Ferkosza

On 4/3/2016 at 0:29 PM, Ultrax5 said:

Actually, we can increase the voltage and (by bios modding) increase the power limits. Nvidia inspector can set the voltage to 1.17V if I remeber correctly, and that allowed me to run the GPU at 1475mhz(possibly even more can be achieved), but there were 2 problems I encountered:

1. The power brick is way too weak to handle such overclocks reliably if one unlocks the power limits. Furmark started to eat the battery like crazy the second I started the stress test. 

2. This is actually my GPU's own problem - at 1475mhz and 1.17 it was artifacting a lot, but it was enough for me to complete 3dmark Fire Strike test. So unless someone has some better quality silicone in the GPU, higher overclocks won't happen.

Hi Ultrax5,
Thanks, that's good news, indeed. Could you please explain in detail how to increase the power/voltage limit for our cards?

14 hours ago, iAchilles said:

really like ur perfect punctuation, it seems as if u r writting an essay   (i'm an English student)

 

have u made any comparison between 4gb vs 2gb varient of 960m, FPS-wise in games ? has the 4gb varient any absolute benefit over the 2 gb varient ?

 

so ur final boost clock is 1454 which is 1359 MHz + 95 MHz by MSI AB = 1454, right ? is it the ultimate value we can push our card? have u checked higher values than 1359 when u set this value in vBIOS ?

 

anyway, pls let me know ur best OC values or by any chance u found better vBIOS file or setting OR EVEN if there is any way to get better performance outta this specific Laptop. (i'm gonna PM u my Email address for any finding u might bump into in the future) 

it would be definitely appreciated.

 Yes, I am fond of literature, I love writing well formatted texts  .

However,I did not really research the difference between 2 and 4 GB variants... You are perfectly right, this chip (960M) is simply too weak for very high resolutions and/or details. So probably we could be just fine with 2 GB. Here I had a great offer recently so I bought the 4GB variant.

Indeed, my final clock is 1454 MHz (w/ boost). Whenever I tried to go above, I had a driver crash. It seems we need more power if we want to achieve a higher clock. However, I don't really think that we can go much above 1500... We are already reaching our limits here. I am curious about your results.  

On 3/25/2016 at 10:56 PM, iAchilles said:

wow, thx for ur thorough and detailed guide sir 

really appreciated indeed. u are rock man !!

 

VRAM 6000 MHZ !!!???? Are u sure ???? i only can get +300 MHZ (fully stable) memory clock with MSI AB which leads to : 2505 (stock memory) + 300 = 2805 Mhz

 

btw ur gpu is 2gb or 4 gb variant ? although i believe 960m 4 gb is an absolute over kill coz this particular gpu is too weak in essence that can benefit from that 2 extra GB.

 

PS. can't we change the POWER LIMIT by this method ?

http://www.cryptocoinupdates.com/how-to-raise-the-power-target-limit-on-geforce-gtx-970-and-gtx-980/

Thank you, Sir  . I also documented it for myself, in case I will need to do more OC-ing/modding in the far future. (I always forget everything if I don't write it down  ) .

You are right about your VRAM speed; the values we see in Afterburner should be doubled for the final speed. Thus, I get 3000 there and my final speed is 6000 MHz. Our cards are basically a 750 Ti, if you check the desktop variants' memory speed, you will also see values between 5 and 6 GHz GDDR5 (depending on the manufacturer's OC).

I have seen the 970/980 power-method you linked before; but to be honest, I used to play a lot with my previous laptop and its 850M - however, I could not increase the voltage/wattage there, no matter what I changed. The real gurus here in Techinferno can simply unlock the voltage bar for notebook VGA chips in Afterburner - no idea how. I guess we should ask them. The good thing is that you can embed any mod-ded vBIOS based on my instructions, not only the one from Maxwell II Tweaker. So if you manage to find a way to increase voltage, let me know!

Edit: Indeed, I have a 4GB-variant of the 960M. I don't really use that much mem though, coz I play at 900p to have reasonable speed in games  .

So this is my detailed description how I managed to mod and overclock my GTX 960M in my Lenovo Y50-70. Please note: it is very dangerous to play with the BIOS, so you need to be very careful! I take NO RESPONSIBILITY for any damage or misuse of the information below! Use it AT YOUR OWN RISK!

-------

Necessary tools:

A. Fptw64 from Intel (9.5 or above)
http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=75024

B. PhoenixTool (2.50 or above)

C. Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker (1.36)
https://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2562/maxwell-ii-bios-tweaker-v1-36/

-------------------------

How to flash Modded BIOS:

0. Flash the latest (3.03 now) official BIOS
1. From Windows, start 'cmd' as Administrator and read your your BIOS via Fptw64:
   Fptw64 -d BIOS.ROM -bios
2. Reboot, enter your BIOS and check "Enable downgrading BIOS" feature (we need to downgrade first in order to flash the modded BIOS)
3. From Windows, downgrade to 1.13 (this is necessary because the newer BIOSes have protection against mod-ding)
4. After reboot & reflash, start Windows, then enter standby, wait a bit, then wake up the machine
5. Create your modded BIOS, see separate list below
6. Start 'cmd' as Administrator and write your _modded_ BIOS via Fptw64:
   Fptw64 -f BIOS_MODDED.ROM -bios

-------------------------

How to create modded BIOS (point 5 above):

5.1 Start PhoenixTool.exe from Phoenix Tool 2.50 and open your previously saved original BIOS.ROM from point #1 above
 .2 The tool analyses it and shows some messages, click OK
 .3 Now you can find your vBIOS in the "DUMP" subfolder in the folder containing your BIOS.ROM, with the file name:
    BE13645B-2C2C-44D2-A64F-0EA052C34597_1796.ROM
 .4 Create your modded vBIOS, see separate list below -> let's call it 960M_OC.MOD
 .5 Click on "Structure"
 .6 Open "EFI BIOS" tag
 .7 Open second "File Volume {7A9354D9-...}" tag
 .8 DXE Core -> Compressed Section -> Raw section -> File Volume {7A9354D9-...}
 .9 In the very long list, find the following tag (usually displayed at around 80% of the list):
    Freeform {BE13645B-2C2C-44D2-A64F-0EA052C34597}
    This is the item containing the latest vBIOS
 .10 Open the tag, then "GUID defined section", then click on Raw section. "Internal number" (in the top right corner) should be 1796 for BIOS 3.03.
 .11 Click on "Replace" and select your modded vBIOS (called 960M_OC.MOD above)
 .12 Click exit "Exit" and say Yes to "Save changes?"
 .13 Close the Phoenix Tool; now you should have your BIOS.ROM updated (the original will be saved as BIOS.ROM.OLD for safety)

-------------------------

How to create modded vBIOS (point 5.4 above):
Use Maxwell II BIOS Tweaker to change BE13645B-2C2C-44D2-A64F-0EA052C34597_1796.ROM;
5.4.1 Open the ROM
   .2 Change "Boost Clock" on "Common" tab to the new boost-ed maximum value
   .3 On "Boost table" tab, use the slider in the right bottom corner to increase your max boost-ed value to the same number
   .4 On "Boost states" tab, at P00 profile, change the MAX values in the GPC, L2C and XBAR fields to the same max boost-ed value
   .5 Save your modified BIOS and rename it to 960M_OC.MOD

(My boost-ed max value was 1359 MHz. I could then use MSI Afterburner's software tuning -> my 960M could reach 1454 MHz without voltage increase.)

On 3/24/2016 at 0:11 AM, iAchilles said:

Finally, thx very very much for ur response sir.  18% is good enough.

aren't u hitting the power limit (throttling) ? have u checked the power limit graph via MSI afterburner ??? how's the temps?

As far as i get from what u said, so u have ur gpu OCed +235 for core clock base, right ? and how much for Memory ?

 

i used ur suggested application (fptw64.exe) and took a backup of bios

this is the result

http://rghost.net/6ZvtxnVDJ

also i used Universal BIOS Backup ToolKit 2.0 and took a backup of bios with this application as well

http://rghost.net/7Xwb2JlzY

 

 

Yes, unfortunately I saw some power limit related throttling, but not too much. I guess I would need voltage OC, but I have no idea how to do that. The temps were also a bit high, max. 75 degrees Celsius, and it is not yet summer here in (East-)Europe... We will see, I guess I will need a notebook cooler.

So my final numbers are: Core - 1454 MHz, VRAM - 6000 MHz.
In my next post I will write down the detailed steps how I mod-ded my BIOS.

On 3/21/2016 at 1:48 PM, iAchilles said:

 

NO HELP ? :|

Hi iAchilles,

You will need the aforementioned Firmware Programming Tool for Windows (fptw64.exe) to extract your main BIOS first. See my post above. Run the tool as 'admin.'

One cannot simply read the vBIOS of the 960M via GPU-Z, because on most laptops the VGA BIOS is embedded in the main BIOS (just like on our Lenovo Y50-70).

Furthermore, I was not able to increase the voltage / power envelope of my 960M, I could "only" increase its speed with cca. 100 MHz via BIOS modding (exluding MSI Afterburner's +135 MHz), but in the end my full OC performance was like +18%-19% compared to the original, which is not bad.

So please report back here if you could extract your main BIOS.

On 3/2/2016 at 7:53 PM, RandomGuy23 said:

Could any one name any tool to backup bios? I haven't been successful in finding any that works. I've tried the Universal Backup toolkit 2.0 but it doesn't work either. And I can't download the Backup_FPT from this site cuz I am new here.

My current (more or less) stable values of my 960M are 1450/6020 MHz (boost.core/VRAM). I cannot go above them and I have no idea how to increase the voltage yet. Nevertheless, they are really nice value and perform almost 4800 points in Firestrike.

On 1/28/2016 at 11:17 PM, Ultrax5 said:

Guys, what are the clocks you achieved when running the modded vBIOS?
I only managed to get 1425 core 3005 mem on 960m without a voltage increase (idk how to unlock it, I got to these clocks with an easier mod), wondering how high can these values be if I could up the voltage a bit.

Ultrax5, I have used Intel's Firmware Programming Tool for Windows (fptw64.exe) to read my BIOS on my Lenovo Y50-70 w/ 960M. The parameters are:
fptw64.exe -d <backup_bios_name.rom> -bios
You need at least the v9.5 version in order to handle Haswell chipsets properly. I will attach my version for your convenience. You will certainly need to run it as Administrator. The "-bios" parameter ensures that the tool will read only the main BIOS, but that's all you need for modding your 860M/960M.

FPT_v.9.5.0.1428.rar

Edit: oh sh*t, I forgot that you cannot download files yet. Please use this link then:
http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=75024
Just search for the text " FPT v0.9.5.0.1428"

On 2/23/2016 at 6:33 AM, Alin said:

I have bricked my laptop. Can someone send me an email of his backup bios file? My laptop is Asus X550JK. Thx

Hi Alin,
Have you managed to recover your laptop? Do you still need help?

Hi Guys,

This is a very nice thread, thanks for all the information in it!

I currently own a laptop with the good old PCIe 2.0 x1 connection, which has its bandwidth limits with stronger VGAs. So naturally I turned to the M.2 standard.

Could anybody please tell me whether the 'A' and 'B' keyed M.2 sockets provide PCIe 2.0 or PCIe 3.0 interface? The difference is big since 3.0 is twice as fast as 2.0. Or does this entirely depend on the chipset of the laptop mainboard? Should Haswell machines then provide PCIe 3.0 ? Thanks for your help!

Hi Flow999, could you please tell me how you increase the voltage of your GTX 850M? I could not find (yet) a way to do it in Maxwell II Tweaker. You can also just mail me your (hacked) vBIOS. (suwidah, you too . My email address: [email protected]

My default voltage tops at 1.056 V (according to GPU-Z). Whatever I do I cannot increase it.

About safety: in general, I would say that you should be _very_ careful with increasing the voltage. Max 1-2% increase one time, and keep testing your settings for a longer period. Then, if everything looks fine, you can do the next 1-2% increase. Still, notebooks are very sensitive animals, so you can brick them easier than the desktop cards. However, if you are willing to take some risks (e.g. I will , then you can bring the maximum out of your GPU.

Hi Suwidah,

Oh, no problem at all, I am glad that you answered.

Thanks a lot for your information, I will try it out! Could you please upload your vBIOS somewhere else, here I cannot download until I have 5 posts...

Re extracting vBIOS: for me, extracting/hacking "10de 1391" worked fine, I just could not increase the power envelope (yet). My current results are:

3DMark11: from 4600-ish -> 5550 points (cca. +20%), 3DMark13 Fire Strike: 3300 points.

My GPU core is stable at 1324 MHz, the mem (DDR3) is at 1130 MHz. The temp hits 79 Celsius though, and it is not even summer yet, so I will need to be careful. Oh, and thanks for the cooling tips, too!

... well, in the meantime, I have some results.

First, how to recover from a BIOS update failure (aka emergency BIOS refresh or crisis refresh).

I have managed to test it using the following steps on my Asus X550JK having an (APTIO) AMI BIOS:

- Format your USB stick with FAT32

- Copy the BIOS file (my version at the time of writing this was: X550JKAS.303) but _rename_ it to X550JK.BIN ! Otherwise the machine will not find it.

- Insert the USB stick into a USB 2.0 slot

- While keeping the Ctrl + Home keys pressed, turn on the notebook

After the notebook accessing the USB stick, you should see the Recovery app on the screen!

It must be noted that this was not a "real" emergency case, I just forced my computer to do it so that I can be sure (more or less) that I will have some backup plan in case of a BIOS misflash.

P.S.: I recommend using a smaller USB stick, my one had only 512 MB.

Hi suwidah,

Thanks a lot for your description!

I would have a few questions about it though. I have an ASUS X550JK with a 850M (DDR3), and it would be nice if I could hack it, too. So:

- Did you use the APTIO(4) AFUWIN software to extract your BIOS? It seemed to work for me. I just started the GUI exe and clicked on the Save button to store my current BIOS. Or do I have to do that differently? My file size was around 6 MB.

- MMTool was nice and easy, extracting VBIOS was o.k. Is your VBIOS also 102,912 bytes long?

- The biggest mystery is MaxwellBios ii Tweaker, it is unclear how to increase my core MHz and/or unlock the +135 MHz OC limit. Any chance to explain it briefly?

- You mentioned earlier that you bricked your lappie (yayy!) and then successfully recovered it. Any details on the recovery process?

Thanks a lot in advance!