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Going to test clevo 980m in alienware m17x R4, m18x R2, AW17


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GeForce 344.91 OEM (Clevo) - INF MOD AW 17" & 18" GTX 980M & 970M

@J95 for some reason, 344.91 in dedicated gave me the best result possible. I Checked with other benchmarks that several other members with AW 17 including eurocom's AW 17 benchmark and apparently my scores are more or less the same as them. Looks like 980m in AW 17 is in a way slightly gimped compared to other laptops.

@faritas90 http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware/8113-going-test-clevo-980m-alienware-m17x-r4-m18x-r2-aw17-97.html#post118548

Start w/ v344.91, compare results

Windows 8.1


    Run DDU/Safe mode -> Clean and Restart (uncheck Intel HD Drivers)
  • F8 Boot options. 'Safe Mode' & 'Disable driver Signing'
    cmd (Admin)
    bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy


    -> reboot -> F8 -> select 'Disable Driver Signature Enforcement' -> Install drivers.

  • Extract driver w/ 7-Zip/winrar
  • Extracted driver folder "34x.xx-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql" -> copy NVWMI folder.
  • Display.Driver folder -> copy/overwrite nvcv.inf(NV drivers v344.91) or nvcvi.inf (NV drivers v347.09, v344.80, v344.75) nvcvui.inf/v347.12.
  • Extracted driver folder -> run setup.exe
  • -> reboot -> disable Optimus <-

Delete unnecessary folders. Rename "NVWMI_2.20" to "NVWMI"

post-3012-14494999128091_thumb.png

GeForce 347.25 WHQL

NV 347.12 Nsight™ LaptopVideo2Go

GeForce 347.09 WHQL

GeForce 344.91 OEM

GeForce 344.80 Beta

GeForce 344.75 WHQL

NVWMI.zip

nvcvi(1)_v347.09_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

nvcv.inf_(1)_v344.91_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

nvcv.inf_(2)_v344.91_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

nvcvi(1)_v344.80_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

nvcvi(2)_v344.80_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

nvcvi(1)_v344.75_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

nvcvi(2)_v344.75_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

nvcvui.inf(1)_v347.12_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

nvcvui.inf(2)_v347.12_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

NVWMI_v2.20.zip

nvcvi(1)_v347.25_AW17_M17x_AW18_M18x_GTX_980M_970M.zip

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@faritas90 http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware/8113-going-test-clevo-980m-alienware-m17x-r4-m18x-r2-aw17-97.html#post118548

Second versions should work fine now, just compare results.

Windows 8.1

  • Run DDU/Safe mode -> Clean and Restart (uncheck Intel HD Drivers)
  • F8 Boot options. 'Safe Mode' & 'Disable driver Signing'
    cmd (Admin)
    bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy


    -> reboot -> F8 -> select 'Disable Driver Signature Enforcement' -> Install drivers.

  • Extract driver w/ 7-Zip/winrar
  • Extracted "34x.xx-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql" -> copy/paste NVWMI folder (unzip).
  • Display.Driver folder -> copy/overwrite nvcv.inf(NV drivers v344.91) or nvcvi.inf (NV drivers v347.09, v344.80, v344.75)
  • Extracted driver folder -> run setup.exe
  • -> Optimus Disabled <-

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13622[/ATTACH]

GeForce 347.09 WHQL

GeForce 344.91

GeForce 344.80 Beta

GeForce 344.75 WHQL

bookmarked and looking forward to seeing people's results :D

EDIT: hopefully newer drivers will come out by the time i get the 980M.

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So...

i follow your indication but i still wasn't able to instal it. Blackscreen as before. I did the same things with 347.09 but in nvci instead and it worked. But this driver is a crap: i stop the bench 3dmark because fps during test was the at least half from optimus...

But i did the exact same things in optimus with 344.91 (2) and it worked with little better result:

post-31335-14494999126983_thumb.jpg

post-31335-14494999127129_thumb.jpg

Temp was during a 8min gameplay and it seem to have a little higher fps.

Till now, optimus worked well for me without any throttle without for any drivers without having tested 347.09.

In dedicated: 344 (1) worked with low result but no throttle. 344.(2) still didn't work and 347.09 worked but i highly suspect throttle if i launch a game.

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not even a camera phone?
It is sitting at home. Since I cannot bench it with GPUs that throttle when overclocked I didn't see any point in taking it with me.
Cheers fella! No need for a screenie. That's good already

Regarding the 344.91 drivers

344.91 Stock

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13613[/ATTACH]

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2

Nice, so you found them and disabling ASPM on the PCIe ports helped you as well? Do your GPUs stay running in full-blast 3D mode (P0) with that configuration? Mine won't clock down to P8 when idle with ASPM completely disabled. Does it still throttle with 344.91 when overclocked?

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@faritas90 http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware/8113-going-test-clevo-980m-alienware-m17x-r4-m18x-r2-aw17-97.html#post118548

Second versions should work fine now, just compare results.

Windows 8.1

  • Run DDU/Safe mode -> Clean and Restart (uncheck Intel HD Drivers)
  • F8 Boot options. 'Safe Mode' & 'Disable driver Signing'
    cmd (Admin)
    bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy


    -> reboot -> F8 -> select 'Disable Driver Signature Enforcement' -> Install drivers.

  • Extract driver w/ 7-Zip/winrar
  • Extracted "34x.xx-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql" -> copy/paste NVWMI folder (unzip).
  • Display.Driver folder -> copy/overwrite nvcv.inf(NV drivers v344.91) or nvcvi.inf (NV drivers v347.09, v344.80, v344.75)
  • Extracted driver folder -> run setup.exe
  • -> reboot -> disable Optimus <-

[ATTACH=CONFIG]13622[/ATTACH]

GeForce 347.09 WHQL

GeForce 344.91

GeForce 344.80 Beta

GeForce 344.75 WHQL

Brother @J95 - I am confused by this step, but maybe I missed another post with more explanation. "> copy/paste NVWMI folder (unzip)" Copy NVWMI folder from where and paste it where? Is there a modded NVWMI folder in one of your links. (Sorry, I cannot download to check right now on a miserably slow hotel DSL connection. Just web browsing is painfully slow on their crappy connection.)

Interesting that NVIDIA web site does not have any 344.91 WHQL driver. I wonder what the story is with that?

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Hmm... look at this. This is from the help file in the NVWMI folder mentioned by @J95. I wonder if there is code in the vBIOS where this can be changed to a default value that is higher than what would ever be necessary? This looks like the problem we are having, especially with SLI. Maybe that is something that @johnksss @svl7 @Prema can look into this when they have time. When I get home I will have to see if I can figure out how to at least temporarily override the values using a command line. I wonder if the values are expressed in watts or if "0" represents the default setting and other values represent watts or predefined power levels.

0x10D1EF29 282193705 samples UTF-16 string Maximum GPU Power Maximum power, that GPU is allowed to use DEFAULTPOWER L"0" N/A


[ATTACH=CONFIG]13628[/ATTACH]
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It is sitting at home. Since I cannot bench it with GPUs that throttle when overclocked I didn't see any point in taking it with me.

Nice, so you found them and disabling ASPM on the PCIe ports helped you as well? Do your GPUs stay running in full-blast 3D mode (P0) with that configuration? Mine won't clock down to P8 when idle with ASPM completely disabled. Does it still throttle with 344.91 when overclocked?

Brother Fox that bench was prior. I haven't had a chance to disable ASPM, I will do it now and see if I get any changes. It's not throttling when overclocked.. it's just doing the standard "normal" goofy boost 2.0 stuff. But non of those low throttling clocks sticking. Occasionally I might get 1-2 seconds of that when a new test initiates...but all in all pretty good. Now if my CPU could somehow in W8 locate it's cojones it be over the moon.

100+/200+ gave me these results, not a great increase over stock performance.

post-5470-14494999128309_thumb.png

Also Bro, good find in your post above there. Interesting indeed. I'd love to know if there is more too it.

Just a side note to anyone, I haven't been following all the driver mod threads lately, and need to re-learn how to mod things drivers again when I have a little more time and patience. I copped out and used http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/

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Quote

Hmm... look at this. This is from the help file in the NVWMI folder mentioned by @J95. I wonder if there is code in the vBIOS where this can be changed to a default value that is higher than what would ever be necessary? This looks like the problem we are having, especially with SLI. Maybe that is something that @johnksss @svl7 @Prema can look into this when they have time. When I get home I will have to see if I can figure out how to at least temporarily override the values using a command line. I wonder if the values are expressed in watts or if "0" represents the default setting and other values represent watts or predefined power levels.

0x10D1EF29 282193705 samples UTF-16 string Maximum GPU Power Maximum power, that GPU is allowed to use DEFAULTPOWER L"0" N/A


[ATTACH=CONFIG]13628[/ATTACH]

Requires different entries, standalone installer [url=http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvwmi-driver.html]NVIDIA Enterprise Management Toolkit (NVWMI) | NVIDIA[/url] Quadro, Dev, OEM drivers, v344.91 Clevo mobile. MSI Hybrid power, GeForce drivers missing WMI Provider [url]http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/1847-nvidia-kepler-vbios-mods-overclocking-editions-modified-clocks-voltage-tweaks-234.html#post56088[/url]

Added v347.12 & NVWMI v2.20.
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Brother @J95 - I am confused by this step, but maybe I missed another post with more explanation. "> copy/paste NVWMI folder (unzip)" Copy NVWMI folder from where and paste it where? Is there a modded NVWMI folder in one of your links. (Sorry, I cannot download to check right now on a miserably slow hotel DSL connection. Just web browsing is painfully slow on their crappy connection.)

Interesting that NVIDIA web site does not have any 344.91 WHQL driver. I wonder what the story is with that?

Copy NVWMI folder from StationDrivers 344.91 WHQL package download? Paste this folder where? Are you saying if you do not wish to install 344.91 WHQL from StationDrivers to copy/paste the NVWMI folder into a different driver package and then install that driver, but if you install 344.91 no need to copy and paste? Sorry, I just don't understand that part of your instructions.
Requires different entries, standalone installer NVIDIA Enterprise Management Toolkit (NVWMI) | NVIDIA Quadro, Dev, OEM drivers, v344.91 Clevo mobile. MSI Hybrid power, GeForce drivers missing WMI Provider http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/1847-nvidia-kepler-vbios-mods-overclocking-editions-modified-clocks-voltage-tweaks-234.html#post56088

Added v347.12 & NVWMI v2.20.

I will check those other things when I get home this weekend and have access to the M18xR2 again.

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Copy NVWMI folder from StationDrivers package download? Paste folder where?

Just copy the NVWMI folder to each extracted driver packages v347.09, 344.80, 344.75. I upped two versions 1.50 MB each...:D together w/ the proper INFs.

v347.09 http://forum.techinferno.com/attachments/alienware/13631d1421241676-nvwmi_v2.20.zip

v344.75/80 http://forum.techinferno.com/attachments/alienware/13614d1421207262-nvwmi.zip

[MENTION=119]Mr. Fox[/MENTION] Use these INFs http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware/8113-going-test-clevo-980m-alienware-m17x-r4-m18x-r2-aw17-98.html#post118582 then try w/ nv_dispi.inf full IDs.

Install Quadro drivers using K5100M or K6000 entries, stress testing...then start messing with WMI provider/available option http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/81137/en-us

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/80141/en-us

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Help :/

I was using IGP for a while. Have GTX 970M SLI installed. Tried both single and SLI and both worked 2 days ago with editing INF on the 347.09.

Tried FN+F5 today to enable the GPUs and finally try some benchmarking. Now all I get is a black screen. Can hear the CPU fan spin for a second, the LED lights on the keyboard is on plus on the side, but dark screen.

What have happened? The GPUs worked 2 days ago. Im using 347.09, Windows 8.1, 970M SLI and 4940MX (downclocked and downvolted).

What should I do?

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Reboot in Safe Mode and use DDU to remove those crappy 347.09 drivers. The black screen using those drivers on an SLI machine is a known issue. Try using one of j95's driver mods or my desktop driver mod and you will not need to worry about that. 347.09 is a horrible driver.

Hopefully, you enabled the Legacy boot menu for Safe Mode. That makes getting there a lot easier by using F8 like Windows 7.

If not, you may need to intentionally fail to boot a few times to invoke the option to enter Safe Mode. You can do that by holding down the power button a few times in the middle of loading Windows. Gotta love that WIndows 8 piece of crap.

Edit: If the screen lights up and you see the Alienware logo and then the screen goes black, it is likely the display driver. If the machine doesn't POST (meaning no BIOS logo) then your CPU tweaking probably did it. Do you hear any faint beeping? If your CPU tweaking is the cause you may need to reset the BIOS using this method: **Alienware 17 (Ranger) /18 (Viking) Owners** - How to 'Un-Brick' Your Mobo

You can also try disconnecting the system battery (not the CMOS battery) and holding down the FN key, then powering on with AC power only and continue holding down the FN key until the machine reboots. That will sometimes (although not always) reset the BIOS to defaults.

This always happened to me under two conditions:

- attempting to set CPU voltage too low

- setting memory timings manually that the BIOS did not like

There may be some other unacceptable XTU setting that could trigger it, but this happened to me a number of times under the above two circumstances. Setting CPU voltage too low made my machine refuse to POST about 5 times. I have done the RAM removal reset about 8 or 10 times back when I was still trying to find the best CPU overclock settings for the 4930MX.

The CMOS battery is by the mSATA card. It's shaped like a coin and has two wires that connect to the motherboard. Removing that does nothing like it use to do back in the good old days before Alienware started storing BIOS settings in NVRAM. Using the RAM removal trick dumps everything out of NVRAM and forces the BIOS reloads factory defaults. Be sure to confirm the machine boots into Windows while it is still disassembled, as resetting the BIOS this way may change the BIOS to Legacy Boot. If your 970M SLI requires pure UEFI boot like my M18xR2 does with 980M SLI, you will need to remove the GPUs, get the machine to POST, then set the BIOS back to pure UEFI mode, shut down and then put the GPUs back in again.

When you get back into the BIOS, be sure than Non-Turbo Flex Support (in the menu above the multipliers) is set to "Disabled" as having that enabled can cause issues switching between integrated and discrete graphics.

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Copy NVWMI folder from StationDrivers 344.91 WHQL package download? Paste this folder where? Are you saying if you do not wish to install 344.91 WHQL from StationDrivers to copy/paste the NVWMI folder into a different driver package and then install that driver, but if you install 344.91 no need to copy and paste? Sorry, I just don't understand that part of your instructions.

I will check those other things when I get home this weekend and have access to the M18xR2 again.

Just have the wife cut the machine on and turn on teamviewer. Give you the id and pass and you should be golden from there on. Just set it to auto start on reboots.

As to the prior question. I think "0" means machine default. Or in this case, card default which has already been changed.

Edit:

Looked for the power string in the registry and i do not have it listed

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Reboot in Safe Mode and use DDU to remove those crappy 347.09 drivers. The black screen using those drivers on an SLI machine is a known issue. Try using one of j95's driver mods or my desktop driver mod and you will not need to worry about that. 347.09 is a horrible driver.

Hopefully, you enabled the Legacy boot menu for Safe Mode. That makes getting there a lot easier by using F8 like Windows 7.

If not, you may need to intentionally fail to boot a few times to invoke the option to enter Safe Mode. You can do that by holding down the power button a few times in the middle of loading Windows. Gotta love that WIndows 8 piece of crap.

Edit: If the screen lights up and you see the Alienware logo and then the screen goes black, it is likely the display driver. If the machine doesn't POST (meaning no BIOS logo) then your CPU tweaking probably did it. Do you hear any faint beeping? If your CPU tweaking is the cause you may need to reset the BIOS using this method: **Alienware 17 (Ranger) /18 (Viking) Owners** - How to 'Un-Brick' Your Mobo

You can also try disconnecting the system battery (not the CMOS battery) and holding down the FN key, then powering on with AC power only and continue holding down the FN key until the machine reboots. That will sometimes (although not always) reset the BIOS to defaults.

This always happened to me under two conditions:

- attempting to set CPU voltage too low

- setting memory timings manually that the BIOS did not like

There may be some other unacceptable XTU setting that could trigger it, but this happened to me a number of times under the above two circumstances. Setting CPU voltage too low made my machine refuse to POST about 5 times. I have done the RAM removal reset about 8 or 10 times back when I was still trying to find the best CPU overclock settings for the 4930MX.

The CMOS battery is by the mSATA card. It's shaped like a coin and has two wires that connect to the motherboard. Removing that does nothing like it use to do back in the good old days before Alienware started storing BIOS settings in NVRAM. Using the RAM removal trick dumps everything out of NVRAM and forces the BIOS reloads factory defaults. Be sure to confirm the machine boots into Windows while it is still disassembled, as resetting the BIOS this way may change the BIOS to Legacy Boot. If your 970M SLI requires pure UEFI boot like my M18xR2 does with 980M SLI, you will need to remove the GPUs, get the machine to POST, then set the BIOS back to pure UEFI mode, shut down and then put the GPUs back in again.

When you get back into the BIOS, be sure than Non-Turbo Flex Support (in the menu above the multipliers) is set to "Disabled" as having that enabled can cause issues switching between integrated and discrete graphics.

Taking out the RAM SODIMMs and quickly installing one of them resolved my issue. But its a method that takes some time. You need to remove cables, HDD, ton of screws, just to get the palmrest off where the last 2 RAM slots are. Then connect the palmrest and cables again to be able to power it up. Then put the machine on the side to be able to slide in the RAM slot since you only have like 2 seconds.

Then BIOS is back to normal and you may even have to reinstall Win8 due to SATA settings etc.

lol.

But atleast it fixed the problem. Need to be more careful next time I use XTU :P

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i got the needed sccrews for x-bracket today. taking care of the 7970m -> 980m upgrade on my m17x R4 quite soon now. will keep you updated !

I doubt you're doing this, but just to make sure you know, you cannot interchange AMD and Nvidia x-brackets. Attempting to has a very high chance of killing the card.

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Taking out the RAM SODIMMs and quickly installing one of them resolved my issue. But its a method that takes some time. You need to remove cables, HDD, ton of screws, just to get the palmrest off where the last 2 RAM slots are. Then connect the palmrest and cables again to be able to power it up. Then put the machine on the side to be able to slide in the RAM slot since you only have like 2 seconds.

Then BIOS is back to normal and you may even have to reinstall Win8 due to SATA settings etc.

lol.

But atleast it fixed the problem. Need to be more careful next time I use XTU :P

I've never had to reinstall Windows. You can switch between RAID and AHCI without having to reinstall. Nothing should have been affected with your drive partitions. Not sure what caused that to happen.
this is quickly getting complicated!
When I was tweaking the Alienware 18 to see how far I could overclock the CPU, after a few soft brick episodes I decided to run only 16GB (2x8GB) of RAM for a little while and left the slots under the palm rest empty because it was too much hassle to take it apart every day or two to "unbrick" the BIOS. With only two sticks populating the slots under the bottom cover it was easy to recover from screwed up BIOS settings. Once I got things dialed in, I put the other two RAM sticks back in. I can have the palm rest off in about 6 or 7 minutes and the motherboard totally out of the chassis in less than 15 mintues, so it's not difficult, just inconvenient. Plus, taking it apart and putting it back together over and over again, to an excessive degree, isn't good for wiring, ribbon cables, screws or threads. Too much wear and tear too fast. I bet I had this 18 torn apart more times in month more times than the average Alienware 18 owner would in an entire lifetime. Trying to get 980M SLI to work out right in the M18xR2 has been just as tedious, so I finally just left it disassembled for the same reasons. I had two cables (palm rest and AlienFX wires) develop shorts from taking it apart and reassembling it about 12 or 15 times in about 10 days, LOL. Luckily, I had some spare parts.
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They just modded an INF like we do. They are using ordinary drivers just as we have been. mikecacho tried the driver they modded for M17xR4/17 and it didn't do anything for him.

I hope it gets resolved with drivers, too. I'm somewhat skeptical and think it may be something more than drivers, at least with the M18xR2. @johnksss and @usmc362 are not having these throttling issues in their P570WM3 machines.

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i have used the Clevo 980m two weeks with Optimus BUT now I want turn off Optimus with FN+F7 and start only with dedicated GPU.

I reinstalled windows from usb to SSD and changed bios setting to UEFI Boot but i'm not sure which mod inf i can use now:(

my Config:

Alienware M17X R4

i7 3940xm

GTX 980M(680M before)

16 GB DDR3-1600

120GB OCZ

500 GB HDD

240 Watt PSU

Windows 8.1(now)

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Hi @J95.Can you do me a favor? Could you give me a clevo980m mod inf for driver v347.09 to M17X R4?

the hardware ID is:PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_05511028&REV_A1

thk u!!!

Already listed, all AW 17" & 18" are supported. Start with v(1) then re-install using v(2) compare results, mainly throttling...performance later http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware/8113-going-test-clevo-980m-alienware-m17x-r4-m18x-r2-aw17-98.html#post118582

You will need 5 quality posts or T|I Elite Membership and get immediate download access.

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@faritas90

Could you try this:

Delete all folders except Display.Driver and NVI2.

post-3012-14494999129604_thumb.png

DDU clean & rstart -> disable driver signing -> Install v344.75 -> v344.80 -> 347.12 using v(1) INFs. Dedicated GPU/FN+F7 only. http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware/8113-going-test-clevo-980m-alienware-m17x-r4-m18x-r2-aw17-98.html#post118582

Set windows to High Performance, NVCPL -> High Performance <-

Don't worry about performance results, check throttling. Run Firestrike (logs everything) + Crysis 3 GPU-Z log

Both DDU & F8 boot options makes it really quick...:D

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