Robbo

Well that seems ok, but if that is underperforming vs identical systems to yours, then I'd re-paste if you want better temperatures and/or higher gaming overclocks.

Cool, that's what I thought. If your temperatures on your model of laptop are significantly higher than other users with the same GPU and laptop model (that also have the modified vBIOS), then you might want to consider re-pasting your card if you want to game at higher overclocks. I can't speak for your system though, because I'm not familiar with what temperatures you should be seeing. Room temperature is a huge factor in this though, and the maddest of the overclockers, like Mr Fox likes to bench his Alienwares outside on the patio in the depths of Winter (apparently!)! (so try to find out rough room temperatures from people when comparing laptop temperatures).

Is that a gaming overclock Deadsmiley? Looks like your peak temperature on that benchmark was only a peak temperature due to the short duration of the benchmark portions - as steep temperature curve with hardly any plateau. If you gamed at that overclock with say Far Cry 3 pushing the GPU to 100% load for say a 20min block, then it would be hotter than 93 degC right? Well, it would throttle at that point wouldn't it, you've probably set it to throttle at about 93 degC?

He might be referring to the VRM's that generate a lot of heat. Those are the little square chips around the edge of the card I believe, or are they the mosfets, I might be confused. Both of those produce a lot of heat when a lot of current is going through the card - and an 880M running at 993Mhz does have a fair amount of current running through it - 105W I read somewhere. Also, with the unlocked vBIOS and the ability to increase the Power Slider in NVidia Inspector, then this allows for even more current to pass through the card. Your VRM's & mosfets (no temperature sensors) are probably running hotter than your core, but whether they produce more heat is debateable though - I would say your core generates more heat, but the heatsink is able to take that heat away from the core more efficiently than the VRM areas (paste has better conductivity than the pads, also the heatpipes are directly above core, hence the lower temperatures of the core). You've limited your overclock due to your core temperatures, and I think that's a sensible thing to do. I don't think this knowledge will really change what you can do with your overclock though, it's just interesting. (You could re-pad your heatsink using high quality pads with the highest thermal conductivity possible, which would lower the temperature of the VRM's/mosfets, but that wouldn't lower your core temperature - if anything the core temperature would increase as more heat would be transferred from the VRM area through the heatsink & then to your GPU core).

You want to be posting this in the following thread, not this one as this is just a request thread: http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/1847-nvidia-kepler-vbios-mods-overclocking-editions-modified-clocks-voltage-tweaks.html But, to answer your question, you're getting more performance in games with the modified vBIOS because the clocks aren't throttling & you're running at full boost during gaming. I really wouldn't bother running MSI Kombuster or Furmark on GPUs, those programs place unrealistic stress on GPUs that is a lot more than gaming loads - I don't think it's good for the health of your GPU & doesn't really help you work out whether or not your card is running as it should anyway. Your card throttles when running Kombuster or Furmark because it's knocking up against the max power (in Watts) that your card can deliver, therefore it throttles in order to stay within the power limits of the card - that's normal. Just keep track of your clocks during gaming to work out whether your card is behaving as it should, Furmark & Kombuster are power viruses, and not representative of real world gaming loads.

@deadsmiley, they're some good consistent results your seeing now! Looks like you're limited a little by the temperature though, but you're right to want to keep it below 90 degC I think for GPU longevity.

@Manu369 & @godfafa, and anyone else reading this. Looks like the modified vBIOS for the 880M has just been released! You might want to try it. It's in post #2 of this thread: http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-discussions/1847-nvidia-kepler-vbios-mods-overclocking-editions-modified-clocks-voltage-tweaks.html

Yes, but Display Driver Uninstaller: Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 12.7.1.0 The program at that link removes ALL traces of NVidia drivers allowing for a completely clean install. Did you try using that program? (It worked for another user who was having strange throttling problems in some programs).

I remember reading a post from Mr Fox, a prominent user & overclocking enthusiast (on this site & notebook review forums), that a vBIOS flash doesn't reset this problem - I could be wrong about that as I'm just going off my memory. I still think you need to find out what the 'reset' process is - you've PM'd Johnksss, so I think you're on the right track by doing that. EDIT: Just had a thought. Did you try uninstalling the driver, then using a free program called "Display Driver Uninstaller" to completely remove all remnants of NVidia drivers, and then re-installing the NVidia drivers? I think that might have been the first thing I suggested to you already, but can't remember. Just posting this in case you hadn't tried this.

Yes, I have a hunch that they might not know how to prevent the problem occurring in the first place, but I believe they know how to 'reset' the card so that you would no longer have the SEVERE throttling you're seeing. This is because he says "You have to go through a whole lot to correct this situation...". This implies that he knows how to 'reset' the card. If you don't ask you don't get, so might be worth PM'ing him - what's the worse that could happen - you might get a nice easy description of the reset process & might end up with a card that works just like godfafa's. If I was you I'd try to find out.

@Manu369, or maybe even try PM'ing Johnksss, he knows what the reset process is (because he did it). He might be able to tell you what the process is. He's been pretty good at responding to my PM's in the past, but I only PM'd him one time though. - - - Updated - - - My theory is that it's because you've not had driver crashes/crashes (or not too many anyway). If you look in Johnksss's quote that I linked in a previous post you can see where he explains the problem.

I edited my post a couple of minutes after your post. Have a look at my edits at the end of my previous post (specifically EDIT 2). I think you need to find out what that process is. (The answer might be in that thread?)

Didn't the initial testing (done by the Tech Inferno guys svl7/Johnksss) of the 880M reveal that with newer drivers, if there are a number of crashes or throttling scenarios, then the 880M will then subsequently run with the performance of an Intel HD4000 iGPU and it seemed almost irreversible!? I guess that's the same issue you're having, and that's the issue you're trying to fix. I'm also unsure as to whether they managed to solve this particular problem by using the modified vBIOS that they created, I got the impression that this problem was still evident for them, but I could be wrong as it's a while since I read their 880M modified vBIOS article. I know this doesn't really help you solve the problem, but it would be interesting if it's the same problem that they were running into. EDIT: Found where I had read this. This is Johnksss's review & his words on this very topic: "What I found out was the new drivers break the card! If you crash one to many times your card will always down clock. Why? I have no clue. I had to use 327.23 drivers which ran perfect the whole time. Including gaming. I’ll get into that part much later. It seems that after a few driver not responding errors or driver crash errors your 900.00 dollar card wants to now run like an intel 4k GPU. Even stock will not work correctly anymore. You have to go through a whole lot to correct this situation (Only to crash again and have to go through the whole process again) or just use an earlier driver to bypass this nonsense altogether. " You can find the above quote at the following link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/746259-my-nvidia-gtx-880m-test-run-review.html This is the problem you're facing I believe. Could be that Godfafa's card is not showing the problem because he's been fortunate enough not to have any crashes yet, which is why his card is still working fine. Just my theory, could be wrong! EDIT 2: Johnksss talks about in that quote above saying "You have to through a whole lot to correct this situation...", but I couldn't find any reference to what that procedure was to correct the problem. I think you need to find out what that process was. Maybe I should have looked harder in that thread & I might have found the solution, but you're free to take a look at that thread I linked above if the answer is in there.

Ah, I see.

Instructions on first page of thread don't work?

If you're using the same vBIOS as me, the one I posted to you, then you should have overvolting via NVidia Inspector. Right click, 'Run As Administrator'. Not all functions are exposed using Afterburner with this vBIOS for some reason - use NVidia Inspector instead. If still not working then maybe google any similar problems people are having with your specific laptop model. Oh, and you could always try doing a clean driver install.

I should think your actual card would be fine with the flash, but sometimes it creates incompatibilities with the laptop itself. But that's for you to research based on your model of laptop. I would say that most of the time it works out fine, Clevo's aren't particularly picky are they, I would bet it would work out fine. If you flash it, post back to let us know how it went. EDIT: if you're unsure try to find evidence of different users using different brands of cards in their Clevo's or different vBIOS versions, and what the results were. If people have no problem putting these different types of cards in their Clevos, then you'll almost definitely be OK with flashing that modified vBIOS. EDIT 2: After a quick search of this thread I did come up with one compatibility issue with your laptop, see post #1505. It might be relevant to you.

Surely it's more of a risk modifying your own vBIOS if you don't really know what you're doing than flashing a tried & tested version. Are you just doing it out of curiosity, because if you just want to overvolt & overclock, then flashing that one I suggested might be the quickest way of achieving your goals. If you have a 3GB card, and especially if your existing vBIOS version is the same number as the one I listed to you, then flashing that should be no issue.

Can you not just flash the vBIOS that I'm using that came from this thread on the first page: Clevo 670mx - 3GB - 80.04.58.00.03 - 'OC edition'_rev02.zip I've got a 3GB Clevo Card in mine.

I think it is possible to set the power limit, but I think you have to use NVidia Inspector to do so (and I think there's one other program that might be able to do so, but can't remember). When you run NVidia Inspector, make sure you right click on the NVidia Inspector icon and select 'Run As Administrator'. Beyond that I don't know what to recommend, I'm quite sure it worked well for the A18 user who originally requested this vBIOS file (his name was Cloudfire). Maybe if my suggestions don't work you could PM Cloudfire & see how he got it to work. Do you have the 330W power adapter? The 240W power adapter might be cutting it a bit fine for overvolted & overclocked 770M sli.

Seems favourable to ebay prices though, and especially seeing as though that part number isn't even listed for sale at the moment on ebay - and it will be new & not used! Not too bad!

My understanding from what's being said is that it's cheaper to buy the heatsink you need directly from Dell, while quoting your service tag to them. Each Dell laptop has a service tag that you can find on your invoice or it's even listed in your system BIOS screens somewhere. Just make sure you ask for the specific part number of the heatsink version you want: P/N 9CNMG.

@Manu369, it looks like you've got your answers you need now if you want to replace your heatsink, in terms of which one to buy. It does seem to be the problem, given that when you take the bottom cover off the laptop & point a fan at the GPU then it works fine without crashing. It sounds like you know what you're doing with the padding up from your pictures - showing that you knew you needed to add more pads in some areas in comparison to using j95's padding guide (different heatsink I guess). So, it looks like buying a new heatsink is the way forward!

Manu369: I wouldn't bother considering the R5 heatsinks, I don't think they'll fit in your R4. Godfafa has successfully used the 675M heatsink with 780M & 880M, so if you're planning on buying another heatsink, then I reckon you could go with the links that I posted. Godfafa, Manu369, do you reckon that's a good idea?

@godfafa, I found those heatsinks too after doing an ebay search now (675M R3/R4 heatsinks): Dell Alienware M17x-R3 & R4 GeForce NV13E-GS1 GTX675m GPU Heatsink MT1DN | eBay NEW GENUINE DELL ALIENWARE M17X R3 R4 GPU HEATSINK MT1DN 0MT1DN AT0MK0030F0 | eBay Those heatsinks are not the same part number as P/N 9CNMG 100W that j95 listed as compatible however (couldn't find P/N 9CNMG on ebay) . @J95, do you know if those 2 links to ebay above are compatible for Manu? @Manu369, maybe do a google search to see if you can find out whether the 675M R4 heatsink is compatible with the 780M - there might be someone that has used it with sucess. These heatsinks look more efficient than the one you're using (copper).