GTX 680m not working at 100%

Hi friends,

I have a m15x with the following specs:

Core i7 720qm
Geforce GTX 680m
8GB RAM

As you can see in the graph below, my GPU usage is oscilating too much... Im using it to play some games, and I can see the framerate dropping a lot during the gameplay.

For example, on Guild Wars 2, GPU working with 30% the FPS is 22, 23... The times the GPU wants to work at 70 or 80%, I have excelent Frame rates of 50 or more.

Maybe its lack of power (PSU)? Im using the original 150w PSU.
CPU bottlenecking? None of my CPU cores gets more than 70% use on Guild Wars 2.

 

Sounds like the classic throttle issue.

What you need is an L PSU adaptor plug. One like this;
http://www.amazon.com/BiXPower-LC90B-90-degree-Connector-Converter/dp/B004ETQHV4

Pull the pin from the L adaptor head (NOT the standard adaptor head) with the pin removed and the standard cable plugged into the pinless L adaptor the M15x will no longer have throttle issues.

Side effect of using the pinless L adaptor is that while used the battery will not charge. Solution is to charge when not gaming without the L adaptor ie when surfing the net or watching videos etc.

In some games the 720qm will be a clear bottleneck. Even if most of the time usage is below 100% what you don't want is usage to spike to 100% on any core as that means frames will drop

 

King of Interns, what the meaning of remove the pin of the adaptor? Its simply to dont supply power to the battery?

If I use the m15x with the battery disconnected (and without use the adaptor), will it have the same effect that use the adaptor with the pin removed?

And, do you think my standard PSU can handle my CPU and the GTX 680m?

Thanks for the attention!

 

Yes the PSU can handle the load.

If you look at the plug end (end that goes into the laptop) and look inside the barrel you can see a pin. Removing this pin on the the actual PSU plug will irreversibly destroy the ability to charge your M15x battery.

Now that is something you don't want. Removing the pin from the cheap L adaptor means you can game throttle free and keep your PSU plug undamaged. This means when you remove the adaptor you can still use the PSU to charge the battery.

Take a small pair of pliers and simply pull the pin out of the L adapter. Make sure it isn't connected to any power source before doing so lol

This is tried and tested. Have fun mate.

 

Cool! My problem now is to find this adaptor here in Brazil. I already searched for it with no success, and Amazon dont ships it to here...

Anyway, thanks for the attention!

 

You could use a courier. Amazon doesn't ship to Costa Rica, but there are tons of couriers here that bring stuff from the US.

 

The problem I get with the L adapter is that it get so hot when I plug it in and play for like 30mins.
I have a 940xm OCed at x24 (3.2g) and 970m. I can get both my cpu and gpu run at full speed without the L adapter and with the 240w PSU. I play GTA5 with a 2k montior under mid-high setting, and the cpu & gpu temp is like 85+. I don't not is that because of some throttle issues or it just too much for a 5 years old laptop.

 

Clean your heatsinks and replace the thermal paste. M15x is old but it is still far better than any modern offering.

 

Already done that. It get the job done pretty good for other games like DOTA2, NFS. Temp always below 80 when I played those. It only got hot whern I played GTA5.
thats's why I thought maybe output to a 2k monitor is too heavy for it.

 

Cheers! I'm about to install my 920xm to go with my 770m and going to order one of these just in case this throttling issue comes up. The curious person in me is keen to understanding why removing this pin makes a difference? Care to enlighten or point me in the direction a thread about it already?

 

The M15x tries to limit max wattage into the machine. Somewhere around 190-200W if you don't do the mod the M15x interrogates the PSU and tells it to limit power delivery.

Ridiculous considering I have a box with which I am able to plug not 1 but 2 PSUs into it haha. I have seen usage well over 260W in games alone with 680 and 920xm OCed and overvolted.

The voltage circuits in the M15x are quality and able to withstand whatever the 920xm and a high end gpu require. The cooling perhaps not so much.

 

King of Interns, im REALLY F***** IMPRESSED!

Buyed it on amazon and asked to my cousin that lives on USA to send it for me.

Arrived today, I took away the center pin and powered my M15x.

Simply ALL THE GAMES are running at 60 fps, its incredible. Im thinking how did u discovered that little miracle!!

It looks like I just changed my old notebook for an new one. Impressive!


Very, VERY thank you!

 

Just check his signature....says it all really.

 

And today something odd happened...

My m15x was with the same power outage problem. Rebooted 3 times, and the problem persisted.

Then I Shuted it down, removed the adaptor, pluged it again and turned the machine on, and the problem was no more.


Is it a normal behavior??

 

It could be your adaptor is hitting it's limits. Perhaps purchase a 240W slim flextronics adaptor. The 150W can hit it's limits at around 200W and when that happens usually you get a bit of throttling followed shortly by instant shut off.

This little miracle took ALOT of trial and error to discover. I am pretty sure this was discovered before but yes I was the first to share it happily with ALL others...and not keep it a little dirty secret. I won't say more but some might agree with me in this M15x forum

 

I have an M15X Alienware and just upgraded to 680m the temp is very low 53-58-62 (max )

When I use Nvidia Inspector I see the clocks with slv7 bios are the following
758/900 boost 758 and volt is 1.00

I am wondering if the card is being under powered if it is being throttled in any way. If I open a game I would expect them to go higher but they remain like this. Is that what we call running in 2D instead of 3D ?

My game is counter strike GO and I would believe this card can do better than 100 ish fps while playing an actual MM match. and 60 fps when joining a casual game.

Wondering if this L adapter is the solution here or not ?

 

If you're using the standard power supply without the L-adapter or the centre-pin removed then you will be experiencing some throttling.
You've got the 1v svl7 vbios, there is also a 1.025v and 1.05v vbios which will allow a higher overclock but will generate more heat.

You also be bottlenecked by your processor. Which one have you got? Anything other than a i7 920xm/940xm overclocked to 3.3+ghz is likely to bottleneck a GTX 680M.

 

fatboyslim

Thank you for the answer the vbios I have is 1.05 but it goes between 1 and 1.05. I also notice that sometimes the 3d clock stays on even when not gaming or does not unlock at all sometimes. The processor can be a bottleneck but the GPU should be able to work better than what it currently is. I will try that L Pin adaptor and see what happens. I also will be looking at getting the 920XM 3.2 Ghz unlocked it is pretty cheapt nowadays the 940XM however is only from China sellers on ebay so screw that.