Overclocking the gtx 880m - maybe not what you're expecting to see!

Hello everyone,

I bought an AW17 with a 880m in it, and due to some cosmetic reasons i had it replaced with a new one. The old one was throttling bad and I was well aware of these issues, and was kind of expecting to RMA the new one too because of this.

The thing is. It has no problems. It's running like a boss!

So I decided to try to overclock it. This is the first time im doing this, so I'm going about it slowly and doing my research, and I know how troublesome these cards get when you push them.

10mhz at a time, testing it inbetween to see how it reacted, all the way until the 135mhz max in nvidiainspector, not touching the voltage offset or RAM. It can run like this for several hours, but once in a while it will freeze, so obviously it's not quite stable, and for now im running stock again. Is this where I should start fiddling with the voltage offset?

Anyways, the whole point of this thread:

As I said it's stable for quite some time, which also gave me some opportunities to benchmark it. And this is where it gets weird. The higher clock speed IS active (keeping an eye on it during the test with MSI afterburner overlay), but I'm seeing no performance increase, no temperature increase. no nothing actually.


Can someone tell me what's going on here or point me in the right direction? Or if anyone would straight-out help me overclock this card to it's max potential that would be amazing since I am kinda scared of playing around too much with this on my own. Compared to the other AW17 (and different 880m), I deffinitely think I got my hands on a good example, so it could be kinda interresting to see what could come out of it.

 

Hi there, Congratulations!!! There had to be some working out there and it sounds like you got lucky!

A few questions first:

What are you using to bench it?
What temps is it running at when benching and at rest.
What is the default stock clock and max boost clock (nvidiaInspector)?
What max clock do you see after boosting it to +135mhz?

As for messing with the voltage (and I'm surprised you have any control over it in a 'm' chip), you should leave that at stock until it is needed IMO. For me a voltage hike is needed when one of three things happens.
1. Artifacting. Small flashing spots is what I see.
2. Bench or game flashes briefly and the card is reset back to stock settings.
3. Bench or game screen goes blank, Sometimes sound is still active. Task manager is needed to kill the program.

It is strange you say you see the higher clock without any performance increase. Try Heaven 4 ( Download Heaven Benchmark | Unigine: real-time 3D engine (game, simulation, visualization and VR)) with afterburner OSD.

I think you also have things like 'power limit' and I know nothing about when you would want to change that - sry .

Since you got a good one we don't want to break it - they might be delicate .

HTH

 

The trick to overclocking the 880M is to lower the voltage and raise the clock speeds. That will manage temperature and improve performance simultaneously.

Don't lower voltages too much. You have to start little by little.

 

Thanks alot for the reponses,

Im not "benching" it per se, but im using Valley and keeping an eye (manually) on the FPS, clock speed and so forth.

Temperatures both stock and OC'ed does not seem to exceed 84C

Default clock speeds are at the expected 953 (non-boosted) and 993mhz (with boost).

Overclocked clock speeds are at 1089 (non-boosted) and 1128mhz (with boost)

What I meant with "freezing" is what you described as "3", the screen turns black and I either have to close it with task manager or reboot.

The "Voltage offset" is at a default of -56.3 mV (It seems odd to be that it defaults at negative, but I guess that's how it's supposed to be) and won't allow me to turn it any lower, only higher.


I have not been able to run any further tests yet (with Heaven), but I just wanted to clarify on your guys questions. Again, thanks alot for helping out

 

You can adjust the voltage with an unlocked vBIOS.

 

That is a weird way of voltage adjustment. Must be something to do with the boost.

Heaven is a good way to push it and watch for clock drops during the run to identify if the boost is dropping, on mine it appears to have three settings it climbs through when the GPU is loaded.

84C just sounds ridiculously high to me in a laptop. Fine for desktops where ventilation is not an issue but it's like having a mini-oven in the middle of the machine! On earlier NV chips they would start throttling at 78c. I never see over 74c overvolted, but I do know that from the 780m on temps were always higher.

Maybe you don't see any increase because of momentary throttling?

I'd certainly try changing that ofset to see the results. If as J.Dre says reducing the voltage improves temps and you can still overclock then it might work for you?

I would not recommend an overvolted vbios on an 880m, you got one that works and maybe that is the best you can hope for - until the next generation prove themselves...

 

You have a grudge against the 780M or something? The 880M is the odd child out, not the 780M.

Spoiler

The 780M (from the factory) was warmer than the 680M because of two things: 1) it has more cores and is clocked slightly higher, and 2) Dell changed their thermal compound with the new lineup. A simple re-paste solves that.

 

I will try to do some Heaven benching when I can.

84C does seem high, but compared to other peoples results (and the other 880m I had), it seems very low. That thing was always around 90C under load, until it reached the limit of 93C and started throttling. Here, 84C is the MAX if I really push it, hot ambient temperature and not trying to do anything to help it cool the thing of (An actual cooler or elevating the back of the laptop), it's the highest number i've seen under the worst possible conditions. Also, stock paste on both this one and the old one.

Incase momentary throttling is something different that just throttling (English isn't my native language, and although it seems straight forward I just wanna make sure), I wouldnt know. But the clock speeds never dive under 953mhz (or the OC'd equivalent), while that was not the case on my old 880m, that thing would throttle to under 953mhz when it reached 93C, resulting in a noticeable performance decrease.

 

Guess it must sound like that. I don't mean to . I was all ready to get one when they hit with a bunch of problems of overheating and throttling. Put me right off, even if it was a lot to do with a crappy factory paste job. The owners thread was full of complaints and even the resident dell guy stepped in to help.

Dell admitted the bad paste job on the 580m and gave a call reference to get a new heatsink. Fixed a lot of the overheating but you know how that story ended up .

The fact that it screws the sound on the R3 (and the fact I haven't tried one ) make me less inclined to recommend it. I've still got two overvolts to try and see just how far the 680m can go but so far it games flawlessly on all my games .

It sure looks great on your setup

 

I guess it is an acceptable temp, I'm a worry-wort and hate the thought of all the local chips getting baked and lowering their life expectancy.

If the clocks remain stable and never drop even for a few seconds then I don't know why you are not seeing an improvement with an overclock. Maybe the Heaven 4 score's will show a better result?

The black screen lockup may well go with an overvolt, that was what worked for me. But it will increase temps for sure. A .05v increase gave me a 6c temp hike.

 

Can I assume that "voltage offset" is just simply changing the voltage? It's the language barrier again and the "offset" part confusing me a bit.

 

I think they have gone for the 'offset' number instead of an absolute number is because the boost algorithm creates a variable clock and voltage. You don't use hard numbers now for the clock speed. You set it to +nn offset.

So yes, you are changing voltage but as an offset of a voltage that changes dynamically with boost.

 

So i've got the chance to play with it a bit now. Just went lightly on it with +50mhz, +60mhz on the ram and an offset of -31.1 (up from 56.3).

Stock it got a score of 720 with a max temp of 72C, and with the OC it got 761 with a max temp of 74C. So that seems to be working.

On an unrelated note:
I was trying to make some custom fan profiles, and HWinfo screwed me over by not turning the GPU fan on which caused the temp to rise to 99C for a couple of minutes before I noticed it. No damage appears to be done, but should I be scared of what that did to the rest of the components?

 

Those numbers sound good to me, and the temp is great for an 880m with room to push it.

Was your best number at +135mhz clock? I've not seen any real improvements OC'ing the memory after around +50mhz

For HWInfo, I did exactly the same mistake (whatever it was) and stopped my fans also. Luckily I noticed in minutes. If it is still working fine (and I believe the core is actually rated to 100c!) then no need to worry.

You are using the Compal EC as the sensor?

 

I can't really get it to 135mhz+ atm without it crapping out hard..

Can adjusting the voltage also mess it up with regards to artifacts/black screens etc? Or is voltage mainly gonna cause problems with temperatures?

 

Insufficient voltage is the usual cause of the artifiacts/game locks in my experience. It will increase temps but you're way within acceptable limits ATM. 80+c would be my 'worry' point on that card looking at what others have reported as their temps.