anyone else experiencing this? the stutter is super minor but just enough to notice and piss you off because it ruins the flow of gameplay...... I've rolled back drivers - still no go
I dont know what else to do, I'm thinking at this point to try a clean windows 10 64 install.....although i'm not sure it will help

 

Swifta, the only lag issue I have seen is with the network, induced by the Killer Bandwidth control. IDK if it is specifically going to fix what you are seeing, but it needs to be done and might be your fix too.

Uninstall your Killer Suite software, and install the latest drivers only version.

Or, download the latest Killer Suite software, and disable / change 2 things in the Killer app settings to stop bandwidth shaping for all networks, and select high throughput for Wifi.

Killer Drivers for Killer Wireless-AC, Killer Wireless-N, and Killer E2200/E2400
http://www.killernetworking.com/support/driver-downloads

Drivers Only - this is an older version, for now I wouldn't use it, use the full suite and disable the Killer Features after install.

Re-run the installer and uncheck the options for the Killer Software.




Or,

disable bandwidth control


set the Wifi to high throughput


The other things to look for are anti-virus or other software that regularly introduces load on the IO / CPU. Configure Windows indexing to be minimal (delete all indexed areas and remake the index), stop auto-updates in all software, disable/unconfigure media indexing in applications like Cyberlink apps, other media players, stop all other automatically run tools, disable pagefile (set to 0), and hyberfil.sys (as admin run: powercfg /h off), watch processes via Task Manager "Open Resource Monitor" in another Window while gaming.

Please come back and let us know how it works out

 

Thank you so much, sorry I didn't search, I did google it but didnt' know it had anything to do with the killer LAN.... Thanks so much for posting the help and not just telling me to use the search function... seriously can't thank you enough... going to try this now and will report back

 

Swifta, please pay it forward

Also, refresh the page when you come back, I have been updating the post with other things to look for if this doesn't solve what you are seeing - basically look for something else running / doing IO while you are gaming.

I recommend tuning/tweaking all the things I mention anyway, it's just a good base to game from - stop everything else from running when you are gaming.

Please let us know what combination of things fixes it completely for you

 

I am in the process of doing this, I didn't even have the killer suite installed, and now I installed it and followed the 3rd thing you said to try where i untick bandwidth control... this didn't work so i'm going back through your post to see what else to try. I'm so hoping this works cuz it's driving me insane, i'm about ready to return this laptop if i can't fix this, it just ruins the whole point of it.

 

Update: haven't been able to fix issue. Tried all the different combinations that you mentioned and absolutely no help. I am now in the process of re installing windows 10 64... will update soon

Edit 1: This was happening from when i first got the system. It's just lately I put the monitor at 90hz and so that made it even more obvious. It's super frustrating... I'm really wondering if anyone else is experiencing this. It's pretty subtle but annoying enough to ruin the gaming experience... I'm so hoping this complete re install of windows 10 is going to fix it... if not then I think i'm gonna give up.....

 

Do you have the issue in win 8.1? Or have you been running win 10 with these issues?

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Running windows 10 64 bit

 

I would say go back to 8.1 and test.

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I'm in the process of installing dirt rally again right now to see what's going on and then if it still doesn't work then i'll have to install 8.1 later tonight

Update: Sigh still happening.... in a fresh install of 10 with only drivers and game installed ... more people have to be experiencing this.... if not then maybe i have something defective?

Update2: Disabled pagefile, still doing it... at this point i'm failry sure it's cpu or hdd, just not sure which and what is causing it

can you guys look at some fast moving games like smite or a racing type game or cs go, just something where there are pretty fast moving images and see if it's doing the same thing... please

 

FIXED!!!!!

Wow, I can't believe I overlooked such a simple thing.... turned sli off and all stutter is completely gone... I'm still going to test smite too in order to make sure but I've been able to run 2 rally stages now without any stutter or hiccup at all, which was impossible with sli on.... SO, I think this may be a driver issue that needs attention fast from nvidia, we might be having the same problems the desktop drivers had with memory alotment and usage in the 355.60 drivers.... although i did roll back with sli on to see if it made a difference and the previous drivers had same effect in SLI so it could just be sli stutter... i'll check a couple more games and post back For now it feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.... phew! thanks for all your help to those out there who took the time to give me advice and what to do/check

 

We understand the feeling

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Sadly, some games just aren't SLI friendly. Getting better all the time, just not quite there yet.

 

Yes, I have unzipped the file for the base bios on a fresh USB stick. I am using BIOS that came stock with the GT 80, I do not recall which is the exact one. I was trying to go to E1812IMS.113.

I was having issues with Win 10 install failing and thought maybe something in the BIOS was causing the hang up. I eventually did an "upgrade" to 10 keeping nothing from the 8.1 settings. That install worked so it was not the BIOS, maybe. After having to install win 10 multiple times due to issues/bugs, I went back to 8.1. Good thing I had my backup media.

Of note, if you have a 8.1 recovery partition, it will not work if you have updated to win 10. Found that out the hard way, then the backups and restore points would not work. Long story short, I am sticking with 8.1 for the foreseeable future.

P.

 

I don't think SLI is your problem. I am not having any stutter at all and I have SLI 965's. I think you are having something in the background running taking up a ton of your performance or you are having network issues. Here is my Killer throughput.

 

Swifta, are you working from a custom / self Windows install? The SLI-263 came with Killer Suite installed... I think others have mentioned the same. What was installed for Wifi/Ethernet drivers?

Besides the Killer Suite, noone has mentioned these symptoms, so it could be related to your OS install. Which Windows are you running?

The good news is since noone else is complaining of such lags, you should be able to solve it

You could try restoring the original OS install, and see if the problem goes away. If you haven't spent much time configuring yet, that is the quickest way back to a stable out of the box config.

If it is hardware related, there might be error messages of interest in the System log files.

 

Well I've spent some decent time gaming on it now and since i've disabled sli there is absolutely no stuttering... I'll enable it again real quick and see if it comes back, i'll report back in a few. I am on a stand alone windows 10 install, did not install any drivers from MSI, didn't even install the intel drivers from the msi website because i wanted as little as possible to be on the laptop so it would be easier to figure things out. brb

 

Glad to hear you got it worked out

The recovery partition might have still been there, but you would need to install Windows 8.1 + BurnRecovery app to see if it would find it. But, good thing you made the BurnRecovery restore USB backup before doing the upgrade

 

Swifta, you might want to consider dropping back to the stable MSI Windows 8.1 configuration, and live on that, if the problems are bothering you, as there are likely going to continue to be problems with Windows 10, Windows 10 drivers, and Windows 10 Nvidia drivers moving forward, for a number of months.

Unless you have to have Windows 10 for some unknown reason, what could it be?, there really is nothing that Windows 10 has to offer right now, except a source for problems to debug

At least you know you don't need to take your GT80 back, you just need to rollback to Windows 8.1.

Update: Old trick, turn off Physx auto, and set it to the CPU, that might fix the stutter in Win10.

 

Well after turning sli on again... LOL sure enough stutters are back. I'll get a clean windows 8.1 install going since i have some time now and I'll let you guys know if it makes a difference in SLi.....actually i might just do it tomorrow, i'm pretty spent tonight and just kinda wanna relax lol

 

Swifta, old trick with SLI issues, set Physx from Auto to CPU - off-loads / balances GPU's - one last thing to try

 

In my case Windows 10 was not causing stuttering, but instead games stopped working after 3 days of using it. I am curious as to try updating but the prospect of having to deal with issues is keeping me with window 8.

 

-----

LOL I never did get the BIOS to flash to the E1812IMS.113. For some reason the BIOS just will not flash for me. I hope it is just a temporary thing as I am sure I will need to flash at some point in the future. To reiterate, I am still using the stock BIOS that came with my GT80 SLI-263.

Thanks for the help.

 

Ok I have to come clean, I didn't create a backup of the Msi loaded 8.1 before I went to 10..... (Stupid stupid stupid) am I SOL? I haven't looked through the CDs that came with the laptop yet but I assume there ain't one with a factory image.... Any ideas other than try to contact the seller and see if I can get one from him? Thanks for your help guys... And a just a small update, the games run perfectly fine still with sli disabled and random stutters begin again when it's enabled, also noticed when sli is enabled my 2nd gpu is about 8-10 degrees hotter than gpu 1.... Unless it's under load when the gap closes to about 4-5...

 

You can download an ISO from microsoft and just do a fresh install. Just make sure you have the wireless drivers on a usb stick or disk.