***m14x gaming on battery fix***

Hi all,

Just had a breakthrough in my quest to get gaming on battery working at decent clocks on any bios after A01 (as we know dell forced the clocks to 200/300 on battery after A01).

Firstly I want to make a small disclaimer - The m14x draws a very high wattage on load and if you leave the notebook on full clocks and cpu turboboost there is a good chance it will shut down. In order to combat this and give you more than 20mins gaming it is wise to cut the cpu and gpu clocks a little.

I recommend disabling turbo boost whilst gaming on battery, this can be done in the bios, with throttlestop or in the advanced power options. This will not hurt your fps but will give you a big power saving.

Now install and run the latest version of nvidia inspector (1.9.5.5 I think).

Click the overclocking tab. This software can be used to overclock your GPU in both 3d clocks and low power clocks (ie battery clocks). By default it selects your 3d clocks.

Drop down the performance level tab (which is currently defaulted to Level 2 - P0) and select Level 1 - P1 (these are the battery clocks)

You will now see the clocks list 200/300/400

Click the unlock max button and adjust your clocks by dragging the sliders to the desired level.
I run at 500/700/1000 on battery.

Click apply clocks and voltage.

Now enjoy gaming on battery with decent performance!!!

I will add pics into the instructions later as I am currently at work

 

might wanna be careful with this as it could possible damage the battery by running both the GPU and CPU at full load

 

Hence my disclaimer

I downclock my gfx card and cap my cpu. It pulls about 50w from my kilowatt meter, which is more than acceptable without causing damage.

As an example my mbp doesn't downclock at all on battery and can consume 90watts on load so this is nothing in comparison. Also my m11x which has a similar battery consumes about the same wattage on load (50-60w) and doesnt downclock at all on battery

This just overcomes dells stupid battery gfx cap

 

Ninja - which bios do you run? Do you use one with the increased GPU voltage (unlocked) or default a05?

 

I run unlocked A05 but also tried this on stock A05.

I haven't bothered with the increased voltage as my card clocks well on stock volts.

 

Yeah, and I dont think the warranty would help too, since you have tempered with the component and that is a risk, you should have warn people to try at their own risk, should anything wrong happen, say good bye to the warranty,

 

Ninja - Standard a01 (locked and non-modified) the clocks GPU clocks are locked. Memory and shader are unlocked but not GPU clock. Just wanted to give you a FYI

 

Thanks Lancer, A01 is unique that you can set the gpu to full power on battery anyway. the only reason I dont use it is I like the A05 fan profile.

CGSDR - lol the same could be said for anything we do. do you overclock? if so the same could be said of that. All I am doing is increasing the clocks on battery to an acceptable level. If people still have A01 BIOS they can run battery on full clocks and dell would still support it under warranty!

 

Yes, I do overclock, however I have confirm with a tech support last time I called, and she said as long as you dont use an external or custom software or mod to do it, because Dell will not responsible for if anything should happen, since they did not release it.

 

OK but you are missing my point:

1. This is just overclocking the battery clocks to a more acceptable level so like your overclock this would still be supported by dell warranty. I am not in any way modifying BIOS/voltages or internals.

2. These clocks are perfectly safe and still less than the A01 BIOS that was actually released by dell.

3. I have measured the wattage and kept it within a safe level for the battery to discharge

If you dont want to do it then fair enough, but I know there was a big outcry when A02 bios was released as you were no longer able to game with any decent settings. I thought about keeping A01 bios but wanted the A05 fan profile

 

its gotta hurt the battery though since its draining so fast right?

 

nope, it is only draining at about 50-60w per hour with my config. This is less than a lot of laptops. I have got the power down to the same as my m11x which is designed to game on battery at full power.

Also I game on my MBP on battery and that is nearer 90w and no problems there.

 

@Ninja - all good points. Batteries are finite, meaning they don't last forever anyway. If you get 1.5 to 2 years out of your battery you did yourself a solid. After that, its time to purchase a new one.

Thanks for the initial post. Its nice to allow the general user population some more options for gaming on the go.

(and yes I use a custom power profile to game on battery )

 

just don't try to game like that with an m17x. It would drain way way to much power at full load. Happy to see it works with an m14x though will almost no consequences

 

Maybe because of the M14x's GPU - the GT555M, use less power than the GTX 460m. But I still hope to see if there's any custom BIOS to allow to disable the iGPU, like the one you talking about in some previous thread.