Need some help with my MSI GT60

Hey Guys,

Recently received my baby brand new from GentechPC. The specs of the laptop are down below in my sig. I'd just like to kindly ask for some help with regards to the following issues:

1. Backlit Keyboard: So, after about a week of using it, I notice that about 4/5 keys on my laptop have a slight green tinge to half of the lights behind those keys. This has the effect of darkening the hue and color saturation on them, so that they stand out amongst the other keys. The keys in question are, my space bar, right alt key, right control , right arrow key and the 0/insert key on the number pad. Under the white backlit color, the green colored light can be seen ever so slightly beneath the keys on half of the key's lights. Is there any way that I could correct this? It is not a major grievance but I don't want to possibly ignore something that could allude to a bigger problem.

2. Secondly, overclocking the GPU. From what I've seen, most use Afterburner and are able to comfortably max out the core clock and memory clock relatively easily. However, when I try to do it, namely, when I try to raise the memory clock past +600, my driver( 326.80) fails and reverts back to standard. Also, the times I have managed to get the clock speed up to the max of 135, the max heat levels rose by more than 10 degrees Celsius in most cases. How to I effectively overclock the GPU? Is the memory clock even that important? Or, could it be the fault of the beta drivers?

3. Thirdly, when overclocking my cpu I have managed to max it to 3.6 and have it run stably, but again the heat trade off - performance gain was not really evident. So I attempted to undervolt it and have come to realise that I must be doing something wrong. I lowered the Dynamic CPU voltage Offset by -5 along with the Processor Cache Voltage Offset to the same degree and going all the way up to-75/-50 not once was I able to keep my system stable, without crashing. In fact, for the minutes it ran under load while undervolted this way I am pretty sure the CPU ran hotter, reaching as high as 88 degrees which it never got to prior to the change. So can anyone assist me as to how I would go about trouble shooting this process?

4. Lastly, after requesting a clean Windows 8 install for my system I am wary that some of MSI's proprietary software was omitted. For example, before downloading the driver, I had no idea whether Hybrid Power was in operation on my machine. I since then install the driver, and activate it by using the shortcut on my desktop. Am I supposed to be doing it that way? I was under the impression it would be automatic. Worst yet, I have not seen any difference what so ever in performance.

Should also be noted that I updated my Bios and EC Firmware since receiving the laptop a week ago.

Thanks in advance for any assistance given. If you need me to post any additional info please let me know. Peace !

 

1. Can't comment on this one, I do not have the issue.

2. If I'm not mistaken, Afterburner has the memory clock shown as single bus speed. Given the GTX 770M's VRAM is running at 1000 MHz stock, trying to increase it by 60% is not realistic. As for the GPU temperatures, it's expected to see it rise considerably since increasing the core's boost speed to 935 MHz would make your GPU effectively a desktop Geforce GTX 650 Ti. That's a lot of heat to dissipate in a laptop.

3. Don't mess with the Cache voltage, adjust the Dynamic voltage offset only. As with any PC components, your luck will vary -- some may only be stable up to -50 mV of their reference voltage, but others may be able to drop -150 mV without issues.

4. No comment for this one as I don't use Hybrid power.

 

1.- I say most keyboards have this tint, due to how they placed the LEDs. Mine has those keys with a greenish tint, and it has been reported by several users on the exact same keys.
2.- Memory clocks affect directly memory bandwidth which helps when playing at high resolution with AA, AF etc effects among other things. You don't need to focus too much on this. I don't even advise trying something so incredibly high as +600mhz out of the blue, thats a massive overclock. Keep the clocks down, those memory clocks will have less impact after a while, than the core clocks. Overclocking will always rise your temps. Depending on the game, your max temps will vary as not all games tax your hardware the same. If you are running high temps, do not overclock. Your stock GPU already overclocks itself from the stock due to nvidia's turbo clock, and you are overclocking further. If you don't need the extra frame or two, don't risk it if you have high temps. A small but effective overclock is stable, and has temps under control. I advise to use turbofan if you overclock.

3.- Only do one undervolt at a time, I am running -80/-50/-10 completely stable. Do not overclock the CPU and undervolt it at the same time. Undervolt first your dynamic cpu voltage and test. Remember that your CPU and GPU have a bridge together, if you tax one, the other will get hot too, so if you had a hot GPU and ran a demading CPU task, it will get hotter than only taxing the CPU with a cool GPU. If doing the exact same task with a stock CPU, letting it cool down, and then trying it undervolted is resulting in higher temps, something is wrong. Remember that not all CPUs are the same, some might not get lower undervolts.

4.- Hybrid power is automatic. The program only shows you when it's running as far as I can tell. I haven't opened it in a long while and my battery gets consumed when I OC my GPU.

 

Ah I thought it was just me with the keyboard as various vids I see of the laptop do not have the visible tint.

I'll dial down the memory clock to about 4-5 hundred then for stability and max out the core clock thanks.

As for undervolting, I did attempt only touching the Dynamic voltage but even that was unstable, not sure why I could not even get -5mV but maybe it was as you said I was overclocking it and undervolting it at the same time so I'll try a gradual increase. How do you propose I do it though?

For Hybrid power I guess I can just leave it as is without starting the program.

Thanks Ryzeki and Micaiah.

 

You will to go with one or the other, either overclock the CPU at stock voltage or undervolt it at stock clock speed. Trying to undervolt and overclock at once would be counterproductive to what you are trying to achieve, as lowering the CPU's voltage would take away any extra speed you can get out of it, and an overclocked CPU would consume more power and generate more heat.

 

Yea I am thinking that I will leave the cpu at stock and try to undervolt it. I think I got confused because it seemed as though others were achieving both, that is, overclocking it while undervolting at the same time. Guess I was wrong.

 

Unless you use your notebook often for heavy load scenarios, I highly recommend undervolting at stock speed. For me, it makes the most difference on a day to day basis; my 4700MQ now runs between 0.5v to 0.9v pending on load and the fan is now inaudible at idle or low load. I've been tempted to trade this CPU for a 4702MQ just to see if I can make it run at less than 30 watt TDP.

 

I should really consider undervolting my cpu...... does it make such a significant difference in temps. (saw your post micaiah on the other thread)
Also, does undervolting affect performance? I've done this on my desktop, but would like to be sure about notebooks, lol.

 

I also have the greenish tint in some of the keys in the bottomest row. I have also purchased from GenTech PC, so if it isn't a design flaw (which I believe is the issue), it might have to do with a bad batch gentech has (to me, quite unlikely)

 

It is possible to overclock a CPU and undervolt it at the same time. So you can maintain the same heat and envelope as a stock processor but increase her performance, in some cases you can even decrease the amount of power/heat and have some smaller gains on the performance side. Of course this has gotten more complicated these past few years with much more fluid/dynamic values, and raises two potential sources of instability instead of one. In a desktop it's still much easier due to the ability to lock down many of the functions which cause those fluctuations, on notebooks, accessing those functions becomes much harder. In any case, it's much easier to simply find the overclocking maximum and undervolting maximum.

What is interesting is that a processor that overclocks well doesn't necessarily undervolt well, and a processor that undervolts well doesn't always overclock well.

Doing both is only something for those who have a lot of time on their hands to test different configurations/combinations only because with two variables; you have a freakishly large number of potential combinations and due to the above variations (regarding overclocking and undervolting potentials) it becomes really a massive trial and error testfest.

 

Yes there is tweaking room for both directions, especially with lower CPUs like the 4700MQ.