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

105 is when it will automatically slow down, cpu stress tests below 95C is fine in hot ambient conditions, game wise should hit high 80s and low 90s tops

 

Yep as Littleone says.
When you go to 42 you may encounter BSOD's. If you are at default flex it should be 25 and you'll probably be fine. Either way, try to start paying attention to your flex. You may need to increase your flex if you are BSODing when stepping up the OC to 43+. See how you go.

 

Been using it for light duties all day at 4.2 and been going strong. will smash some gaming after dinner and make sure.

So when I move up to 4.3Ghz I will need to increase the flex, is it best to do it in small increments and check for stability? I assume there would be a risk of overvolting.

 

Increasing the flex will also increase your temps, this is the main thing, you shouldn't have any risk of overvolting. For 4.3 you'll need around 30 flex give or take some, its hard to say, you might need alot less, so see how that goes and adjust it down in increments of 2 if things stay stable. Once you BSOD then you'll know your pushing it.

Going beyond 4.3 it might be a good idea to start looking into flashing your BIOS to fully exploit the percs of your XM chip and also manage your thermal settings.
To flash your bios you will need to obtain a Svl7's unlocked bios from downloads section at the TI forums. You will need to make 5 quality post before you are eligible, or pay a contribution.

Here is also a link to an earlier page of this thread. Some great info and BIOS pic's of Mr Fox's 4.5 Ghz setting on a 2920xm. Most setting remain the same.
It's worth taking a chill pill (hard thing to do with a new toy ) and take some time out reading through those pages as all the question you're asking have been covered by much more competent OC's. Anyway feel free to PM if you need a help.

 

Each chip is a little different. Mine can run 4.2-4.3GHz with between 15 and 20 flex. The only way to know how low you can go with flex is to test your chip and find out. With the pri plane locked down, it might behave differently (meaning not as well behaved). With an unlocked BIOS, pri plane should do well set at 895 up to at least 4.3GHz in most cases. If it downclocks under load, then the pri plane is too low.

 

I will be happy with 4.3GHz, that being said I was happy with stock clocks, I've just got to tinker with things to get the most out of them.

And yes I have been reading through this thread, sorry if it's against forum rules to ask questions that have already been answered... the search function doesnt always answer questions I have perfectly. I'm all new to this after 7 years of strict 360 gaming.

 

I've got it up to 4.4Ghz now and its still not crashing but with flex at 30 its getting up to around 90 during gaming which is making the fans kick in hardcore... Is the next step to wind down the flex as low as it can get while it stays stable to reduce temps of to rock the overclock back? it sat at 4.3Ghz fairly fine at 25 flex

 

Yes, definitely. Always run the lowest possible stable flex setting for the best temps. The more flex you use, the hotter your CPU will run. You should be able to run 4.3-4.4GHz with ~20 flex or less.

Use wPrime 32M or ThrottleStop 32M benchmark tests and keep lowering the flex until those programs crash while running. Once it starts crashing, raise the flex up a notch or two and you should be good to go.

 

So just to clarify, sorry again I know I sound like a noob

I tried running ThrottleStop and it crashed the first time at 20 flex, it also crashed GTAIV after about 5 minutes of gameplay... wound the flex up to 25 and it didnt crash but the CPU hit 103 degrees which I assume is a bad thing with 105 being the threshold...

Is it right to assume that 4.4GHz must be the limit of my 3920xm? I didnt really expect to be able to get up to 4.5Ghz+ but was kind of hoping for an even 4.5GHz... But obviously not going to push it more if games are going to crash.

 

No, the limit is not 4.4GHz. The limitation is your settings and heat. Ambient temperatures have a significant effect. I have benchmarked at 4.8+ but using air conditioning to keep the system cold enough to do that under load. The crashing is caused by not having the right settings. Try 35 or 40 flex at 4.5GHz. At 4.8GHz it takes around 58 flex and 1375 to 1400 pri plane, with the MSR lock disabled. (Access to pri plane and the MSR lock requires an unlocked BIOS.) There is also a limitation with the 330W AC adapter. When you start pushing enough power to the CPU to run an OC that high, it limits how much power is available to the rest of the system, including the GPUs. It starts to become a challeng because you run out of power.

 

Hey Brother Fox, since my format I need substantially more flex and pri plane than previously. By any chance do you know why that would be ?
Should I be overvolting ram to 1.55 to coincide?

 

I know the limit isnt 4.4Ghz, Im saying I think thats as high as I can go as its starting to crash, at 35 flex surely it would be nearing 100 degrees as its nearly getting there at 25.

I also only have a 240W AC adapter I am fairly sure

 

whatsup, Im just curious, how far would I be able to push my i7-2860QM OEM chip with factory OC options from factory bios and with modified bios... ?

(M18X R1)

Would be very interested to know

Thanks

 

As far as I know.. almost nothing at all. The most you'll be able to achieve is a <5% increase in BCLK since the multipliers are locked down, modified BIOS or not . The partially unlocked multiplier is unique for the 3rd-gen non-XM i7 chips.

 

Yes, that is correct Brother sponge_gto. That was a big plus for the Ivy Bridge 37X0QM and 38X0QM processors.

 

Big thanks

 

I don't know any reason it would change doing a clean install of the same OS version using exactly the same chipset driver versions... a Windows Update may have been applied that buggered up your performance. You don't need to up the memory voltage.

 

Yeh it's really strange stuff. I have zero windows updates on there at the moment. The only thing I have done different is change the Windows Memory Virtualization from 16gb to 8gb (since I use a small 64 gb msata as my boot). I doubt that's it, but its the only thing I've really done different...I think

 

hmn do I have to pay for the unlocked bios?

I just OC'ed my system with stock bios, and 3dmark06 crashes to the desktop. Not sure if external monitor is causing or the settings. I ran few BF3 single player and it runs fine.

 

What error message do you get with 3DMark06? Or, do you get an error message? It might not be the overclock causing it.

 

It's something about dx error
Only happens when I oc to 4.4

I will rerun it and let you know

 

LOL. I ran it again, and it ran all the way. The first two times 3dmark or something crashed.

I do see about 2.5k in increase. Is it safe to run it like this 24/7?

I replicated what I can from your OP, but could'nt do it all since my bios still locked.

EDIT::Ran it again and it ran fine again. Seems like it's all good.

I didn't know what all the hype was about XM chips until today... and I got the system about over a year and a half ago.

Things I missed out on... lol.

Thanks.

 

Ha ha, yeah you did miss out, but it's never too late to enjoy the XM. Congratulations!

If you are using MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision X the Rivatuner OSD app will cause DirectX crashes with 3DMark05, 3DMark06 and some games... Disable the OSD app for the programs that are affected. It is generally DX9 and older that does not play nice with it.

As long as you don't run into problems with temperatures, there is no reason to worry about running it like that 24/7. You'll need an ambient temperature of 65°-70°F (or lower) to get the best results. I try to keep my work environment under 70°F most of the time and it has never been an issue for me.

 

Hello,
I have an Alienware M18x R2 that I have upgraded. My current configuration is:
1- Svl7 modded A03 unlocked BIOS
2- Intel i7 3940XM Extreme processor
3- 32Gb ram 1600 MHz
4- Dual Nvidia GTX 680m in SLI configuration(CLEVO 4Gb)
5- 240Gb Mushskin mSATA 3 Solid state drive(boot)
6- 3 OCZ Vector 512Gb SSD(RAID 0 with 2 drives) storage
7- My current WEI is 7.7

Can someone give me detailed settings for the BIOS so I can overclock this laptop to 4.5GHz-4.6GHz, 24/7/365. I will be using this for everything including games. Thanks.

 

4.5 or 4.6ghz are not 24/7/365 clocks - unless you want your machine to self destruct LOL.

 

Agreed, the max I can keep mine at is 4.2 without killing it and even than when I'm rendering files in PS it'll still heat up to 95* C at times.

 

Ivy Bridge processors generate more heat that Sandy Bridge and you will need to target around 4.2-4.3GHz. You can overclock to 4.5-4.6GHz, but the increased power requirements are such that it is not a good solution for most folks. You need a chilly environment to control the temps if you go as high as you are wanting to.

You will find settings and screen shots are already posted earlier in this thread. (The information was posted since the beginning of the year, so you don't need to start at the beginning of the thread.) If you don't find that information, let me know and I'll point you the right direction. As a good rule of thumb, 42x4 with 10 flex, 99/56/99 for turbo power and time window settings and 895 for pri plane with the MSR lock disabled will hold a steady 4.2-4.3GHz overclock with stability and reasonable temps if you are not in a hot work environment. From that point you will need to experiment to see what your CPU likes best.

 

Thanks, Mr. Fox. I will try it. I have tried 0 and 5 in flex at 45 x 4 and all I got was BSOD and frozen screens at windows logo screening. Again, thanks.

 

That's why. You probably need around 25 or 30 flex for 45x4 to maintain stability.

 

I can run mine at 4.3-4.4 Ghz day in day out at about 15-20 flex. Anything more then 4.4 Ghz is when problems start.

 

Now the weather is hot here I run my multipliers at 45-44-43-42 and up the BLK to 100.3. Flex is minimal at these clocks and temps won't get out of control if I get careless.
I usually have it set to 4.0ghz in Throttlestop for 90% of the time. Only Crysis, Arma 2 and benches seem to benefit from more speed.

 

Thanks Mr. Fox, you are correct in every way. I, now completely understand the temperature issues when a laptop is not under a direct cooling system. I was able to overclock to 4.3Ghz at CPU cores temperatures of 88-91C, with an ambient room temperature of 70F. This is using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility application.

Question, can the idle clock measurement be increased, by that I mean when the CPU is not stressed it will drop down to 1.31GHz on one core. Can this value be increased to say, 3GHz for idle. Thanks.

 

If you change all 4 cores to say 4.0 (40) the CPU will constantly sit at 4.0Ghz. I sit at 4.3Ghz all day every day

 

Not that straightforward I believe. You need to disable C-states completely to have constant turbo even without load. Doing so will up your idle CPU power consumption by a couple of watts, which might have (very slight) implications on idle temps and/or fan levels.. As for benefits, feel free to use your imagination..

 

Probably not, but I monitor mine using AIDA64 and the OSD and I have never seen mine stray from 4.3Ghz, whether it be at idle or during gaming or whatever.

 

Hello sponge_gto,
I have an Alienware M18x R2, to overclock it now I believe that I disabled the C-states. I am not at an expert level. Could you expand? Thanks.

 

If you have disabled c-states in the BIOS, then the CPU cores will run at a fixed clock speed. If c-states is enabled, the cores will fluctuate and downclock to save power when no load is present. If you are running ThrottleStop and have a check mark in the C1E box, this re-enables c-states even if that is turned off in the BIOS.

 

Thank you for the reply. All the information is appreciated.

 

Hi Everyone,

So after a three month business trip, I'm finally back home and have the time to properly OC the m18x. I had just bought it before I left, and had it running on a 4ghz oc that just didn't feel completely right, and wasn't p95 or ibt stable. Now, I'd like to stay at 4ghz (or maybe 4.1-4.2) , with reasonable temps/voltages but have it rock-stable. Specs are as follows:

Bios: A05 (Locked)

CPU: 2960xm

GPU(s): 6990m xfire

RAM: 32gb @ 1333

Storage: Samsung 810's in RAID 0

I just reset all settings to default in the bios to have an objective baseline to work from. Any help is greatly appreciated guys, I'm new to this game and would like to see what this xm can do!

*I'd like to avoid unlocking the bios if possible, though I'm open to the idea if someone would be kind enough to point me towards a guide on how to do so without bricking the thing*

 

With a stock (locked) BIOS set your multipliers at 40 (41 or 42 if you wish) on all 4 cores and Flex VID at zero and you should be fine. If you get a BSOD or unstable, increase the flex VID to 10. Set your turbo power and time limits to 99/56/99 (their maximum values).

 

Hi again Mr. Fox, hope you're well!

I followed your instructions and have had mixed results so far. Temps hovering around 40c-45c on idle and around 75c-85c on load. and I was able to keep the VID at 0 while maintaining stability. The issues I've encountered are:

-The power & time limits. I was able to set the Turbo Boost Short Power Max to 99w and the short to 56, but the Turbo Boost Power max refuses to go over 80w. Attempting to raise it over 80 in the bios just sets the counter back down to zero. The Intel Tuning software yields the same results-I raise it to 99, it prompts for a restart, then pops up with an error message upon booting into windows saying it couldn't apply the setting.


-While stress testing with IBT, linx, or p95, the cpu will only clock up to 3.79ghz with four cores and eight threads engaged, despite being set at 4.0 in bios. I assume this may have something to do with the aforementioned power limit issue, or the VID being too low?

Any thoughts appreciated, thanks!

 

Hey guys... a new version of XTU is available now.

Download | Intel Extreme Tuning Utility 4.1.0.12

Release notes [ LINK]

 

Nice, already supporting Haswell. Shame they don't include Sandy in the update. Might see if it works, but not gonna hold my breath. 2.1 will have to suffice...

 

I have not read the release notes yet, but I would not be surprised to find that it does support Sandy. Even if the release notes say it does not, it probably would be a good idea to give it a try anyhow. "Support" and "works fine without support" - either way should be OK.

 

I just briefly looked and caught this:

 

It works for Ivy just fine. Nothing in the documentation says it does not work with Sandy. I bet it does. Benchmark feature may not work with Sandy, but I expect the control settings will.

 

Hey guys. I recently got an Alienware m18x R2 and just decided to overclock the CPU after getting an overclock on the GPUs that I am happy with.
I just wanted to make sure I had the settings right and what exactly the difference is between the level 1, 2 and 3 overclocks. I am using an i7 3740QM. Here are the pictures of the current setup. So far I have only seen temps up to 86 in benchmarking. The screens displayed are the only ones I modified things on. I am on unlocked A10. Did I miss anything?



Edit: Also is there a way to make my CPU run at 4.1 GHz with 2 cores active instead of just one or should I not do this?

 

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to get a 4.0ghz on all four cores OC on this chip for a couple of weeks, and it's about done my head in. The chip's cooled by the standard 2-pipe heatsink, and the system's on A05 locked bios. I have all the wattages cranked to 99/56/99 in bios (their maximum values on locked A05) , and have tried upping the VID in increments (eventually got to 15 before backing off), but the chip will still only clock to 3.69ghz when all 4 cores are engaged.

It's worth noting that according to hwinfo, the cores will go up to 4ghz, but only independent of one another-as in, when 1 or 2 are engaged, no problem-but when running a benchmark/stress test or rendering in Sony Vegas, no dice.

*Temps hover around 40c-45c on idle and 75c-85c on load-really not bad, so I'm not understanding what the limiting factor is.



Any thoughts appreciated, thanks!

 

You need to increase your Pri Plane. Try 850 and see if that let's it clock up to 4.0ghz. You'll definitely be able to achieve 4.0ghz. This thread will probably get moved here. It's also worth having a read if you want to go higher. http://http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/578609-official-m18x-cpu-overclocking-thread-learn-how-share-tips-here.html

 

As Tbone mentions, you might need to make some changes in the bios to achieve the clocks you want. To access certain options, you will would need an unlocked bios, if you are on locked A05 at the moment. Once you have that, you should open up a whole host of other fields that can be altered. Here is an ideal post from Mr. Fox for you, that should help you achieve what you want to achieve. Notice the additional bios options that won't be available to you on a locked down Dell bios:

From this thread, which is a good place to start, if you haven't already: *Official* M18x CPU Overclocking Thread - Learn How and Share Tips Here

Depending on what temps you get with those kind of settings, you might want to think about upgrading/buying a triple pipe cpu heat sink to help keep things under control. The R2's triple piped heat sink helps out a bit more than the standard R1 extreme heat sink when it comes to keeping temperatures more manageable.