Alienware M17x R4 3940XM Remove TDP Limit

Hi Guys,

I have finally got the unlocked A11 BIOS installed on my M17x R4. I've been trying to remove the TDP limit using some of the steps shown in the below thread. I'm having no luck making the R4 hold 4.3GHz on all 4 cores once I start XTU stress test. I have the MSR lock disabled, configurable TDP lock disabled, I have disabled C States however even with this the minute some heavy load like XTU stress test, Firestrike Physics test begins, 3-5s later clocks drop as TDP limit is hit. I have given more then enough Current limit (140A) and even V (+39.5mV over stock)...

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x-aw-18/4895-board-upgrade-i7-2960xm-oc-issue.html

What can I do to disable this? A shout out to @j95, @Mr. Fox, @godfafa_kr or anyone other M17x R4 owners who have successfully gotten past it!

Thanks,
Tom

 

Under XTU, make sure your turbo power short and long are extended to like ~100W instead of the stock 55. That is how I get my 3920XM to hold 4.1ghz constant all cores.

 

I don't have problems holding 4.0Ghz and 4.1GHz in XTU and even BF4 runs on it... However XTU stress test I reach the limit and throttles to 3.8GHz which makes power consumption however around 50W ish... Now I think the main problem is setting the turbo power MSR registers in BIOS...

See the picture below


The MSR registers are not matching... Now, is there anyway to fix this? @Mr. Fox, according to the info in the thread linked in OP, I have enabled DPTF in BIOS and installed the driver, however no options to change anything with regards to DPTF come up in advanced power settings... I have the tried both drivers for M18x R2 and AW18...

@unclewebb, could throttlestop possibly do something about this?

Thanks,
Tom

 

I have zero hands on experience with the 2920XM, 3920XM, 3940XM or the Alienware bios. The default 55 Watt limit can be set in multiple places and I think ThrottleStop only accesses one of these registers so it might not be able to help with this. Mr. Fox would be the best source of info for this kind of problem.

 

Just thought I'd chime in, I had this exact problem too.

I think you need to do the 240w-->330w adapter mod? Not sure

 

I get very similar results also. On the load tests I've run, it looks like after the 28s turbo limit is passed, the processor scales back to 3.8ghz and a reduced tdp. The settings that helped sandybridge don't seem to really hold at all (pwr limits, time limits, msr lock, etc). That said, I'm less concerned about this as if I'm putting that sort of load on the processor, it's probably a multi-hour render or compile and the lower temps are probably... good for longevity of the processor.
But yeah... I've not seen a definitive solution for this on NBR or TI.

@danyune A 330w power supply would probably only help you if you were trying to max out the GPU load and the CPU load simultaneously (which only happens under really specific conditions - not gaming, generally). The throttlestop bench test has the machine drawing about 172w at 41 and 146w at 38 (on an 8-thread test).

Now, a 4-thread test (which is a bit more real-world) will balance the load across the 4 cores and hold at the specified 4-core multiplier (with the machine drawing about 135w at 41).

TL;DR No answers, but here are some numbers.