Please HELP me Overclock my 880Mx2 SLI GPU

I would be incredibly grateful if someone here could direct me to easy, CLEAR step by step instructions on how to overclock my GPU to a stable overclock for daily gaming. I will include some CPU-Z screens that show you the info you will need; however please note even though CPU-Z detects the 880M VC as 4GB V-Ram, that is actually not the case--each VC has 8GB of V-Ram. 880M SLI.

If you have anymore questions please feel free to ask.

 

Download MSI afterburner or EVGA Precision X. Then start moving the sliders to the right.

 

Thanks, I downloaded it (MSI Afterburner) - it's running right now. Not a clue on what to do next with it? Do I overclock each video card by selecting them individually, does the program do both of them at once automatically? Any way I can tell it to set a "known" safe overclock for this setup?

I'm as much of a noob to this as a person can be. First time ever trying to overclock anything LoL. Appreciate the help!

 

Just raise the bars by 5-10 MHz and run some 3D tests.

And I don't know why do you want overclock for gaming because two 880M is overkill for ANY game

 

Because I am playing Project CARS on Ultra settings. In love with that game; best game I've ever played in my entire life.

Sometimes my FPS dip down to 50, I'd like to always keep them above 60 FPS on Ultra settings. Trying to make that happen through overclocking. Making lots of YouTube gameplay videos--want the best quality I can get. MSI Afterburner version 4.1.0 has most things locked for me. Can't control fan speed, can't control core voltage or power limit. Seems like it doesn't really do much of anything. I'll try EVGA Precision X soon--see if I have better luck with that.

If anyone else has any good ideas; please share them. Thanks

 

just in your video settings lower your AA to X2 that should help you dont need to overclock anything or maybe use SVL7 modified vbios that should give you safe exra power for your gpu

 

if you dont know how to use nvflash look here and if you cant get the 880m vbios ill send it for you
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nvflash.774423/#post-9983774

 

Yeah I think @encor50 is right. I also played Project CARS and it's engine is heavily unoptimized for rain at the moment, they need to do a lot of patches. But you can of course overclock if you want.

 

These are my current settings (its what I find best for gameplay). This is connected to a Samsung 55" LED LCD via HDMI.
I usually have between 63-53FPS with that on most tracks. Very rarely it dips down to 45FPS briefly after long gameplay & pushing a fast car VERY hard. I don't like that. Would like to stay above 55FPS as much as possible.

Any advice on what to adjust/change in these settings??



Here are some of my recently uploaded gameplay videos:

 

try lower the texture filtering and change anti-aliasing and maybe FXAA = on

 

If FXAA is on MSAA has to be off. You cannot have both on at the same time. It doesn't give you that option. MSAA has better detail IMO; and between that & max FXAA I haven't seen any noticeable difference in FPS, which is why I chose to use MSAA. After dialing in & testing various settings for hours, the settings above are the best I can get my system to handle with greatest detail and respectable FPS. If I could get a stable overclock applied I'm positive the game would NEVER dip bellow 60FPS which is the desired affect I'm after. With the above settings 85% of the time I have 58-64FPS. Sometime I see an occasional (very slight dip) to 50-58FPS, and on certain tracks it will very rarely & briefly dip to 48FPS. Doesn't last long, only on some tracks during very fast sharp turns. But it is still very playable; just want it to stay locked to 55++ FPS. Don't like anything less than that.

I hope brother fox sees this post as I am unable to message him directly. He'd be able to help me out with a solid overclock. I really need one to have a perfect gaming experience on this game.

 

Hi, friend. I would suggest doing what @TBoneSan suggested. If you have the stock vBIOS you should be able to run +135 core offset without increasing voltage (which is locked with a stock vBIOS). You should be able to clock the memory around 1500MHz with no stability or thermal management problems. With an unlocked vBIOS you should be able to overclock much higher and have the ability to increase voltage to handle the overclocking.

The ability to overclock for gaming is sometimes limited by certain games. Many are unstable with high overclocks and will end up crashing or locking up after a while. Some games crash even with a mild overclock. And, some don't seem to care at all and you can overclock like crazy without issues. The people that are getting the best overall results with 880M seem to be those that are not overclocking. It is possible that you may find your 880M cards will develop throttling problems when overclocked. As I do not own 880M, I am unable to give suggestions for specific settings that I know work well, Even if I did, it varies by GPU so you would have to use trial and error to find what works best for your GPUs. My 980M cards are great, but they seem to be limited compared to other examples. My experience and persistence in trying a variety of settings has not done anything to make them overclock better.

 

Thanks Brother Fox, I really appreciate the input. Will try tinkering with some overclocking with stock bios first; before going through all the loops to go further. There are only 24 hours in a day LoL.

Another question: Can I install 980M SLI into my AW18 and have them work perfectly? Is this impossible or too difficult?? If I could, I'd also upgrade my CPU to the 4940mx as I understand that is the best one compatible with my motherboard.?.

A YouTube gamer I communicate with has the exact same AW18 I have with 880M SLI; but he has the 4940 cpu and I am using the 4910... He always has at least 10-15-20 FPS more than I do in almost all games on exactly the same settings. Shocking that the 4940 can make that much of a difference.

So, the way I see it--the best thing to do is go 4940 & 980m sli. PLEASE tell me this upgrade is possible and will work... Don't really want to buy new gaming mobile laptops as I'd like to devote my efforts & saved $ into building a killer liquid cooled desktop gaming rig.. But; I'd like to get the most out of my AW 18 since Nvidia pissed on us with the dog poop that is 880m sli. LoL

 

Yes, that is possible and it will work. Very recent developments--a special vBIOS from @Prema and a new version of NVFLASH that works in a pure UEFI environment--has changed everything for the better. A month ago I would have recommended that you avoid 980M in an Alienware due to severe throttling issues. You will have to run Windows 8 or newer in a pure UEFI configuration and say goodbye to Windows 7, so there is still an element of compromise involved in order to use 980M as an upgrade for the M18xR2 or Alienware 18.

A lot of people automatically assume newer means better, and that is not always accurate. I would actually recommend the 4930MX. I have not seen any example of a 4940MX that overclocks as well as 4930MX. In addition to being a better CPU, you should be able to snag one for a lot less than 4940MX.

 

That is AWESOME news!! Thank-you for bringing me up to speed. I've been trying to read very lengthy posts on here to get most of these answers.

I Currently own two AW 18's with 880M SLI, 16GB RAM, 4910CPU. Both are in absolute PERFECT almost brand new condition. Would you be interested in one of them as a "trade gift"? I need one running, overclocked & re-pasted with better thermal paste; and upgraded to the 980M's, 32GB ram, and 4930 cpu. You can keep the other one, and all the other parts from the second one, so the extra 880M SLI, ram & cpu. The catch is I pay nothing for the work on the one I want upgraded (including the parts). It could use a "Mr. Fox" overhaul. No, I am not joking. I am 100% dead serious.

Here is a pic of my setup

 

That is a really killer setup you have there... love it.

That is a generous offer, and I appreciate it. I don't need another machine, as you can see from my signature, but I will send you a PM so we can kick around some ideas offline.

 

Sounds good to me. I hardly ever use the 2nd one. Just need ONE running at it's fullest potential.

P.S. Thank-you.

 

It should work fine at more than 60fps now as NVidia released a new driver 353.06 to address the stuttering issues Kepler had. So you can enjoy a nice fps boost in FAR CRY 4, THE WITCHER 3 and project cars. Also do you have a custom VBIOS as I am looking to flash one only for benchmarking. I can't set the power slider on either EVGA nor MSI

 

I am incredibly grateful to Brother Fox for helping me overclock my CPU to 4.3 GHz... I also made some hardware upgrades--getting WELL ABOVE 60FPS. I've even hit 108 FPS on Ultra settings, usually resting very comfortably above 65FPS & 85FPS.. Depending on tracks and track conditions. Loving it!

 

Wow your CPU is beast. I am rocking as you can see in my sig an i7 4710mq pretty good for gaming. 108fps on ultra, that's some beastly frame rates man, the 880ms are really good in gaming but the VBIOS is pulling them down in benchmarking. What hardware upgrades have you done if I may ask. I still did not do any hardware upgrades at all since I got my 18 too afraid(I know )BTW your setup is ****ing nice ( sorry for my language, my body just filled itself with emotions )

 

All the hardware changes I've done are in my signature. But to sum it up, I re-pasted my GPU with GC Extreme, tried to re-paste my CPU with Liquid Ultra; but that turned out to be a mess because I did it wrong, so I ended up using GC Extreme on the CPU as well. That dropped the temps A LOT, overclocked I'm now running cooler than I was with factory clock, a lot cooler. Evidently Liquid Ultra would have been even cooler; so I ordered more of it in to re-apply it to the CPU by the end of this week hopefully if I can find the time. Other mods / changes, I took out the factory 16GB of RAM & replaced it with 32 GB of Corsair Vengeance @ 2133MHz. I also added a 1TB Samsung 850 EVO m-Sata SSD & am now running my OS & games from there while using the 2GB Raid 0 HDD configuration for extra storage.

It's running very sweet right now, I am mindblown just how much of a performance boost all this gave me.

The plans now are to upgrade the CPU to the unlocked 4930mx for higher overclocking, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB x 2 for a 2TB Raid 0 configuration; so I can install the OS on there & my games. The raid 0 SSD setup should give me a very sweet read+write speed boost. Also adding 980M SLI.

But, here is my latest run with the new mods installed if you are curious about benchmarking results: 3DMark RUN RESULTS

P.S. Keep in mind that I did not overclock my GPU at all during that benchmark; just the CPU was overclocked to 4.3GHz. I could probably get a slightly better score if I overclock the GPU as well; but I'm very happy with the way everything is running right now for my gaming needs so don't wanna risk messing anything up LoL.

 

That's crazy how much modification you made to your system. I, on the other hand, am too afraid to even touch my 18 in fear of scratching it, now jusT imagine the trouble I'll have actually opening it up Personally, I don't think upgrading to the GTX 980m sli is worthy as of now because our 880ms are overkill for 1.5 to 2 years of ultra settings game. But if benchmarks are your thing, then a 980m sli can be said to be worth it as. To be able to close the gap between the 980m sli and the 880m sli in benchmarks, you would have to flash a throttle free VBIOS and over lock your 880ms. If you search the forums, you'll find a lot of benchmark results comparing a custom VBIOS throttle free 880m sli vs the 980m sli. The highest 880m sli 3dmark fire strike result was 15000 compared to the 980m sli scoring a 24000( those are the graphics score and it's worth noting that each GPU were beastly overclocked and they were running with a desktop CPU)according to the result, I don't think upgrading to the 980m sli would be worth it as of yet but that's just my two cents on the matter I am actually saving for the 1000 series

 

Hey @Daniel1983 , I forgot to mention, do you have a stock VBIOS, if yes, how did you manage to overclock your 880ms. Also can you sort of do a disassembly and assembly video of the 18 for a newbie like me. That would be awesome and maybe a setup video and if you have time a witcher 3 performance test. I just want to see if there is an increase in the witcher 3 performance especially with a 2133MHz ram speed and all those nice upgrades Cheers.

 

I do not have the GPU overclocked yet, all benchmarks were run @ 4.3GHz CPU overclock & the addition of new hardware. My next step is tinkering with the GPU but I am still learning in this category by reading these forums. When I get that dialed in, I will let you know. One thing that became VERY clear to me, a CPU overclock of +400MHz made an EXCELLENT improvement in FPS gain. More than you'd ever think when watching other reviews about "how much does overclocking benefit gameplay".. In my case--A LOT. Can't speak for others.

Don't have Witcher 3 installed yet; was tempted to buy it earlier today--but I already own so many PC games I haven't had time to complete more than 20% of gameplay in a lot of them... Not to mention that I haven't had a day off from work & school in over 35 days literally. I don't know how much longer I can keep this up LoL. I need some down time, rest & sanity back.

Games I did test are Project Cars: Easily a 20+ FPS boost. Grand Theft Auto 5: Average 15FPS boost. Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare: 12-18-26 FPS boost (depending on what map I'm gaming on). Battlefield 4: Skyrocketed with an FPS boost, average 30FPS.

Other things I noticed was that every game is just so much smoother... Project cars, the reaction of everything is super "instant" may have something to do with the RAM increase/latency but steering, gas, brake input feels like it is incredibly more quick/responsive. Just very instant. Did not have that before these mods.


You can use the guide Brother fox made, which I also followed:

Feel free to subscribe to his channel & browse through it for other useful info.

I did not make any videos due to severe time restrictions; but if I find the time to make a video I will upload and post it.

Only free time I have is when I decide not to sleep (literally) and I haven't been sleeping much lately. My brain is overclocked LoL. Trying to keep up with the learning curve.

 

Thanks alot @Daniel1983, I am also stuck with uni so But on a side note, you should totally get the witcher 3, it's gorgeous at 4K (use DSR). Yeah a cpu does add up in FPS, my 4710mq is running at 3.60GHz and the performance I get from them is enough I will probably upgrade my CPU when I upgrade my GPU to the 900 series or the 1000 series if it's out. Thanks for the video too