580M throttling issue

Not sure if this is BIOS or not, I was overclocked to 700mhz at the time as well but after playing Portal 2 for about 10 minutes it slowed down to around 5fps. Was that due to the Dell throttling or the card's throttling?

It was such a small OC I didn't think there would be any issues but apparently there were =/

 

I got the same issue with gtx485m, to resolve this, i just need to put manually the fan to 4100 with hwinfo64.

 

yes its thottling.. didnt you read my thread?

nothing to do with temps. (although theres a temp throttle too)

you need to roll back your main bios to a04

 

Yea but was it throttling BECAUSE of the overclock? If I run without the OC will it throttle?

 

dont think i ever had a throttle at stock.. but i did at 650 (30mhz) its stupid..

 

But using the modded A04 solves the problem doesn't it even at higher overvolts? At the expense of 3D but you still have 120Hz right?

 

yep
theres another throttle that kicks in for me at just under 80 degrees though.. so that limits it too.

but 120hz works fine

 

it allows a HIGHER throttle, the card throttles at around 75c I think.

120hz still works, yes.

 

Right so any bios later than A04 introduces a power throttle, before that it is thermal throttling.

 

yup .

 

Oh no.. really?

Does this happen with the latest BIOS?

 

Does it throttle on the CLEVO BIOS?

 

No! Its only Dell! no other vendor is throttling. So the question remains why is Dell.
Dont worry soon enough someone will hack the bios to remove this throttle.

It will be interesting in summer running stock speeds to see if throttling takes effect.
If so this is a huge NO NO from Dell and everyone should be intitiled to a full refund as the machine will not be running games as it should be.
Dell will be forced to remove the throttle perhaps.

 

I hope someone finds a way to get 580M overclock able in a bios that supports 3D.

In mean time, did anyone experience throttling at stock bios and stock clocks in any games? 3D?
What game?

It would suck if it gets tripped in regular game play at stock speed.

If Dell throttles based on power consumption than perhaps it can be managed a little with CPU affinity (since games do not multi thread). I supose all you need is a game that really strains the GPU for people to cry hard enough so Dell removes this restriction. I don't see why games can't hit GPU hard enough for this throttling to kick in. Hmmm.... Anyone tried the CPU-Z throttling disabling as used vs. the desktop 580?

I will have to get a tool that graphs out the frequency used and try few things. My system came with A06 bios, wonder if I should try upgrading to A08 before I try anything.

What's the most GPU demanding game these days. It would have to be something that hits GPU at 100%, and not just run slow.

 

I have a08 bios and single 480m and getting throttling in cysis 2 ultra settings and direct X 11. starts at around 25fps and slows down to 5fps for about 8 seconds and returns to normal in random parts of game. downgraded the bios to A04 and had no issues with throttling, but could not use my hdmi port out becasue caused blue screen when plugged in to my philips tv!! downgraded GPU drivers to dells drivers on website and no joy. updated the bios to A08 again, and hdmi working again. Contacted Dell and informed them I having problems with throttling in games in high settings. Dell said that 480m is new to the Alienware and this issue may be addressed in future bios updates. I said that I hope so because there are a number of people not happy on this forum. He said that he would report my problems.... hopefully they will sort this issue soon... but not holding my breath!!

 

just use a04 and own yourself some 6990s (the non cheating scummy ones! )

crysis 2 runs it at 100%

and gpu z method for desktop card doesnt work, tried all that

 

Hello there, just got my new M17xR3 3D a couple of days ago and I have some questions about the way my 580M behaves along with bios A08 :

Even at stock clocks and with 269.03 drivers the card throttles down when reaching around 75/77°c in games and goes back to the 2D clocks...
I tried 280.26, install worked only with modded inf, but no improvements.
Is this normal @stock ?

I've repasted my cpu and gpu with AS5 - gained 7°c on the cpu , but no real improvement for the gpu and it continues to throttle down in games or as soon as I try to o/c it even very slightly .

On idle @74/147/324 the card is around 55/57°c with room temp a bit over 20°c.
Vantage gives me a 14245pts (tests are not long enough to throttle down the card).
Are you also experiencing these problems at stock levels ?

Also I saw that James2K was able to get some nice scores. Is it with M17xR3 using AW biosA04 and modded gpu bios from mvktech ?

Thanks for any help

 

yes and yes

 

Ok . For the 580m's bios, did you use the one posted from trekster's or the Clevo one ? What about the idle and max temperatures ?

 

i tried both while looking for ways to fix the throttling, in the end i used the dell vbios for the benchmarks. now back to stock for battery etc.

with the volt mod it topped out at 71c @ 850mhz core 1900 mhz memory in vantage (which is ~37% OC on the core). idle about 56

 

Thanks for the information

So even after repasting with AS5 it looks like I have pretty high max temps I wonder if my card is not a bad sample or if the fans are not blowing enough
I will probably try the vbios this week-end and see how it goes.

Thanks for your help

 

Use another paste. I hear IC Diamond is amazing.

 

put a book under it (to tip the base off the ground) just make sure to not cover the vents with it.

if i leave the laptop on the desk flat it would be hotter than 71. it makes a huge difference 8 degrees or so

 

Ok will give a try for the book trick

 

thumbs up for the book trick : 10°c less and no more throttle @stock clocks.

I guess I forgot about this simple trick as my old clevo and it's gtx8800m never needed such, 90°c easy for the gpu ...but with a lot more noises !!

If the weather is bad this week-end I'll leave the bike on the side and will go for A04 and vbios flash session

Thanks again

 

OK so I tried to see if I can reproduce it. I'm running Crysis 2 DX11 1080p everythign on ultra and can't reproduce the issue. I played from the begining up to the area just before the helicopter fight and everyhintg seems to run fine. Max GPU temp 67C and I was getting 22-32 FPS with 24-28FPS average.

So I decided to try and OC the GPU at 720 core and 1800 memory. It seems to run fine for an hour or so, 24-35 FPS range with 28-30 Average, max GPU 71C. Just then I tought this might actually work I got throttling in the area where you go through the building jump down, you have a fountain and you start new mission "Gate Keepers" and you have to jump down again to the camp area. It throttled where the fountain area is beofre you have to go up the stairs and to the right for the jump down.

I tried to reproduce the problem but I couldn't do it, so it kind of seems random at this point.

I really hope this gets fixed or the treshold gets bumped up, because I like the OC performance to the point I might actually live with the chance it might throttle if it is rare enough event.

Other than that, I did repaste my GPU and CPU when I got my system, and my laptop sits on the top of laptop cooler. Still on A06 bios my system came with.

 

Hi, the following could be an interesting new solution :

Alienware M17xR3 BIOS unlock for A06/A07

On my side I'll skip it for now as I'm having only 7 days left to decide weither I keep my M17R3 with 3D/580m or send it back and maybe get the same but with 6990m...
My 580m@stock is also getting way too hot way too fast !!
Flat on a table it's impossible to play any fps more than 10mns without gpu downclocking as soon as it reaches 78°c .
So before returning it, I will first try to get a new 580m and/or new heat pipe and will see if it works ...or not !

 

Hey do you want to swap? I have a 6990m...

 

not right now !!
As I said I'll try first to get it exchanged along with the heat pipes. I'm still thinking that after repasting and @stock my card is no working correctly.
If my rep doesn't want to help I'll send my rig back and will then order one with 6990 .
Unless I missed something I don't think it has the same downclocking issues and in my case 3D is just a bonus I got from my boss.

It seems the guy at bios-mods did some good job - unlocking thermal configuration and video configuration, enabling igp in menu .
Will give it a try in a week if I keep my rig !

 

I tried the bios mod a07 above,I set optimal defaults and saved. Disabling the Intel graphics and setting peg as primary display. Problem was when went back into windows the frame rate in lower running heaven 11 benchmark. reinstalled the 580m driver, but no joy. went back too modded bios a04 with Intel GPU switched on in bios and get much better FPS. Unless there is something I have missed in the modded A07 bios that I should of enabled?

 

There is nothing to enable. Read my post in that thread and you will see why what they are doing is pointless.

Alienware M17xR3 BIOS unlock for A06/A07

 

Well, there are now throttle options but this still won't fix the GPU throttling, the listed options are for CPU only

EDIT: I finally tested with furmark and my throttle starts at 60c. As soon as it hits 60c framerate drops until it gets to 55c.

EDIT: 58c not 60c...

W T F

 

Wait, so the current BIOS has thermal throttling of the 580M starting at 58C? That's inexcusable.

 

I rebooted at it is throttling at 64c now...

I don't get it.

Reflashing with modded A04 to test with that.

 

I'd imagine dell and nvidia teamed up to reduce the heat on gpu's, so they live longer and they won't have to replace as often.

 

The vBIOS throttle is 78-79

All my tests were done using stock speeds on furmark.

 

There is a newly modded A04 bios available at bios-mods according to your request.
I should get a tech visit by tomorrow with a new 580M and heat pipes .
If it solves my stock temperatures trouble I'll give this bios a try by end of the day.

 

Can you take a picture of your current GPU w/ heatsink and then the new one? Thanks...

 

Sorry I forgot about the pictures ...but it wouldn't have helped as it was excatly the same card (A1 rev, same vbios) and the guy brought a new ventilator but no heatsink !

Anyway the problem remains the same .

We did some tests with the tech and he made me flash back to DellA04 to see that the throttle in game is far less but still goes for a couple of secondes as soon as it reaches 79°c ...vbios crap !!
The tech talked with his boss ...they will try to push for a bios revision also they told me that the 580M official max load temperature is 100°c !!! F... that throttle limit crap !
The tech boss should call me back this afternoon (european time here).

Meanwhile I have to decide what I'm gonna do with this rig now, not really sure I'm still willing to wait until all this is sorted out

...might still give a try tonight for the unlockA04+3D that you reported working Is it really ?

 

Your thread disappeared from bios-mods.com...

 

Thanks for that info Metabaron, i was told pretty much the same thing today for the m18x. Even if Dell bump the throttle to 90c it will still be 10c off the limit anyway.
Apparently lots of complaints!

 

dude you know nvidia specifically limits furmark.

if you want max temps crysis 2 works well

 

They don't limit it like this.

A04 goes to 79c fine in furmark
A05+ stops at 64c which is about 5c higher than the IDLING temperature

Furmark is the easiest and QUICKEST way to do a temperature test.

 

The limit in A05+ is not a thermal one but a power consumption one. A04 only has the thermal one and if you can keep that one under control, then A04 is the one to go. Shame about the 3D though, 120Hz works though with is good.

 

You possibly may be right but if it isn't thermal than it wouldn't throttle at the exact same temperatures every time.

If anyone has a few bucks add to the donation pool: A08 w/ Unlocked Options & 580M GPU Thermal Throttle Removal to speed up the process.

 

AFAIK A04 throttle's at 79C whereas A05+ is random, ergo me assuming that it is a power one.

 

No, the Dell vBIOS on the 580M is throttling at 79c

The Dell system BIOS is throttling at 65c on A05+, it's not random.

 

so if u get the mod bios a08 with 3d without throttling at high temps

it will still throttle at 79c because of the vBIOS?

 

Oh right, sorry I did not know what. That seems quite useless and idiotic on Dell's part. Have you tried a Clevo vBios? james_2k flashed one to his card with little trouble.

 

Count me in. $50 is peanuts comparing to what we already spent. I don't see anywhere to send the $$ so I assume you're looking for a pledge in the Bios forum, right?

Also I agree that the Bios throttle is power consumption based. It only appears to be temperature based in FurMark because power consumption correlates to the temps that are generated and cycle it goes through (throttling). In Crysis 2 my GPU runs a lot hotter without throttling than what’s allowed in Furmark.
Anyway, I have seen a similar issue with Gateway P-7811 FX. The maxed out GPU with maxed out CPU was tripping a bios circuit breaker due to power consumption, throttling down CPU as if it overheating, but it wasn't. It wasn’t temperature based because you can get the CPU or GPU to much higher temps without any issues but combined together the power consumption was higher than allowed.