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Board Upgrade - i7-2960XM OC Issue


J95

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So I upgraded my M17xR3 w/ R4 board, M18xR2/i7-2960XM users could help me out...

A11 unlocked BIOS settings @43x 896-pri 0-flex 99w 56 99w level 3 overclocking, extreme enabled, msr lock disabled when stressed the cpu pckg power is stuck at 67W and 1.22v, changing pri to 960 and adding Flex v 1,2,5,10,15,25 w/ThrottleStop still 67W 1.22v 3.4GHz 72C (1.446v idle peak). R3's board 896-pri flex 0 pckg power 95W 1.361v, 1.366v 4.4GHz 99w 56 99w, the voltage tables are different/Ivy Bridge i7-3920XM 1.201v 4.492 GHz [MENTION=119]Mr. Fox[/MENTION] http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x-aw-18/1039-official-m18x-benchmarking-thread-41.html#post61844 xtu/sandy bridge all versions are unlocked with this board, I'm currently using v4.2.0.8, system PCI-e 2.0 due to sandy bridge configuration but stuck with ivy's voltages when stressed...

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For the sake of testing--and this should not cause damage, as I have done it many times with Sandy and Ivy M18x boards--go to the second advanced menu and set Flex to max (99), then change Pri Plane to max (8191 I believe... whatever the max is) and see if your voltage is still stuck. If it is still stuck, then I'm not sure what's going on with the MSR lock set to disabled. Or, just as easy, throw the sliders all the way to the right in XTU. Look at the CPU voltage and watts with ThrottleStop benchmark.

Perhaps the 780M is robbing the CPU of the power it needs. Check with the 780M disabled if you can and see if it changes anything.

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Thanks man I completely forgot the XTU trick...With Flex 99 Pri 8191 booted up 1.55v but when stressed it still drops to 1.22v 67W, XTU 255W 56 255W no go, it seems the issue here is not Ivy voltages but the processor's default settings 68W 3.4GHz it won't override turbo settings so it could be locked somewhere, I'm only stressing the CPU so there's no GPU load involved NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor,Alienware M17xR3 tried disabling Energy Efficient P-State but freezes at boot, there are plenty watchdog related settings... this one renders v. files 4.4GHz 86C-90C w/ modded double pipe heatsink, I can try my triple pipe mod project and give Ivy a chance :P but only after I'm certain that it wont work...

R3 Modded CPU/GPU/PCH heatsinks, 3DMark11.

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Have you disabled Watchdog Timer and Bi-directional PROCHOT# in the BIOS? If not, try that. Both of those being enable really hinders performance with Ivy Bridge, but with both disabled it screams. It also enhanced Sandy Bridge performance having both of those disabled. Additionally, disable all of the sensors starting with ME SMBus Thermal Reporting and below on the Platform Thermal Configuration menu. Look for the DTPF Configuration option and disable that, too.

Hope that helps.

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Yeah I had Bi-directional PROCHOT disabled with the R3 and almost all power management settings too, I spent many hours tweaking but it's probably locked /R4... mem unstable, downclock - default - 1600MHz...:sleeping:

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  • 2 months later...

So the issue continues with the i7-3940XM, locked default 68W probably part of the UEFI BIOS/Win8 (disabled) check... service tag (R3) only the card reader is not detected by the BIOS but works perfect '0490' R3's ID (firmware). [MENTION=119]Mr. Fox[/MENTION] @widezu69 could you please check the TDP settings (CPU Control), sorry for the crappy pictures.

d9f1.th.jpg

scx2.th.jpg

Physics Score 9318 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M17xR4

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I know that XTU will reset configurable TDP, wPrime max 68W settings 99W - 99W 119A 62.5mV, both CPUs...mem also default 1600MHz, Thaiphoon burner 1867MHz even setting different timings it will BSOD/both processors (R3 Board no issues)BIOS is not setting the power limit properly @Khenglish how do I find out what is overriding the applied settings ?

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@J95 - I am by no means an expert with cTDP overclocking. I don't use it much because it has more limitations than manual BIOS configuration, but in the case of your issues it might help. I certainly hope so and I am glad to share the settings I have tested to see if they improve your situation.

I think this series of photos will be self-explanatory. If something does not make sense, let me know and I will try to explain what little I know more effectively. You can view the images individually full screen by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the album.

I have found that launching ThrottleStop or XTU (especially XTU) screws up TDP overclocking operation, so be sure you do not run either of them until you get a better understanding of whether or not this helps your situation.

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I know that XTU will reset configurable TDP, wPrime max 68W settings 99W - 99W 119A 62.5mV, both CPUs...mem also default 1600MHz, Thaiphoon burner 1867MHz even setting different timings it will BSOD/both processors (R3 Board no issues)BIOS is not setting the power limit properly @Khenglish how do I find out what is overriding the applied settings ?

Unclewebb wrote this program a while back for reading/writing CPU MSRs directly: MSR

sandy bridge power limits are MSR 0x610. If bit 63 is high, then you have the power limit lock engaged. This MSR also has the power limits.

Ivy bridge is more complicated. Download this: http://download.intel.com/products/processor/manual/325384.pdf

and go to page 35-112. MSR 0x64B bit 31 is the power limit lock. MSRs 0x649 and 0x64A have the power limit values.

These are not readouts of the power limits, these ARE the power limits. There is nothing lower. If you want to find the source of your problem and work up, then this is where to start.

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]9221[/ATTACH]

Physics Score 9720, 87W - 95W 112A, 1.361V (25C room temp)

P10080 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M17xR4

Physics Score 9631, 55W - 61W 120A, 1.356V (62.5mV/1.361V), third CPU htsnk mod (33C room temperature)

[MENTION=119]Mr. Fox[/MENTION] Level 3 overclocking is not working, 63W - 68W power (wprime) no matter what settings I use, both CPUs & PSUs 240W or 330W, Physics 9631 55W - 61W, possible CPU socket problem which is also limiting RAM overclocking...?

@Khenglish I'll read Intel docs today.

post-3012-1449499690194_thumb.png

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M17xR4

P10144, Graphics Score 10479, Physics Score 9992 still crappy, Combined Score 8342

WDT (there's no disabling option unlike the R3) is messing with Throttlestop (v5/v6) and disabling bi-directional prochot makes no difference...little Physics improvement without Throttlestop, it can't get any worse :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M17xR4

P10144, Graphics Score 10479, Physics Score 9992 still crappy, Combined Score 8342

WDT (there's no disabling option unlike the R3) is messing with Throttlestop (v5/v6) and disabling bi-directional prochot makes no difference...little Physics improvement without Throttlestop, it can't get any worse :)

Hello, so have you succeeded in overriding stock TDP in m17x R4?

With my m18x R2, even with 3,9/3.9/3,9/3,9 overclock consumes more than 70w TDP even without unlocked bios.

But with m17x R4, nothing seems to help..

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]9221[/ATTACH]

Physics Score 9720, 87W - 95W 112A, 1.361V (25C room temp)

P10080 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M17xR4

Physics Score 9631, 55W - 61W 120A, 1.356V (62.5mV/1.361V), third CPU htsnk mod (33C room temperature)

@Mr. Fox Level 3 overclocking is not working, 63W - 68W power (wprime) no matter what settings I use, both CPUs & PSUs 240W or 330W, Physics 9631 55W - 61W, possible CPU socket problem which is also limiting RAM overclocking...?

@Khenglish I'll read Intel docs today.

It looks like you hit 95W in the above example. Have you tried disabling c-states to see if the CPU holds an overclock for longer? Also, above the multipliers set the Extreme Edition (Level 1-3 overclock) to "Disabled" and see if that helps? Could be something with the socket, but it may be that Alienware gimped something intentionally as an effort to prevent XM CPU overclocking on the M17xR4. They never actually sold the R4 with an XM CPU, correct?

After seeing some of the stuff they have done to impair performance with the Alienware 18, it would not be surprising if the troubles you are having are by intent.

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Nope, it was 68W and I've tried disabling c-states, currently Extreme edition is enabled and level overclock disabled long 80W-56 (short disabled), I was able to OC mem editing XMP profiles for the HyperX PnP sticks, the newest Thaiphoon burner (emailed update) XMP editor (profiles revision 1.3) works great even with XTU, which will keep disabling Memory Override Support, still setting BIOS/XMP profiles (only) does the trick and reads the profile timings/voltage without BIOS additional settings (Frequency/Auto) 1866MHz 10-10-10-30 1.6V (4x4GB)

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[MENTION=119]Mr. Fox[/MENTION] Kingston PnP 2133MHz/added XMP profiles.

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After seeing some of the stuff they have done to impair performance with the Alienware 18, it would not be surprising if the troubles you are having are by intent.

Yeah, the R4 was the firstborn...

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@J95 - I was able to flash this with Thaiphoon Burner no problem, but my system refuses to POST (only beeps) with either of the XMP profiles. I can set more aggressive memory timings (CAS 11) in the BIOS or through XTU manually. I ran into this once before. Something about my HyperX PnP modules don't like the XMP profiles.

This is with standard SPD timings with 2133 @ CAS12 performance.

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Yeah, after the beeps->Auto profile, set override support 1.65V->F10 then set the XMP profile1->F10 re-enter the BIOS and disable override support (without changing 1.65V).

It worked perfect for 3 days (memtest, Prime95, AE, Photoshop, Black Flag) then of course back to the R4 reality 'IRQL not less or equal' 1600MHz.

Obs. XMP default Memory controller voltage level 1.30V (0) for 1.65 module VDD voltage level, after the above you could try setting it back to 1.30V (XMP enhancer/Advanced).

[ATTACH]10708[/ATTACH]

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I run 1.65V all the time and I don't remember having a 1.30V option in my BIOS. I will have to look again, but I thought 1.50V was the lowest setting available. Maybe that's the problem. Profile 1 has exactly the same memory timings as my default timing using the stock memory SPD. I was trying to run XMP profile 2 since those are similar the values I set manually.

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Memory controller voltage level N/A (0)

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Thaiphoon Burner XMPE (XMP Enhancer)

XMPE -> templates -> Standard Speed Bins -> DDR3 2133M CL13, 2133L CL12, 2133K CL11

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Defaults are 1.30V / Module VDD Voltage Level 1.65V

@Khenglish setting Memory Controller voltage level to 0 turns Auto/controller ?

Default XMP profiles voltages.

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