[Guide] 580m GTX throtting fix. No need to modify system Bios.

Widezu,

Thanks for adding the Optimus method. I have implemented it, although I never had any problems in the first place. I understand how this fix is same as the blind flashing method. It only fixes the "power throttle" which takes place somewhere in the high 60s and is activated (we believe) by the power level drawn by the GPU itself.

At this time, is there a solution to the thermal 79C throttle? It is mostly irrelevant, but I would really like to be able to run a true furmark on the GPU just to see how it does max. With current 79C thermal throttle it looks like this (I am sure you have seen it before). The GPU builds up heat until 79C, then the throttle kicks in killing the clocks until the temps fall, creating the sawtooth temperature graph.

 

OK. So the card can drop to the lower frequency if it is idle, but under load can’t it overheat if cooling stops working properly as the new power state introduced by Dell is what the card drops to if it is deemed necessary to cool it down? And you’re overclocking that power state so cooling down is no longer possible? Is this correct assumption?

It seems ValkerieFire is saying that it still throttles at 79C, however it seems that once you overclock the power state it should not throttle at 79C anymore, but just change power states.

 

I don't know because I don't have experience up to those temps. Perhaps the 79C throttle uses a different p-state? I dunno, I need more info I guess.

 

The system will freeze and/or card will shut off before any actual damage occurs

 

^^Exactly. Anyways the GPU is rated up to 100C. Dell is stupid by putting this 79C limit in as they think more GPU's will get damaged beyond this temp. They are just covering their backsides so they don't have to replace as much GPUs. But as we have seen, Clevo systems allow the same card to go way above this temp with no issue.

 

So I have spent some time this morning testing this and found following:

I can confirm the throttle at 79C is still there, there is still another place where the video cards is still throttled down and it is not throttled down to P1 state.

My result is that you get a very brief throttle down of about 1-2 seconds and it goes back.

I'm testing the .92v bios and I have went throguh the blind flash bios fix procedure on my system.

I did make sure that the P1 state is set to the same settings I'm OC to.

 

Ah I see, it is throttling down to 2D idle clocks which is P8. Nothing we can really do there unless you want to overclock your idle state which I advise against. Just do a repaste and prop your laptop up. Works for me.

 

It helps that you live in the UK, it is pretty cool there most of the year is it not?

 

Haha yeah pretty cold here in Narnia. Good for benching

 

Just looking to clarify is this mod still throttling at some point, or has this been removed for the most part?

 

Does the 580m have a thermal pad on the bottom of the card between it and the motherboard?

When mine came from Dell, it came with the bottom plate, which has a single small heatsink on it (about 3/4" wide x 2" long). No thermal pad was included, I reused the one from my 6990m. Was that a mistake? Should the 580m not have one there?

 

There should be thermal pads there and under the rest of the card too mine came with loads.

 

looks like, Im lucky guy. Now i have played 5 straight hours of Aliens versus Predator, on directx 11, all at max ultra settigns, and it didnt have single point of throttling. absolutely flawless movement, whole 5 hours.....

I like my gtx580m..... ou yeah. looks lke, one of those, that are working 100% right.

FYI, on my CPU and GPU is Diamond 7 silver paste. Maybe this helps also.

 

In the revision it says FF what does that mean, anyone know? It doesnt say AO1 or anything else...Is that the Factory first bios

 

My card 580m throttles at 65C and 77C. Before 65C it runs at P0 (1240Mhz shader/ 1500Mhz memory) between 65 to 77C it runs at P1 (950Mhz shader/1500Mhz memory). So I used nvidia inspector and just set my P1 to match P2 states and there was no throttling at 65C (no visible throttling rather).

I have done a proper repaste with Artic Silver 5 and am using CRYO lx on full blast all the time but I still reach 79C and my gpu throttles to P8 state (127Mhz shader/ 324Mhz memory).


What exactly are the benefits for me if I use this method and how do I stop from reaching 77C or stop throttlling at 77C and instead set it to around 95C?

 

This method is doing what you are doing. Basically this has P1 overclocked to 1240/1500 by default so you don't have to fiddle with Inspector every time you want to play a game.

I would suggest you update to the newest nvidia beta 285.79 driver too and see if it helps. I've heard at least one owner being able to get up to 85C without throttling.

 

I am currently using the beta driver. Mine downclocks heavily at 77C.

Hey , I understand what this thermal throttle is.. My gpu throttles at 65C and 77C but what is this "power" throttle?

 

The power throttle is the 65C throttle. An explanation is post #41

There is no way of getting around the 77~79C throttle. I guess your ambient temps are too hot being in India and all.

 

Ok i was considering the 65C to be thermal throttle too as a certain temperature caused it to throttle.

Yeah you are right.. It is hot here..

Can go up to 48C in summers!

 

Thank you widezu69. I was successfully able to remove the power throttle using your method. My gpu temp now goes up to 79 deg (but hits the thermal throttle). Easy to follow and worked great!

 

Okay I'm intensely annoyed right now, after trying one mod to another mod to another mod to wiping clean all of the mods to factory and doing it all over again NOTHING has helped so far! (Even this!)

Every time I play a game within 30 minutes my fps shoots down to 15 of less after it begins it occurs every 5 to 10 minutes making the game NEARLY unplayable. Is there seriously no fix to this or am I looking in the wrong places? 60hz optimus user so I went with the second and it didn't help AT ALL, can someone please point me in some direction before I entirely lose hope?


EDIT: The one thing I have figured out is that in game when the fps drop starts it switches from p0 (main performance state for games in the gpu) to p8 (used only for mere videos [Memory 324MHz Shader 147MHZ])
Is there any way to switch p8 off entirely? Or keep it from switching to it? Or better yet, could someone explain WHY it switches to video performance state (p8) when I'm playing a GAME?

 

sounds like you are hitting the thermal throttle, not the power throttle. Might wanna run furmark and double check. Do you have the back end of the laptop propped up? this helps with temps

 

Start by flashing to Bios A04. Don't modify anything else. See how that works.

 

You need to monitor your temps. Let us know at what temp it throttles.

 

Well I decided to paste my edit here since I wasn't expecting such fast replies so here it is:

As for my temps, they never get above 67 or so degrees and in fact I've had this occur without it reaching past 62 (I generally float around 55 to 57 degrees when I'm not playing games, right now I'm 56)

I've flashed to A04, a modded A04, a different modded A04, a modded A08 (and the regular one), back to A04 then blind flashed(?) to a modded A08, then again (blind flashed) to a modded A04 and finally back to a regular A04 at which point I just decided to stick with the modded A08 since it made no difference.

 

Have you actually applied this fix? It shouldn't clock to p8 if you applied this correctly.

 

I did, exactly as it told me to. The backup.ROM is still on my desktop, should I try the 3D version despite being non-3D?

Furthermore it seems to clock to p8 whenever it thinks I'm idle as well. For instance if I'm browsing it will switch between p0 and p8 but when my mouse is idle it seems to stick to p8. Which although it was intended for video viewing can screw even that up when it starts.

 

That's normal, my card fluctuates between P0 and P8 when on idle all the time. It's the power saving feature. I honestly do not know why your card is still doing that. If you performed everything to the letter, there shouldn't be anymore problems

Edit: Does your card have P1?

 

Ayro, humor us. We've been bloodied in this battle many times. Start with the stock version of A04. After flashing, go to the Exit screen, select Load Optimal Defaults and Exit. There is no telling what shape your system bios is in as a result of flashing all of those modded bios's over each other. Get back to a clean A04 setup. Then edit to conform to your setup (if you're using AHCI, set SATA mode accordingly, etc.). That alone should get rid of the "power throttle" -- the initial throttle in the low 60's -- for your 580M. If that works as expected, you can then deal with the 78-79C throttle.

 

Yes, it has P1. Why? P0 and P1 were identical when I finished.
Should I turn integrated graphics on? I kind of despised that, but if it could.. help.... somehow. I turned it off because it was messing with Aero, as well as a few other things. Horribly. (Modded A08 allows for it)

@The Revelator: I'd really rather avoid that, I've done exactly that 3 times before. To go into specific detail I flashed to a clean stock A04, set it up accordingly and the p0 to p8 was still there. So I flashed from that to a modded A04, which didn't help- the fps drops remained intact. Then back to a clean slate (stock A04) and blind flashed to A08, and when that didn't help I reverted to "clean slate A04" once more and blind flashed again from there to a modded A08 this time at which I've stayed comfortably. (As comfortable as 10fps gets I suppose)

I might do it again, just to humor myself though. But only if push came to shove... again..

 

That's OK, I understand your frustration. Good luck. It'll all work out.

 

Finally Solved...
[Solved] Alienware M17x R3 Nvidia 580M Throttle at 77°C+ temps Furmark graph
Hope this helps...

Regards!

 

Here's a way to do this without having to flash the vBIOS in case someone prefers not to. (This was for both GPUs on the M18x but can be easily adapted for a single 580M in the R3.)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-throttle-fix-no-vbios-flashing-required.html

 

Yeah it is doable if you applied the Dell 580m update first which introduces P1. My method is just so people don't have to tweak it every time before they play a game.

 

I like your method best, but the instructions are geared toward the R3 and systems with Optimus. They are not entirely clear for the dual GPU M18x with no Optimus or 3D. Considering how many noobs (tomorrow's geeks in development) we have, the apprehensiveness is understandable.

Using the batch file in the Windows Startup folder eliminates the need for doing anything at all once you have the desired settings, but the change at the firmware level is a bit more tidy. One neat feature of using a batch file is to simply double-click to kick into a pre-defined OC setting without having to monkey around with slider adjustments. NVIDIA Inspector is pretty slick. Unlike other tools such as MSI Afterburner, NVIDIA Inspector let's you make changes at the power stepping levels. The other tools only change P0, so they are useless for overcoming the throttle problem.

 

Yep. I've tried to make my guide as noob friendly as possible plus it has sections for both Optimus and 3D users. Inspector is without doubt the best OC tool.

 

I think it's the fact that the M18x has no Optimus or 3D consideration and additional commands are needed to flash the second GPU in DOS are where the apprehension is. For the M17x R3 owner, I think your guide is complete and very easy for noobs to sink their teeth into. It is totally worthy of the rep points you have received from me and others.

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm still waiting on the new release of nibitor to release the full potential of this GPU.

 

I am a recent green convert. So, having just defected from the red side, I don't know about nibitor yet. I'll have to see what I can learn about it. Feel free to post or PM anything that you feel might be of interest besides what I might find using Google.

The 580M is awesome, but it still seems to lag behind the 6990M in brute force. I'm interested in seeing it unleashed as well.

 

Yep I agree... Still opening Hwinfo everytime for me is pain... so everytime through the long proceedure will be very difficult..Once or twice is OK but not possible every time...
But my friend Mr.Fox why don't you do via command statement our friend Mr.Johnkss gave us...
command is different though prompt as below:
nvflash index=0 -5 -6 "name of vbios"
nvflash index=1 -5 -6 "name of vbios"

Did this not work for you? awaiting your reply...

Regards!

 

Quick question as a lot of information seems to be scattered in many places. Am I understanding this correct that there are 2 throttles on the gtx 580m?

I have applied widezu's vbios mod, and when looking at the temp graph provided inside Nvidia Inspector there doesn't seem to be any more throttling. But might I be missing another throttle that is happening?

 

The second throttle happens at 77-79C. If you can avoid getting there, then you're ok

 

Hey bro... I did not flash the vBIOS only because I did not need to in order to stop the throttling problem. Had the method I used not worked properly, I would have gone ahead with the flashing process without hesitation. I also would have flashed if that were necessary to avoid having to manually launch other apps at every startup. The approach I took accomplished essentially the same end result and with a batch file in my startup folder, no user intervention is necessary.

I think either method is fine. But, major kudos to widezu69 for his "how to" because the info he provided was extremely useful.

I am not finding any need to use HWiNFO to keep my M18x cooled below the trigger temps, but that could be due to differences between the design of the R3 and the M18x. I am able to run Furmark with temps at or below 76°C using the native fan control on the M18x at 620/1240 and 725/1450. If I were attempting to run higher clocks, using HWiNFO to maintain temps below the trigger point might be necessary.

 

Ok so when I extracted the files the only thing that showed up are nvflash, nvflsh32.sys and nvflsh64.sys which ones do I use??? or did I some how mess that part up

 

No that's correct, the vbioses are located at the bottom of the page.

 

Ok so I followed the guide and it was working fine untill I got on world of warcrack. My fps would be at 90 and drop to 50s then 30s and go back...is it throttling again?...

 

Excellent info, thanks!

 

You need to monitor your temps. We've fixed the initial throttle, you are probably now running into the second throttle @77C. This is not fixable but preventable if you raise the back of your laptop to allow for better airflow. Also a repaste would also help.

 

Hey you will not throttle if you follow the steps in link in my previous quote... trust me my temps got around 85°C and are stable there since my room temps are around 30°C when gaming... but still no throttling at all... I don't even keep my laptop tilted from back anymore too....

Regards!

 

Hello! Im trying to to this but ending up with a error message like this.
" WARNING: Firmware image PCI Subsystem ID (10DE.0000)
does not match adapter PCI Subsystem ID (1028.0490)
ERROR: PCI subsytem ID mismatch

What im a doing wrong here?



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