7970m Performance Issues with MSI 16F2 Notebook

Hello all!!

I have an issue with my MSI 16F2... In Far Cry 3, I can run it at a stable 50-60 fps then a few minutes later it'll slow down to about 15-19 fps for about 5 seconds then return to normal. This happens about every 5-7 minutes. I have logged it in hwinfo and I'm seeing inconsistencies with GPU utilization, while in game it will range from 99% (max) to 0% (min), which doesn't seem right.

On a second note, I've tried this card in my M17x R2 and it doesn't have any issues. No stutter and the logs shows a consistent GPU utilization of >99% during gameplay.

Notes:

• Currently running undervolted vBIOS (1.075v) @ stock clocks.
• I don't believe it's driver related. I've tried 12.8, 13.1 and 13.2 with the same results.
• I recently modded a Delta 240W PSU (for AW) for use with my MSI notebook. So it shouldn't be a power issue..

Does this have anything to deal with the iGPU in the Sandy Bridge CPU? I'm out of ideas on this one..

Any help is much appreciated

 

What are your temperatures like? What fan profile are you using?

 

Stock voltage for 7970M is 1.05V. If Your card runs at 1.075V, it is overvolted, which is completely unnecessary while running at stock clocks. Some people in the Sager/Clevo section reported, that they were overvolting the 7970M to 1.075V to reach 1GHz on the core. I run my card at 1.0V@920MHz and I'm happy with it.
IMHO the symptoms You described sound very much like thermal throttling of the card. Try to change the core voltage to stock 1.05V, or even 1.0V and see if that helps.

 

Here are my results after I flashed back to the stock vBIOS (@1.05V). I'm still seeing the same in game results. I've uploaded (GoogleDocs) two spreadsheets logs from HWiNFO that show it slowing down when the CPU VID drops, which in turn drops each cores clock, fluctuates core temp, and drops both CPU package power and IA Cores Power. Results are near the bottom, times are highlighted in green.

I've also attached the ThrottleStop (v5.00) log, but I didn't see any fluctuations there.

Test 1 (Results near bottom)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At8q2NK3yE89dENxVnBVQ1FLcDU5YjdlV3p1ZzlqYmc&usp=sharing

Test 2 (Results near bottom)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At8q2NK3yE89dGJUbXlJMFpza3NkbnpaTVFlSEUweUE&usp=sharing

ThrottleStop Log (Ran in tandem with Test 2)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17NTs-B1YySMBPD8ItmIpPA_bCFGstukCCcfVQ_HkjqI/edit?usp=sharing

 

Should I try disabling SpeedStep within the BIOS? Not sure if that would affect anything..

 

In Test 2, the "Total CPU utilization" column depicts higher than average CPU usage at the time of slowdown. It might indicate, that some background process is using the laptop's computing power at that time, hence the slowdown. It might be antivirus or backup software, or anything else.

It definitely looks like a software issue, as according to the reports, neither Your CPU nor GPU are overheating.

Try using some software that disables background processes upon starting a game (i.e. Razer Game Booster) and see if that helps.

Another thing that comes to my mind is a possible power setting issue. Core parking, perhaps? You may try disabling it.

 

I'll try that Razer Game Booster.

How would I disable Core Parking?

 

Another quick update, I went into BIOS and disabled SpeedStep and its definitely running a lot smoother and I don't see the CPU drop its clock from 2.2GHz to 800MHz. I'm able to run Far Cry 3 stable for 20+ minutes.

 

Speedstep controls CPU turbo so with it disabled your CPU never tries to turbo up, it then seems it gets itself too hot and has to throttle itself down to save itself from damage. I suggest you check out if your CPU cooler needs some cleaning or a re-paste.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're saying, with SpeedStep disabled my CPU (2670qm) will never go into Turbo mode? I monitored it with HWiNFO and I definitely saw the cores reaching their Max Turbo Freq. of 3.1GHz.

I just re-pasted both the GPU and CPU yesterday using ICD. Temperatures seem to have dropped by a few degrees but I'm still having the same performance issues (only in Far Cry 3).

 

Download and instal ThrottleStop 4.0 turn it ON.

 

Thanks it solves the problem