Windows 10 980m M17X R4 FPS Issues

System Specs:

CPU: I7-3630QM
GPU: 980m (Yes I have the 100 Watt Heatsink)
GPU Driver: 361.75
RAM: 16GB (Presume 1600Mhz, but not sure off the top of my head)
Screen: 60hz
System: M17X R4
PSU: 240w
OS: Windows 10
BIOS: A11 (Standard)

Ok my issue is that the 980m can't hold it's performance in a lot of games. I will be at 60 frames for a few seconds then it drops massively to say around 20 (Depending on the game) for another few seconds before going back to 60. I have been on both Optimus mode and dedicated mode (I use the FN-F7 Combo Key Press), which can give off different fps. I did a stress test on the GPU, and I was only getting 58C reading for temperature off it.

Killing Floor 2 (Max Settings): 60fps in both modes
Dragon Age Inquisition (Max Settings): 60fps one moment, then 20 the next in both modes
Medieval Engineers (Max Settings): 54fps constant in optimus mode. 60fps one moment, then 20 the next and even as low as 4fps in dedicated mode.
Arma 3 (Max Settings- with 30000 View Distance): Constant 55-60fps in both modes
Fallout 4 (Max Settings) (Tested only in Optimus mode) 60fps one moment, then 24 the next.
Battlefield 4 (Max Settings) Most maps 60fps, But some maps 60fps one moment, then 18 the next.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

 

Hello. Welcome to our community.

I don't think you can get it to work 100% flawless, to be honest. I gave up trying to get 980M to work correctly in my M18xR2 and just bought a Eurocom Panther so I could enjoy 980M SLI. I know @mikecacho gave up trying to get 980M to work right in his M17xR4. Check with @j95 over at Tech|Inferno. He might be able to help with vBIOS and driver recommendations, but I think this is going to forever be a struggle with complications that diminish the quality of your experience.

 

Hello Mr Fox

Yeah, reading over a lot of the forums it seems many people have had all sort of issues getting it working. I have been in contact with @woodzstack ,he has been helping me to getting it to work. I see a lot of people say the 353.00 driver was the best in @j95 forum , I have yet to try it as I am unable to download the files from that website. The biggest reason I upgraded was the new information that oculus released for optimus support. Since I am a games developer, I need to be able to use it! So if I can get it running to a semi stable state then I would be very happy. I don't really want to buy a new laptop, so many bad features on them that stop you being able to do anything correctly, and expensive parts. But on the other hand I can't build a desktop yet, because I don't have anywhere to put it. And I kind of need the portability. So for the time being I will just have to put up with it.

 

I am going to move this thread into the M17x sub-forum where it will be seen by more M17xR4 owners that might be able to help.

You may find some helpful information here: M17X R4 - 980m - Driver Compatibility

 

Thank you, messed it up when setting it up.

 

Are you using dedicated or Optimus mode?

Just saw this thread also: 980m woes (again) *SOLVED*

@thegh0sts may be able to provide some advice. He has a 17 (not M17xR4) but some of what he has found useful may also be useful to you.

 

Been testing in both of the modes. However I want to be able to run only in dedicated mode.

I will take a gander at that thread.

Edit:

The issues he is having seems very different to mine. He is having a black screen. I am running off the card fine, it just struggles to run demanding games properly.

 

Wish nVidia did this sort of thing, you know, like make a list of what laptop you have and if it will work with their drivers.
(actually it'd be nice if their drivers didn't suck)


@Lord Fisher Dedicated mode is the way to go with the m17X-R4.

 

I think the problem with throttling has nothing to do with how powerful the GPU is (since 980M is very powerful and should be ample for all current games, especially at 1080p) and everything to do with malfunction. A combination of system BIOS, vBIOS and goofed up GeForce drivers creates the perfect storm for GPUs that misbehave when installed in an Alienware that wasn't built with Maxwell GPU support in mind.

 

Indeed, that's what I want to be working, however in the tests I have done, both modes function bad.

Well throttling is when the card is told to clock down to reduce energy consumption or reduce the temperature of the card. Both of these should not be a problem. Something Is not being detected correctly somewhere in the system. The only real way to gain 100% of the card is to remove the throttling all together (But that's a bad idea, nor really possible). I need to find the sweet point in which it works the best. The 361.75 Driver does not seem to help, but without comparing results you can't tell. If I can get my hands on the 353.00 driver (if that is compatible with windows 10), I see that people are saying that it's the best one so far.

 

- I'm sure it's the 361.75 driver. All new Nvidia drivers are rubbish, since you are on Win 10 try installing 352.84 it's a throttle-free driver, so no FPS drops.
- Install a modded vbios, Prema v2 or SVL7 whatever suits you and proves to be stable.
- Check the Bus-interface in GPU-Z, it should show PCI-E 3.0 x16 @x16 1.1 (when idle ) and 3.0 (under load) if it doesn't show these values, re-seat the card, clean the MXM socket on the card and MB.

+1 follow the steps to the letter in @j95 Tech|Inferno Aftermarket driveres thread.
Good luck.

 

Yeah, that was what I was thinking. I will give it ago when I can. Currently I am unable to download the files on that site. In regards to the Vbios, not sure which one @woodzstack set me up with, but I will give the current one a go first.

 

To the letter, good advice!

I don't know off hand how many times I've given someone the exact same advice over and over, and only when they stopped thinking they knew 100% what was what, and listened and followed it, thoroughly, did they get it.
Its all good, everyone figures it out in the end, but so much frustration from something as simple as a UEFI boot or disabling DSE... mondieu~!

 

Perfect, yeah that fixed the issue. Managed to get hold of the driver. I guess the only issue we will have with it, is games that require the latest drivers to work. So will NVidia fix this? No I guess. This is clearly something they did with the driver.

Indeed. But mind you, it would be much better if we had better support from Dell and NVidia, put hey, what can you expect. All about the money.

 

nVidia's game 1 drivers are HORRIBLE ! Half of the day 1 drivers I've heard about or seen, last year caused MASSIVE issues. Sometimes leading to broken hardware even. I recommend NEVER using them.

 

No need if you update driver profiles, J95 uploads new profiles every now and then.

 

When it comes to hardware breaking, that is really bad. So much care to people with laptops and wanting to upgrade!

That's great! J95 has been the saviour of this poor half sorted contribution from NVidia!

 

J95 has helped me even, when I got stuck a few times. The guy is great, unlike nVidia and their drivers, lol.

Of course, they work great in a Clevo, if you ever need one, I can hook you up too, but I've always been a long standing Alienware fan.
I still can't give up on them entirely, even though i've replaced my M17X-R4 with a Sky X6. Sold my AW18 and M18X-R2 and AW17, to build my desktop.

 

Just thought I'd throw in my input with my 980m experience. I've spent over a month getting my 980m from woodzstack as close to perfect in the AW17R1 as I think I'm going to get.
I know this is a lot of info to read through but I have put in a TON of trial and error, and 4 or 5 pages of troubleshooting conversations with woodzstack. This is my known stable and working final product so I hope you find it useful.

-The 780m or 680m heatsink doesn't seem to fit this gpu very well. Specifically the vrm module between the rows of ram on the front (blue strip of pad on the card itself in the one picture) and the height of the thermal pads for the Grey large VRM units. (mosfets? dont know what they are called.) The AMD 100W heatsink applies more even pressure to the thermal pads on the gpu's mosfets/vrms but the pads are all placed in the wrong spots and the black sticker on the gpu area must be removed and cleaned. See my attached pic for my final thermal pad placement on my nVidia 100W heatsink, and the pic of the poor contact that was causing my initial thermal throttling/shutdowns.

-I had to use Prema's 1.1.1 vbios for clevo 8gb cards. The v2 one seems to have issues in alienware machines with black screening (could also be new drivers) and I had to pair that 1.1.1 vbios to the 359.06 drivers to achieve the best stability. Any driver newer than this and black screen issues are the next biggest issue.

-Prema's vbios applies too much voltage for stock clocks and cannot be undervolted without further modding the vbios. (1.062v vs. 1.02v-1.05v stock) This makes the GPU run too hot under certain loads. (For me, I stay under 75*C in low memory use loads like 3dmark, uniengine heaven etc. but when I play games that eventually load a lot of textures I start to creep up to the 85*C mark, which is the high fan trip point on the AW17. I then stay there and don't go over 86*C but this is quite warm if you ask me. I have the 10.2 cfm fan mod installed as well or this may be a bigger problem. World of Warcraft after about an hour in outdoor areas of the game, is the only game I can consistently use to show this temperature issue, but im sure there are others.)

-External displays will turn on and off at random when you put the computer to sleep/shut down and boot it again. I have to use nvidia control panel each time to select the external display and the correct refresh rate almost every time I boot the machine. (doesn't relate to your issue but you'll probably find this out eventually)

Heres my 3dmark score w/ throttling and no fixes. hit 80*C+ degrees (when I first got it installed no mods and stock vbios) http://www.3dmark.com/fs/6801988
Here is my run today after 1.1.1 prema vbios, same drivers, and proper thermal pad installation on gpu mosfets. OCd cpu as well. GPU only hit 71*C http://www.3dmark.com/fs/7567108

 

Hmm, that's annoying. However for me it was the driver compatibility which was causing unnecessary throttling. Have you managed to try the 552.84? I was running at the max of 58C-ish on full load when I was using the 361.75 driver. But mind you I never used 359.xx drivers, so I can't say that I had issues with that one.