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    460m + 920XM Throttling issue

    Discussion in 'Alienware M15x' started by migualo, May 18, 2011.

  1. migualo

    migualo Notebook Consultant

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    Hi,

    I just upgraded my Alienware from an i5-540m + 260m to an i7-920xm + 460m and I decided to run FurMark + wPrime to see if there is any throttling issue.

    I got surprised (and disappointed) when I see on FurMark that the GPU throttles most of the time. Is this a power issue? I have a A09 BIOS and all on a clean Win 7 install. Is there anybody experiencing this???

    I follow this forum quite often and never heard anybody reporting this.

    Many thanks
     
    migualo, May 18, 2011
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  2. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    Ok a few questions, have you overclocked either components? How are the temperatures or either components?
     
    widezu69, May 18, 2011
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  3. migualo

    migualo Notebook Consultant

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    Hi widezu,

    Max CPU temperatures are 78-79 C and 85 C on the graphic card, and I haven't overclocked either the processor or the GPU. That was going to be my next step :(

    If this is not a common issue, what could be the reason? When I only run FurMark the GPU works smooth and nice but when I open wPrime after two secs I get a black blink on my screen and my GPU starts to throttle and the FPS drop to 9 - 13 FPS.

    This sucks...
     
    migualo, May 18, 2011
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  4. inap

    inap .........................

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    can you post the gpu-z log
     
    inap, May 18, 2011
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  5. widezu69

    widezu69 Goodbye Alienware

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    Well you are seriously stressing everything. No game will stress your CPU and GPU at the same time as much as wPrime and Furmark together. To be honest, you should try a game and see how that goes for you. 85C is a bit hot for the 460m especially since I have seem temps of <70C on full load. May do a repaste? Your compound may not have spread properly when you changed your parts.
     
    widezu69, May 18, 2011
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  6. inap

    inap .........................

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    ^^^ great advice.
     
    inap, May 18, 2011
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  7. migualo

    migualo Notebook Consultant

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    GPU-Z log attached as requested.

    Thanks for the advice regarding the repasting. I'll do that asap to lower the temperature on full load.

    However the throttle starts as soon as I run wPrime, even on low temps as you can see in the logs. It looks more like a power issue. If I lower the brightness of my screen and disable the AlienFX it throttles less often but still does.

    I have a hdd on a caddy + a ssd but I dont think that the fact of having 2 hard drives instead of 1 dvd/blurray + 1 hard drive will make a difference in terms of power.

    Thanks anyways for your help.
     

    Attached Files:

    migualo, May 18, 2011
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  8. Nivaku

    Nivaku Notebook Evangelist

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    that's really strange migualo, you have turbo/ht enabled in the bios?

    doesnt the 460 use a lot more power then the 5850?

    hmm you said that you have a09 installed which is the latest bios, when i had the throttling issue i used rivaturner to stop it tbh, both my gpu and cpu throttled. that program seem to fix it.
     
    Nivaku, May 18, 2011
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  9. inap

    inap .........................

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    the file is a little short but it does look like it throttling. hopefully gaming won't trigger it.
     
    inap, May 18, 2011
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  10. migualo

    migualo Notebook Consultant

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    Ok lads, I may have found the reason why it throttles but not the solution.

    Looking at the GPU-Z info tab while running Furmark and wPrime I just realized that the bus interface swaps from PCI 2.0 x16 (not throttling) to PCI-E x16 (throttling) all the time. That's why it throttles. However this only happens when running the processor at fully load. If I only run Furmark the graphic card works at PCI 2.0 x16 and never throttles. Is this something related with the chipset/motherboard? What would you suggest to try to solve this weird problem?
     
    migualo, May 18, 2011
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  11. inap

    inap .........................

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    nothing you can do really, the only other thing i can think of is running an oc program to try to lock it into 3d clocks. for now i recommend just logging you gameplay to see if its affected.
     
    inap, May 18, 2011
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