Throttlestop M17x R3 2720qm?

Just want to know if you guys are you using throttlestop in your sandy bridge cpus. If so, how do you set it up? Is it possible to be able to consistently use the maximum turbo boost of 3.3ghz of my 2720qm? I tried using throttlestop and set the multiplier to turbo but it seems that it can only go to 2.9-3 ghz

+rep for those who will help me and contribute

 

I have the 2820, but the function is generally the same. All you do is set the multiplier to "Turbo" and let it go from there. Ideally it'll set your cpu to run at turbo mode speeds consistently. Like mine's always floating between 3.0 and 3.4 all the time.

 

Thanks. but can it run like 3.4 all the time?

 

It doesn't stay at 3.4 100% of the time. But it's still good.

 

to run turbo mode consistently, more than setting the turbo, you would want to increase the TDP. At least this is how it works with Extreme 1st gen I7's.

I don't know if the SB has the unlocked tdp

 

I think you can modify the value in the overclocking options of the bios but got to check.

 

Non extreme i7 2nd gen cannot be overclocked, except a miniscule 5% apparently.

There's no point bothering with it. The best we can do is use turbo mode. Raising tdp or anything else is pointless, and enabling overclocking in the bios will not do anything useful.

Modifying via overclock enable in bios is only for the people who use the extreme chips in the R3's.

 

Throttlestop doesn't work for these CPU's on the Alienware bios. TDP is locked. I'm using the unlocked A08 bios. I've done extensive testing and it doesn't work. Once your short time interval is up, the mhz drops to a lower multiplier...then once the long time interval is up, the multi drops again as per intel design. It doesn't matter what i set the interval times to, they are overridden by the bios for safety. Same with TDP...it will always default back to 45w eventually

eventually, a 2820 will drop to about 2.7-2.8ghz on my notebook and just stay there for the duration of the stress test. Throttlestop doesn't work on the stock (or even unlocked) Alienware A08 bios

qohelet, the only thing that you can do is bump your bclk (base clock) up about 5% for a 5% increase in mhz. This is a permanent overclock. Anymore than that and you will BSOD.

I have my BCLK set at 103.5

It may also be helpful for you do update your bios to the unlocked A08 bios as you will see all the options available to you:

ALIENWARE 17XR3 UNLOCKED A08 BIOS.rar

 

noob question.. how can you bump it up? will it affect my cpu temps?

Is it ok to to use the unlock version of a08 bios? any significant advantages of using it?

 

bumping it up a few percentage points won't affect your CPU temps much...however, if your temps are hot to begin with, then it will increase it slightly. Before overclocking, you should download Prime95 and a temp monitoring tool like HWINFO64. Run 8 threads on prime95 and look at your temps under the sensors tab in hwinfo...get a baseline of your temps first so you know what they are stock.

The unlocked Bios is the exact same bios as on your computer right now, except that Dell removed alot of options from the bios that it gave you. So the unlocked version just puts those options back. It isn't modded or tweaked in any way, it is just the bios the way it should have been. I've been running it for a month and it is 100% completely stable

 

How can i bump it 5% more?

 

Go to your bios...find your advanced CPU settings (cant remember what it is in the default bios)

You will see BCLK set to 10000

Simply increase it 3% to 10300. save, reboot. Test to make sure it is stable via prime95 and HWINFO64 for temp monitoring

Then if it is, you can bump it up again 1% and so on. Most people don't get to 105 before they BSOD. You can try 104.5 too

 

thanks a bunch!

 

Hello, thanks for sharing.
I asked the following questions:
How to install? From Windows or DOS

 

update it right from within windows. When you download the rar file, inside will be an exe to update.

 

I was not sure if it was from windows ....
Thanks for the reply.

 

Once of the best things you can do with a non-extreme CPU is increase the TDP and the turboboost time period in the BIOS. When I was using an 2820qm, it is designed to operate at 31x when using 4 cores, but subject to TDP and thermal limits. The effect when running a test like the 1024 test in wPrime was that it would start at 31x even though the power required exceeded stock TDP, being held there by the short term power boost. But that lasts only 28 seconds at stock, after which it would drop back to 28.5-29x for the remainder of the test. This happens because the TDP limit prevents the 2820 from running at 31x. But you can increase the TDP and the short term power boost in the BIOS and or through XTU, after which the 2820 will maintain 31x indefinitely. It's a significant difference. Check out Widezu69's thread which provides a roadmap, which I'm surprised has not gotten more attention. It may not benefit other CPU's as much as the 2820 because of the applicable relationship between TDP and power required at full load, but anyone interested in increasing performance should explore the option. See http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-2960xm-cpus-m17x-r3-without-modded-bios.html. It does not apply only to the XM's.

 

i've never tried XTU. So you can override the default settings for TDP and long time interval via XTU? I will experiment with this tonight

i was not able to successfully maintain 31x via bios tweaks. It will stay there for a while and then it drops 27-28x when the tdp gets throttled back to 45.

This is running prime95...8 threads

 

Try XTU then. Inap and I were able to maintain 31x after making the changes. At the time we were making the TDP adjustments through XTU and the BIOS, really feeling our way along on the backs of the M18x guys who had pioneered the use of XTU in these machines, but came to believe that the BIOS settings were controlling and that the software was not needed for the limited purpose. Maybe it does take both. It's very easy either way (or both). The result allowed time for the 1024 test to drop from around 275 seconds +/- (forgotten exactly) down to about 252-253 seconds and some got under 250.

 

Rev, if this works, i'll be repping you weekly for the next yr

 

here is an example of xtu with ts: notice at 51% long after the default turbo limit is expired but with xtu it still running the full 31x.

 

It works. If it doesn't for you, it's because I haven't explained it right.

@Inap: back at you big guy. A work in progress.

 

I'm curious if this would help me in my particular situation. The current game that I am playing is single threaded, so the more speed I can get on that single thread the better. For some reason, due to windows and I assume other applications, the turbo mode is running more like it is in 4 core mode, so the turbo is not max potential there. Thoughts? I've checked my CPU utilization, all cores are getting activity, just very low except core 1 which is generally 98%+. I've never seen it hit max turbo ever.

 

i see that! I will be playing with this tonight. hopefully it will do the same for me later

This will help you for sure! I'll be trying this out. Best case, i've gained 300-400mhz of CPU speed permanently

however, please note that the way windows works, you'll rarely (if ever) find yourself in a situation where only one core is utilized while the other cores are at 0% usage. Instead windows likes to spread its thread scheduling around to as many cores as possible...which makes more efficient sense. So you'll rarely if ever hit your max turbo of 3.6ghz

 

Yeah I noticed that. Well, it will be interesting to test at least. I do notice that my turbo will jump up around 3.2-3.3GHz mostly when running the game, but I was really hoping to see that 3.6 GHz mark or at least 3.5. Also, I'm not sure if this is happenning or not, but I really want to prevent the CPU from downclocking at all which I assume shouldn't happen? But who knows in those fractions of seconds, if there is a way to force a clock speed, I'm all ears.

 

No, this won't help in your situation because it is not TDP limits that are preventing you from taking full advantage of the potential one core multiplier speed. It is competing demands of Windows/other background processes that demand service and cause at least sporadic downclocking as multiple cores are engaged. I don't know whether or how that can be avoided. Benchmarking programs like Cinebench somehow isolate the CPU from the effect of other activity for at least for the limited period needed to run single core tests, but how that works is beyond my experience.

 

nice rev!!! didn't notice the xm in your sig. way nice bro, i wish i can join the xm fun, but looks unlikely for awhile. plus i just killed my 6990 too

 

I wish mine would die so I could get a replacement. What happened with yours?

 

just dead on me, not sure what happened. prolly from all that benching on dice, hahaha

but currently dell is outta stock of 6990 so i have to wait till next week for a card.

here is a shot of the power limit with xtu vs stock


atm i just enable oc'ing in the bios. but i adjust everything from within xtu.

 

inap, what do you mean "enable" oc'ing in the bios? What do you set your tdp, short and long times in the bios at?

 

Under Advanced menu, enable Override Turbo Settings. That will reveal the TDP and time window limits.

 

Thanks...i did that already in my experiments. So this means its XTU time

 

Have at it; it's pretty cool.

 

for me i keep all the tdp stuff in the bios stock including the bclk, then i will do all my settings from within windows using xtu.

 

Good News! XTU worked for me.

The trick for me was to raise the max turbo tdp to 58w in XTU. When i did this in the bios, it had no effect, but in XTU, it stuck for some reason. I did not have to adjust any time intervals. Whether or not Throttlestop was on did not matter. It looks like the increase in tdp is the only factor for me to having 31x hold forever

During a 25 minute stress test, my multiplier held up. HWINFO64 was showing it fluctuating between 29-31x...mostly at 30x.

I'm going to do more tweaking and see what i can do.

Thanks to both Rev and Inap for your help (rep+ to you guys...INap in 24hrs )

 

Glad it worked. Yep, TDP is the key to maintaining the multipliers. It'll help with Vantage CPU scores.

 

This just means i'm going to have to run a whole bunch of benches now lol

Gee Thanks Rev

 

Is my cpu that bad? I can only go up to 100.32 anything beyond that will make my screen flickrr so bad....!

 

you should be able to get more than that. It could be that your PCI-e bus doesn't like any bumps in speed

Ok, try this. Go into your bios and set everything to defaults. Save Exit. Restart

F2, go back into your bios to the advanced menu and do this:

OVerclocking Feature [ENABLED]
OVERRIDE TURBO SETTINGS [ENABLED]

if you need an example look at the attached file created by REV above

Save, exit

NOW...download the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?keyword=""extreme+tuning+utility""

start it up...under manual tuning/processor...there is a slider on the top that controls your BCLK...increase that to 101 then reboot.

See if that works for you

 

I'll try this when i get back from work. But i can already see some improvement in sc2 gameplay even with just 100.32 bump. Thanks again! +rep

 

I'll give you another hint...in XTU, set your max turbo tdp (currently set at 45) to 55W. This will help you turbo at the claimed 30x multiplier on the 2720qm...means you will be at 3ghz forever...no time limits. This is what throttlestop tries to do, but did not work for me until i increased the max turbo tdp inside XTU. What i found was that once the max power was increased, i didn't need Throttlestop to get claimed max turbo speeds

 

Thanks thanks! You really are helpful i just hope it wont fry my cpu considering my cpu will be consistently on 3ghz

 

you have to keep an eye on your temps. Also keep the back of your laptop raised up

 

I have a cooler so am good i guess...lol

 

Hence I just don't bother with xtu or throttlestop 100% of the time. Only occasionally for benchmark and cpu intensive programs.

 

For 99% of games, you don't really need to...the GPU will matter more...so clock that GPU up!

I was testing it last night. With the turbo fluctuating between 30-31x, my cpu temps went up on average 7c which on my computer is 78-79c so its still ok.