NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods - Overclocking Editions, modified clocks, voltage tweaks

[Brian]

I've also got random crashes @ BF3 with svl7 1.037v vbios (@1037/2500) - also using 304.79 temps are OK (80c) - if you could elaborate, i'd be quite keen on knowing if the drivers are really the culprit or just my clocks are unstable with this vbios.

I also tried to lower clocks and same crashes are happening (1000/2400).

304.79 are perfectly stable on my M18x so you may have some other problems going on.

Sent from my GT-N7000

[littleone562]

304.79 Highly unstable on 2 same configured m18x r2 systems with 680M sli. Have not done single card testing but the instability may indicate some low level instability there as well.

[jaug1337]

Thanks!

[bmpm5]

Hi,

something weird is happening.

Flashed svl7 vbios with 1.037V 932/1800

Overclocked it to 1067/2500 and played Skyrim.

After a while i got a black screen and a couple of seconds afterwards it continued without any issues.

I looked at the nvidia inspector settings and the logfile of the monitor and somehow the oc reset to stock oc of 932/1800.

If I look at the log screen nothing unusual happened.

The temp was way within limits.

Maybe a driver issue?

Would be glad for some suggestions.

Thanks guys

[Shipwreck79]

The throttling issue with the 680m on the M17x is a most curious one:

My GPU will happily take 959 MHz in BF3 multiplayer on Ultra as well as Crysis 2 Ultra/DX11 3D without a sweat, yet it will quickly downclock to 830 - 650 MHz (at worst) in the much less demanding WoW! Even so, it will go up again after a while and keep fluctuating (albeit on a high level, usually staying above the base clock).

Those sudden, brief dips down to about 200 MHz I've only experienced in 3DMark 11 and Vantage and Unigine Heaven so far, though. It doesn't seem to do that while gaming, for whatever reason.

I also *think* that memory speed will affect throttling behaviour. At least in 3DMark, it seems to me that the lower the memory is clocked, the fewer of these dips occur. Thus, it might be a kind of power throttle at work here.

[littleone562]

shipwreck those underclocks on less demanding games are a feature of kepler. If it is not happening in the most demanding games all is good brother

[widezu69]

Hi,

something weird is happening.

Flashed svl7 vbios with 1.037V 932/1800

Overclocked it to 1067/2500 and played Skyrim.

After a while i got a black screen and a couple of seconds afterwards it continued without any issues.

I looked at the nvidia inspector settings and the logfile of the monitor and somehow the oc reset to stock oc of 932/1800.

If I look at the log screen nothing unusual happened.

The temp was way within limits.

Maybe a driver issue?

Would be glad for some suggestions.

Thanks guys

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4648[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]4650[/ATTACH]

Dude that's because your overclock is way too high. Your driver crashed and reverted back to original speeds because your card can't take speeds like that. Start low and work your way up.

[Eldaren]

I'm starting to notice the throttling in games much more now. For example in Crysis 2, the card will throttle when I stand near some smoke or stand near barrels when the blow up....

[Shipwreck79]

shipwreck those underclocks on less demanding games are a feature of kepler. If it is not happening in the most demanding games all is good brother

Don't think that's the reason here: I have disabled frame rate target and set the driver to prefer max performance. Throttling does not occur in less demanding scenes in WoW, but totally randomly. And, there is still the 3DMark throttling at higher oc - I get the highest score at 100Mhz core/200 MHz memory. A higher clock will just lead to throttling spikes and a lower score.

So, all is not good here either.

I'm running on the first BIOS posted here, +100MHz core, btw.

[fatant]

card will throttle, is it a temperature problem?

[mrm2x]

i don´t think so. running 3dmark11 at high ambient-temp (26°) will result in 64-66° max core temp at stock clocks...

[bmpm5]

Dude that's because your overclock is way too high. Your driver crashed and reverted back to original speeds because your card can't take speeds like that. Start low and work your way up.

Hi,

I now clocked the card to 1030/2400 and everything is fine even after 2 hours gameplay.

Will slowly try to up the clocks again to find the sweetspot.

Thanks for your help

[widezu69]

Hi,

I now clocked the card to 1030/2400 and everything is fine even after 2 hours gameplay.

Will slowly try to up the clocks again to find the sweetspot.

Thanks for your help

There we go. That's more like it!

[bmpm5]

Hey guys,

I noticed one more thing.

During heavy gameplay (Skyrim) the card stays at the oc.

Once the load drops during loading screens or looking at the journal or maps, the card starts downclocking.

Once the load is needed again it will go back up again to the oc.

Is that a normal behavior?

Thanks for your input

[widezu69]

Yes that is totally normal. The card is getting board during times when it doesn't need to render anything so it downclocks to save power

[Brian]

Hey guys,

I noticed one more thing.

During heavy gameplay (Skyrim) the card stays at the oc.

Once the load drops during loading screens or looking at the journal or maps, the card starts downclocking.

Once the load is needed again it will go back up again to the oc.

Is that a normal behavior?

Thanks for your input

Dropping the clock between maps is normal since the card isn't being stressed.

Sent from my GT-N7000

[walhalla]

I´d tried to flash my bios (m17x R4 - 680m). I got this

The PCI subsystem does not match my subsystem. Is this correct. I used the bios from the first site without voltage mod at 819 Mhz.

[svl7]

Yeah, that's normal, the adapter and vbios SSID don't even match with the stock vbios which is pre-installed on your system. Just confirm the flash, it's fine.

Guess I should mention this on the first page.

[walhalla]

Thank you. See you at aw-community....

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Tried all versions of the bios. All bios throttle in 3DMarks if oc is over 100 Mhz GPU. They are not stable for oc. I use 304.79 beta-driver.

[TheLaw]

Max overclock is B.S. granted the 640m-660m are the same card. Hopefully I can get my Gigabyte u2442n 650m modded.

[svl7]

640m, 650m and 660m are the same ASIC, true... but not the same binning. So you can't expect to push all 640m to 660m levels, that's rather unlikely, even though possible if you got a good chip and the voltage supply circuits allow it.

[DarkSkies]

This is an awesome thread. It actually made me join. Hello there o/

So what is the current state of affairs for Dell 680M 2GB cards? As I understand:

• the +100Mhz vbios from the first post should work fine yielding 819Mhz core and 858Mhz boost clock
  
• MSI/Clevo bioses will not work = Dell cards run only Dell VBIOSes
  
• with the "+100Mhz" vbios any higher OC has not been successful so far -> the "erratic" changes of the gpu core-clock occur if attempted

[svl7]

Hey, thanks, and welcome to T|I!

Yeah, you pretty much summed it up. The +100MHz mod doesn't seem to work perfectly fine... users report throttling and similar issues. Can't test it myself though. Let me know your findings. I'm trying to further improve the mod and every feedback is welcome.

[littleone562]

Saltius made a mod @823mhz which works extremely well: (Some of us who have been in communication with him already have this file like myself, svl7, and widezu).

It is for the OEM Alienware m18x 680M cards:

Send me a PM if you would like to try it.

[DarkSkies]

Saltius made a mod @823mhz which works extremely well: (Some of us who have been in communication with him already have this file like myself, svl7, and widezu).

I noticed a 680m thread over at mvktech but I assumed that it was still in early development. Thanks. I am sending a PM now.

BTW, what's the deal with the 'boost' function? How much faster is it supposed to make the stock clocks?