M17x R4 3920qm overclocking help!

Hello R4 ivy bridge friends! I have spent the morning trying to make my M17x run at the 4x multi over stock overclocked settings and I'm not quite getting it to work for me for some reason.
My bios (A10) settings are:
Extreme edition enabled
41
40
39
39
Override turbo settings enabled
Long duration power set 75w
Long duration time 28s
Sort Duration power Enabled
Short duration power set 85w


When I use Throttlestop to watch the clockspeeds and use:
1 thread wprime the cpu stays almost level at 4.0ghz (not 4.1)
2 threads wprime the cpu stays almost level at 3.9ghz (not 4.0)
4 threads wprime the cpu stays almost level at 3.9 (not 4.0) 4 threads is still 2 cores correct?
8 threads wprime the cpu stays almost level at 3.6ghz (not 3.9)

Long story short it seems the cpu is acting like a 3720qm not a 3820qm and it throttles down after 26 seconds of turbo, like it supposed to.
I am thinking its not actually overriding the power limits for the cpu for some reason and I dont know why.
Has anyone else tried this to see if this is normal or not?

Please help. I love squeezing every ounce of fun out of this machine. But this is actually driving me a little bit crazy!

 

When running a single threaded benchmark, that will keep one core fully active. Any Windows background tasks that need to be processed will wake up additional cores while your benchmark is running. This will reduce your multiplier because during your benchmark, for brief amounts of time, there will be 2, 3 or 4 cores active working on background tasks. Most Windows installs have over 500 background threads running that need to be be processed on a regular basis.

If you want a solid 41 multiplier when running a single threaded app then you would need to set your turbo multipliers to 41, 41, 41, 41.

When you are fully loading your CPU, you are not going to see the full 4 core 39 multiplier unless your turbo power limits are set high enough. Bump your power limits up some more and keep a close eye on the multiplier that ThrottleStop reports while the benchmark is running. Also keep an eye on your core temperatures. You won't see the full 39 multiplier if you are hitting the thermal throttling temperature when fully loaded.

 

Sorry i have to apologize. My thread name was supposed to say 3820qm. These processors only have a +4 multi overclock setting for the turbo mode. I have it currently set to 41,40,39,39 in my M17x bios. The cpu never goes over 89*C and the throttle temp I have read on these forums is 105*C. Once the fan kicks up to full speed it dropps back down to 80*C and stays there. I am 99% sure this isnt temperature related. This seems sililar to my 920XM in my old M15x. When I set the multi too high without increasing the power limits it only gives me the highest it can give without going over those limits. however the strange part is according to TS it is maxing out at 53W.
So to summarize:
-I am bios overclocking a 3820qm on an R4
-I am using Throttlestop to watch the frequency and the built in TS bench to monitor stability of that frequency. (its not enabled at all otherwise.)
-the biggest problem area is 3 and 4 cores run at 36x-37x instead of 39x when the system is turboing all cores.

i think it may be something to do with bios settings but the A10 bios looks different than the pictures i have seen on here of everyone elses so I'm not quite sure where I am going wrong.

 

You need to raise the current limits as well on alienware systems.

 

What do you have your short and long term turbo power limits set to? On a 3820QM, these settings usually limit you a long time before the current limit becomes a factor.

ARK | Intel® Core

The 3820QM is a 45 Watt processor. You can set sky high limits when you have an XM CPU but a 3820QM is much more limited. Your bios might be letting you select some big numbers for the turbo power limits but according to the Intel datasheet for your CPU, these numbers will be ignored.

The datasheet shows that the maximum long term Turbo Boost power limit for a 45W TDP CPU is 60 Watts and the maximum short term Turbo Boost power limit is 72 Watts. The maximum time limit is 64 seconds. If you go over these limits, I am not sure if your CPU will use its default settings or if it will use these maximum values. You would need to do some testing to find out for sure.

Can you try running my MSR Finder tool? Click on the Snapshot button so I can have a look at how your CPU registers are being set up by your bios. This will create a log of your CPU registers and will store it in the Log folder. Copy and paste this info into a PM message so I can have a look and maybe make some suggestions.

MSR Finder
MSRFinder.zip

 

My experience has been it applies the highest values possible (this is the behavior I saw with the 3740qm).

I suppose it could vary by bios though.

 

All the info you asked for is in my first post:
Long duration power set 75w
Long duration time 28s
Sort Duration power Enabled
Short duration power set 85w

i will try your recommendations of 60 and 72. at 64 seconds.

will post results here in a few.

Here is what msrfinder looks like http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/663/msr3820qmqs.png

i am assuming this is the snapshot info you are asking for. http://pastebin.com/DdGemCVt

 

Ok so that was a no go. Heres a pastebin of my throttlestop log and a picture of my bios settings.
TS bench 8T - Pastebin.com
56 is the longest "time duration" i can set it for in the bios.

 

Could you show all the options because I am sure the alienware systems were set to a low current limit so they needed to be raised when overclocking.

 

Your log file shows that long term it is throttling you back to keep you under the 45W TDP rating of your CPU. It looks like the CPU is ignoring your turbo power settings in the bios.

Thanks for posting that data. I will have a closer look at it after work to see if I can figure out anything about how your bios is setting up your power registers. ThrottleStop should be able to show you your turbo current limit when you push the TRL button. Can you post a screen shot of that window so I can see the power and current values.

Edit: I had a look at the MSR file you uploaded and the power limits that are set are 45W long term and 56.25W for short term. These are typical default settings with the short term being set to exactly 25% greater than the TDP of the processor. The ThrottleStop log file confirms that your CPU is being limited to those values. The bios might not be working correctly. It looks like this register is unlocked so you should be able to adjust these higher using ThrottleStop. After you set these to 60 and 72, try that benchmark again to see what happens. Post another copy of your registers to make sure they are being set up correctly. Do you have a retail or an ES CPU?

0x1C2 = 450
450 / 8 = 56.25 W Short term turbo limit

0x168 = 360
360 / 8 = 45 W Long term turbo limit

The values in that register are what is holding you back.

 

What happens if you return the timer limits to default (0 I believe to use cpu defaults).

 

MSR Log shows the current set to 112 Amps which is typical and shouldn't be causing any problems.

 

Interesting, are the timing options for the turbo limits set to seconds rather than some other strange measurement?

 

To unlock Turbo Power>Advanced CPU Control>Turbo PWR Limit MSR Lock>Disabled
This guide works for both R3/R4 Unlocked ThrottleStop 4.10 for Alienware M17X R3

 

By the looks of it, the Turbo Power Limits register is not locked so he should be able to adjust no problem by using ThrottleStop. I am not sure why the bios is not setting these registers correctly. There doesn't seem to be any maximum power limit for this CPU so I think with some tweaking, it might be OK.

If the bios is not recognizing this CPU correctly then it might be setting the Turbo Power Limits to their default values when you boot up.