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[M14x R2] - VBIOS mod for higher boost clocks - TEST VERSIONS ONLY


svl7

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m15chief, your CPU doesn't affect your 3Dmark11 score very much. But truthfully, you're better off with a slower chip in this sort of notebook. The performance difference is very small and they put out less heat. A high end CPU isn't really neccessary to feed the mid-range GPU. Shared cooling means that less CPU heat means the cooler can dissipate more heat from your GPU (which is why ratinox is testing without boost to eliminate this as a possible issue).

I've run a lot of tests on my m14x R2 and it's not throttling under any load I put it under so I'm running with turbo boost enabled. It's nice to see what a little tweaking can do, this is nearly GTX 675m performance. I can see why Nvidia locked these down.

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Thanks chaps, tried with both and the difference is marginal, some gentle messing and 1150/1280 seems to be the sweet spot. 3d11 score of a shade over 3200 with no artefacting.

I left turbo on, can see in the bios that it will throttle at 85c and I never get close to that. Hwmon and gpu-z logs show only as high as 72c even on intensive load for long periods. (Sniper v2, hitman, ghost warrior and black ops on high settings)

Also using ic diamond repaste and a coolermaster u3 so all good thermally.

I also noticed an improvement in my score by around 400pts even without clocking after the new a11 bios was flashed.

Thanks for all the effort put into the unlocked bios, very much appreciated.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk 2

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There is no option to disable battery charging. If I recall correctly, there have been some questions on this over at notebookreview.com and Luis @ Alienware answered that this feature is not necessary on the R2 because it doesn't charge the battery if the battery is full. You can search for that post over there if you like, I may be remembering it wrong.

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Hi guys - this is an excellent thread :)

I notice a few people disable turbo boost completely to get the temps down. I found that in CPU demanding games this affects fps quite a bit, going from 3.4GHz down to 2.4. By setting the multipliers in Throttlestop to about 3.1GHz I get about 5-6 degrees temp reductions, while keeping a decent CPU clock. The GPU is not the power hungry component in our m14x...

Just thought I'd share this advice

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My goal with this, as Quix describes, isn't temperature reduction. It's avoiding the temperature spikes that come with the Ivy Bridge self-overclocking aka turbo boost. The two games I play that do stress the CPU are Civ V and Guild Wars 2. Civ is a pig but it doesn't really need high frame rates. GW2 chews on both CPU and GPU and it will trip the GPU throttle for things like big world events.

If I want overall temperature reduction then I prop it up on a little riser. That's worth 8-10 degrees F right there.

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Propping up the notebook works great, I've found unused Jenga blocks are a good option but preitty much anything will work, I've noticed a 5-7C difference, no idea what that is in imperial. You guys just need to switch to metric like the rest of the world

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My goal with this, as Quix describes, isn't temperature reduction. It's avoiding the temperature spikes that come with the Ivy Bridge self-overclocking aka turbo boost. The two games I play that do stress the CPU are Civ V and Guild Wars 2. Civ is a pig but it doesn't really need high frame rates. GW2 chews on both CPU and GPU and it will trip the GPU throttle for things like big world events.

If I want overall temperature reduction then I prop it up on a little riser. That's worth 8-10 degrees F right there.

Hi,

I was wondering if you found that temperature control was more beneficial to the performance of Guild Wars 2

than simply overclocking. I've been looking for a way to help with performance in this game, but haven't tried

something like this. I know Guild Wars 2 is pretty CPU intensive as well.

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I was wondering if you found that temperature control was more beneficial to the performance of Guild Wars 2

than simply overclocking. I've been looking for a way to help with performance in this game, but haven't tried

something like this. I know Guild Wars 2 is pretty CPU intensive as well.

GW2 automatically "downgrades" itself to work reasonably well even on minimum spec kit. I ran all of the beta weekends with a mid-range Core 2 Duo and that was when the graphics engine was still CPU bound. Disabling turbo boost doesn't appreciably affect gameplay.

I can't say for certain about GPU throttling and related performance drops. I was never able to reliably cause this before so I can't reliably test it now. The math says I have more heat dissipation than the GPU and CPU can generate and the fan does run at a lower speed now than it did before. Good enough for me.

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When I'm posting testing version and you decided to use them, then I also expect something in return... Feedback!

Else I can't improve these mods, I don't have an M14x. If I don't get feedback and some data I see no need in posting public testing versions but will rather give them to users of whom I know that they will provide me with the information I need.Thanks.

EDIT:

New way of flashing for versions labelled with [FPT] - Refer to the "Dos flashing" instructions found in this post for the tools and details.

If you're going for the A11 mod then I recommend first flashing A11 stock, and then following the instructions in the link above.

*******

Current test versions:M14x R2 - BIOS A10 - unlocked BIOS with 650m @ 950MHz core / 1400MHz memory for 3d clocks. Increased overclocking limits. No boost.

M14x R2 - BIOS A11 - unlocked BIOS with 650m @ 950MHz core / 1400MHz memory for 3d clocks. Increased overclocking limits. No boost.

This is to make life easier on everyone flashing the M14xR2 with the A11 Modded bios. Included in zip is instructions and HP USB DISK FORMAT TOOL with the DOS files to create a bootable DOS usb stick easy for flashing the modded bios. Thanks

Modded A11 Bios Easy.zip

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Battery run time with the nVidia GPU active is on the order of 30-45 minutes from a full charge. Undervolting the GPU a little won't get you much under those conditions because it's not the volts. Its the Watts, and GT650M wants 65 TDP of them. On a 65 Watt-hour battery pack.

You'll get much better run times by switching to the integrated HD4000 GPU. Your DX10 and DX11 game frame rates will suffer but you'll get much better battery life.

Better still, don't game on battery. It's really not made for that.

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thank you.

I don't want to Play with the M14x in Battery mode. only for the case of a little longer Work during a travel. with my old Dell D430 I could increase the running time by slow down the CPU clock and CPU voltage from 3h to 4h.

of course for gaming and max Performance it is better to run AC powered with a gently touch of OC ;)

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Thank you!

Successfully flashed..working smoothly @1100/1400, not want to push any further cause I only play sc2.

edit: forgot to mention that I using a11 bios version

Nice, I play that too. What are your FPS and setting in game?

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  • 2 weeks later...

There are a bunch of throttling options in the unlocked bios, I have no way of testing it out because my laptop never gets even close to that hot.

You may want to try disabling CPU turbo first, that will get you more thermal overhead for the GPU and the m14x's CPU performance outstrips the GPU by so much that the loss in clock speed won't be noticable. You'll still be GPU bound in basically every game.

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  • 2 weeks later...

IIRC in the unlocked bios, all the thermal and throttling options are only for the CPU. As for the gpu throttle, I am wondering this too, i currently have no overclock as there is no point.

When my gpu reaches 67, it downclocks during powerstate 0. @svl7 Any news on the 65-67 degree throttle? I've been unsuccessful going through bioses with various editors trying to find the vbios, Maybe you could shed some light?

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I just flashed from original A12 to original A11 and then to the modded A11 using FPT...instructions where crystal clear...thanks!

I am a bit mesmerized by all the BIOS options and left most of them alone, however I disabled CPU speedstep and turbo boost. I didn't use any of the overclock settings.

Used Afterburner to overclock and can't get higher than 1100/1265 without artefacts.

Still I'm over the moon with that :Banane46:

M14x R2 with i7 3610QM 650M 2gb @ 1100 (Core) / 1265 (2530MHz Memory) and 65c max temp when stressed (Kombuster)

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