AW 17 GTX 780m still throttling?

Hi all, I bought the new AW 17 recently and my GPU down-clocks to 631MHz (somewhere there) from 770MHz when the temps reach about 77+. I have the A05 Bois and thought it would be fixed by now, is anyone else having the same issue?

 

Have you checked both the GPU and CPU temps?

 

I'm having the same problem. FPS suddenly go from 60 to say 30 or 40 at times when temperatures approach 80. Happens in a few demanding games or when I run 3DMarks11. Love this machine, but I get the feeling it could be performing better.

Guess a re-paste would be a solution but I'm a bit scared of it. Feel like getting thrown into the role of a brain surgeon without any prior experience

 

Flash the vbios with the unlocked one from slv7 over at techinfernoe.

 

+1; Just keep in mind there are risks involved, and your warranty will not cover damage to the GPU if you take this route. But it's totally worth it! The 780M can pull more than 10k on 3DMark 11 with this vBIOS on TechInferno.

Luckily, I don't have this issue because I ordered the 120Hz screen. Optimus is definitely a killer...

 

Cheers for the suggestion! Did you see a big performance boost after doing so? Currently my 3dMark11 score is 7100-7200 with A05 bios and 327.23 driver. OCing with nvidiaInspector/MSI Afterburner/EVGA Precision doesn't do anything for my score there or for FPS in games from what I've seen.

 

Wow, 10k? Better look into this.

 

The GPU temps go upto 83 under heavy load, haven't seen higher. The problem seems to happen after like 10-15 mins of using any benchmark or game. It happened after running 3dmark11 like 3 times and the max temp was only 72 or playing Planetside 2 for like 15 mins the FPS would drop from 70 to 50 on high settings. I also have a 3D screen running at 120hz.

The CPU are about 44-49 on idle and 83-87 under load, I don't wish to change the gpu bios incase the problem is with the card and not throttling. EVGA doesn't work it still downclocks.

 

I would suggest a cleanup and repaste of both.

 

Well I've only had the laptop for a week, the temps for the gpu go to 75-78 when I play Planetside 2 on high, I would think that is decent.

 

The GPU temp is ok but the CPU temp is almost reaching 90C which could be causing the throttling.

 

My system arrived on the 2nd. My CPU is also reaching 90C with light overclock (4.1GHz) during extended gaming sessions. I'm a little concerned about this, especially since I have the extreme edition CPU. I still cannot believe it didn't come with a triple-pipe heat sink... I think the paste job on my pc is bad. I'll have to re-paste it soon.

@Luis: can I order a triple pipe for the 17 (not 18) from Dell/Alienware and install it myself?

EDIT: I'm not experiencing throttling, though. Just hotter than ideal temperatures.

 

I've been monitoring the cpu temps and it only goes high (low 80s) when the physx test is run in 3dmark11 otherwise its mid-high 70s

 

I've repasted both of them, temps have dropped for the cpu and now stays below 80 after physx test, gpu temps are pretty much the same. But for some reason the gpu clock and memory is always on max, even in idle when the gpu load in near 0%, anyone know why?

 

The design is specific to the m18x, and will not conform to the m17x.

 

Well, they need to make one for the AW 17.

 

They will, try to contact Alienware's engineering team and mention 'marketing', prepare yourself

 

Is that throttling issue only with GeForce 780m then, not with 765m or 770m ?

 

Still getting the issue after repaste, ran 2 consecutive 3Dmark11 benchmarks and got 7522 followed by 6090 (gpu capping at 614MHz) gpu temps was 72 max, cpu at 77-80 max

 

Is this something the unlocked vbios solves?

 

I've downgraded from windows 8.1 to windows 8 and its seems to be running better now, ran like 6-7 tests all giving from 7200 - 7550 on 3dmark11 and no throttling issues.

EDIT: it's started again but when I had the screen on 120Hz

 

Yes, it is. One of the numerous overclocking tools works too.

 

I think the BIOS is limiting the GPU utilization for some odd reason like energy consumption. It may also be something involving the 780M's power consumption.

I'm pretty sure the unlocked vBIOS would solve these issues.

 

The problem came back after reinstalling windows, it downclocks at low temps so I called tech support and their going to replace it tomorrow. Call lasted about 15 mins, great support I expected a lengthy procedure but was very fast. That's now a screen replacement (bright pixel) and gpu replacement within 2 weeks, the screen replacement I received also has a bright pixel but hard to notice so I'm not going bother with replacing yet.