Overclocking the MS-1722 Video Card - Report

After following the MS-1651 overclock thread, I've decided to write up a quick guide and post my experience with overclocking the MS-1722 video card (9600 GT).

MS-1651 thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=312248

The default clock speeds on this laptop are:

Core: 500 mhz, Shader Clock: 1250, Memory: 800

Current stable clocks are:

600, 1450, 850

Using nVidia driver 185.20 (modded inf from laptopvideo2go)

At this clock speed, my average FPS in Far Cry 2 went from 25-27 fps to 36-37 fps. Quite a jump. Every other game tested (Mirror's Edge, Bioshock, Oblivion, Fallout 3) runs noticibly faster as well.

Temps were 80-81 C max.

I was not able to get the card running stable at the clocks in the other thread, which were 650, 1650, 925. At these clocks, I only got 2 fps more and the screen would go black after about 5 minutes. Anyone who's assembled this laptop knows that while the GPU core is cooled well, the RAM is not (one RAM chip doesn't even get covered fully by the thermal pad. I suspect this is why it can't be pushed this high).

Some of you may notice that the 3D performance in games does not seem to be consistent. Fast one day, slow the next. This is because of two things:

First, make sure that your Power Scheme (XP) is set to "Home Office/Desk". This runs your CPU at full speed. The other schemes do not clock the CPU up sometimes.

Second, POWERMIZER... if you do not disable powermizer, even if you are plugged in, the laptop doesn't run the GPU at the 3D performance clocks, but the 3D battery clocks. Not sure why, but this happens to me.


Now, to overclock the machine, use: nibitor 4.8 and nvflash 5.72 to flash your VGA bios. I tried overclocking with ATI Tool and RivaTuner with lame results. ATI Tool does not adjust shader clock speeds, and RivaTuner doesn't let you clock high enough.

Download the latest NiBiTor and nvFlash here: mvktech.net (search and get the latest versions, I used nibitor 4.8 and nvflash 5.72).

LINK: NiBiTor ( http://www.mvktech.net/component/op...func,fileinfo/filecatid,2973/parent,category/)

nvFlash ( http://www.mvktech.net/component/op...func,fileinfo/filecatid,2887/parent,category/)

To flash, there are other guides on the forums, but I'll outline it here:

1. Create bootable USB or floppy drive
2. Copy nvflash to boot device
3. Boot into DOS
4. Run "nvflash -b OLDBIOS.ROM" (or create a .bat file and put that in it) - this dumps your BIOS onto the device
5. Boot back into Windows and run NiBiTor
6. File -> Open -> BIOS file. Choose "OLDBIOS.ROM"
7. Locate the core speeds in the "Extra section" (main screen)
8. You'll recognize the clocks (500, 1250, 800) - change them to 600, 1450, 850
-General overclocking rules say to step up to stable clocks, but my clocks of 600, 1450, 850 are pretty conservative. I can't imagine any MS-1722 not working with this. Even if this is too high, this will only give you problems in games. Your 2D clocks are unaffected.
10. Don't change anything else, click File -> Save BIOS. Save as "NEWBIOS.ROM"
11. Copy NEWBIOS.ROM to USB/floppy boot device.
12. Boot back into DOS.
13. Run the command "nvflash -A -j -4 -5 -6 NEWBIOS.ROM"
14. It will mention a PCI bus mismatch, this is okay, type "Y" and continue.
15. Takes 15 seconds to flash, beeps, your done.
16. Reboot into Windows.

Final Step: Run ATI Tool or games to test new clock speeds. Make sure your temps don't go above 80-85 C or you'll probably get a black screen and have to hard reboot.

Feel free to post success stories or comments. Do this at your own risk, and don't try it unless you understand exactly what I'm saying. I did this with no problems whatsoever on my MS-1722 barebones, so I know it works.

Also, if you find higher stable clocks on THIS MODEL (MS-1722), please share your experience. I did not spend a ton of time finding the max clock, I just found one that was a good increase in speed and I was very happy with the results (10+ fps is awesome!).

 

hello mate,

I set mine straight to 600/1500/900 with ntune and have had no problems at all. My peak temps are 80c.
My 3dmark06 went from 5200 to 6050 using 1280x1024 res.
Its made a big difference in forged alliance, crysis and DOW2 beta.

I was going to flash but as ntune worked so well and saves the settings I am not going to bother.

I am using Windows 7 64bit beta and the latest nvidia drivers from nvidia website (179 i believe)

 

Yeah, I had installed ntune but couldn't get it to show up in the nvidia control panel. (Win XP). I'll try out your clock speeds and see what happens

 

so what are the scores at these speeds?

 

zfactor - who are you asking? I have provided 3dmark06 scores for 600/1500/900. I can give you COH, crysis and FC benchmarks if you like but it will take me a while to run them

 

Question, If we overclock the video card, does it make the card use more energy? I noticed the 9600m GT is a 23W card and the 9700m GT is a 45W card, does overclocking the 9600m GT to the 9700m GT make it use 45W?

 

I'm not familiar with the max wattage of the MXM connector, but as far as I know, without hard modding the VC, you can't go above the set value. I saw some options in the VGA BIOS for voltages, etc., but it's really dangerous to mess with those.

In a nutshell, I believe that it will use more power overclocked (it has to, right?) but it will probably max out at the max wattage of the MXM connector. Maybe that's why I get black screens at higher clock speeds. Either that or temps are too high.

Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong on this.

 

you are right blaydes but it is not much unless you up your voltage.
my overclock of 600/1500/900 adds an extra 5 watts.

i dont think yours is anywhere near the mxm maximum as i believe we have mxm 3 slots even though the 9600m is a mxm 2 card

 

Thanks Ninja, you've answered a question I had about the MXM slot we have versus the card.

I just can't get those clocks stable on my laptop. While every video card is not exactly as robust as the next, I understand that some drivers run the card hotter than others. I'm on 185.20, modded inf. Might try Dox's 185.20.

It's probably only a 2-3 fps increase at this point, but if I can get those clocks at cooler temps, that would be nice.

 

Just installed Dox's 181.22 drivers and temps are 5-6 C cooler (80-81 max). Sounds like we need to wait for the 185's to mature before jumping on them (at least I do). 85-86 C is just too hot for my liking.