580M Overheating. Can't break out of battery clocks. WEI:6.2

I just replaced my 460m with a dell 580m, everything went well, i used the same backplate but did not purchase a new heatsink. So my R3 recognizes the 580m but when i check the clocks they are what you would expect if it was on battery, 124mhz 324mhz 67mhz something like that. The card idles at 57-63C, it often jumps to 78C as soon as i start the computer which throttles it and sends it to the low clocks. It never changes back even though it is idling at 57C.

A few pieces of information, i am running modded A08 and have disabeled IGU, i have tried widezu's thorttles fixes with both volts. At the same time of installing the 580m i also replaced my 2630 to 2920xm, maybe that has something to do with it. When i get home i am going to put the 2630 back in and see if that changes the temps and throttles. My question is could the card just be bad like an overheating card. Should i return this one and order another one in hopes of it not overheating or will i suffer the same overheating/throtteling problem. One big reason i am even bothering with a 580m is because i have 3d nvidia vision. Any suggestions and/or insight is welcomed. Thanks.

 

When you changed the heatsink, did you take off the plastic film around the contact area? Because the 580m die and 460m dies are different shapes. Make sure you repasted and that when re-assembling your laptop you remembered to plug the fan back in.

 

I never changed the heatsink, I am using the same heatsink as the 460m(with the 2 pipes instead of 3). The problem I am having is when i boot up the computer, the card starts up downclocked so it seems to downclock way before it reachers either 65C or 77C, im unsure of what to make of this. It seems to be in permanent downclock mode as if running from the battery. The voltage the card when downclocked is at 0.8. Oh and I have lifted it up from the back and have a fan on it and I am constantly idling at 54C so the temp isn't even the biggest issue right now, i just want it to perform properly.

 

So I downloaded an Nvidia inspector in order to determine when the clocks would fall back to shader 147MHz Memory 162MHz Geom. 73MHz. Even before my temps reach mid 70's I can see the clocks fall back to those amounts. It seems the downclocking is not 100% link to the temps and after i change the clocks to the base MHz's in about 3 seconds it automatically falls back to the downclocked MHz.

 

My 460M heat sink has 3 pipes. You may want to get a new heat sink if it really does only have 2 pipes.
If you haven't already, you may also want to check the copper area where the heat sink contacts the GPU die for black tape. If you have black tape on the heat sink, remove all of it and repaste to see if it helps your temps.

 

My mistake, it does actually have 3 pipes. And I guess ill try removing the black tape to see if it helps.

 

It should help. As I understand it, the 460M die is square-shaped where the 580M has a rectangular die. The black tape only exposes a square-shaped area of the copper.

 

Attacus, the 580M tends to overwhelm the 460M and 6990M heatsinks, even after removing all of the thermal tape from the face. Dell Part No. V1K2G is the heat sink assembly kit for the 580M and includes the revised heatsink, backplate, thermal pads and paste. Together and properly applied, those items result in temperatures that approach the 78C throttle point only under extreme overclocking. Like you, I started with a 460M heatsink for the 580M and fought temperatures constantly, even with frequent re-pasting and customized fan speeds via HWINFO64. The revised heatsink (and pads and paste) convert the 580M from a PITA to a pleasure and unlock the performance capabilities. The 580M heatsink kit price is $24.99, plus S&H; it's a great investment. The fan utility included within HWINFO64 is also indispensable.

The 2920XM will also create heat concerns. The problem there is that the CPU heatsink struggles to deal with the heat generated by an XM chip when heavily overclocked. There's no real solution beyond frequent repasting, meticulous preparation and auxiliary fans/cooling. A number of us have found that IC Diamond 7/24 provides the best performance and durability for the XM CPU's in the R3, but there is no magic bullet absent aux cooling.

Given the fact that your R3 started with relatively lower powered components, it occurred to me that it might not have included the 240W PSU. With the 580M and a 2920XM, a 240W power brick is absolutely critical.

Your R3 is a pure beast, but will require a little more effort than most when being pushed toward its limits. Have fun.

 

Excellent information as always, Rev. I just looked at my PSU and there's no mention of the power rating. However the model number is GA240PE1-00. Is it safe to assume that I have a 240W PSU?

 

Yep, that's exactly what I have, a 240W. The more reliable method is to check the Output. This one shows 19.5V and 12.3A, so 19.5*12.3= 239.85W, rounds to 240W.

 

So I switched back to the 2630 which finally made the 580m manageable. The temps decreased extensively and my WEI rating increased from 6.2 to 7.6 which I am happy with. Now I am really interested in purchasing the heatsink kit you mentioned Rev. I am in Canada so where would I purchase this from? Thanks

 

Awesome. Thanks!
haha...high school physics coming back to haunt me

I believe you can email Dell at [email protected]. Tell them you have a 580M but would like to purchase the V1K2G heat sink kit.

 

Hey Thanks man, so I went ahead and removed the black film on the heatsink and at the same time installed back the 2920xm and my temperatures have improved quite drastically. I can now pinpoint the culprit being the 460m's heatsink copper which was not in full contact with the 580m dye.

Also I will try emailing Dell Upgrades to see if they can ship over the 580m kit. Thanks a lot for your suggestion.

 

Great news, Attacus. Congratulations. Now you can begin to understand the potential.