My Nvidia GTX 880M Test Run Review

Yep, these darn technical difficulties just coming back to haunt some.

 

So, if i overclock a 780m, am i going to have nearly the same performance as a 880m ?

 

Technicalities aside, the three generation rebrand argument still stands. The identical core with 1536 shaders has been present in the 680mx, 780m, and 880m ie three generations.

 

That's really a catch 22 question.
You over clock 15 percent and they over clock 15 percent. You will never catch up.

 

As long as the overclock limit keeps going up and the cards keep getting more powerful, I really don't give a rat's butt whether a new GPU is a rebrand or not... who cares, LOL. Better is better no matter how you slice it. Having a fancy schmancy new GPU that doesn't take the performance crown is kind of worthless. I think the writing is on the wall that 880M is going to do that, so there's nothing really to whine and moan about. There's nothing wrong with 680M or 780M, so 880M should be another excellent product as soon as the crappy stock vBIOS gets replaced with a good modded one.

 

Actually, since both are the same card their maximum OC capability is about the same, so both have about the same performance, or the difference is insignificant.

 

I honestly thought Johnksss's conclusion summed up the state of things pretty darn well. I'm scratching my head a little wondering if people actually bothered to read it all.

 

Let me ask you this first. Why the push so hard for the 780M? Because you have one? I can make the same arguments all day but for what? The 880M is for people who "do not have" a 780M. Or for people like me who always want to try out or have the latest and greatest tech.

As to that OC capability... And this should be interesting. I would like to see you actually catch the fps I have posted with a 880M. When you do that, then we shall talk further about them being the same. Because your stock base clock is 771/1250 not 954/1250. So that already says you are slower. If you over clock to 954/1250 then I over clock to 1025/1250 you are still behind. What, people are not suppose to get what you are trying to get with your 780M? . That is too funny.

 

It's actually pretty simple math. Maybe functioning in a state of denial instead of wanting something better is simply easier to cope with.

 

Not pushing anything just saying that if you have a 680m or don't want to wait nor pay more for a 880m, the 780m is fine if you can find it for a good price. But if the 880m costs the same just go for it.
And about the overclock, I was talking about max clock. Considering they are the same card wouldn't both achive a somewhat similar clock? Or at the very least the gap would be smaller than 849MHz to 993MHz
Why are you so hurt? lol

 

John has already overclocked the 880M beyond what we have been able to overclock 780M. I think that might be the point of disconnect. If you run them at the same clocks they are not much different. It's all about capacity for higher clock speeds and more voltage with stability more than anything else. Remember, the core is just one piece of the puzzle. The VRAM chips, VRMs and other factors come into play. 7970M had a nice core, but it sucked if you tried to do anything special with it as far as overclocking is concerned.

To get the concept, think about this the same as you might with video cards in the desktop world. Take two GPUs with the same core. Two of the same family from different vendors theoretically should function the same but they often do not. One might shred the other one when you start overclocking and cranking up the voltage because it's a better product overall.

On a grander scale, they also don't all function the same installed in a different platform. One laptop might introduce proprietary limitations (i.e. crippled performance capacity) that another brand or model does not. The same applies to CPUs.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/gaming-software-graphics-cards/109900d1394861921-nvidia-gtx-780m-benchmarks-overblocks-vbios-afterburner-evga-etc-109485d1393762544-official-alienware-m18xr1-r2-18-benchmark-thread-part-3-10398.jpg
I just think 1130MHz is some nice clocks, with a GPU Score of nearly 11k and I wouldn't bet on the 880m making to 1280MHz. That is the point I was trying to make about OC capability and that max clock on both wouldn't be far off.

 

Lol...that's my benchmark fella! And I would count on 880m tearing it a little new one
Anything else I could add to that has already been said.

 

I take it you don't over clock anything much?
Hurt? Why would I be hurt about you not understanding simple physics?
It would be better to actually go back and look at the part where i have the highest gpu score on single gpu at the moment. 10710 And that was done in August of last year. This is March and it's still holding for what ever reason why. (Then Mr Fox and then Tbonsan) That is not almost 11k.
Where as the 880M is doing 11496. Which is well past 11K. The over clock for that was something like 1243/1650.

I just think anything above 1200 mhz is far better than 1130 or 1150. And since We were able to push it to at least 1243 mhz....pretty much says that's better.
I have to ask. Did you even read this review and click on the links and compare scores and fps? Cause it sure sounds like you just skipped over the whole thing and started up with your opinion pointing in the wrong direction.

 

Ah but can the 880m match the 780m and core 2 duo beast?



(A bios edit too far, whoops)

Did manage to sneak past your single 880m fire strike score at 1200/1750 though:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4930K,Notebook P570WM

 

Nice run.

Bricked the vbios huh

Yes, so I see. Guess i should have taken the time to run it in windows 8. Since we all know firestrike is a windows 8 benchmark.
Let me know what you get when running under windows 7.
Edit:
Oh wait, no you didn't. You are still a few points behind on gpu.

 

I was looking at your score on hwbot but yes you can see I was interrupted so more to come

 

How about this one at 1215/1750:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-4930K,Notebook P570WM

GPU score of 8071

 

That's a fantastic score, Meaker. I think it is outside the scope of what the average user is going to be able to extract from their 780M cards. It's truly amazing you are able to push yours that far, though. I'm highly impressed. That doesn't happen by mere mouse clicks to change software settings and that is the extent of the average user's overclocking efforts.

The 880M will overclock higher, with less effort, than the typical 780M does. But there are limits that are totally dependent on the platform the GPU is installed in... YMMV. This is why generation after generation we see the cheaper laptops (Asus, MSI, Lenovo, etc.) with video cards that don't achieve results that are similar to Alienware and Clevo running the same video cards. Cheaper laptops don't accomplish amazing things out of the box even when they have amazing video cards. It takes mods and each platform still have their unique limitations. Pay less and expect less.

Everyone also needs to realize that 780M or 880M performance is very platform dependent even among the same brand. In Meaker's Clevo P570WM with dual AC adapters, and John's or my M18xR2 machines using a dual AC adapter setup is going to let you do amazing things that are 100% impossible to do with an Alienware 18 that is only capable of using a single AC adapter. There's not enough juice in one 330W AC adapter to do amazing things with two of these GPUs. It will simply turn itself off if you try it. On that basis, 880M is going to offer more vRAM for those that want it, but its ability to overclock (within reason) higher than 780M is never going to be realized unless you have an Alienware 18 and disable one of the GPUs, or you have an Alienware 17 that is connected to a 330W AC adapter designed for the Alienware 18.

 

I was drawing 350W from the wall with the single 780M run above.

 

Ok. first the congratz part. Congratz!!!

Now the reality part.
Result
You are .2 tenths of a frame ahead on test 2.
You are even on test 1
You are running windows 8.1

Now, imagine you running an 880M in that machine? Instead of .2 tenths ahead, that will be like 3 to 10 frames ahead. Since it would be at least 3 ahead on an alienware. See where i'm going with this?
You don't get the same results when trying to do this with 3dmark11. This is why no benchmarks for it. No one breaking 21k gpu or 10.7k gpu on single.
So I ask that you put forth a bit more effort there (Other benchmarks). That's where I want to see the Clevo excel at. That is where I want to see the Clevo or any other 780M machine surpass the 880M at. Since it just got started and it's already at 11.5k. (And vantage is almost 39k gpu.) That's like 6 FPS not .02 FPS. See where I'm going with this?
We need people like you to push the envelope on all related benchmarks in different machines so we have a nice comparison area of just how much it's better or not better. A M15X was able to pull a 11.3k gpu. And we all know how long that machine has been around, right? So what do you think the 880M is going to do in a Clevo? Fold under pressure? Im thinking that is not going to be the case. and that we will see fairly decent gains in some of the areas that were held by the 780M. (Others, not so much) So lets start looking at the bigger picture instead of the personal picture. And get a nice round up of test going. To attack the 880M's attempt at being top dog. We already know you're part of the respected benchers in laptop benching. Time to put that to the test. Of course All of use running 780M's will of course be doing the same. Since this can only be done by the elite group of people who help make cards into what they are now. And we all know who are apart of that group....

 

Windows 7 is supposed to score higher on 3dmark AFAIK but not a big difference.

I'll try and get the time for some 11 runs

I have no idea how the larger chips will do with extra voltage but im not going to be buying the 880m.

 

LOL
Where are you getting this from Brother Meaker.
Windows 7 does not score higher in 3dmark fire strike.

 

But, man... 3DMark11 and Vantage sure does run better in Windows 7. It's pathetic how poorly Windows 8/8.1 handles CPU performance. It makes me both sad and angry... further evidence that it's a tablet-centric turd OS. I would go ahead and switch to Windows 8.1 and stop dual-booting Windows 7 except for that poor CPU performance problem. It basically makes me not want to use Windows 8.1 for anything except Fire Strike benchmarks. Fire Strike puts most of the weight on GPU performance and Windows 8/8.1 does OK with that.

Speaking of 3DMark11 and Vantage, sure would be nice to see Brothers Meaker and Q56_Monster running more of those two benchmarks with the P570WM beasts. Fire Strike kind of bores me since it is not nearly as CPU dependent... give those 4930K cores the workout they deserve.

 

The problem is the CPU bottlenecks the graphics tests at the standard resolutions, you need to go to the extreme versions for the tests to really mean anything.

Vantage extreme is still however the most intensive of all 3dmarks in terms of stability.

 

What does all this have to do with you running the test though?

Edit:
Well, once you fix your bricked 780M, we will be waiting on those updated test.
Because that's about all you could be doing with that core 2 due system with 2 screws holding the heat sink on.( Need to fix that typo or else people will think you were really talking about the BIOS and not the VBIOS) LOL

 

Bottleneck or not, these are still far more demanding on the CPU than that sissy GPU-only Fire Strike benchmark. I'm sure that scrumptiously delicious 4930K CPU will absolutely make mincemeat of my physics scores. So here are the regular and extreme versions to choose from.

3DMark11: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M SLI card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 - P17197 3DMarks	Vantage: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 - P48415 3DMarks
3DMark11 Extreme: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M SLI card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 - X6897 3DMarks	Vantage Extreme: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3920XM Processor Extreme Edition,Alienware M18xR2 - X32852 3DMarks

 

Oh my? look what happen there. I beat you and the 880M.

 

Lol guys, I recovered the card yesterday, I just need some time again, I am working 14 hour days atm so time is short.

 

Glad Im not the only one!. My business is 24/7.

PS: Looks like you were right so far. The 780M Hit 1266 core. While the 880M is at 1243 core.

 

johnksss I noticed that you said they are trying to stop the modded vbios on the 880m. Does this apply to 600m and 700m series as well? I have a 670mx and don't want to go to newer drivers if that is the case.thanks for the review

 

No, not stop the modded vbios, just some sort of performance hault after crashing to many times. And we are starting to see this with the 780M's as well with the newer drivers.

You are welcome.

 

Define "newer drivers"?

 

This is explained in like the 3rd paragraph in the first post.

 

Not something I have run into myself yet.

 

I'm in the process of trying to fix that issue... I have been battling it off and on since the 334.67 beta. Nothing has worked so far, but it looks like a clean OS install this evening might have resolved that driver issue. It's looking promising on 331.65 without GeForce Experience... less voltage needed for overclocking and higher scores at lower clock speeds. Will know more tomorrow when I start benching it at extreme overclock levels, as the momentary throttling usually did not begin until between 125-130% of TDP and above about 1125 on core. Same behavior under Windows 7 and 8.1, and the same thing happens on the 18 (must have SLI disabled for that overclock level with one AC adapter). Crossing my fingers and hoping it's finally whipped. Will be sticking with 331.65 if it's fixed.

 

how much power does 1 card use at 1200+/1600+

 

To much for a 240W psu to handle, but not for a 330W

 

Hei boys
Which nvidia driver is best for gtx 780m?
I has now 335.23. Is the version good for overclocking?
Are not sure if I have selected the correct driver. Have the latest Alienware m17 with i7 4930mx-gtx 780m-120hz monitor.
Do I get lower bencsmark score With 120hz enabled?

 

thats power hungry

 

It's pretty much the same thing with the 780m as well.

 

The desktop cards are rated for around 200w at lower clocks than that.

 

i guess nvidia gets +1 for bringing maxwell. save 40% power on the chip only though, not sure about memory and bunch of other stuff on the card.

 

Maxwell has nothing to do with the 880m though.

 

Yeah, I concur. This 880M is on it's own.

 

1. Flash bios to an unlocked Bios
2. a) Disable onboard HD audio /R3 Disable onboard grahpic card
b) Disable IDT GPU in advanced settings
3. Install Card
4. Install a driver with a .ini mod

Is this how you install a 880M to a R2?

 

I guess it could be done like that...
Although all I did was install the card and install a modified driver and went from there.

 

Okey, how (and why) do you need to modify the driver? The .ini mod?

And if Nvidia release a new drive, do you need to modify the new driver?

I want to get two of these babys in my R2 to replace the 680M's.

 

At the time of this review, they did not have a working driver. Maybe by the time you get yours, they will have one.

 

ahh, I see