Ranger over/underclocking

Hi there, I've finally finished doing the upgrades on my ranger.

going from:
i7 4710mq
500gb sshd
8gb 1600mhz ram
gtx 860m

upgrades:
i7 4940mx
1tb msata
32gb 1600mhz ram
gtx 980m
5 pipe copper GPU heatsink
4 pipe copper CPU heatsink

I'm trying to familiarize myself with the bios overclocking features which seems pretty bare. I know I can use XTU but I never had good experiences previously with my 15r4 as the undervolts never stuck after restart which is frustrating.

My questions are:

1. Can i use the bios functions to adjust the voltage so it sticks without being concerned? tried to set the the voltage to what i believe would be fine(1.2v) with the included OC profile but instead i ended up having a BSOD loop happen until i resetted the bios. CPU spikes to 90c then the fans kick on then it stabilizes between 80-83

2. what would you consider to be the optimal Bios settings given my CPU and cooling solution?

3. My 980m hits like 69c max so im curious how much you have been able to push the clocks and mhz on yours to push some more performance out of it.

At this point, I'm just trying to optimize this bad boy to be the best it can be, so any suggestions would be awesome

 

If your keen on using BIOS, it would be simpler to find proper settings via ThrottleStop and then apply those settings to your BIOS

 

Only thing about BIOS is bad settings are annoying to clear as they are stored in NVRAM and the NVRAM reset procedure is annoying

 

Very much this.

There are ways to help that process by removing the CMOS battery cage so you dont have to do a complete teardown every time you run into a bad OC setting but even still quite tedious.

For some reason it was simpler for me, but officially its quite the painful process...

 

Why not just use TS and let it start up when you login into Windows?

 

Don't ask me he wants bios oc lol

 

I also have strong preference for BIOS setting control over CPU/GPU multipliers, power limits, and voltage. I don’t like to rely in software to manage settings, it’s unreliable in my experience.

HOWEVER in the case of Alienware 17/18, it was better to use software because Dell half assed the BIOS on these machines and made no known keyboard combination to clear NVRAM, unlike Apple, who also uses NVRAM/PRAM, but gives the user a key combination to trigger a reset

 

IM GLAD SOMEONE GETS ME. Relying on software like XTU is aggravating in my experience.

I do know it has the voltage set to adaptive and when switched to override its auto set to 1200. But I don’t know what flex voltage is and it started boot looping when I changed it

 

Flex voltage is essentially overvolting. I forgot what integer flex corresponded to what mV it added, but it is only for INCREASING voltage. Offset voltage/prefix are what you want for undervolting. 4940MX is a hot chip, I don’t recommend adding any more voltage to it, and to reduce as far as possible/stable.

 

I do not plan on overclocking this beast. I want to just undervolt it enough for it to stay quieter. My temps are nothing crazy. The 4 pipe heatsink definitely helps. I should mess with that voltage setting and see what comes up