Just got my 880M twins!

Ah, wait a second. Disable any security software that's running, it seems to have failed writing a sys extension file, run Rufus in administrator mode and make sure your Antivirus and such is disabled.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

I googled that error and it is indeed caused by antivirus software, in the case that I saw it was BitDefender that triggered it.

 

Bitdefender should no longer be used unless you are willing to install bitdefender 2011 and keep using that software. In which case, you're better off with Microsoft Security Essentials today.

 

No way. MSE doesn't have anywhere near the required detection rates to insure the safety of your system, you need to have a third party antivirus tool. Microsoft's basic antivirus has an abysmal 90% detection rate compared to, say, Avira which has a 99%+ detection rating.

Microsoft's solution is the bare minimum anyone should have but it is by no means strong enough to replace a 3rd party antivirus and malware solution. If you are not using one, your system is a gaping security hole.

Check out how poor Defender actually does...

Home: AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute

 

Tried it on another computer and everything worked. Flashed the cards one more time, still the same problem but I uninstalled 337.88 driver and installed the new 340.43 and then everything worked.

Got 13178 in 3Dmark11 on stock settings, acutally only 150 points more than my OC 3840QM/680SLi setup.

 

That new driver is a nightmare, have fun with that :/

Glad you got it fixed though.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

Yeah, me too but makes me wonder whats
going on with my R2, will play more with it during the weekend.

Another question, is 1.1V the highest you can go on the 780M?

 

That may have been true for Windows 8 but its not true for Windows 8.1

Is Windows 8.1 Worth It for Gaming?

Windows 8.1 is faster than Windows 7 in just about every metric and it flies past Windows 7 when multiple threads are involved.

The stability of Windows 8.1 is miles above Windows 7 though... I've only BSOD'd when I didn't have enough voltage going to my processor. It seems to handle driver issues much better and the start up and shut down times have been faster with Windows 8.1 since launch.

 

You shouldn't be pushing more than 1.1v to a mobile card so yes, that is the maximum.

 

I care more about game performance than benchmark performance but I had heard the gap isn't very large anymore even with benchmarks.

I haven't compared side by side and probably won't bother. Like it or not, Windows 8.1 is the future for gaming though so people might as well get used to it.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

my 780M cards sucks, they cant handle any OC other then 50Mhz on the core and 50Mhz on the Memory, anything above that the the computer freezes.

 

Hook up the second power supply. If you didn't order the second power supply and the converter box to string them both together, you won't be able to overclock the CPU or the video card without freezing and/or tripping the overload protection in your adapter.

 

Well pretty much everyone has said that the 340.43 drivers suck for overclocking, go back to 337.88.

 

Okey, thought it only was a 880M issue. What voltage do you use?

 

My 880s will run 1000 / 2900 @ 1.025v totally stable but because of heat, I went back to the stock vbios. The highest I got was +125 core for 1,118 @ 1.075v but it would likely go higher if a) I had a converter box and b) I found a way to dissipate the crazy heat. My second card will hit the throttle point of 93C @ stock boost in Bioshock Infinite...

I'm running 337.88 though, 340.43 made even my 450MHz memory overclock go unstable, I never bothered with the core.

 

Sorry, but the comment I highlighted is not accurate. I have tested the guts out of it and know first hand that people that say this haven't taken enough time to do enough serious benching with both operating systems. The only reason I dual boot Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 is because there are only a couple of benchmarks where the newer OS actually does better. Most things, especially most benchmarks, Windows 7 decisively beats Windows 8/8.1/8.1.1 and it if that were not the case I would not be wasting drive space for an older OS. Almost anything that involves CPU benchmarks is going to suffer measurably with Windows 8/8.1/8.1.1 because Micro$haft really screwed something up that impairs CPU performance. Even when it does work correctly the results are unreliable and CPU test results are skewed. This is one of the reasons HWBOT.org does not give credit for Windows 8.X.X results in some benchmarks.

 

I see this, and yeah, that makes sense. Zero-day performance seems indeed quite bad. Maybe Avira would help. The reason I do not recommend bitdefender is because it has proven to me to be very very obtrusive. It has hindered my games and website viewing in the past, even when I disabled the antivirus entirely. I used to test their products and I won a key each year starting with BD 2010's beta. I tested up until I believe the 2013 beta at which point it just got so bad and obtrusive (and their reporting feature basically became reddit, where only upvoted comments were even reviewed, causing simply, 1-line reports saying "Feature X dont work fix pls!" to get the highest ratings etc) so I just gave up on using them. It is possible that they learned their lesson with 2014... but I can't recommend them to anyone anymore and I sure as hell will not reinstall their software for another round of testing. 2010 was fine... 2011 was a little bad, 2012 and onward just got progressively worse.

Also, unless you're really looking for viruses, you don't usually find many. It's not too hard to stay virus free XD.

 

Secure erase + clean image >>> any AV program

Of course you obviously have to watch out for infections since viruses don't just advertise themselves. But for the most part if you're vigilant about what you're doing, MalwareBytes Pro + MSE is "good enough".

 

Malwarebytes is what I tell people to use if they need to do a very deep scan.

 

Yep, MalwareBytes Pro is the only program I would gladly fork my money over to. Although I really hope they don't start going down the "flashy and popular" route since the UI for v2.0 is just plain fugly.

 

MalwareBytes is complementary to any primary Antivirus solution and is not meant to be used in place of anti-virus software. And while it's true that common sense can usually make up for not having security software, we have to keep in mind the security holes that Microsoft has introduced themselves in the past. Remember the messaging service bug? Lmao.

I have Avira and I don't like it but it's got the 100% detection rate going for it so I'm torn. I heard about Emsisoft Anti-Malware today which is apparently on the same level as Avira but with almost no impact so I'm going to check that out.

There is not a universe that exists in which I would recommend Bitdefender, Norton, or McAfee. I used avast for years and it's a shame that it has devolved into the nagging mess it is now, forcing me to find something else. The game mode and sandbox features were great.

 

I agree Malwarebytes is not a substitute for a proper AV (mainly due to its detection algorithm and the types of files it will scan), and not having a proper AV opens you up to, well, viruses.

That being said, I just couldn't stand the constant nagging, hair-trigger sensitivity, and the "better to kill 100 innocent programs than to let 1 bad one slip by" algorithm of certain AV programs. I'm sure (hope?) it's improved in recent years, but ever since a Norton "disinfection" corrupted some system files and forced me to reinstall, I've sworn off AVs.

In the years in-between me having nothing more than MSE to using MSE + Malwarebytes Pro, I've had a total of 3 infections, and in each case it was 100% my fault. (2 I got from warez/cracks, 1 was from a drive-by download from a very sketchy free eBook site)

Ever since I started using the MSE + Malwarebytes combo a little over 2 years ago, I've had exactly 0 infections (knock on wood). I credit MalwareBytes for having stopped who knows how many drive-by downloads whenever I ventured into the darker sides of the Internets, but other than that I most just used my judgement and common sense. Of course all this is supplemented by weekly backups of important data and bi-weekly imaging, because I realize the risks are there, but at least this way I'm well prepared.

 

I have an even better track record than that... Was running with no Antivirus protection on Windows for well over a year and when I finally put avast on, I had one keylogger that was in a key generator I didn't even use because the torrent had a serial number.

I have seen many machines get fried by Norton and McAfee over the years so I always am on the look for the least intrusive av software (even though in my time on the net, I haven't had a bad infection since the BBS days in DOS and Windows 3.1) and MalwareBytes has been in my toolbox for years. I hate the new UI......

 

crApafee is the worst... made tons of money over the years fixing infected systems with fully updated crApafee security software.

Agree... hate the new UI for Malwarebytes, too. To be fair, other software solutions are following a similar trend toward tackiness. Even the latest versions of Alienware Autopsy and Respawn follow that icky look. It is all consistent with the motif of the Windows 8.X.X "Modern UI" trash. The best way I can describe the look and feel of the Modern UI is that a pastel-colored cartoon puke bomb was detonated.

 

I've always used Avast Free Antivirus and its never caused any issues for me...

 

I won't use it anymore... Too many nags to purchase premium and it has a higher performance hit and lower detection rates than Avira which is why I've decided to move to Avira from now on.

 

I both agree about avast nagging and malwarebytes only really being good for a one-time scan run. But if you're a bit vigilant you should be fine. I mean worse comes to worst, you can always just scan any torrent etc you download before you open it to see if anything's malicious. No harm no foul there, right?

As for me, I haven't had a virus in years. I rarely download torrents anymore. The only site where I trusted torrents to be 100% safe (by reading comments a little firsthand) was demonoid, which actually is finally back online, but who knows how long they'll be up XD.

 

so what OC are you guys getting on your 780M's?

 

The highest I got was about 1273/1501 or somewhere around there.

 

Thanks johnksss, what software did you use for OC?

Im wondering why Im struggling even getting 900/1300 stable... I usually use 3Dmark11 to test stability first and when I pass 900/1300 windows freezes..

 

Depends on voltage/clocks/os/power management/power & vbios. To much or not enough and crash city. Wrong version or partial install. Crash city....

 

With GTX 780M this happens? Is this with the new Clevo? What vBIOS?

 

Yeah the vbios used and voltage matters, also it's worth testing the core and memory clocks by themselves.

 

Funny enough, I read at overclockers that a member there was hitting 120FPS in heaven with 40/5000 with his 780ti. He then went 120/5000 and dropped down to 73FPS. I have no idea how this all works in regards to the very technical side of thing's. It is interesting that the more you overclock your memory, the more impact it has in game according to most users settings.

 

High memory clock helps to reduce bandwidth bottleneck, but too much and it'll backfire because of GDDR5's error correction.

 

So in essence, don't OC memory but instead OC core?

 

You can still overclock memory, just don't over clock it if you catch my drift.

 

Overclocking the core yields the greatest returns in terms of performance and is not particularly harmful or dangerous. If you overclock the core too far it will be (a) unstable and crash; (b) rapidly overheat and shut down to avoid damage; or, (c) both. Overclocking the VRAM can also improve performance, to a somewhat lesser degree, but the chances of causing harm or destruction to the GPU from overdoing it on the memory overclock being excessive is far greater than core overclocking. Applying more voltage for overclocking applies only to the core, so increasing voltage in an effort to achieve high memory clock speeds does not work. Adverse long term side effects of over-volting the GPU can be accelerated fatigue and damage from prolonged thermal stress. As far as I know, the voltage limit for an NVIDIA GPU using the maximum value permitted in the vBIOS represents the maximum safe functional limit. If my understanding is correct, the voltage cannot be set higher than the value set as the limit in the vBIOS without a hardware mod. Using a hardware mod to increase core voltage limits or memory voltage is dangerous and presents a great risk of damage or destruction of the GPU.

 

What's your daily oc fox?

 

CPU: 4.3GHz - this is my 24/7 CPU clock speed for the M18xR2 and Alienware 18 - 4.3GHz runs very cool, stable and doesn't require anything special
GPU: none - for the most part I only OC the GPU when chasing better benchmark numbers - stock 780M SLI provides an excellent gaming experience

 

True that. I can't get such a good CPU cooling, I just use -80mV on my CPU and leave it at 3.5GHz. It's fairly stable up to 3.8 at -80mV (for some reason) but the heat downclocks it so I don't bother. The 780Ms however... they're great. If you need to OC your 780Ms you're probably playing Crysis 3 or something XD.

 

Actually, to truly overclock the chip, you have to increase the power going to it by raising the turbo power and the current limits. My 4940MX will do 3.9GHz on 4 cores with 83A and 75W turbo, 83.75W short power max, and -80mV, 3.9GHz cache, 39x multi but it overloads my power adapter as soon as I launch a demanding app (3DMark 11 specifically, I haven't tried a game, works with 3DMark Firestrike, 11 just sucks more power) and it will hit 91C (thermal throttle begins at 95C) if I hit it with an 8 thread stress test (1024M in TS) but it doesn't hit those temps under regular usage.

I wish I could pull Fox's numbers but unfortunately no matter what I do, I can't get over 4GHz stable on all 4 cores, I can hit 4.2GHz on 2 and 4.5GHz on one. Lottery sucks for me between my laptop and my desktop Haswell (4770k will POST @ 4.6GHz at 1.2v and will even start booting but Windows will bluescreen clear up to 1.4v and I my cooling can't take more - It needs 1.33v to be stable @ 4.4GHz) - Haswell SUCKS.

As for GPU overclocks... the only game I have that could benefit from it would be Watch Dogs, the rest of them are running over 90FPS, most over 120FPS with max settings.

 

Yes, cooling is one area where Alienware really shines... they did a fantastic job of building excellent cooling systems for the M17xR2, M18xR1, M18xR2 and Alienware 18.

Here is an example of the Haswell Blast Furnace at 4.3GHz after a wPrime 1024M test.

Zero evidence of thermal throttling and great temps. (Of course, Liquid Ultra plays a hugely crucial role in achieving success with Haswell.)

 

Well, that's your chip. Mine hits 3.8 in gaming/streaming/etc easy, but it just gets too hot to maintain the power. I guess my chip is really good for it? I don't know. I even tried 3.9GHz once and it was stable during the tests on intel XTU, though like I said, it downclocked to near 3.5GHz anyway once it started to heat up, so I never bothered with OCing it for longer periods of time XD. My friend with the i7-4810MQ in a MSI idle-crashes at -80mV stock clocks (not during any stress tests) but she's fine at -70mV, so it's all relative I guess. Each chip is different XD.

Unless my speeds at that point are placebo and I'm not gaining any computational advantage. But then again, I haven't tested it since propping up my backplate... hmm, maybe I'll try some more when I get my board replacement. We'll see.

 

Its highly unlikely that it's throttling due to heat, sounds exactly how mine behaves until I give it the power with those settings. If I just give it - 80mv it does what yours does.

 

All these talk about how good cooling there is in the Alienware.

My 880M's (stock) in my P570WM dont go over 60 degree in Firestrike Extreme (tried 3 times after eachother) and my CPU temp during Cinebench (6x4.3Ghz) stays around 75 degree.

 

If it's not downclocking due to hitting throttling temp (95C), then most likely it's downclocking due to TDP limit. This is where the 4900MQ becomes interesting, I have also observed the exact same thing you've talked about, but I found that if I fiddled around enough, I could actually get my 4900MQ to run at the TDP I want it to and hold indefinitely until it hits the throttling temp. Prime example would be the wPrime 1024M test where I can get it to go 3.9GHz all the way through pulling about 62W and not downclocking once. So in that sense I believe the 4900/4910MQ may be partially unlocked.

As for cooling, Clevo suffers from warped heatsink plates and restrictive vents. The fans are more than adequate (and according to Khenglish over at TechInferno, stronger than the Alienware fans), and I believe deadsmiley mentioned his 880M never went above 70C when gaming once he lapped his heatsink and opened up the bottom cover.

So, if somehow we could mod Alienware heatsinks to fit in Clevos, or get Clevo fans to fit in Alienware, we would have the world's most powerful cooling system.

 

Yeah, it was due to heat. I was hitting 91+ degrees on the CPU in the test. The speed started dropping and the temps started to remain there at ~3.4GHz. Then once it hit the high 80s, it'd boost up to 3.6-3.7 GHz and then heat up, then go back down. But again, as I said, this was usually in the middle of the day and before I propped up the back of my machine. I have more thermal headroom now; so I might be able to get away with 3.6 to 3.8 GHz. I'll try it when I get back my PC from the mobo replacement.

Remember, my room is 32-36 deg celcius with minimum of 60% humidity (often 70-100%) without a whole lot of airflow each day =D. I get a whole lot hotter than you guys usually.

 

holy cow 32-36°C with that kind of humidity and no AC? How are you able to sleep?

About the most I can tolerate is 28°C, maybe 30°C if I have my table fan blowing into my face all the time.

 

Well I was born and grew up here. I would be just as dis-accustomed to your winters as you would be here XD. I usually keep a fan on the machine at all times, and it kind of helps, but not by a whole lot. When it hits 25-28 degrees at night, I get as much as 10 degrees celcius less on all my parts. I can quite legitimately play skyrim with RCRN and its volumetric lighting turned all the way up with 2k res textures on rocks and stuff getting my 60fps constant while chilling at a cool 50 degrees on my CPU and 45 degrees on my GPUs if the day is cool enough XD.