My Nvidia GTX 880M Test Run Review

Hot fixdrivers usually target that one specific issue.

 

True, but depending on what they do to address that one specific issue might change something else for better or worse. My systems (both of them) seem to work a little better with the hotfix driver. What the hotfix is provided to address does not apply to me either, but gameplay feels smoother and they seem to bench a little better.

 

I have been messing around with Kepler Bios Tweaker over the past week or so. A bit of caution made me decide to take very small steps. I did see an improvement in reducing throttling and an increase in game and benchmark performance. However, I am not exactly sure what power levels I was tweaking. Basically, I was playing with fire. I decided it would be better to flash back to the stock BIOS (which I had saved before I started) and leave it be for now.

It's not like I can actually see any lags in the games I play. It just frustrated me that the performance is limited. I would probably be more frustrated if I burned up my GPU. I am done for now.

The best I got out of it was P8940 in 3DMark 11.
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8278283

 

Hey everyone, I'm new here. I've been reading this forum though for almost a year now though. I just didn't make an account till now because I'm having some issues and I am needing advice and help. I have to give big creds to Mr. Fox and Johnksss for all their hard work and things they have helped me with just by reading. Very Knowledgeable guys!

Anyways, here's my issue- I just bought a new Sager/Clevo laptop with the 880M. My cpu is the i7-4810mq. Anyways, I'm very impressed by this gpu, considering I was always gaming on my Wii, lol. Huge leap. Wii U doesn't count. I got a ps4 and wasn't impressed for games like bf4 so I decided to get a laptop. I custom built it with the intention of overclocking. I chose Sager because of it having two cooling fans vs one big one. I ordered from xoticpc and paid extra for the copper cooling upgrade, along with IC Diamond thermal paste. I got a cooling pad but ended up making my own ghetto homemade cooling pad that lowers temps under full load by about 6c degrees.

Under full load playing maxed out games and so on, The peak temp only gets up to 68-69c degrees. even with a mild overclock to 1050mhz. I obviously have a ton of thermal headroom. My problem is, if i raise the speed anymore, the drivers crash and games stop. I assume that i need to increase voltage from what I understand about overclocking. The only problem is, The voltage controls are locked and I can't change anything. I spent extra for overclocking cooling and I can't even overclock!

What should i do? so far the 880m is amazing and I want to unlock it's true potential. Can anyone help or explain what to do? Flashing vbios? mods or hacks? what?

thanks, and If a celebrity and mini hero like Mr. Fox or Johnksss would reply, I'd be honored!

 

As far as I aware, neither John or Slv have released an unlocked vbios for the 880m as of yet. It's a shame since this GPU has potential, but I can understand why both members haven't release anything yet. From what I can tell, there's been a lot of "It was my work", or "You stole my code" going around the forum as of late. This could be one of many reasons as to why we haven't seen an unlocked vbios for the 880m.

Either way, my money goes to John and Slv, no other teams. Those 2 guys are the only ones I trust when it comes down to flashing an unlocked vbios. It's evident that most if not all members on here feel the exact sale as I do.

 

Well it's a good test to see if someone is just copying work.

 

Damn right. Like I said in my last post though. My money will only ever go to John or Slv. I appreciate what other teams do, but those 2 guys have provided more help than I've ever seen from any other team. This isn't me kissing either. I'll patiently wait just like everyone else here.

 

so in other words, im screwed for the time being?

 

Yup, and you can thank the worthless lying imbecile(s) that were taking credit for svl7 and johnksss talent for the delay. If they actually knew what they were doing instead of stealing the talent there would already be an 880M unlocked vBIOS. They will probably suddenly pretend get smart, discover the secret and try to take credit for it after svl7 and johnksss release it, but the chronological coincidence will make it obvious what a worthless liar they really are.

Whether it is good or not, your machine functions the way NVIDIA intends for it to with 880M. So, you're not alone in the situation and it's certainly not the end of the world to have to wait, LOL. Good things come to those that wait.

 

And... it's still pretty darn stout. I can run whatever I want even with it gimped from the factory.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

Or for someone using the kepler tool, thinking it's the mod all for mobiles. Which means the tool was not quite as effective on the 780M either without our vbios for a starting point.

Thanks

Pretty much so. Since that's how you bought it. And that is SUPPOSE to be ok with us. (Yeah right!) Performance tweaks are one thing but being limited by 10 to 50 percent from the get go. Not cool

They are not so mouthy this go round, which is pretty funny if you ask me!

Kind of makes you wonder just what machine did they test this thing on. And just who thought that was a good idea to begin with. (The part where they thought we would not notice part) So that they can come with maxwell at better than 50 percent on performance. LOL

Problem is... You know it's suppose to do better. Back when you didn't know, it's fine. Then they get around to perfecting the driver and think it's the cure all for all. When that is not even where the problem starts at.

 

Yeah, it's pretty hard to have legitimate bragging rights about a new flagship GPU that's only 3 to 5% better. Making a current GPU severely under-perform to make a future GPU look like a huge performance leap is not only stupid, but dishonest. I say, give us your best today and give us your new best later on, when you actually have something better to give us that's new. In the meanwhile, knock it off with the smoke and mirrors nonsense. AMD being really crappy and not giving NVIDIA any reason to push harder or reach higher also is not helping the situation. They don't have a compelling reason to do better, because they're already better than the alternative.

 

That or....This "trying" to stay below the power envelope really IS that hard. And they figure we will make it work later thus letting them off the hook.
1: They aren't held responsible for breaking internal laws or agreements with their partners.
2: Then gimp it just enough in hopes that we will fix it and make it shine the way they know it's capable of.
3: Internal gloating around the water cooler as to why they are on top with staying true to their partners and within the power constraints bestowed upon them.

Speculation of course.... Since the gpu and board seem to be perfectly fine.

 

That may have something to do with it, but if so it's across all brands. Unless I am mistaken, nothing with a stock 680M, 780M or 880M vBIOS functions as it should regardless of laptop brand. Otherwise, all we would need to do is, for example, use a Clevo vBIOS for a Dell GPU or vice versa (at least for 780M, but we could not do that with 2GB Dell and 4GB Clevo 680M cards). I think the OEMs use whatever vBIOS NVIDIA provides and the end result is what it is, whether good or bad. Where I think they have to not violate partner agreements is by not doing their own version of the vBIOS. In other words, they probably have agreed to use the gimped vBIOS NVIDIA provides even though it is screwed up, and not mod it like enthusiasts do to make it perform well. If the OEMs were to tweak the vBIOS it would be obvious right away that one brand did something different and out of scope with what NVIDIA wants them to do because their GPU is way more powerful than anyone else's, and then, as Ricky Ricardo used to say, "L-u-u-u-c-c-c-y, you have some 'splaining' to do."

 

This would be the "standard agreement" across all brands since the gpu is nvidia. And the current standard was 100W but looks like it has been raised to maybe 120W. (speculation)
A generic vbios is created and adhered too. No deviation other than to make it work on said groups of machines. With Asus & MSI having more control at times. This is not just a laptop thing it's a desktop problem as well, but on a much higher scaled level. (Less throttling but more power gimping)

Something is surely going on.... That's for sure.

 

i ordered my laptop from xoticpc. they had a service that said '' redline boost gpu overclock'' if you get it, they will overclock the 880m for 90 bucks or so. how is that possible if its locked? is that false advertising or do they have a secret way? would i have wasted money if i had purchased that service?

 

No, that is not false advertising at all. They are merely providing a service for a task that some people find very intimidating and maybe even too scared to try to learn. Overclocking is possible on all of them without help from xoticpc or any other vendor, but overclocking on all of them (regardless of brand or where you decide to buy the laptop) is limited to a core offset of +135. The "unlocked" verbiage we refer to is what delivers world-class performance... it involves enabling power/temp targets, raising offset limits, enabling voltage adjustments and disabling GPU boost so the core actually runs at the speed you tell it to run. It takes ingenuity, knowledge of the GPU firmware architecture and hex editing skills to do it, along with patience and persistence with trial and error to find out what works well and what does not. This is where the selfless contributions of svl7 and johnksss are priceless.

You can do what you would pay them $90 to do in a matter of a few minutes for free. All you have to do is download software and set the clock speeds. The +135 offset on core should be close to the stability limit with stock voltage, but it will still throttle and have erratic behavior because that feature comes standard with the stock vBIOS. Overclocking does nothing to correct that. This is not new... 680M, 780M and 880M all share those attributes. It sucks that they are released that way, but the performance they can deliver with a modded vBIOS is insane and nothing short of amazing.

 

When I raise it to even +50mhz, it's not stable enough and game drivers crash. There's no way I could get 135 extra and have it stable. Even +80 makes a game crash before even starting

 

I'm not sure what the deal is, whether something unique to your system or all 880M. I don't have an 880M available to check that.

 

Are we still talking about the 880m haha. The vbios will come when it comes. I'm sure John and Slv have there reasons for the delay. Anyway, let's move on to more pressing matters such as the damn overheating inside these new models.

 

Maybe someone with 880M in the Alienware 17 or 880M SLI in the Alienware 18 would be interested in tinkering with this to see what happens...

Edit: I just did this with 780M using a modest OC on 3D performance and stock 3D performance clocks applied to the 2D state and did not have any issues, but that's not with a stock vBIOS. Doesn't mean it will work for 880M, but there's always hope.

 

I'll give this try and post back my results later this evening. I'll try anything to stop throttling.

Edit - it's not happening. NI is not allowing me to apply the settings. They just revert back to stock upon applying.

 

Hey guys ... Have been postponing my order for 3 weeks in a row now
Cuz of the 880m bad reviews and throttling issue and ofc I wanna thank everyone who shared his thoughts of it as it help us make up our minds as costumers.
Maybe soon a vbios will be released by mr.john and his friend , not sure yet but I have never done a bios in my
Life and it looks hard to do .... Am kinda worried if I went with the 880m sli on sager np9377 if I'll know how to do the flashing.
Is the 870m sli close in performance to the 880m sli at its current state ?
If I went with 880m will u mr.john kindly help me with a tutorial when and if u guys did release an unlocked bios?
I might be asking a lot but am really at a dead end :s .... If I didn't order it by this week then am stuck as I can't afford paying tons for shipping and costums..
I work far away .... All the way In Africa .

 

No, it's not. All NVIDIA GPUs need a vBIOS mod to wrong properly. Just order the best and wait for the vBIOS is the best advice I can offer. Or, buy a used system with 780M and you won't have to wait for it. The tutorial for flashing is already available. When you get to that point we can give you a link to it.

 

Well the GK104 particularly.

 

Can i ask what your using to monitor your temps? my 860m wont show up under GPU-Z 0.7.8

nice widget, can i ask which it is and the skin your using?

 

I use HWiNFO64 and RivaTuner Statistic Server 6.0.0.6228 to push data from HWiNFO64 to on-screen display when gaming or benching.

That is an AIDA64 Sensor Panel. Using AIDA64, you basically build you own with the data and aesthetics that you want.

 

i have been following this thread very closely guys. one question though whats the highest max core stable oc for gtx 880m/gtx 880m sli when gaming? i mean is it gameable at 1243 mhz ? for gtx 780m sli i think 1000 ghz gives stable gaming right?

with dual psu mod on the 880m sli can we do gaming at 1243 mhz on the core? or even 1200 on the core?

 

Exact stable frequency depends on the card, thermal paste/pad job and your heatsink being on the good side or bad side of tolerance.

 

so generally whats the best case scenario for the clocks in gaming for sli provided everything is perfect

 

higher CPU OC then anything else. Then work on your gpu's.
As for the pgu's, find your max out voltage first, find what voltage it can take and keep safetly, then do a medium OC based on that max voltage overclock. then your good to go. this should allow you to get 10-15% frm your memory/clock on the gpu's and actually have about 25% more performance |(assumin your more overvolted then anything). Keep in mind, your base temps, when not running anything should be no higher then 60 degree's with the overvolt. No higher then 90 degree's within 5 minutes. 91 after 20-30 minuts, and no higher then 93 if running a stress test for an hour, and ambient temperatures are the worst you would game in, depending on your situation.

ALSO - make sure your making FULL contact on your gpu's components for cooling, when overvolting. This will determine if it goes kapoot or works great for many months

 

With the Alienware 18, I don't think you will need to burn too many calories on this because you'll never realize the full potential of 780M SLI or 880M SLI. The system will turn off before you even get remotely close to the overclock/overvolt limits of the SLI setup. In fact, most of the time it seems to turn itself off before it even exhausts the power limits available with just one AC adapter. I've been testing that a little more recently and I believe that is why the 18 cannot use the dual AC adapter mod. It doesn't consistently use up the power from the one it already has before shutting itself off. Something needs to be replaced or modded on the motherboard to fix this problem. It's equipped to effectively handle the power demands of only one 780M or 880M.

 

Well it will be overall power that you will care about when tweaking so you go into undervolting/OCing territory to strike a balance.

 

Better to just avoid the Alienware 18 and buy something more robust, like an M18xR1/R2 or P570WM if overclocked benching is your bag. Otherwise, the 18 will just be a disappointment due to its low functionality limits. It's more or less a gamer machine rather than a performance enthusiast product.

 

Has there been any recent news or developments from either johnksss or svl7 regarding the vbios for the 880m?

 

Keep your eye on tech inferno for updates.

 

Have done, but nothing ever seems to happen over there, well at least it hasn't to me over the past month.

 

You'd get the P570WM over the P377SM-A? I am considering returning my P377SM-A for a P570WM just for the flex in the display on the P377SM-A which is apparently absent on the P570WM but the size is daunting to say the least...

 

The daunting size and extreme performance potential are actually what make it desirable to me.

I wonder if either of these tweaks would work for 880M while everyone is waiting for the vBIOS mod? Basically, you'll use NVIDIA Inspector to disable Boost and force a static clock speed. You'll have to follow it conceptually and adapt for the 880M. Might not work, but it would be worth trying to find out.

[GUIDE] Nvidia Inspector GTX670/680 - disable boost / fixed clock speed

Also, open your Global Profile and change the power throttle to defeat PCIe compliance by choosing the option to turn it OFF. You can also try OCCT or MSI Kombustor to see if that modifies the GPU dynamic behavior for the better.



View attachment Global_Mod.zip


Edit: Here's something else that may or may not work. Also try this modded INF for 880M. Reinstall the driver after replacing the INF and choose the clean install. Do this before the Inspector profile tweak. This basically lies to the driver setup and tells it to install the GPU and registry values the same as GTX 680M.

View attachment 112550

 

Nice find brother Fox. I will take a look at this in a moment and then report back.

Update: Ok, so I tried all the methods suggested above and none of those methods stabilized my core clock. I replaced the INF brother Fox, but the driver just would not install. It actually allowed me to get to the point where it starts to install the driver. It gets about quarter of the way and then says can't complete. That even happened after completely removing the previous driver in safe mode.

 

I see you are running Windows 8. Did you reboot Windows 8 with Driver Signature Enforcement disabled before attempting to install the driver? If not, that will fail 100% of the time because it is an "unsigned" driver mod. It is absolutely required on all systems running Windows 8. Everyone running a different GPU than what came as a factory option requires an INF mod and with Windows 8 you have to reboot with DSE disabled before starting the driver installation. Those running Windows 7 are merely prompted to confirm their intent to install the "unsigned" driver anyway, but Windows 8 is crap and doesn't give you that option... it simply fails unless you temporarily disable DSE.

 

Ok, I managed to get the driver installed thanks to Mr. Fox's tip. Anyway, back to the point. My core clock was fluctuating during game play which is understandable. However, my clock being constantly at 250mhz during benchmark tests is not acceptable. This driver installed with the edited INF that Mr. Fox provided, but hasn't solved any of the problems I'm encountering with the 880m.

I think the only way I'm going to be able to stabilise the core clock is by flashing an unlocked VBIOS which Svl7 and Johnksss should hopefully provide real soon. Johnksss, are you nearing to a release date for the 880m VBIOS? I will donate to both you and Svl7 the moment your VBIOS for the 880m is released to the public.

 

Oh well, thanks for trying anyway. It was worth a shot with nothing to lose. It's really a terrible shame that your 880M is so extremely dysfunctional with a stock vBIOS. That's inexcusable. It seems crystal clear to me that Alienware did not have anyone properly test 880M. It never should have been released to the public all messed up this way... worthless. It's NVIDIA's fault, but all of the OEMs selling it are allowing the half-baked vBIOS production to continue. They need to stop aiding and abetting NVIDIA's defrauding of the public. They should have told them, " Know what NVIDIA, this 880M is a piece of _____. We can't sell this garbage. Go fix it and then come back and see us when it works right." But, I bet they never checked and don't have a clue that it's junk.

 

I suppose it's the price we pay for going with a Kepler GPU. Either way, all should be ok soon if this vbios gets released. Thanks for your time and patience while I was testing your suggestions out brother Fox.

 

Hmm my regret is imminent for buying into the 880M hype . How is the 880M performing on MSI and Clevo systems do you guys know?

 

Gaming performance is good with my NP8278. It throttles, especialy during benchmarks. Things should be better with a modded vbios.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

Dont worry, it will be corrected soon.

 

You are a life saver John.

 

so, if we buy a set of 880m's and throw them into an 18x-r2 unit we're screwed still ?

 

Everyone that has 880M, on any platform, will have a poorly performing turd until svl7 and johnksss release the vBIOS mod.