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Alienware 17 R1 (Late 2013) GTX980m Power Limiting


michaelgqld

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Hi everyone. I have had a bit of search around but I have not found anything yet pertaining to my issue. I have an Alienware 17 R1 (Late 2013 model). It originally came with an i7 4900, a GTX780m, 120hz 3D panel with intel graphics disabled. I have just got a Dell GTX980m 8GB (BIOS 84.04.2F.00.79 - Device ID 10DE 13D7-1028 05AE) and put it in and it works fine getting into windows and running 2D. However, when I run any decent 3D the graphics constantly hits power limiter and downclocks to around 800mhz. This is confirmed to be power limit in gpuz perfcap reason and this happens regardless of temperature. Running a Unigine benchmark has actually showed the card's performance to be just lower than the 780m I replaced. Using HWiNFO64 I have found that the GPU is being limited to 80 watts. It briefly goes up to over 100 watts but drops to 80.

Power Supply is 240 watt

This laptop always runs off mains power and the battery only lasts a few seconds regardless of apparent charge.

I should also mention that I have tried,
Setting nvidia control panel power management mode to prefer maximum performance.
Disabling Battery Boost in nvidia geforce experience
Setting windows power options to high performance
I have even installed a fresh windows 10 on a different hard drive and have observed the same result.

Has anyone else done this upgrade and had no issues, are there any known fixes, is this card faulty or just not going to work correctly.

Thanks

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  • Bios Modder
15 hours ago, michaelgqld said:

Hi everyone. I have had a bit of search around but I have not found anything yet pertaining to my issue. I have an Alienware 17 R1 (Late 2013 model). It originally came with an i7 4900, a GTX780m, 120hz 3D panel with intel graphics disabled. I have just got a Dell GTX980m 8GB (BIOS 84.04.2F.00.79 - Device ID 10DE 13D7-1028 05AE) and put it in and it works fine getting into windows and running 2D. However, when I run any decent 3D the graphics constantly hits power limiter and downclocks to around 800mhz. This is confirmed to be power limit in gpuz perfcap reason and this happens regardless of temperature. Running a Unigine benchmark has actually showed the card's performance to be just lower than the 780m I replaced. Using HWiNFO64 I have found that the GPU is being limited to 80 watts. It briefly goes up to over 100 watts but drops to 80.

Power Supply is 240 watt

This laptop always runs off mains power and the battery only lasts a few seconds regardless of apparent charge.

I should also mention that I have tried,
Setting nvidia control panel power management mode to prefer maximum performance.
Disabling Battery Boost in nvidia geforce experience
Setting windows power options to high performance
I have even installed a fresh windows 10 on a different hard drive and have observed the same result.

Has anyone else done this upgrade and had no issues, are there any known fixes, is this card faulty or just not going to work correctly.

Thanks

Hi!

To solve your issue try flash this vbios.

 

Edited by Klem
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Thanks for the quick reply. I am unable to download from this site at this point due to not enough posts but I also got the message:

Sorry, there is a problem

This attachment is not available. It may have been removed or the person who shared it may not have permission to share it to this location.

Is that the same bios from techpowerup? https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/167297/clevo-gtx980m-8192-141030

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Still the same issue, limiting at 80watts. Though it scores a bit better in firestrike, probably due to the undervolting allowing it clock higher before hitting limit.  I've even tried underclocking to lower the power draw but still as soon as it hits 80watts, it power throttles.

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Any other thoughts? Could the laptop maybe be limiting the card and it may need a modded bios? Are there any modded vbios that remove power limiting or maybe have a power slider?  Is there anyone that may be able to look at the standard bios I have? I am quite disappointed and honestly feel ripped off as I spent a fair bit to buy the card but I have basically gained little to no performance. The card performs nothing like reviewed benchmarks and as it seems the card physically works I doubt I can return it.

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  • Bios Modder
4 hours ago, michaelgqld said:

Any other thoughts? Could the laptop maybe be limiting the card and it may need a modded bios? Are there any modded vbios that remove power limiting or maybe have a power slider?  Is there anyone that may be able to look at the standard bios I have? I am quite disappointed and honestly feel ripped off as I spent a fair bit to buy the card but I have basically gained little to no performance. The card performs nothing like reviewed benchmarks and as it seems the card physically works I doubt I can return it.

You can try flash this vbios:  https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/200721/200721

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