*Official* Alienware M18xR1/R2 CPU Overclocking Thread - Learn How and Share Tips Here

Thanks for your help , i have dropped about 7-8 degrees !

 

ran this test a few times now and temp on cpu never went over 65 !

 

Hey is throttlestop a must when OC'ing? Does this prevent it from throttling at 80c????

 

well just locked me up on that flex 0 , so i have gone back too flex 10 with no issues ... strange one that

 

vulcan ,

any chance you could give me a breakdown on what you have your settings as i am having alot of lock ups on BF 3 now since i installed the 3920xm temps are fine never going over 75 degrees ? GPU's are stable

i have nothing else changed just set at 42,42,42,42 flex 0 i am at a loss dont know what else to do

few other things i did had to re-install 12.7b had a few problems when i installed the 3920xm . got everything up and running now my BF 3 keeps having a few stuttering problems never had these issues before HELP

 

Sorry for late reply! Hmmmm, taking into account the subtle variables like system build inconsistency and environmental variation (ambient temperature) it may be that where you are and your particular system that 0 flex is not optimal right now. But you don't have to shoot right up to 10, try 4 and if you still get shut downs try 7 and and so on. That is how I eventually came down to 0 from 10, I did so in a step wise fashion.

Sorry to hear that your'e getting BSOD etc with Flex at 0. I am not positive if it is the Flex ID Voltage but it may be likely.

What you should do, is download a program called 'Who Crashed' that lets you know exactly what contributed to the previous system failure with a numerical code.

My settings are in my sig, oh and I should note that I have select OC level 3 via bios, have you just increased the multipliers without doing so?

To be honest, I am still just an amateur with PC's, there are many more knowledgeable than I am that can assist you further if you provide more data and can offer better advice.

There is a possibility that it is your GPU's, are they overclocked? Again we need more data as to why youre getting crashes.

 

I've same settings as vulcan78 42x4 @ 0 Flex. But I feel some kind of less performance than with Flex set to 10. Could be that possible?
I past the throttlestop's bench (1024M) and it takes about 4/6 secs more with 0 Flex setting than 10 Flex. It's a little strange to me.

I'll do some test @ 43x4 or so to see if it throttle down but anyway I think 4200Mhz is fine for me just curiosity hehe.

 

Yes, it is not only possible but expected. Lowering flex, the CPU cannot sustain the high clock speeds for as long time duration. There is a balance that has to be found between temperature throttling and dropping performance by lowering flex. When the workload places less demand on the CPU, lowering flex does not cause a drop in performance. When CPU demand is higher having flex set higher allows it to keep up with demand and sustain higher clock speeds as long as temperatures remain under control. When running benchmarks for high scores, I have taken flex as high as 70 in order to maintain like 4.7 or 4.8GHz on all cores through the entire run, but you have to take extra measures to keep the temperatures down.

 

Hi

Yes i increased the multipliers without changing to overclock level 3 , is that a big no no ?

 

With a locked BIOS it might be. Setting a Level 3 might change some settings that you are unable to see with a locked BIOS, and those settings may be better suited to higher multipliers.

Speaking of which, are there any R2 owners actively pursuing an unlocked BIOS from The Wiz or BIOS-MODS? If not, how come?

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Forum-Unlocked-Insyde-BIOSes

 

Mr. Fox, good info! Maybe I will raise to level 10, but so far no BSOD for me. Surprisingly, the game that has stressed my R2 to the limit is about 7 years old: Grand Theft Auto 4. I noticed CPU temps get up to 90 C with this game and there is some throttling. Would raising Flex Voltage benefit this game?

Thanks.

 

I don't know that CPU overclocking is all that beneficial in most games. I don't have GTA 4, so I cannot provide advice based on experience with GTA 4. It helps get higher FPS in Skyrim, but that does not really enhance gameplay. Running a stock Level 1, 2 or 3 OC Skyrim plays well and doesn't "need" more CPU power. The vast majority of games don't benefit from higher clock speeds.

As far as 90°C throttling is concerned, that is controlled in the BIOS. If I am not mistaken, that is Intel spec to throttle at 90°C and shut down at 100°C. With the unlocked BIOS in the M18x R1 the thermal behavior can be manipulated. I raised my shutdown temp to 120°C. The system still shuts down at 100°C, but it put more distance between the throttle and shutdown triggers and less throttling seems to occur. So, long story short, increasing flex may not alter the throttling. But, I would test it and find out if I were in your shoes. Ivy Bridge has some features that do not exist in Sandy Bridge, so the system behavior could be slightly different.

 

is it possible to overclock the 3720qm in an m18x r2

 

yes by 400mhz so you can have 40/39/38/38 turbo multi for 1/2/3/4 core
The single heat pipe heatsink it comes with will not be that great at cooling after the OC though (90-92C + in prime 95) so I've upgraded mine with a 2 heat pipe heatsink and now I stay under 80C at all time. You can also get a 3 pipe heatsink that should be somewhat better.

 

Ok now I am interested in an unlocked BIOS, to raise the thermal threshold from 85 C to 90 or 95C. Any word on the development of this? Thanks for the info!

 

As far as I can tell, nobody has pursued it yet. The BIOS unlocks for last generations systems were provided by Ahmed from BIOS-Mods. I would recommend that you send him the current A03 from Dell and ask for his assistance. I'm sure you will be a hero for taking the initiative on that and other M18x R2 owners will be most appreciative. I am very eager to see what gains and enhancements will be seen with the Ivy Bridge system.

 

do you have any detailed settings for that 400mhz oc and does it require a bios flash

 

No bios flash required,
look at this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...qm-oc-7970m-drivers-plague-7.html#post8584114

I suggest to leave LEVEL 1 overclocking and flex at 0 (unless its unstable then add some flex to add voltage)
then manually set 40/39/38/38 for turbo multi is thats not what you have there.

 

it would be interested to see what the settings for a factory OC is from AW on 3920xm , anyone have this ?

i am now running at 42,42,42,42 and flex 10 with no issues temps are around 74-75 underload idle around 46-48 degress

update after a couple of hours of Battlefield 3 was on 80-83 degrees is that ok or too high ?

 

I think its:

41,39,37,36
Flex VID 15
Override Turbo Enabled
Long Duration Power Limit 85
Long Duration Time Window 28
Short Duration Power 85

 

Thanks for the reply

did yours come factory Oc'd then ?

 

svl7 is at work on it on m18x techinferno forums. He needs some testers

 

I didn't purchase a Factory OC but they are what were loaded in my BIOS on first boot.

 

I have just recently purchased my new M18x r2, my dad ran a benchmark on it and its posted on the benchmark form as slowbot, Im happy with this laptop but you can tell the graphics are a little under powered and it could work alot better,Im new to overclocking and benchmarking, could anyone give me advice on how i can improve my laptop

 

might want to post the spec of your m18x , some really helpful people on here who will point you in the right direction .

i would try the m18x owners thread first http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/660296-official-m18x-r1-r2-owners-lounge-thread.html some great useful stuff in there ..

and welcome to the forum

 

My specs are,

M18x R2 3920xm,16GB DDR3 1866MHz 4DIMM, 1x 512GB SSD SATA 6Gb/s,SLI 680m,

Thank you i will also look into that thread as well

 

according to a friend at dell , this is AW's overclocking methods , what they charge you extra £££ for ..........

* Download and install HWiNFO64 HWiNFO64 for Windows 7 - System Information and Diagnostics - Windows 7 Download
* Once installed, restart the system
* Press F2 on the Dell logo screen to enter the BIOS
* Right arrow to Advanced
* Down arrow to Performance Options [press Enter]
CPU Turbo Mode = Enabled
Overclocking Feature = Enable
Level 1-3 Overclocking = Level 1
* Press F10 to Save and Exit
* Once into Windows, open HWiNFO64 and check the Cores Clocks and Ratios

* Restart the system and press F2 on the Dell logo screen to enter the BIOS
* Right arrow to Advanced
* Down arrow to Performance Options [press Enter]
CPU Turbo Mode = Enabled
Overclocking Feature = Enable
Level 1-3 Overclocking = Level 2
* Press F10 to Save and Exit
* Once into Windows, open HWiNFO64 and check the Cores Clocks and Ratios

* Restart the system and press F2 on the Dell logo screen to enter the BIOS
* Right arrow to Advanced
* Down arrow to Performance Options [press Enter]
CPU Turbo Mode = Enabled
Overclocking Feature = Enable
Level 1-3 Overclocking = Level 3 (this may not work on all CPUs)
* Press F10 to Save and Exit
* Once into Windows, open HWiNFO64 and check the Cores Clocks and Ratios

hope that helps you..

 

Slow? Your dad placed 8th on the leaderboard doing nothing but opening the box with a 10002 3DMark11 score. That's actually rather amazing.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...enchmark-thread-part-2-a-202.html#post8759404

That is also a great thread (probably better than the Owner's Lounge) to ask questions about performance tuning. To start with, you need to download and install XTU to get the most from your CPU because of the locked down BIOS. You should be able to set a Level 3 OC in the BIOS with little effort. Congratulations on the awesome configuration. If that was a gift from your dad, it's a really fantastic one.

 

Thank you Mr Fox, and no i bought this myself I'm in the military and i sent it to my dad back in Alaska so i didn't have to pay sales tax here in California, and yes this laptop is amazing not only can i play Skyrim on highest settings with HD pack I can also at the same time play a movie on my TV using HDMI Out and my Laptop dosent even slow down and the temp is less than 65*C, I am completely proud of this computer and this just reminds me why i keep buying alienware, Thank you for the Link

 

well it appears the m18xr2 is now unlocked...not sure what's in there yet or what to expect...

 

where did you get the unlocked bios, or did you unlock them yourself?

Also on a side 3720 with the single pipe, repasted with IC Diamond 24 around 75c during gaming BF3, Tera etc... is that normal? the back is proped up and cool room.

 

sorry, not i...but in nfact it was svl7 over at techinferno.
someone flashed it and it is said to work, but yet no info as to what is in there.
here is some of the stuff though...
http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x/1966-[m18x-r2]-unlocked-bios-versions.html#post24829

 

curious if they get overclocking of the 680m enabled or boost

 

680m over clocking is enabled for the clevo and msi 680m's but dell 680m's seem to be struggling...
as to any other info...have to wait for the 2 people that flashed it...to report back.

 

i've found myself in a rather strange situation, that i haven't been been in for a long long time, i'm actually looking for games to cripple my m18x, LoL i tell you its not that easy...

 

metro2033 should do it

 

its not really crippling, its still playable

 

in gaming circles.
1: it needs to be 60+ with vsync on
2: max aa
3: max af
4: trilinear filter on
5: all other settings in nvcontrol panel set to let application decide. and game settings set to max.
6: run game and get into a battle with multiple enemies

then report back your frame rate. which needs to be a solid 60fps at all times.
and if the games has tessellation, this also must be enabled.
dx11 if the game has this as well.

you pass all this at 1920x1080P

then and only then is the game beat.
laptop test...

 

lol, you said it!

Not sure if this is the right place for this but, it is something I mentioned a while back. My Intel Extreme Tuning Utility stopped working out of nowhere and nothing would fix it. Tried uninstall then reinstall and different versions. Mr. Fox said he thought it might be a windows update breaking it, so last night I did a fresh install and installed and updated every program one by one. Turns out Microsoft office professional plus 64bit version is what was breaking it. Install MS office and it quits working, uninstall and it starts working again. So I installed the 32bit version and everything works great! Very odd but thought I would share that with everyone. Let me know if anyone has any questions.

 

Good info, Grimy1. Thanks for posting it. +1 Rep

I think more specifically it may be a .NET or Visual Basic issue rather than specifically MS Office, although they can go hand-in-hand due to dependencies. I have the 32-bit version of MS Office 2010. I noticed not only did XTU keep breaking, but so did 3DMark11 32-bit binary. It seemed to happen at the same time. I ran the .Net cleanup tool recently and stripped out all versions of the framework and reinstalled them. This got 3DMark11 32-bit and XTU working again.

I have since disabled all automatic Windows Update and look very carefully at each one to decide whether or not I want to install it. I create a System Restore point before installing any of them and do them in small groups or two or three at a time. I haven't run into a situation (yet) that I cannot undo since I began handling them like that. Now that I am looking closely at them, I end up skipping and hiding more than I chose to install. Some are just not necessary and in some cases do not even apply to my system configuration even though they show up as something Microsoft thinks I should have.

 

I agree completely Mr. Fox. I just didn’t have it left in me to start breaking down MS office to figure out with part was breaking XTU. Afters hours of install and check over and over, I was happy with that for now. Lol maybe some time I will break it down and figure it out. What a tedious process! Lol

 

Flashed & works fine.

A million menus.

Would somebody like to 'hold my hand' and tell me what they think I should / could set?

Before flash I was running 43/41/39/37 (now that I'm back in Asia), when at work I run 45/43/41/39 (I work in a comms room, so its cold there).

Regards.

 

ErikO, what CPU do you have?

If you have an XM CPU, try these settings and see how they work. (You can try without an XM, but I'm not sure what is going to be adjustable without an Ivy Bridge XM CPU.)

 

Hi,

I have 3920XM.

Which settings are you referring to? I see none in your reply, thanks.

EDIT: Ok, I see it was a link. Dam I hate this glossy screen.

EDIT 2: Printed off those screens, and well, for Queen and country, here I go...

EDIT 3: Does not work. After saving & booting everything is still at stock (including my memory). If I go back into the bios, my Level 3 is disabled too.

One thing of concern, the Primary Plane (?) current limit is currently [0], and it takes ages to scroll to [2400].

Anyway, I'll reset all & go back to where I was until another poster has better luck. Not bricking this 6,000 Miles from home.

 

Is it possible to improve the cpu's performance? Links appreciated or detailed information dumbed down for us simple folk .

Also it says turbo boost to 3.6? currently showing 2.6?

Many thanks guys as im new to all this.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ridge-ivy-bridge-cpu-overclocking-thread.html

this is a great start, however if you want something dumbed down, i'll screenshot my bios for you and update this post

1 Restart your computer and hit F2 key when you see the Red Alienhead to enter the Bios
2 Navigate to the Advanced tab, in that tab you will see Performance Option, select that.
seen below


3 Navigate to Overclocking Feature. and Enable that
seen below


4 Once you've Enabled Overclocking Feature you will see this screen below


5 Navigate to Extreme Edition and set to BIOS, after this you will see this screen below

Note this is only my settings and the results may not be the same, however these work for me and alot of others, copy these exact settings and give it a try, monitor temps closely with a monitoring program like RealTemp or CoreTemp and use CPU-Z to keep an eye on clock speeds, also running a program like Prime95 to stress your CPU for Stability is good to do!

Note that Default settings aren't shown, but the idea is to mirror those settings to achieve a decent overclock

 

Hmm... how odd that your settings are not being saved. There must be a step you are missing or something. I doubt changing your multipliers, memory timing, voltage or amps will brick anything. The BIOS will generally reset itself if the settings are causing issues, so it's best to experiment with settings and find out what works before the CPU installed in your system. Your mileage can vary a little between two CPUs bearing the exact same model name.

 

Thank you Mr Fox

 

Hi ...i am still awaiting my m18x ...specs in signatre ....but i was interested in already learning how to overclock 2920xm ...i read bits and peices of the thread but i couldnt quite get it ..i also found a document on alienwares website ....can anyone recommend anything for a noob who wants to over clock ...thanks

i just saw niko posted a few snapshots ....are these pretty much the steps to overclock ....also are these defauly overclock settings or something that is stable in most cases ???

 

Did you see post #1289 already? I think that will take care of your overclocking needs nicely with a 2920XM or 2960XM.

I do not see any specs in your signature. In fact, I don't see any signature in your post.