GPU not running at full speed

[goldoren]

I have an AW 17 with a 780M.

I was looping Unigine Heaven (1080p, 4xAA, Ultra) for the third or fourth time and the temperature was stable at 80C for some time already when the framerates dropped.

Checking the GPU-Z logs, it turns out the GPU's clock went from 849MHz (VDDC=1.0V) to 614MHz (VDDC=0.9V).

I stopped the bench and let the computer cool down to idle temps, and upon restarting the bench, it was still locked at 614MHz (VDDC=0.9V), the temp was around 60C.

After that, I tried Unigine Valley, a game, MadVR with some heavy processing, the GPU was still locked at 614MHz (VDDC=0.9V).

I don't think it is thermal throttling since the temperatures where reasonably cool when I restarted the various benches, rather, the voltage and clocks would drop when the GPU wasn't used to full capacity, but neither would go above 614MHz and 0.9V even when needed.

A restart of the computer, and the GPU ran at 849MHz again, and the voltage went up to 1.0V again, I tried looping Unigine heaven again and encountered the same issue. I suspect that the voltage was locked because of a power issue, though I really have no idea.

(Stock clocks, 326.80 beta, AW bios A04, stock vbios, no third party software like MSI Afterburner and the like)

TL;DR: Looped Unigine Heaven 3 times, Framerate drop, 849Mhz (V=1.0V) => 614MHz (V=0.9V), stuck at 614MHz (V=0.9V) regardless of temperature, reboot unlocks full speed temporarily

[Khenglish]

Flash on svl7's BIOS. stock BIOS is weird.

[peniku8]

I had the same problem with my old Acer Laptop, it was thermal throttling there (after a few minutes of gaming, the GPU clocked down and the games were unplayable). The wierd part there was that this worked only with AC III, running any other game caused the Laptop to crash (overheating protection) after a few minutes (it wasn't overclocked!!).

[goldoren]

I had the same problem with my old Acer Laptop, it was thermal throttling there (after a few minutes of gaming, the GPU clocked down and the games were unplayable). The wierd part there was that this worked only with AC III, running any other game caused the Laptop to crash (overheating protection) after a few minutes (it wasn't overclocked!!).

It's not just thermal, for example, running Furmark 10 seconds makes it throttle, before the temperature has even reached 70C. And even after cooling down, it won't "unthrottle" it stays in a throttled state.

[halo19fan89]

Try to look with Nvidia Inspector what Power-State (P-State) it has while Gaming. If it's not P0 try another vbios or force Maximum Power with the Nvidia Drivers Menu.

[J95]

It's not just thermal, for example, running Furmark 10 seconds makes it throttle, before the temperature has even reached 70C. And even after cooling down, it won't "unthrottle" it stays in a throttled state.

That's a hardware protection implemented by Nvidia and AMD, never use Furmark w/ mobile cards even more with the 780m, just flash the unlocked vBIOS as Khenglish said.

[goldoren]

That's a hardware protection implemented by Nvidia and AMD, never use Furmark w/ mobile cards even more with the 780m, just flash the unlocked vBIOS as Khenglish said.

Ok, Can you tell me more about that protection, or point me to a thread? What about MSI Konbustor?

Anyway, the lock first happened with Unigine Heaven, the GPU simply won't "un-throttle".

Do you know what AW says about modified vbios and warranties?

[J95]

Yeah Kombustor included, it seems that the latest system BIOS addresses this issue or dell will repeat itself 580m all over again....warranty Dell will cover it since everything is included, from defective parts to user stupidity, so we start paying for the other guy burned cards, systems sudden death when a new revision is released all happily covered by dell, overpriced ? no..no..bad mood, dell w. lately ? :D

[TheCodeBreaker]

From my experience they wont check what vbios or bios you are running. I even had a modded bios whilst tech support was connected to my computer all he said was, "lets install the proper bios". so i doubt they will check the vbios...