Aw m18x R2 Dual 980m SLI upgrade!!

I usually go until the system gets unstable or I start getting weird artifacts, then back off until it acts right again. It only takes a couple of seconds to figure out you went too far. I use +500 for the 780M memory OC. About +515-520 and my 780Ms start getting really flaky.

 

Yeah, i went to +500 and it started to artifact, so i went to +350 and all is good. Since all cards are made different i would be curious to know a average most users can get these news cards stable at, and maybe that might warrant a new thread.

 

It's probably going to be similar. Most 780M max out around +500 on memory, give or take a little bit. It's too early to know for sure because there is no unlocked vBIOS for 980M yet. You'll likely get at least a little more on the memory with a voltage increase, and hopefully a lot more on core. The core overclock is where most of the performance increase comes from. It will really suck if 980M doesn't overclock like a banshee like 780M does.

 

Be wary: X99 draws a ridiculous amount of power with Haswell-E once you start OCing it. Maybe with Broadwell-E it might be better, but I'm a little doubtful of how it'd work in a laptop right now. Unless you're me who will quite literally use a 5960X at 4.5GHz straight up to 99%, you're probably better finding the P570WM now. Of course, no telling what Clevo would do with a X99 refresh. Inb4 400W PSU standard that everybody buys for use with all the other models XD

 

I'm without any warranty on my Aliens now, so Clevo warranty is less of an issue. Anything is more than I have now, LOL. A hexacore 4930K in X79 is still plenty of CPU benching horsepower in a lappy as long as it can do 4.5GHz or higher. So far as I know, an X99 Clevo with SLI is only rumor and there is no way in hell I will consider buying a single GPU laptop, even if it has the 5960X in it. Will have to see what shakes out in 2015 on that. Either way, I'll move to 980M SLI in my R2 or get a P570WM3 if I can work something out that fits my budget. Trying to get any more top 1, 2 or 3 cups and points on HWBOT is going to be a futile endeavor with the P570WM3 finally living up to its potential. Before the latest revision with 4930K it never performed well enough to be taken seriously as an M18xR2 alternative... before the 4930K it was just a huge space-heating power hog that barely performed any better, and frequently worse. But, now there's no contest... M18xR2 gets its clock cleaned something fierce and the Alienware 18 doesn't even qualify for an honorable mention.

 

A little better, but still sketchy

 

Nice score.
Johnksss, so I guess you dont update windows 8.1, right?
Or have you updated windows 8.1?
Peter and I are having trouble after update, how about you?

 

No updates at this time. but it still will down clock if the wrong programs run in the back ground

 

Can you tell me some or one of the "wrong" program?
I am really in middle of buying clevo and selling m18x R2, or just go back to 780m with win7.

I really dont think I'd use m18x R2 with 980m with such requirements.
No win7 (only win8.1), no updates. and no wrong program

Anyways, I'd be more than glad to know some of the "wrong" program.
Thank you.

 

You would have to experiment by loading on software then running a bench. rebooting and running same bench.
Example, even throttle stop had me down clocking my gpus.

But at the end of the day, these 980's are for my clevo. I'm just testing them in the m18x

 

Do Maxwell cards allow software overvolting of the VRAM then? (As you know the VRAM for Kepler was not overvoltable unless you did hard mods.)

 

Super strange behaviour of those 980M's in the Alienwares!

 

If TS throttled your GPU always, it's TS. But I dont think it always throttled right?
If I am right, that's the real problem. We would not know which program not to use.
We have to check bench everytime we install anything or load any new program. This is crazy.
I will probably get a OCD from this

 

Indeed.

Yeah, now they are back to not working and all i installed was the realtek driver. lol

 

I dont think there is any program that throttle down the gpu.
Because before I went to bed, everything was fine.
In the morning GPU throttle.
If any program is the actual cause, then why did it work at night? (or why did it work right after nvidia driver installation)

 

Nope. no clue.
I even went as far as trying to get windows 7 to work, but no go.

 

Do you have also (throttle) Problems,
when you First install win8.1 -->Update win8.1
and after win Update, you install driver for gtx980m?

 

yeah i know. Actually i want Clevo with Desktop CPU but i dont like it's design that's what holdin me back Xeon Processors ....

 

I installed driver before updates.

 

@Peter

You still dont have GPU throttle on 3dmark11 or 3dmark?

 

Nope 3rd day without throttle

Just make sure you do not overclock your CPU beyond 4.2x 4 and VID up to 20.

 

So if I dont OC CPU, then GPU wont throttle? That's crazy

 

Yeah, I have had 680M SLI on two machines and 780M SLI on two machines... but, it is not a hardware mod, just firmware. I'm just counting on a vBIOS mod for 980M. If the 980M vBIOS can't be unlocked to the same extent as 780M then it will be a regrettable butt-wiper's GPU and a complete waste of money. I sure hope it doesn't end that way.

Looks like 980M SLI throttles in the Clevo P570WM3 as well, based on what I am seeing posted in other threads. Maybe not as bad, maybe worse, but I have no way to compare them. Brother John will let us know once he stops playing with the Alienware and moves on to his Clevo. I suspect Windows 7 alone will make the experience a TON BETTER than Windows 8.

I'm seeing the same bullcrap throttling of the CPU under Windows 8 on my M18xR2 with 780M SLI that Peter was seeing on his with 980M SLI. Last night I was pushing 47x4 on Fire Strike and the CPU was downclocking to 2.2GHz~2.5GHz randomly during the 3D tests, but oddly, not during the Physics test. If I re-enable Legacy Option ROM and boot Windows 7, no such problem exists. This also makes me wonder if maybe the clowns at NVIDIA have a hand in this nonsense, too.

Windows 8 is a female canine, and lame one on top of it... Micro$haft really sucks at what they do any more.

 

Yes, cosz of 330W power limitation. For safe side if your using laptop screen, Just down clock your CPU to 4.0x4 and set VID 10 or 0. give it go...

 

Read my post above. I don't think so. I think it is either another example of what a pile of human solid waste Windows 8 is or something NVIDIA did to sodomize us. My M18xR2 does the same thing with Windows 8 on 780M SLI. And, Clevo 980M SLI is throttling, too. Read what louis1978uk has to say about his P570WM3 throttling.

 

Hyung nim, so everyone with 980m sli AND win 8.1 are experiencing throttling I guess.
Only those who are using it on win7 aren't. Am I right?

 

Ah right, so you can change the voltage of the VRAM of the Kepler cards by a firmware mod? I'm aware of svl7's unlocked & overvoltable 680M/780M/etc vBIOS, but those didn't allow overvolting of the VRAM (at least mine doesn't). Where did you get the firmware mod that overvolts the VRAM?

Yep, I'm looking forward to see if svl7's & John's and whoever else is collaborating on a modded vBIOS, looking forward to seeing what can be done with these 980Ms!

 

Hey Brother godfafa!

Well, that is kind of what it looks like. Without access to having these machines all lined up on a table next to each other it's hard to decipher from posts in forums. We will know more when John starts testing his Clevo.

This should comes as no huge surprise. We already knew beyond the shadow of any doubt that Windows 8 blows chunks and 880M was a throttling piece of garbage. Windows 8 has been a CPU performance killer since day one. And, NVIDIA has sucked at making vBIOS firmware since GTX 580M. So, none of this should surprise any of us. Disappoint us, hell yeah, absolutely... but, it's status quo for Micro$slop and NVIDIA. John and svl7 will likely come up with something better for 980M vBIOS, but I think Windows 8 is a hopeless cause. I suspect Windows 10 will be a slightly prettier face with equal or worse performance.

The only surprise that blindsided us was 980M REQUIRING GOP support (no VGA BIOS support) in Alienware machines. This is very puzzling and totally goofy, but I am hoping svl7 can figure out something in the vBIOS that is causing this. On the off chance Alienware releases at least one laptop with a 980M GPU that boots Windows 7 we can snag that vBIOS for our older machines and that may let us go back to dual-booting Windows 7. (We will still need Windows 8 only for 3DMark 2013 benching like before.)

Here's how I am squeezing lemonade from the lemons: Pretending Windows 8 is OK, ignoring the throttling, 980M SLI benchmark scores are a substantial jump above 780M SLI benchmark scores. All of the cons aside, mission accomplished. If the throttle gets fixed it will be an even wider gap. At the end of the day I am buying 980M SLI for number chasing, period, nothing more. If all I cared about was playing games, my 780M SLI setup is still absolutely wicked and 980M SLI would be a total waste of money for gaming since I already have more than enough GPU horsepower in 780M SLI.

 

Yeah win 8 is crap indeed, but i got no other option as cant enable Legacy ROM. I think MS pushing hard to increase batter life, but they forgot to consider gaming laptops.

There are two reasons,I noticed so far.
1) After windows update, it may change system files and causing this throttle problem.
2) Power throttle, if you kept CPU below 4.0x4 (with laptop screen ON) and VID @ 0 or 10. Than GPUs will not throttle.

There is no CPU or GPUs throttle from past 3 days.

 

Hey Guys.
I have to say that it is notable what you guys are doin here. (read almost all pages here).

I will get a new AW18 and just wanted to ask, if its possible to replace the 880m SLI with a 980m SLI without problems(Bios recognition etc.)? (Also with Bios Changes, that works for m18x r2 ? )

 

I think we need a fixed vBios for the Alienwares for it to boot in windows 7/non-uefi. I need to connect my monitor to my clevo and see if my cpu or gpu also throttle during benching because now that everyone seems to be experiencing it, I wouldn't be surprised if I was as well. The difference is my system supports windows 7 I believe with the 970M so maybe I can experiment when I have some time.

They support Xeons but aren't required. You can always get a 4930K or 4960X. :thumbsup:

 

Hello Louderz. Welcome to the community.

I will be purchasing 980M SLI upgrade for my M18xR2 sometime during the next couple of weeks (waiting for a check to arrive from an investment I cashed out) and plan to test 980M in the Alienware 18 and M18xR1 before it lands in the M18xR2. I will post in this thread whether or not it works. There is no reason to believe it will not work in the Alienware 18, but the M18xR1 might not work at all because it appears 980M requires GOP UEFI BIOS and lacks VGA BIOS support in Alienware machines. I am still going to test on the M18xR1 simply because there could be something weird about the BIOS and/or LVDS implementation that changed with the M18xR2/AW18. It seems 980M is working in Clevo with VGA/legacy BIOS support, so it's just really weird that it is not with Alienware.

 

If you get past that. It's a decent machine.

No such thing. I have dual power supply and it is no where remotely close to what the 780M's were drawing. So plenty of power there.

I think that is exactly what is wrong. The clevo has a section for uefi vga while the alienware does not. I tried installing a uefi bootable windows 7 flash drive and it will not get to the install screen. So I installed it in legacy mode first. Then invoked uefi and it wont load. I might still mess with it a bit later after work though.

 

Thank you Mr. Fox for such a fast reply. I am just asking cause i cant find any post in this forum or other ones about a successfull 980m with a AW18. SLI 980ms are expensive so i ask before i cant do something with it afterwards. So it is possible that they will work in AW18? If not, is it possible to start aw18 with IGP or what can i do then?

 

Yeah, there's no way 980M running stock or minor OC with locked vBIOS is going to draw anywhere close to what 780M SLI does. With a stock vBIOS the 330W AC adapter should be more than 980M SLI requires. It's adequate for up to about 1007/1500 and 1.025V with 780M SLI, so I doubt that power depletion is any issue at all. It might be later on, once 980M is unlocked and we start pushing it real hard, but not right now.

I believe the CPU clocks fluctuating can be blamed on Windows 8. It's just a messed up OS. I don't think it is a "throttle" the way we normally think of one (due to heat or power starvation). I think it is a software throttle induced by Windows 8 being a pile of crap. The higher you overclock Windows 8, the more it seems to want to fight you on it to save power. It's doing some kind of asinine "adaptive" crap behind the scenes. What a pile of rubbish. We need to find a way to hack and break that "feature" in Windows 8, then it would be totally fine. It's optimized for wimpy tablets and weak touch screen Ultrabook garbage, so is it any wonder it's messed up? It's made for Mickey Mouse hardware and mainstream consumers that worship long battery life above everything else, LOL.

 

Question: does your CPU do that throttling at stock and in games, and can you test it with your Haswell in the AW18? Because Peter's was doing that as far as I had seen in one of his videos. See, when I OC'd my CPU before to 3.8GHz just to try it, I never got a single throttle. I had HWiNFO64 up for ages; played about four rounds of BF4 and CoD: Black Ops 2, then rendered a video in Handbrake. I ended up thermal throttling in the handbrake render, but aside from that my CPU basically kept solidly at 3.8GHz 24/7 once it was needed. I don't know if it's a stupid difference between MQ and MX CPUs or something, but I don't get why it doesn't happen for me but it happens for you all on the Alienwares. Of course, the best way to fully check would be to find Ethrem (assuming he uses Windows 8; I think he might) as he has the MX CPU for Haswell in a clevo, and ask him to check if it does that random downclocking (for apples to apples). Because I am using UEFI with Win 8, so technically I should be having the same issues you all are. And of course, me being me, I want to get about six laptops in front of me and test on them all, but I can't, so I have to ask you all XD.

 

Cant wait Brother Fox!!!

 

Someone make a 1 page stick of installing gtx980m's in an alien m18 and m18xr2 step by step guild do this do that tis is now over 700 posts be nice to have the facts in 1 space rather than iffy experiments.

 

No, I have not tested it in gaming because until just recently (preparing for 980M SLI) I didn't use Windows 8 for anything except Fire Strike benchmark runs because everything else benched better with Windows 7. I have done most of my gaming on Windows 7 and my daily driver overclock is 4.3GHz. That CPU behavior did not occur at 4.3GHz with Windows 8. All I can tell you is that behavior with heavily overclocked CPU (4.5 GHz and 4.7GHz is what I tested) and it does not occur under Windows 7 on my M18xR2 at 4.5GHz to 4.7GHz. I can boot Windows 8 and it does it, reboot into Windows 7 and it does not. So, it seems kind of obvious that it is the OS.

I only mentioned it to validate what Peter and godfafa had observed and point out that it is not being caused by 980M or an inadequate PSU. It is being caused by Windows 8.1.1 with all updates applied. I will restore my Windows 8 image with no Windows Updates applied after I start testing 980M SLI on the R2.

I don't even have Windows 8 on the Alienware 18 any more because it sucks as a benching machine when GPUs are involved and I did not see any point in wasting drive space on Windows 8 to run Fire Strike on a machine that does a crappy job of GPU overclocking. So, I would have to install it to check. All physics scores in all benchmarks tests that I have run are consistently higher with Windows 7 as well. That much was also true with the Alienware 18 when I was still dual-booting it with Windows 8. (Side note: I used to have Windows 8 on the Liteon mSATA SSD, just kind of off to the side and not in my way. That component has died and I don't really want to <del>share</del> waste any drive space on the main SSD for Windows 8. I won't install it unless or until I have to for 980M SLI testing)

Nobody has tested it in the Alienware 18 or M18xR1 yet. I will do that after I buy the 980M cards if nobody else has before then (and even if they have). Peter, godfafa and johnksss have all tested it in the M18xR2. It appears 980M will not support legacy BIOS with VGA at this time and requires pure UEFI GOP support, which means running Windows 7 is out of the question until we get a different vBIOS that has fixed whatever is borked. There is a remote chance of it working in the M18xR1 with Windows 7 since it works with the M15x using legacy BIOS. I anticipate the requirement for pure UEFI GOP and Windows 8 or newer OS will likely be the same on the Alienware 18, but won't know until I try. I suppose there could be something specific to the M18xR2 BIOS that is not playing nice with the vBIOS that forces pure UEFI/GOP configuration.

 

@johnksss
@peter

So peter is doing well without throttle in two conditions.
No update, No OC (or just 4.0 CPU OC)

How about you john?

 

mine was working with overclocked cpu an sli and no throttling, but i haven't tested today. was doing something else.

 

With no update it worked with OCed CPU.
Okay thanks.
I will try again. Damn I haven't played games with my alienware for nearly two months

 

if i can get my hands on a decent clocking r2 in px for my clevo ill be testing extensively,i cant help with ur observations as windows 8.1 and 7 are spot on for me boost fluctuates violently but no abnormal behaviour.And wicked frames.

 

hey guys, i have not read the entire thread, but which models of the M17x and M18x does support 980m ?
Cheers

 

M17x R4 and M18x R2 are confirmed working with Maxwell. I think SLI has some issues, though.

There are claims that the AW 17 supports Maxwell with Optimus disabled, but I haven't seen anyone attempt it on NBR.

Read the thread for accurate answers.

 

aw17 with optimus does work after a degree of messing not as bad as the sli issues you all seem to be rocking but seen optimus and non optimus m17xr5s rocking fine

on another popular forum near you.

***works only in UEFI mode, though in normal conditions the card throttles the memory clock and core clock quite below stock.

however there is a workaround to get full performance out of this card with K-boost enabled in Evga Precision and Nvidia inspector p1 states alter to what supposed to be by default.

Inspector allows to save this to your startup, and you can save this clock shortcut to your desktop aswell for quick access.***

TAKEN FROM THEIR POST IN M17XR5 3D MODEL UPGRADED 780 TO 980

 

any benchmark against gtx 880m/sli?

 

no CPU oC
no updates

still throttles.

Damn

 

4th day CPU @ 4.1x4 no throttle, if i even increase core clock to 4.2x4 both GPUs throttle. I dont know what is wrong with cards. it may be due to drivers. Have you tried changing NC power management to maximum performance? It all this cosz of stupid Win 8. Or may be we got to wait for next stable driver. Godfafa you can try latest beta driver 344.80?

 

Yes, j95 has modded inf for us. I have tried 344.80 with his inf.
And yes maximum performance in power management.

No windows update with stock CPU clock.
And I am getting GPU throttle.