fatboyslimerr

Wow that seems kind of overkill. I'm not sure the 120mm fan pointing at the 780s is completely necessary as they should be taken care of by the big 200mm front intake fan. Don't forget the hot air coming off your PSU. Maybe have the PSU fan pointing down and out of the case to isolate that hot air.

What fans are you planning to use on rad and back 140mm exhaust?

I suspect you've done something sneaky to stop throttling involving 3 bananas, a packet of peanuts and an altered BIOS!

That makes no sense, how should this help to avoid throttling... ?

If your card drops the clocks so bad then you should lower your CPU overclock.

@svl7 I direct you to this thread on NBR http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/700476-m15x-7970m-throttle-fix.html

To summarise, throttling whilst gaming (with cpu and gpu overclocked) can be avoided by loading gpu circuit before playing, particularly in Crysis 3, using the render tool on gpuz.

Fully loading gpu and cpu at the same time (without using the render tool) causes instant throttling that persists throughout the gaming session.

I have managed to get better combined score of 5730 with a smaller cpu OC but I just don't understand how you managed to get your score.

Sorry if this is irritating for you but it really does irritate me!

@svl7 by loading I mean running the gpu-z render test to partially load the gpu circuits to avoid throttling.

Here is a rather pathetic result where I ran 24 multiplier @86/76 with 850/1350 @ 0.975v. The combined test just throttled massively as you can see from core speeds on gpuz and MSI afterburner.

I can't find a way to stop it throttling down to 450 Mhz core clock during combined test.

Any suggestions?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2654032/Benchmark%20results.jpg

@svl7 I'm assuming these OC weren't stable for gaming? Did you do anything to load the gpu circuits before running the test? Combined test insta-throttles above a certain cpu OC for me (and others).

@svl7 I just managed to get 6930 Physics score at 27/26/26/26 @ 86/76

Absolute beast of an overclocker this cpu! Still no idea how to get around the throttling problems in the combined score though.

@svl7 I only managed to get 5750 physics score with 26 multiplier but it still throttles heavily in the combines score. How the hell did you get your physics score so high lol. It wouldn't have anything to do with your CAS 7 RAM would it?

Did you spool the fans up with HWinfo before starting the test?

Also was that gpu OC at stock voltage?

Holy crap! I'm literally like...WTF! How the hell did you get such a high combined score with no throttling? Also that graphics score on 7970m is huge!

@23 multiplier my combined score will be below 5000!

Care to share your secrets?

Does anyone know the highest 3dmark 11 score on M15x?

I'm currently trying to balance gpu and cpu overclocks as the combined score is killing my total score.

I managed to get a combined score of 5733 with 6333 graphics and P6133 (850/1350 and 27/25/22/20).

@svl7 Have you ever successfully underclocked the vram with these cards?

I'm planning to drop clocks on both the chip and vram once I receive my cards to the unreleased 7950M levels (700/1000) in order for them to play nice with my system but I've read that that the underclock on the memory doesn't register after using your bios mod tool to drop the memory clocks below 1200mhz.

edit: Thought I was posting this in the "AMD 7970m - modified VBIOS" thread ... my bad.

Why would you want to underclock the vram? I have my 7970m undervolted and overclocked on the memory side.

850 clock and 1350 memory @ 0.975v. It works extremely well and temperatures rarely go above 74-75 degrees.

Unless you're the one on NBR planning to run them in x-fire?

Haswell only really add about £30 to the total cost using the:

Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H mATX m/b and i7 4670K.

I'll probably still get the HIS HD 7950 due to it being on par with a 7970 and massively overclockable.

I want to see what AMD bring out this year before settling on a more expensive Nvidia.

Budget for graphics card is probably around £250-300 maximum (around $450). I'll be able to save some money by taking the SSD out of my laptop if necessary.

Pretty sure graphics card are more expensive in UK than US so factor that in as well. GTX 780 costs £550 ($800) which would be way out of budget!

Firstly this will be the first PC I've ever built and secondly this is on a pretty tight budget of under £850 ($1300 approximately) including a 24" monitor.

After reading this I'm probably going down the ivybridge route rather than haswell.

I'd just like some comments on the components I've chosen for this purely gaming mATX machine.

i5 3570K

Fractal Design Core 1000 mATX or Fractal Design Arc Mini v2 (when it's released).

Asus PZ77-M Motherboard

Be Quiet Pure Power 530W Modular PSU

Crucial 8GB 1866 Mhz RAM (2 sticks of 4GB)

Then either a Cosair Hydro H55 or similar single 120mm rad closed loop (NZXT, Cooler Master or Zalman)

Or Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212 r2

Graphics card will either be a HIS HD 7950 ICEQ Boost due to nice overclocking and good cooler or GTX 680 if the price drops.

I would like to do a custom loop watercooler but can't afford one now. When I can afford it, the Arc Mini 2 this has room for 2x 240m rads in the front and top so I have the possibility to add watercooling later on.

Will greatly appreciate any comments on this build.

Thanks

Your cooling should be sufficient in M17x. Try repasting the card with better paste (ICD7) and applying phobya thermal pads to the vram?

I think 0.925v isn't worth it or if its even stable. I'm running 100% stable on 0.975v 875/1450. Also 0.95v is very stable at 825/1350.

Well I thought about re-using the mesh from the fan intake since I've taken them off anyway. I'm also thinking about removing the airvent back covers as this would expose the heat-exchange fins to my cooling pad.

Worth a try

King reported his gpu temps didn't go above 69 degrees (@900/1450) with his awesome cooling mod. I'm thinking of making a few intake holes in my case where heatsinks are to increase airflow over heatsink itself.

Just need to think of the best way to make a neat hole in plastic.

You look familiar, do I know you from somewhere?

Your card should never reach 85 degrees especially when undervolted! Try getting new thermal pads for VRAM, I used these - Phobya Thermal pad Ultra 5W/mk 1mm (120x20mm). Dell pads suck.

Try better thermal paste - ICD7 or ICD24. I can assure you that a good paste job makes a huge difference to temperatures. Make sure with your new screws that sufficient pressure is being placed on the die.

Are the new screws long enough?

I used a very cheap thermal paste (MX-2) and did a pretty bad paste job but the highest temperatures I get with 0.975v is 72-73 after an hour or so of Bioshock Infinite on Ultra

EDIT: Do you need to run furmark? Its not a real world test and temps will never get that high in games?

Depending on what laptop you have this will do the trick.

I'm running 0.975v at the moment and it runs soooooo cool. 67 degree maximum!

Installed this game last night and have to say its pretty darn fun! Great backdrop and the shooting mechanics are excellent.

Bullet-time style slow-mo but with more satisfying headshots (because it says +150 points + Headshot + Eyeblinker...COMBO!!!) Bullet dodging and gunslinger showdowns are also excellent.

Not a serious title but it doesn't take itself seriously. It is therefore a very fun and entertaining shooter with a very reasonable price-tag.

Graphics are stylised but still look great and game runs very smoothly on highest setting on my 7970m.

What are other people's thoughts, comments?

Not that far through the game (love using the bow) but I'm still trying to find the nicest looking graphics settings for performance on my 7970m.

I've read that post processing and SSAO are the most resource hogging as are shadow resolutions (obviously TressFX but assume I'm not using that).

I get good fps in ultra but it occasionally lags enough to disrupt smooth gameplay but I still want it to look lovely! Any suggestions?

Hi, name is Mark from UK. Frequent poster on NBR in AW M15x sub-forum but looking at building my first PC (custom or closed loop WCed) soon so looking for views and input from people here.

Also used the 6990m and 7970m in M15x guides before I was a member. These were excellent!

7970m is still an excellent choice for gpu upgrade despite release of next gen cards. The 8970m is just a 7970m with slightly higher core clocks (through boost speed in BIOS) and 4GB of DDR5 but with higher voltage requirements (around 1.075v).

Thus it might not work well on M15x without undervolting. Just get a 7970m at a lower cost?