3720QM OC, 7970M drivers plague

I updated my mini guide, need to enable PowerPlay > High Performance in Catalyst in order for it the use the 7970m.

 

I've been pulling my hair out on why everyone has a higher 3dmark11 score than me. I realized that it's the CPU. I've been uninstalling and reinstalling my drivers and got a few blue screens from it too.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,Alienware M17xR4 score: P5398 3DMarks

5398 is fine?

 

That's the expected score with enduro enabled. Click FN + F7...then choose dedicated. reboot.

Then run 3dmark again

 

I'm confused, how do I know if Enduro is enabled?

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,Alienware M17xR4 score: P5722 3DMarks

I just got this and I think my Enduro is enabled. My settings must be backwards.

 

can you tell me why after enabling overclocking and adjusting my settings, i used the same settings you posted, i press F10 save and reboot, after the laptop starts up i load up the bios and the settings are back to stock, i cant figure out how to get them to stay after adjusting them, any help would be great, thanks in advance
btw, i have the m17xr4, i7 3820QM 2.7ghz, radeon hd 7970m, 6gb 1600 ddr3 memory

 

41,40,39,39 on the multiplier for the 3820QM, since it's 100Mhz higher than the 3720.

The settings are applied, just the bios goes back to disabling some stuff.
But the overclock should be applied.

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

 

even after applying my settings, in windows running cpu-z im still showing 2.7ghz, are you getting the same results ?

 

Download the program I just linked...

 

ok the chip is overclocked but the clock speed isnt shown in properties or in cpu-z, only when using the cpu to max will it show the clocks, is this normal ?

CPU-Z Validator 3.1

i found out that this is normal, i have power saving enabled so its not going to stay at my current clock speed, it down clocks the cpu to stock when not under load, thanks for all the help

 

yes this is true.

One way you can see if you are overclocked is to run a benchmark like 3dmark11...pay attention to the CPU score. If you have boosted the CPU, then your CPU score should be up too.

There are also various benches like wprime that will give you a good indication if your CPU is running stronger

 

With 3820QM i can go for 43 multiplier!

PS i was mistaken 41 is max

8800 physics score in 3dmark11 it is applied OC?

 

I tried those setting (and a few more too) but when I exit the bios with f10 (save and exit) the non-turbo flex and extreme edition go back to disabled each time and the clock speed arent changed

I started prime95 with cpuz (right click on the main cpuz window to see all core speed) and I stay a 3.4ghz (with 8 threads in p95)

Anything special to do for those setting to stick ?

 

Can you run a 3Dmark11 and tell your physics score?

 

I'll have to download it later on (on 3g internet with low monthly bandwidth atm)
but if its not showing up on cpuz I dont think its OC'ed at all

right click on cpuz and this is what you'll see :


Like I said, if its not shown there I highly doubts there is any OC

 

But i just tested my withtou 400mhz oc and with it in 3dmark11:
Without ~8200
With ~8800

Noticeable difference?

 

I figured it out, need to leave non-turbo flex support disabled and the setting will stay in bios and work fine after

 

Its kinda stays disabled after reboot

Omg, you were right.. now it OCed.. my temp during FFT test 2 minutes was 90C at 3900mhz...

 

Very interesting, so you just enable extreme edition and nothing else.

90c? Time for a repaste my friend

 

It was repasted with IC Diamond... guess i need a 3piped XM heatsink...

Offtopic: Are you going for M18x? its alot better than M17x

This is M18x R2 settings, thanks to xmadror to figuring it out:



Now i got 9600 score in physics - thats what i wanted

 

i may go m18x, but i have no immediate plans to do that.

 

make sure that "flex VID override" is at 0, it add extra voltage to the cpu and in my case I dont need any to be stable, I was getting near 90C with the default value from level 3 overclocking.

What I did was to select level 1 and put the the flex VID override to 0 and now I stay under 85. (it goes up to 80C quickly and slowly up to 85C and at that point the fan kicks in at 100% (i assume its 100% because I've never heard it go that fast/loud before) and drops back to 75-80C and then it start that cycle again. (I also use a notebook cooler with 2x 140mm fan)

Even with the flex VID override at 0 I still get an extra 0.07V compared to stock clocks, I havent found a way to lower that any more. If it could be done I'm sure the temps would drop some more and I feel my cpu probly doesnt need the extra juice anyway.

Yeah just enable extreme edition and it'll work, if you enable non-turbo flex support the setting will not be saved (probly has something to do with the XM cpu only)

Also, if you dont enable at least level 1 in the "level 1-3 overclocking" the cpu will eventually downclock back to its default clock after a few minutes (I'm guessing it has to do with the PWR limits option since thats the only thing those setting will change)


Even though 80 to 85C is a bit higher then I'd like this is with 8 threads of prime95 running, there is no way normal gaming will stress the cpu that much and temps should be lower (will still monitor in the next few days). I dont expect the cpu to go much over 70C during normal gaming, if at all.


This overclock make the 3920XM less attractive since from what I read you can expect 4.4-4.5ghz max with it. (Anyway I didnt had an extra 900$ to spend ...)

 

im still having troubles with overclocking my 7970m, i think that ati or dell may have lowered the voltages in the vbios on my new card, the highest clocks i can set are 900/1300, ive seen others hitting 1000/1500 lol, thats insane, i ordered this laptop on 5/19/2012, and received it on 5/31/2012, anyone think it possible that this could have happened with the newer model 7970m's ? im running the 12.5 MOD drivers as well, and even with the stock drivers the highest overlcock is the same
i have never done a volt mod on a gpu before, is it something that i should consider ?

 

flash the higher voltage bios then. But unlikely, every card will clock differently.

 

ok so i flashed a vbios mod to my 7970m, i used Dell7970m-900-1300-ov1075v.ROM, i bumped up the clocks to 1000/1500 and ran 3dmark11, before the mod, it would not run at all i would BSOD, now here is the score AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor,Alienware M17xR4 score: P6745 3DMarks thanks for all the help guys

 

Thanks now i have 88 celsius after 8 minutes of prime95. also better score in 3dmark11

If you figure out on how to deal with extra 0.07V PM me please, thanks

What was the temps during 3DMark11?

 

I ordered mine on 23rd and got it on the 30th, so I don't think there's any issues with the ''newer'' cards.
As said couple times before every card differs, some you can clock higher some lower.

 

my max temp was 71ºC, but the fan gets really loud though, may burn the fan up quicker using those high clocks

EDIT " i just ran GTA4 for 1 hour and the max temp was 68ºC 1000/1500 and the settings in the game as high as they can go, love this card

 

awesome guys thanx now im @ 4ghz and very pleased... now to follow the 7970 oc guide. later

 

How'd you get to 4 Ghz when the multiplier is only 39 for 4 cores?

 

He meant on 1 core i guess.

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Just making sure there wasn't a way to unlock all 4 that I didn't know about.

So when/if someone releases a modified bios would that give us 3820qm users the ability to go beyond 39 or? I'm really regretting not getting the XM now, but I'm not going to pay a $750 restocking fee so I can upgrade.

 

when i built my m17xr4, the 3820qm was the best chip you could get in it, they didnt offer a XM chip

 

you only really need the Xm if you are a bencher...with the 3820, you are already hovering around 4ghz depending on core usage (i.e., if you enabled Extreme edition and set multi's to 41,40,39,39). It is already a very potent CPU

The problem with XM's in the m17x is heat. There really isn't a need to go to XM now that you can overclock the 3720, 3820 cpu's in the bios

 

I'm getting back into benching. Most of the benchmarking I've done previously was on water cooled desktops though. I'm just kicking myself for spending nearly 5K on a laptop and skimping on the processor. My latest bench just a few minutes ago. I think that's a new record, but I know it won't last long.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3820QM Processor,Alienware M18xR2 score: P11565 3DMarks

 

yes 1 core, 38 for 4

 

Can i overclock the memory too?

Is the i7-3720qm overclocked faster then i7-2600k
at stock clocks?

Cinebench r11.5 64bit score?

 

A very interesting thread. Cheers! Looking forward to those 41 40 39 39 on my 3820QM.

 

there was a thread on here where Geo flashed his 1600mhz ram to 1866 or faster...so ya, you can do something...but generally speaking, overclocking ram does not yield much (if any) performance gains

An OC 3720 is faster than a stock 2600k...however, once you push the 2600k closer to 5ghz, the laptop CPU can't keep up

 

I have an overclocked GPU at 900/1300/1.075V with the CPU at 40,39,38,38 and with a vantage run (HWiNFO64 monitor running) i got a max CPU temp of 94C, And i did a repaste prior. Under normal gaming the max CPU temp reached is 84C which is only 3C higher than stock CPU (METRO 2033 was my test game).

 

View Max Mhz for the CPU With it set to 40,39,38,38 it reached 4.224... hmmm interesting (while playing Metro 2033)

 

Just got myself an 3820QM for my R4 an dI tried the bios OC,
but the bios-option is greyed out.
- So did Intel lock the CPU after June 2012?
- What else can I try?
- unlocked bios A11 installed (use older bios?)
- XTU installed (multis are locked / grey)

cheers
firstcw

 

im really not sure why you cant overclock, i have the 3820qm in my r4, and i was able to overclock on day 1, if you want ill go look at what bios my laptop is running and i will report back

 

that would be great!

Can you post a screenshot of CPU-Z to see it I got a problem with the revision of the CPU..

CPU-Z reports mine to be a ES with stepping 6 and revision D0

many thanks
firstcw

 

Looks like you got your hands on an engineering sample

they have unlocked bclk and multipliers

you can use IntelXTU
ot is pretty simple to use, just watch your temps

 

I suppose not, as I can not change the "extreme" setting within the bios.
Further more I tried to use XTU, but all multi-settings are greyed out. :confused2:

 

here is a screen shot of my cpu-z while stress testing, you have to stress the system to be able to see the true clock speeds, it idles down to a lower speed when the horsepower isn't needed


if you want ill take some pics of my bios settings as well

 

Thanks man!

I see your stepping and revision are different (I think your CPU is newer than mine),
so it might be that there is the problem.

What bios version are you on (A11) ?

When I stress my CPU it goes up to 3,7GHz (single core) as this is the locked multiplier!

I hope I can find the "key" in the bios version!

 

im running bios version A02, never seen a need to update, dont fix it unless its broke lol

 

Ok, that might be the key!

I will download today and see what it might change! ;-)

Is there anywhere a documentation that lists the changes for every bios-version?

cheers

 

short update:

reverted back to A08 - option greyed out
reverted back to A05 (via blindflash) - option geryed out
reverted back to A02 - option greyed out

So I think my 3820QM is to old to have that cool softoverclock feature
or why ever it is not enabled on the CPU.

Maybe I will get myself an other CPU and try that....

Thanks for the efforts. :thumbsup:
firstcw