RWNinja

That's the version I was going to run with shortly Thanks Prema. I'll give her a rip now.

Hey Prema, any chance I could get ya to work on a P170HM bios? I'll do anything I can if you need help. I have both the latest bios and EC from sager. Also, per your recommendation, with a Clevo GTX680M do(or did) you run the Clevo OC edition, or the MSI OV. I can't push the clevo OC past 849 because of the lack of a voltage bump.

Odd. MSI AB worked for me, but it's an artificial clock of only +135 core. You can use NVInspector to OC, but ensure you don't have them both vying for the control over the clock rate. I've used them both, and so far I enjoy both. If you want to go above the 135+ on the core, you'll need a flashed vbios. If it's a Clevo GTX card, you need to find the Kepler Vbios mods and download the 80.0.29.0.0.1 OC edition for Clevo cards. The MSI ones work as well, and I've used a couple...but the MSI vBios still has some glitches with the Clevo boards. If you really don't care too much to overclock, I've also noticed that the MSI GTX 680M vbios has a stock clock rate of 771MHz over the Clevo rated @ 719MHz. Power consumption is a bit greater since it runs at about 1.020 volts over the .987v @ full load.

I noticed that. Those two games are poorly optimized. Sadly, so is Titanfall. All these games are being produced without the capacity to use multi-core support for the most part. As for unparking the core, it was more a set of registry tweaks instead of TDP values. However, I'm open to any suggestions in that.direction I thought about attempting a minor overclock on the 2860QM (honestly, the warmest this thing gets with some cooling mods I've done is 64 degrees.) I'll likely upgrade to 16GB of ram to offset some of it. (not that many games can even take over 4g). I've also dipped into Nvidia Inspector and used a couple modded command lines to a set of clocks to force pstate2 constantly. It works, but it's a shady workaround. The hottest both of these have gotten in WOT are CPU: 64 degrees and GPU: 71 degrees. I know WoT is expecting a serious overhaul with 9.0 switching to the havok physics engine supplemented by the U3 engine for GFX. That should take a serious load off of my GPU.

I have installed older drivers and the one I settled on was 334.89 with a modded inf. It works, but I've come to determine that alot of games can't harness the GTX's power. Especially games built on the old DX9 platform. I did, however, manage to get a stable 1006 MHz/2250MHz overclock on it. I've since backed it down since performance gain in games is negligible. Let me clarify, though. In games like World of Tanks, the usage stays at full bore usually. in terms of Mhz. But the percent usage drops constantly. I've chalked it up to a poorly optimized game engine that the russians decided to not make any better due to rolling out a new game engine soon. Metro: LL I'm usually at 80-90 fps so it's solid. Eurocom wasn't a bad seller, and it was a worthy upgrade from a 6990m. Once you are ready to install the GTX680M you need to get the latest bios and EC firmware from Sager (if that's your reseller). Update EC, then bios. One thing that made a huge difference was unparking my processors cores, allowing it to harness more power from the GPU. BIG difference there. Overall, in conclusion, most games just aren't optimized enough to withstand the awesome that is the GTX 680. I run almost any other game on near max settings. I'm just trying to determine if I possibly got a bum card. Worst case I buy an EM platform and migrate everything over minus the CPU.

Not really sure about 8.1. I had windows 8 for a while and it drove me batty so I went back to 7. As for DX yes, manual update from MS website. As for NVflash I have been using -6 as well, but it's strange. I know that PXXXHM users needed to perform an EC and Bios update, but if I uninstall all Geforce drivers, screen goes blank and beeps, then I reboot and it says I have no display adapter xD. So far, so good. Also Update: I bit the bullet and reformated after realizing both of my HDD's somehow filled with random crap over the past 2 years. It -has- gotten better, but the difference is marginal. The biggest problem that seems to have corrected itself in this format is the temperature issue. This beaut' runs cold as ice now. On idle at desktop around 34 degrees, in GW2 about 58, and in WoT about 64-70. Once my Gelid Extreme comes in, I'll probably stuff an OV Bios under the hood for the GTX. - - - Updated - - - TDR is Timeout, Detection, and Recovery. It happens when the Video Driver fails to respond to the system after a certain period of time. My guess is it'd be cured with a fresh format, unless the card is at fault. At the same time, if you don't want to lose everything you could try this: 1) Boot into windows normally 2) Control Panel: Uninstall all Nvidia drivers 3) reboot into safe mode using F8 4) run Driver Cleaner and get rid of all Nvidia crap in the registry. 5) reboot normally and install new driver 6) reboot again and cross fingers while drinking a beer!

I had a feeling that was the case :s. Ah well. Thanks anyway! I upgraded to the GTX 680M in this machine and was trying to squeeze a little more power out of her since we all know sager bios' are pretty poorly optimized.

Hey Prema! Awesome work on the stuff you've put out, however I'm looking for your famed bios in a P170HM flavor! I noticed you had a project to mod the bios, but I can't locate a DL for anything. I've seen the great unlocked bios' you've put out, and I was wondering if it's possible to also get rid of the double splash screen issue upon boot. Thanks prema!

I was thinking of a complete reformat as well. I had a 6990m and windows keeps going "help with error ATI/AMD GPU". Uhhhh....Haven't had one in two weeks champ....I have tried the Overvolt MSI Vbios and that seems to make no difference with my clocks. I can only go to 902, and even so after a while it brainfarts and goes to 324MHz..aka stock low usage clocks. I don't really want speed, I just want stability. I had a 7970m and it died within two days of ownership so any ATI card is out. lol. When you NVflash do you use nvflash -4 -5 -6 to force vbios over the subsys vendor? I was curious as to whether or not that may take a role in it. - - - Updated - - - Also, as for the video_tdr_failure you're having, have you tried manually updating DirectX and PhysX? That might make a difference.

So far it sounds almost entirely like it's just underutilization on either the drivers side of things or on the game engine. My temps never go above 72 degrees and usually hover around 58 in GW2. Darn. Hopefully someone will chime in and be able to help us out!

I should also make note that while looking at a non-graphic intensive area, my gpu usage goes up to 99%, do a 180 and look in a more intensive area, and it drops to 71%. I'm pretty confused, shouldn't it be the other way around? Also, clocks remain the same @719MHz as reported by MSI Afterburner. (I've also tried setting power setting to performance in Nvidia Control Panel and disabling vysnc in game and in the control panel.

You can underclock it to a limited degree using nvinspector. run the program and click the bottom right button for clocks. in there you can underclock it by I think 135mhz.

Hey guys, I have a Clevo P170HM (Sager NP8170) that i recently upgraded with a GTX 680M. The seller I purchased it from was Eurocom, which as I'm to understand has some effect on the outcome. Basically the issue I'm having is that my GPU usage is pretty strange. I play Guild Wars 2 and World of Tanks. The one thing I noticed is that even with overclocked rates, my gpu usage fluctuates anywhere from 40% in large battles to 99% and FPS ranges from 15-120fps in GW2. All the while, the clocks are changing as well. Now, when I go to use NvFlash through the dos bootable USB method, it says it can't identify the pci subsys vendor, even with the stock flash from eurocom. It was a drop in card and worked from the start, once updated to the latest Bios and EC from Sager themselves. I'm uncertain if this is an issue that can be resolved, however I welcome any insight into this matter. I have kept the clocks stock for the time being to allow the card to settle in and for me to get an average idea of the temps it will produce, though I am open to doing what needs to be done. I ordered some Gelid Extreme Thermal Compound and I'm currently using IC Diamond 7(not quite a fan of it over AS5). My processor is a 2860QM, so I'm also aware there is plausibility that the bottleneck is my CPU. Other HW :Intel SSD, 8GB Kingston HyperX. Thanks in advance!

The GTX680M was a hell of an upgrade for me. In your case I think (once you become more comfortable with the Overclocking aspect) you can use the MSI vBios' without a hitch. For the P170HM users (like myself) We're limited to the 80.00.03.29 bios from svl7 or stock flash from our reseller. I recently acquired one from Eurocom and so far so good. Stock clocks SUCK but temps are amazing. ~55 degrees in Guild Wars 2 with the mild OC of +135/+450 in MSI Afterburner

Thread can be closed. I ended up taking eurocom into trading a 7970m for a GTX680M. I mentioned I had it in for a couple days and it died so they RMA'd it. Sending it to Canada was EXPENSIVE though. So for the price of a 7970M and shipping back to Canada, I ggot a GTX 680M. Can't say I regret a thing!