kenny27

On 3/17/2016 at 10:35 PM, J95 said:

@nick81 you will need to increase voltage for Rise of the Tomb Raider, even my stable 24/7 OC/OV  @1266/1.087V, 3DM11 & FS loop settings, incl Valley...364.51 delete unnecessary folders and don't install GFE, don't use RTSS either...FPS counter Steam overlay (latest version) w/ DX12 support

What is wrong with RTSS?

@Assassin-SL you need to disable "Driver Signature Enforcement" for the drivers to install properly.

@Tulius when you get the throttle requiring a system reset that means you have gone over the bios power draw, usually about 330W from the wall depending how efficient your psu is. I have found using an external monitor gives the system a bit of extra room (20w or so) to run a moderate cpu overclock and avoid the system throttle.

@nick81 sorry let me be clear, we will still need the modded inf but J95 has been doing more then just putting the hadware ID in, his secret sauce has been stopping driver throttling

I cant give any advice on the HDD caddy, I will always be sticking with a DVD/CD drive given the choice. As for W10 vs W8.1, I'd still be cautious due to the whole screen bricking thing, people a fair few people have been running windows 10 for a while issue free, just stay away from EVGA Precision X if you want to have an other go.

What trouble did you have installing drivers?

Yep that's right, I see no need to match P-states if your not throttling.

Prema has been working on a vbios that will work without J95 modding the drivers like he does and will enable overclocking that wont throttle the cards

Glad it worked out, I'll keep updating profiles until Prema releases the vBIOS fix.

For PEG MODs best results flash @Prema's CLEVO_8GB_GTX980M_OC_PM_v1.1.1 (please consider donating to Prema)

- - - Updated - - -

@Infini did you apply NVI "P-States matching" w/ v359.00? If so, please power off -> remove power cord & battery -> Hold power button for 60 seconds -> reinsert Battery/power cable.

Power on -> NVI P-states matching -> check throttling...if it fails install 353.00 PEG MOD (follow instructions to the letter).

@kenny27 please try this #881...Power drain -> NVI P-states matching, hopefully some of my older tweaks are still working 359.00...time to update PEG MODs...

@J95 I had a quick go with the new drivers, I did not do the power drain, I only power drain if I absolutely need to (had a bad experience, so I stay away from anything what might surprise me with a dis-assembly) The 359.00 drivers are Almost ok for the M18x R2, In the testing I did (3DMark11, Firestrike, Crysis 3, Unigine Heaven, Metro 2033 + Lastlight and Shadow of Mordor) I occasionally got a 325/405mhz (core/memory) throttle for a few seconds and then every thing returned to normal, in Crysis 3 and Shadow of Mordor I had no throttling at all. The P-state matching didn't help as its obviously throttling to a lower power state. By the way, I'm using a variant of svl7's vbios.

Hey all

I am currently using 359.00 with my 980m mxm on Windows 8.1 without any issues. Benchmarks (without OC'ing) show the performance of my AW17 R5 (2013) to be on par with others with similar setups here and on the NBR forums.

There are though a few things I didn't do when installing the drivers: delete some of the folders in the driver files as instructed by j95 and NOT installing Geforce Experience.

I am assuming that one of the folders we have to delete avoids the installation of Experience.

What is the problem when installing GE? It's working perfectly fine for me (even though I don't use much of it, aside from checking what optimal settings it recommends for the games I play).

I already know about the Nvidia streamer service which I've been disabling as soon as I install a new driver, even before I got the 980m.

The one thing that remains is j95's suggestions regarding NVInspector. I did import the profiles (v5 now). But I am not doing the p0/p1 states match thingy. Does this affect performance? The reason I didn't change that, is that because it just doesn't save changes. A bit of research showed that this might be caused by Geforce Experience. But if the impact of modifying p0/p1 is minimal then I'd rather not change anything.

I have ZERO throttling thanks to Prema's mod and as I said, benchmarks and my personal experience playing games have shown very good results so far.

Hope someone can enlighten me with this as I wouldn't say no for even more oomph from the 980m! I am very very glad I opted to keep my AW17 and just upgrade my GPU, instead of replacing it with a MSI or Asus...

There shouldn't be any need for importing the profiles if your using the 359.00 drivers as all the profiles are included with the drivers. The updated profile are needed if your using the older 353.00 drivers.

The p-state matched profiles from Nvidia Inspector can be set to be automatically loaded when you start windows.

It can improve performance if you are getting throttling to the P1 state, which it doesn't seem to be happening on your system anyway.

@Prema @J95

ASIC quality for both my 980m

Look up a tear down video if you have no confidence with the owners manual, resetting the the cmos is the only option you have at the moment.

wow excellent score! whats the secret to unlocking these beasts?

a little bit better

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4930MX,Alienware 01W2J2

i am using modded Svl7/johnksss. i have edited it to match stock, increased temp throttling limit, and changed all P1 and P0 freq to 1126mhz and bumbed up the memory clock.

i get around 20000 gpu score in Firestrike.

Can you please upload your modded vbios, stock clocks on svl7's vbios is what I have wanted ever since svl7 released it as my cards dont hold 1202Mhz @ 1.0V

Your welcome, it drove me mad until I figured it out one day

i've got the same result in Firestrike that you did. i am running sli with slv7 hex edited bios. no random visible throttling whatsover on any driver, but seems i am running into some fps cap in 3dmark11, as it never goes higher than 120.5fps and my gpu util gets 70-80 when it hits that wall.

Set the 3DMark11 display scaling mode to stretched rather then centered, for some reason centered scaling has a fps cap....

The 17 R2 is being sold with a 980M 4GB card with no SLI, I understand that vbios is not compatible with our 8GB versions. Chances are the 17 is booting windows 7 with optimus enabled which we can do on our M17x R4 and M18x R2 (with one card) anyway.

Heatsinks for which computer? Any of the 100W AMD or Nvidia heatsinks should work fine. (I am using the 7970m heatsinks the 980m's in my M18x R2)

The 18 is not available any more because they stopped making it. The 18 is a step backwards from the M18x R2 in many ways which has stopped a lot of people from upgrading. Dell have stopped making enthusiast grade laptops for what ever reason, which makes the 18 less viable due to a smaller customer base hence they stopped making it (IMHO).

Not sure about better fans though, it can be hard to find a cfm rating for a laptop fan as it usually made for a specific model, cfm then becomes irrelevant.

To be honest I'm not sure why you would like to put better fans in anyway, for everyday use and overclocks the standard fans work well in Alienwares at least, and if your into serious overclocking you need more then a what a laptop fan can give you anyway.

Colder ambient temperatures is the best way, be it going outside when the weather is cold or using a portable Air Conditioner to pump cold air into the laptop. I have seen (pictures) laptops placed into chest freezers and chunks of dry iced on the heatsinks if you want to go really crazy (Although not recommended at all!).

I would recommend Liquid Ultra if you want low temps, my 3920xm dropped 13C compared to IC diamond under heavy load which is simply amazing, just don't get that stuff on any aluminium.

You could also raise the back of the laptop up to improve air flow or use/make a laptop cooler. If your really keen you could remove the perforated mesh that covers the fans, which might help a tiny bit.

I don't want to discourage your fan modding but there might be a more proven method that may help you to achieve your goals what ever they may be.

How is boost good? 1st thing I did once I got my 970M was to flash svl7's VBIOS to disable it... It messes up your clocks.. I run at full boost clocks now all the time during gaming and performance is much better.. Not to mention svl7's vBIOS lowers voltage to 0.95 and my card runs rock stable and cool..

I actually said the fact svl7's bios disables boost is a good thing but..... I get crashes (most likely due to the combination of voltage reduction and clock increase) chances are my cards are not quiet at good as yours. I'd rather not rely on software tweaks be it over-volting or under-clocking to ensure stability that in theory should be present the moment you hit the power button.

To be honest though Prema has done a fantastic job of preserving but at the same time hiding the boost function I have never seen it provided I used provided I use the right drivers, it is always at 100% boost under load

It sound like a compromise in theory but in the practical sense is an improvement for my system at least.

I am interested to know though; does svl7's 970m vbios overclock your 970m beyond the stock boost clocks?... and if so which performs better svl7's base clock or underclocking to the stock boost clocks? I ask this because when I was using slv7's 980m vbios I got much better performance under-clocking to the stock boost clocks, if I didn't the card usage would throttle despite the clocks remaining rock steady. I get the same issue if I overclock "to-much" with premas vbios.

Fixed too, but I can't post it >yet<...it's the only solution we've got. AW throttling is intentional, unfortunately v347.90 & v350.05 Mod proves that NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3940XM,Alienware M17xR4

Wow that is an excellent score! Isn't the 9.18.13.4752 driver OC blocked though? or was that a vbios overclock?

Well keep us posted, your doing an excellent job IMHO so would love to see what you have cooked up when the time is right, hopefully the M18x can benefit as much as the M17x

I thought as much. I'm not really keen on svl7's 980m vbios, while it does disable the boost function which is good, I cant run it without "underclocking" to 1127Mhz or my computer freezes during vantage even if i bump the voltage.

Agreed 347.90 is a great driver for stock clocks or very mild overclocks. Overclock to much and the gpu usage goes out the window instead of sticking above 90% it'll drop as low as 65% despite holding the overclock as steady as a rock.

Thanks man, now I need M18xR2/980M to test this...anyone?...

I had a play with 350.05 and your inf (from post #1471) yesterday night. I am using prema GTX980mOC vbios to put things in perspective, and my 3920xm is running at stock clocks.

I would flash svl7s vbios again but I have literally taken my M18x apart 25 times in the last 2 days flashing different vbios's and am a bit over it at this stage.

For reference:

344.75(Mr. Fox's desktop driver) throttled almost instantly with this vbios and is basically unusable.

347.90 on the first few installs was similar to 344.75 but now I am using an installation that so far is rock solid.

For your 350.05 drivers it seemed to do one of two things; work very well or throttle to 135Mhz.

I managed to get though 1.5 runs of valley before it throttled to 135, With a reboot valley manged 3 or 4 cycles no throttle before I shut valley down. Later runs produced throttling when the rain starts (in the valley run) or just after either on the first or second cycle, or it ran perfectly until I stopped it.

Metro 2033 benchmark throttled after 1.5 runs.

I did manage a few unthrottled firestrike runs, the scores however were not as good 347.90.

Additional Notes

Once the system throttled it stayed at 135Mhz until either a reboot or an overclock was applied but then the clocks bounced between 1038Mhz and the overclock limit which I did not test much because it annoyed me.

I only out of 4hrs of testing saw 6 mini throttles where the power state was drop or the clock was dropped to 1038Mhz and then continued as normal.

I hope my observations are useful considering the different vbios's. I can try the first inf you posted if you want, but that may be later today or tomorrow.

I was going to upload my msi log screen shots but I think you get the idea its either off or on for me with the premas vbios.

Just a question... Is there a reason you are testing svl7's vbios @1127 rather than 1203Mhz? I would get better performance with svl7's vbios downclocked to 1127Mhz (using 347.90) even though I never had any clock throttling at all it was a difference of about 1-2.5k in the firestike/3dmark11/vantage gpu tests. Is this the same with the M17(x)?

@svl7 Just wondering if there is any hope left for our Alienware machines with regards to the windows 8/uefi requirement and/or the power throttling issue.

Skyrim need Vsync to work properly, Unreal tournament needs to have the frame-rate capped or things just get werid (extreme speed etc) and some of the call of duty games work best at 125fps, otherwise the more frames the better

I have played the first will be playing the second soon hopfully. That the problem with playing games in the wrong order previous titles can seem a bit lack luster (If the developer is doing its job properly)

While I cant wait for the new story, map and improved game play its CDProjeckts customer focus that will keep me coming back, I mean all the DLC is free for a start and if the witcher 2 2.0 patch is anything to go by they will look after us long after #3 has been released.

I'd agree,I have used a 360 controller for racing games on the PC (although I manage quiet well with the keyboard), not only is throttle control better but steering is also smoother. The PS2 Emulator also works much better with a controller, simply because the controllers are familiar.

Graphics=amazing

Really liking that Bow, hopefully they have different type arrow heads (explosive/ piercing etc)

@ StamatixS I have heard of various fixes involving combinations of disabling AA Dof and running skyrim under the default crossfire profile rather then the tesv one, these solutions may or may not help you. (I have had inconsistent results myself)