M15x 8800M GTX clocks issue

Is it normal that my GPU core and memory clock are always at the same speed? (275/300) Even if the system is in heavy load (gaming) or idle; it's always staying at 275/300. Using the latest version of GPU-Z for readings (although Ntune's NVMonitor reports the same speeds). Also, i have my powermizer feature Turned Off as well as Stealth Mode turned off.

I'm currently using 180.70 drivers from lv2go, X36 BIOS and i'm on windows XP. Last time i checked with gpu-z (about a few months ago), my clocks were at full speed 500/1250 so I'm just wondering what is going on...

I have already do the following :
-Reinstalled 180.70 drivers. no luck.
-Tried AW beta drivers and factory drivers, no luck.
-Tried 179.13 and 177.98 from lv2go, no luck.
(note: i'm doing a full clean with Driver Sweeper between each install/reinstall)

Do i need to get back to X34?

Well, if anyone have a thought on this issue; i'll appreciate all the help i can get;

Thanks!

 

I have this same problem with my laptop (Sager NP9262), I have two 8800m GTX's, and the PowerMizer "Feature" always kicks-in no matter what drivers / registry tweaks / VBIOS's I use, I guess it is hard-coded into the cards...

There is a fix to the problem as far as I know, but it only works for people with SLi, and it poofs whenever you reboot the computer (log off does not make it poof) so I guess that is not too much help to you...

You should try to contact Alienware and get your laptop checked, and if the card is bad, get a replacement one.

Good luck on getting your problem fixed.

 

You can always tell from your 3dmark score if your card is working properly or if it stays at those cloaks while gaming.

 

XP is the problem. all drivers later than 167.48 (or something like that) permanently downclock. to get rid of this, you will have to reinstall the aforementioned (rather old and outdated) drivers.

 

Nah been using 175.70 drivers for me 7950GTX for a long time now without any issues. Didnt find any drivers that permanently downclock the card so far. So its probably something else.

3dmark is good way to isolate the problem since if your scores are as they should be then there is no reason to worry.

 

Well, i tried to go back to factory drivers (165.32 i think), but it did not help...

 

Okay so i decided to go back to X34 with the factory defaults drivers (just as if i have first received it) but still no luck. What is strange now is that the core clock is now at 386 instead of 275...memory clock stayed the same (301).

To tell the truth, i'm pretty busted about what to do next...

EDIT : Some more testing... Ok so i have re update to x36 bios but now i decide to let the powermizer feature On. Surprisingly, when i get into a game - it now auto-clock itself to 500/799... but I'm just worried about the temps; its climbing up to near 90 C real fast...

 

90°C is a "normal" temp for high-end games. anything above that, not good.

 

If you're using Windows XP Professional, the only drivers that work with full clocks is 167.43. (At least, that's the only drivers that work for me-- and yes, not even the stock Alienware drivers gives me full clocks.) Try it out and see if it helps mixen.

Upon installing it, your clock speeds should show 200/400/601.71, but it should be able to upclock automatically to 500/1250/799.20 (you can test this out by disabling powermizer in your NVIDIA Control Panel).

 

Thanks for the info, I'll try it out.

 

There was a thread posted on their forums on this matter, but so far they have not posted any sort of fix for it. Bump it up so they still know we care about this issue!

 

Okay installed the 167 drivers and it looks like its working... It is now clocked at 200/100 when idle, 386/301 on load and gets up to 500/799 while gaming. Although, AW stock drivers did the same thing for me.

Will it ever get to 500/1250? Because it looks like 500/799 is the higher it can get for now... Where the ~450 mhz left went? Not that if it will make any big differences but i'm just wondering.

 

It looks fine. The program you're using probably does not show the Core Clock / Shader Domain. I'm quite sure the 500/799 values you're seeing is the Core Clock / ROP Domain and the Memory Clock.

Download Rivatuner and check your clock speeds with it.

Edit: I've noticed you managed to get my 1000th post!

Edit #2: Upon opening Rivatuner, click on the triangle button next to Customize... and then click on the Hardware Monitoring icon.



I normally have powermizer enabled, but these are the values you should be getting with powermizer disabled. If you're getting these values after you have it disabled then it means that the drivers are working correctly.

 

Well, i don't know if having full clocks is a good idea after all. My system is starting to crash now...

I have monitored closely the GPU temps while under heavy load; looks like when it clocks to 500/799, temps are climbing very fast and when it finally reaches something around ~94 C, my screen goes black and the system locked up (but i can still hear the sound) and i have to manually restart.

I checked the fans intakes (bottom of the laptop) and used compressed air to blow the dust off but that did not help... actually it did bring the temps down by 1 or 2 degrees but it will end up crashing...

I have been able to reproduce the issue everytime... so anyways i guess that having full clocks cause my GPU to overheat.

EDIT : forgot to ask which software reports the most accurate temps? Because AW's ThermoFan tells me it is around 92C while GPU-Z tells me a few degrees more, around 99C...

 

Are your fans loud (or are they running at a high speed) when your GPU temperature gets that high?

The temperatures you are getting are abnormally high. My GPU temperature does not even go nearly as high when it's on constant heavy load for a long period of time.

Edit: Having full clocks does not immediately cause your GPU to overheat-- so don't make rash assumptions yet! =P

 

Fans 1 and 2 are around 5200 r/min when the card reaches ~90 C, so yeah it is loud... At least that is what thermofan reports.

EDIT : maybe theres more dust blocking the fans? I just did a quick cleanup of the intakes holes... is it safe to open up the system and clean the video card more thoroughly?

 

Hmm, how long does it generally take for the GPU to reach those temperatures? Around what temperatures would you notice the fans kicking into full force?

For now, I have three suggestions for you. Until we can find out where this problem is coming from (if it's hardware or software related), you can try out any of the following below to lower your temperatures in the meantime.

1. Update your BIOS to X36. The fan speed profiles are a tad different in that version and it allows the fan to be on more often and run at much faster speeds.
2. Position your notebook higher to allow better air circulation (or buy yourself a notebook cooler).
3. Remove any dust that might be congesting your notebook's air circulation.

...and to answer your question-- yes, it's safe to open up your system as long as you take the necessary precautions. Refer to this guide when you open up your notebook: http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/alienware.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=5662&p_sid=s757XXkj&p_lva=5670&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9NjYsNjYmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9mbmwmcF9zY2ZfNj0yMDUmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1tMTV4IG9wZW4*&p_li=

 

I'm already with the X36 BIOS; When I turn the lappy on for the first time, it takes around an hour or so to get to ~85-90C. Then if i have to reboot or something, the temps will be already at around 60C idle and they will climb up to 90 under 15 min or so the next time i launch a game. If i ALT+Tab out, temps will jump ~10-15 C down, then back to 90s really fast when i reALT-tab into the game (~a few seconds). Also, I think it takes around an hour too to get to 90c if I game right after i woke the system up from a standby (will need to doublecheck that).

For the moment, i got back to newer drivers (180.70) and sacrificed some performance to have heating stability (stays around 70). But well, I'll try again after cleaning up more thoroughly the GPU and will consider a notebook cooler if needed.

Anyways, games are running pretty well even at 275/300 clocks@1440x900, although I won't say no for full clocks if the temperatures can be more stable...

Thanks a lot for your support Oceanus. I'll post back with results when i get a chance.

 

60C idle seems high unless it's with powermizer disabled-- even with X36. I think there is a possibility that there might be something wrong with the GPU itself. If it becomes apparent that this issue is not software related, you should look into having your GPU replaced.

Don't worry too much about it now though. Continue to feed me with information and I'll dig deeper into this for you. Worst case scenario, you'll have to ask Roswell to send you a replacement GPU. Replacing the GPU is one of the few things you won't have to send your notebook in for-- so it's not too bad. [ 1]

Edit: I have the same exact specs as you-- also with Windows XP, so I'm sure there's something wrong here.

 

Okay, some more testing.

First of all, i took out the battery and smart bay and found myself a little wooden plank. I placed the lappy on the edge of the plank so that the exhausts are placed a bit higher; Looks like by doing this, i've gained ~5 degrees.... Indeed, now at full clocks, temps reach 89-90C (gpu fan at ~5300) but did not go beyond .

Also, at random moments the temperatures will get down to 79-80C and then slowly climb up to 89-90C... Anyways, as soon as i exit the game, temps get down instantly at ~65C and idled at ~53C... The system didn't crash while it was around 89-90C - well, for the moment it did not.

I'll play around with this setup for some time and see if anything gets worse and will post the results. And yes, I guess I'll start looking for a cooler...

Once more, thanks for your support and advices, Oceanus.

 

Yeah, if you've alt+tab out of the game even for a few seconds, powermizer kicks in and downclocks the card, effectively cooling down the GPU (at least until you alt+tab back into it.)

I'll continue to look into this problem for you, though I can't really do much until after tomorrow. I've had my hands tied for the past several days due to finals so research for all of the other problems I'm currently looking into have been a tad slow. It won't be until after tomorrow when I can start dedicating time to look into all of the problems I've promised people I'd look into.

 

K, some more results.

The temperatures didn't improve after all... It still get to ~89-90 C, and sometimes go beyond to 91. For every temps that ThermoFan reports, HWMonitor reports 5-7 C more (i.e. 90C in thermofan will be ~94-95C in HW)... so which one is the more accurate? Even with those high numbers, i did not get any crash yet. But i guess it is just a matter of time and luck...

Also, i opened up the system to clean up any dust near the GPU's vents and first thing i noticed is that the GPU fan is not screwed...(CPU one is okay - has 2 screws) I don't know if this is causing the heating troubles but even without the screws, it looks like that it can't really move or gets "out of place". Anyways i cleaned up the fan blades and exhausts holes and put the service cover back, but no luck - the results are the same; temperatures are still high at around 89-90C (~95C in HWmonitor).

On the other hand, just wondering if there is some way to "downclock" the full clocks of the card? With other drivers clock at 275/300, games are still running pretty good with decent FPS and stable temperatures - so maybe downclock it a bit to find a good balance between performance/temperature... Something like 400/600 or 300/500? (just putting random numbers but you get the point)

 

Downgrade to XP, and you get much better heat management, because with the new drivers you can't get higher than 383/301

 

Unfortunately, I'm already on XP...

 

Well I use X34, and I have no heat problems (my laptop has been on 3h and it's 56 degrees. Powermizer turned off, and it's been on a leather couch for 2 1/2 hours...)

So I can't help you.

 

At idle state, i do not have the heat issues, it is only while gaming that the gpu reaches 89-90C (and beyond). If i'm watching a movie, listening to some music, working on documents or browsing the web, there is no problem. It is only when i launch a graphic-demanding application that the heat issues come into play...

 

i get around 79-80 degrees. It's no biggy to be fair. It depends on alot of things, the humidity of the room, the temprature of the room, the airflow surrounding the laptop, are any of the fan vents blocked etc...

 

I'd say HWMonitor is more accurate.

Mixen, I'm going to need you to test something. First, see if your stealth mode button is lighted. If it isn't, I'll need you to run a game up till your GPU gets around 80-85C, turn on stealth mode, and then see if you can hear the fans dim. If they don't dim immediately after you turn on stealth mode, then I think we may have found ourselves the culprit.

Turn stealth mode off after you've done the test.

 

OKay just tested it out, temps were around 80-85C and as soon as i activate Stealth Mode, the fans get down; I can't even hear the fans noise anymore.

 

Alright well, the only thing I can prescribe to you at the moment is to update your drivers to something else. Apparently, these clock speeds causes your GPU to overheat and since it's not software related, I can only wonder if your GPU is faulty.

I'll continue to look into this in the meantime.

 

Well, i guess i'll back up to 180.70 drivers with the safe 275/300 clock speed...