BigKid

Hmm... I will also give that a try... But please be aware that we are now in PREMAS thread and your OP was in SLV7s thread... I can't seen any issues with premas bios and my GT72 right now (besides what I talked about with Prema before and leeched time... thank you very much again for taking your time Prema... That's highly appreciated...)

I switched from Medion (MSI whitebook) to MSI and after evaluation the drawbacks and benefits of the GT72 I bought a GT72 (I decided that I do not care that I need to reboot to switch from Nvidia to Intel HD and have no optimus... Having no optimus makes some things actually easier... And that I do not care about not beeing able to change the battery...)... But enough OT talk :-)

Please read the guide in the OP (first post)... Things changed... You CAN'T even flash using a dos based nvflash any more (for GTX900 series) - you HAVE TO use the windows(!) version provided within packages distributed here. No NEED to switch to legacy... That's unless the vBios is integrated into the systems bios (which I don't assume for the m17x).

Hmm... Interesting... So probably the systems total power draw is now able to exceed the limits of the EC controler even at stock settings of that other bios mod and thus the whole system starts to throttle - that would explain that some (if not to say all) GT72 owners are having issues especially in the power hungry combined test of 3d Mark Firestrike with that other vBios. The EC limit of the GT72 is not known but the GT70 had a limit of 180Watt or 210Watt with a special EC firmware as far as I know. With the AC adapter of the GT72 beeing labeled as having 230Watt (might not be 100% accurate) I assume it's something about 200 Watt... Even at stock bios I saw the GTX980M throtteling with the reason beeing "power limit" - GPUz seems to be able to show the throtteling reason and is giving different feedback for "power", "thermal" and "other".. I assume that you are doing something different ? You have to be doing something different as your mod is working in our systems at stock settings and with OC. I'm just Interested in all you can share without giving the recepie of your secret sauce :-)

I'm quiet sure of that. OCCing a mobile card was always harder to archive (or not even possible in the past). I think that SVETs tool just autmates a lot of the magic you are doing using a hex editor...as it's capabilities slowly expanded over time and not every bios was supported right from the start - even within the same generation of cards. So what I did with my GTX780M as I understand it is that I just expanded the OC limits but still had a throtteling vBios - it just throtteled later. Whereas you vBios will never ever throttle (unless the GPU starts to overheat) ? Before I answer - what are you refering to with "other vB" ? Your mod - slv7's mod - ... ?

Again: I highly appreciate that you take your time to explain things to semi-noobs like me Yes - no damage known with your vBios - I updated my OP even before your post because I didn't want anyone to get that impression ! I'm sorry... Sure... I'm not disagreeing here... It's just that I modded my GTX780M bios to 120Watt. I've "seen" that value in the cards bios... And I'm fully aware that 100% are now 120 Watt instead of the 100 Watt it had previously. All I'm saying is that I'd prefer to have a limit I know and could tweak a little - instead of having one I do not know Ok... I will revisit my system before getting back to you on this - it didn't seem to work for me yesterday but this might either be a problem beeing located between keyboard and back of the seat (-> me) or something special with the GT72 (which I consider less probabale - I will just check and get back with my findings). Maybe something changed in the approach nVidia has taken from the GTX780M to the GTX980M. For the GTX780M I was able to set the power limit in watts using SVETs bios tweaker. And I learned and experienced (also that might have been wrong information) that this seems to be really a power limit which the card seemed to actually be measuring and it's including the total power draw including memory. And actually I could see that increasing voltage and mem clock did actually result in lower core clock speeds until I increased that power limit also. That's why I'm harping on this power limit. It is something I "saw" and "experienced" whereas the GTX980M bios is a black box to me. And the GTX780M is advertised to use GPU BOOST 2.0 as is the GTX980M - so officially no change there... So please take my excuse for seeming so stubborn - I just want to be sure I understand: You are saying that the card is NOT measuring actual power draw but just estimating ?

As always: Thank you very much for taking your time to reply. I might have got you wrong: Maybe you there still IS a power limit - and I just got you wrong but I understood one of your posts in a way that the power limit is disabled with your vBios. So I agree but for your last point (or maybe we agree already and this is a misunderstanding): The reason is only the GPU has a thermal sensor. The heat of the GPU is depending on how much I OCC it and how much voltage I apply. So we agree here. Also agree that the hotter it gets, the more power it will need for the same tasks. So TDP goes up. Agreed. However: The final GPU temp is also depending on how powerful my cooling system is. The GT72's one is quiet powerful and will be able to keep the card below 87 degree for quiet a long time by increasing the fan speed even when the power draw is exceeding all (default) limits by large. As far as I know only the GPU has a thermal sensor but not the traces, nor the voltage regulators. Those could be above "healthy" limits already for quiet some time. This is what I suspect to have happened to those that actually damaged their systems. Some of them have been able to repair by cooking their cards in the oven or by applying other means of extreme heat so maybe just some soldering points got too hot and disconnected - and baking the card fixed that again (this is a general observation and by no means I'm saying this happened with YOUR BIOS) The power limit however (even when beeing a rough measurement) is much more indipendent of the cooling solution and in my opinion a better "airbag" - so I'm saying IF it is possible I'd prefer a version that allows to infuence the power target instead of the temp target but within healthy limits. Would it be possible to create a vBios that allows a certain range ? The GTX980M should be about 100Watt default so a range of 75 to 125 Watt should be quiet safe... Since it is possible to change the fan tables in the firmware of the GT72 with some research someone could come up with a ec firmware that has even more agressive fan curve - or just use the "cooler boost button" to set the fan to full speed. This would keep the card cool while it could be even more off limits for everything but GPU temp already. But again - we might already agree mostly here... That is another thing. I can't set the temp limit - that slider seems to be locked on my GT72 with your vBios, nv driver 344.75 and nvidiainspector (lastest version - last checked about 3 days ago). Could you please confirm which tool and driver version should work ? So I could retest this ? 100% agreed again (with the exception that I feel like the DTP is still better because it is independent of cooling solution etc. and might still reflect better how far off the default the card is actually operating) - so maybe this is really mostly just a misunderstanding on my side.

Moving this reply chain to this thread (where it belongs): Overall score. I do not know yet if games run stable... I'm currently running games at stock settings for the reasons/worries I explained above... But I found those values very easy and they might not even be the limits... I know that with +50,0mV +275Mhz is working and 300Mhz is not... But 290 might still work... so I'm quiet confident that this is about what will be possible stable in games. OCCing is very dependant on the actual GPU/Chip quality and that is like a lottery. Since I'm also able to OC +150Mhz Core, +500 MHz Mem without any voltage increase I might just have a good GPU. But bottom line - results are never comparable but just a very rough indication of what is possible...

Hi Prema. Thank you very much for your reply and your great mod ! If the MSI vBios is the same thing I'm absolutely fine with that so no need for a special version. Undervolting would be a great thing. Sometimes one want's just to have a silent mode and not every game requires full OC (or even full power). In respect of the Voltage - I'm not affraid about the GPU itself - I know that the GPU is running at much higher voltages in the desktop versions of the card. I'm more affraid about the resulting power draw. The traces / conductor pathes have limits, the voltage regulators on the card have limits. The ac adapter has limits. OCing is always related to getting close to those limits and using the reserves the designer left for safety reasons. GPU Boost is a game changers as it does not also protect the card from crossing the set power limit but it also tries to stay close to the set power limit - so to me it seems that every 3D app will go somewhat "furmark" if GPU boost is doing a good job. I would feel much more safe if I could choose to increase the power limit instead of disabling it completely - or if I could get a version of the vBios that has an increased limit of 120W or 140W instead of removing it completely. I've read posts of people who "grilled" their MXM module using a modded vBios and Furrmark / Kombustor. And while I agree that someone shouldn't run those tools at all on Laptops - I'm also thinking that a "reasonable" power limit could have saved them... The GPU will throttle to protect itself from overheat - but what about the other parts that do not have a thermal sensor - the voltage regulators, memory, etc too ? I will trust you if tell me that you are considereing all this as you are doing this for quiet some time now but I'd like to be sure ... I know you have much more experience in this so anything you can share is highly appreciated. I'm occing cards for 15 years now. In laptops I occed a GTX570M, GTX770M, GTX780M by using SVETS tool. So I never actually found out how to mod a bios myself but I used mod-tools. I increased the power limits by about 20-25% and nothing bad every happened - so let's call this my comfort zone. If there was any way to mod a GTX980M bios myself I would do it - but none of the tools is supporting the bios yet. I'm not asking anyone to do something for free - I'm more than willing to pay for a custom bios that gives me best of both worlds - my personal "airbag" (power limit) and yet some OCCability. With your BIOS my laptop started to "hum" when a 3D app is starting - this COULD be indicating that something is operating at it's limits... In addition a changeable power limit is a good way to easily set the laptop for a "silent gaming mode" - on my unlocked GTX780M I'm setting the power limit to 75% and the heat target to 70 degree celcius, reduced the voltage and also reduced the clocks a little and my system / the fans are much more silent... I know I sacrifice 3d power but for many games it is still sufficient...

Yeah... Stumbled about it when looking for on OC bios for my new GTX980M

You are welcome... I'm just sharing my experiences thanks should go to the modders 1) The only way to flash GTX9X0M cards is using the special windows based NVFLASH provided within the OP and also within the Prema package. So no need to boot to dos or anything. Just happily flash in windows. However just so you know: You can always change the boot-mode from UEFI to LEGACY to boot an USB stick or a CDROM in the UEFIs settings - however remember to switch back afterwards 2) No - not a single BSOD since I own it (about 2 weeks now). I do not know about the Intel Anti Theft thing actually... I HOPE it is not activated by default as it seems to be with many manufacturers....

The vBios Mod by slv7 seems to have issues with the MSI GT72 (or the other way around) for unknown reasons (no pun intended!). However the vBios modded by Prema (also available here in the forums) seems to work. Several GT72 (including me) used it by now so it seems to be quiet safe. (My best result is +275MHz core, +600Mhz Mem with +50.0mV Voltage - resulting in a whooping 10169 3DMark Firestrike score). Also it's a Clevo vBIOS it even works without raising the need to use modded inf files for the nvidia driver. So until Prema and/or Slv7 come up with a version specially for the GT72 you could give the prema vBios a try. However: Do not blame anyone when something bad happens - bios mods are always a risk. My machine started to mildly "hum" with the Prema vBios which might be an indication that something is runnning close to the limits (and I do not know on which side of the limits ).

First of all: Thank you very much Prema for your work ! I was able to OC my GTX980M in an MSI GT72 without much efforts: +00.0mV / + 150 Mhz Core / +500Mhz Mem +37.5mV / + 250 Mhz Core / +600Mhz Mem +50.0mV / + 275 Mhz Core / +600Mhz Mem (whooping 10169 in 3DMark FireStrike http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3830495 ) So for whatever reasons your modded vBios seems to suit us GT72 owners better than the one done by slv7 (no pun intended). However - something started to mildly "hum" within the notebook when I start a 3D app and I'm wondering if you modded the base power target and if yes - to which amount/extend. I'd also like to know this to estimate how far I dare to go with the voltage adjust... +300MHz seems to be in reach but I do not dare to go beyond +50.0mV... (Personally I'd consider 120Watt up from 100Watt safe, 140Watt daring but still something I could try, anything more would give me a headache :-) ) I also can't change the power target - the setting is still "locked". And I can't "undervolt" which I would love to do too for a "silent" gaming mode but every time I change the voltage setting to a negative adjustment it just goes back to "0") (I tried both using nvidia inspector - latest version - and nv driver 344.75 ). I would also love to see a mod of the vBios used in the GT72 by MSI - I would donate to help to get this done...

That's why I said 800Mhz Base clock... The GTX570M still used hot clock for the shaders... So yes and no... The shaders ran at 1600Mhz ... Maybe I should have said 800Mhz Core/ 1600Mhz Shader... 800Mhz is amazing considering the card was sold with about 500Mhz...

Thank you very much... Now I "really" start to understand what prema tried to explain back when I had issues with upgrading to the GTX980M in my previous laptop (GT70). So what I'm getting is: Whereas in older notebooks the drivers reads the vBios's subvendor and then complains that a clevo card and an MSI notebook is not a legal combination in newer notebooks it's instead masked by the bios ? Im thinking this because what I experienced first hand is: I upgrade from GTX570 to GTX770 in an older (pre GT70) MSI whitebook. The GTX770M was from clevo and I wasn't able to install the nv driver. Without modded inf install didn't even start. With modded inf it still failed later during install.Then I flashed a MSI vBios to the card and everything was fine. No need for a modded inf anymore. So when I flashed the clevo vBios to my MSI GT72 GTX980M I was afraid that I might have to use the modded inf "trick" again... But this time that didn't happen and furthermore tools like nvidiainspector still say the card is from MSI OK. Enough OT. I could talk about the OC I was able to archive with the prema bios - but again - wrong thread...

That's intersting... My nvidia verde driver didn't complain on my GT72 when I installed the prema mod. Whooping +275Mhz Core, +600Mhz Ram with +50mV.

Ok... Bad news... It seems like there are some older firmware versions for some last gen msi notebooks available that have an increased power limit but those actually originated from MSI. They've never been updated again and there is none for the GT72. And while it has been discovered how to mod the temperature table for the fan control the power limit could only be tweaked by MSI engineers. At least that's what I got as feedback. However: I still think it's something with the vBios as we can easily OC +135Mhz without any issues with the stock vBios. So again: I'd love (and even pay) to see a modded version of the MSI bios used in the GT72 :-)

What I found out so far is that the limit is within the EC (embedded controller) so IF something needs to be/could be modded it would be the EC firmware. However right now it could still be another thing that is preventing us to OC with the modded vBios as it might just not be suited for our systems... Maybe one of the modders could be so kind as to mod a Bios right from a GT72 so we could at least check/test that...

The GT70 was sold with a even less powerful ac adapter and yet I was able to increase the power limit of the gtx780m to 120 Watt without running into that problem (I had a similar whitebook by Medion). But I' quiet sure that there is a total power limit in the laptops bios which can be unlocked (reach out to SVET in the english MSI Forum). So IF there are issues I do not think they are really related to the PSU - unless it is throtteling for unknown reasons before it should. If you'd like to try more powerfull PSUs you could use one with DELL compatible connector. I found out by just trying as I have a larger DELL psu from a Dell Precision M I still had from work. Seems to works fine (as long as it is powerful enough). I'm more with the theory that it is connected to the GT72 using the NVCARD in dedicated mode without optimus.

First: A big thank you to the bios modders ! I'm interested in flashing the vBIOS to a MSI GTX980M in my GT72. I've two questions: The easy one is - if I flash this BIOS (it's Clevo if I'm right) - will I have to mod the inf file for the NV-Verde driver to install ? I had this issues with 2 MXM module upgrades - I needed to flash the MSI version of the vbios to get around this. The more complex and more important one - I've read the whole thread and to me it SEEMS like there are issues with throttling once the card is not using optimus but is dedicated (or in dedicated mode how someone called it) which is always the case with the GT72. It doesn't have optimus - one can switch between intel HD and NVIDIA and needs to reboot to do so. Any news on this ? I'm willing to help and test things - I could provide current VBIOS etc. Could every MSI GT72 user that sucessfully flashed give a short feedback on his success (or the lack of) ? I can see Fidanza and serafinowicz reporting issues...

That's not weird as soon as you know that not only the nv-mxm card has a power limit but most probably also you laptop bios for the whole system. So if you increase the power the gpu can use you might reach a point where the total limit is reached and the whole system gets throtteled by the laptop/mainboard bios (GPU AND CPU). EDIT: However it IS wierd if that happens even when you apply same frequencies and power limits you had before...

ok... Got it working finally... Someone at msi forums was so nice to provide a MSI gtx770m bios .I flashed it using -4 -5 -6 et voila...Card "rebranded" to msi - original nvidia driver (331.93) installed at once ... Since I'm a german: "JUCHHUUUUUU !" (similar to maybe "Yeahhhhhhhhhhh !")

Thank you guys! Will try this the next days and give feedback.

I'd highly appreciate if you (or someone) could mod the bios below to open for a little more voltage, power target and clock. Card: MSI GTX780M (GK104 - Revison A2) Laptop: Medion Erazer X7827 (msi whitebook) Bios Version: 80.04.97.00.04 File: GTX780M_org.zip Reason: It seems like MSI might have pulled some tricks to prevent exchange of MXM modules (or bios). The gtx780m oc bios did not work for me. NV drivers (tried several versions directly from nvidia) do not start to install (org inf file) or start but fail (modded inf file).With org bios same drivers did install again - with and without modded inf. So I'd guess this could help all msi and medion users... Merry XMAS to everyone... I'm off to the party again

Hi I'd just like to share my experiences with this. First: A big thank you to slv7 for his engagement ! I tried the GTX780M OC edition with my Medion Erazer X7827 (msi barebone based). Unfortunately it did not work out very well. After flashing slv7 oc edition.I was not able to install the drivers again. It did either not start to install or it failed using the modded inf from laptopvideo2go. My girlfriend was already preparing for a very grumpy me during christmas eve. I'm not sure if I did anything wrong while using the slv7 bios but once I had the old bios back on the card the driver with the modded inf did install perfectly well without any tricks (like win8 alowing unsigned drivers etc). But getting the bios back was the trickiest part because my machine didn't boot into dos any more. However the LATEST version of the nvflash for windows finally did the trick and now everything is fine again - with the exception of me beeing unable to overclock I'd like to share this just in case someone else is running into similar issues. I also attached the bios (extracted with nvflash) - maybe one of the magicians here is able to see what is "different"... Furthermore I've added a post in slv7's mod bios request thread... Regards and merry christmas BigKid GTX780M_org.zip EDIT: Short update/clarification: I'd like to add that I tried using several official notebook driver revisions from nvidia with respective modded inf files from laptopvideo2go. No luck with the OC bios... All fine with org bios...