720qm alternative to SetFSB?

I know i can use SetFSB to OC the cpu, but is there another free alternative program that can do this?

 

Not that I know of SETFSB is the easiest and best and only costs an $8 donation, and when you do overclock remember to disable the windows 7 timing issue using this fix to be able to make use of the performance gain.

 

That thread you linked mentioned something called ThrottleStop...hmmm...

 

Yup amazing program but does not work with the 720qm or similiar because the turbo is locked and the multiplier is locked so you cannot clock it above x12 you can only allow the turbo mode to do its business after that so it does not help with overclocking. For extreme models its not locked so they can run all 4 cores at maximum speed.

 

I don't think there are any free OC programs outside setFSB. Then again, the laptop was somewhere between $800 and $1800 ... so +$8, is less than 1%.

 

Questions:

Note I have the G73JH-RBBX0 with the original TIM and will for another year as I have an extended warranty with Best Buy.

-What OC [avg/max] might I get on the 720QM? Both stock TIM and with a repaste.
-Are there big gaming benefits?
-Does OCing the CPU affect the OC on the GPU do to heat or available power?
-What's the hit to temps?
-Any comments you wish to add?

 

See my sig that is what im getting using SETFSB.

Not big gaming benefits only in games that utilise the CPU more ie StarCraft 2

I notice between 5-7oC increase in temps when flat out with 1.93Ghz over all 4 cores under full load

I hit 68oC max but I have repasted with IC7 before it was 81oC max

Use SETFSB and the windows timing fix and play with it testing is required to find your maximum o/c but if you know what your doing and want to squeeze some extra juice from the CPU its the way to go without buying an XM.

You do this at your own risk of course. Any questions feel free to PM me.

 

For just a ~.2GHz boost on both ends, it just doesn't seem like something I want to mess with when I include the TIM job.

... Now if I could do ~2.4GHz flat w/o turbo 24/7, then I'd be all over it. Alas, maybe when IB's 22nm arrives... there might be no need.

 

You cant do that much its just not possible with the voltage and the chip couldn't handle it. 1.6-1.93ghz and 2.8-3.23ghz increase is pretty massive when you consider it is over 4 cores because stock its only 1.6ghz when all 4 cores are engaged.

Your other option is to spend $400-$500 ES/QS and get the XM model which can easily run all 4 cores upto 3.6ghz but if its just for gaming there is no point because the stock 720qm is enough without even overclocking it.

 

I guess SetFSB is the only way then...I never looked into OC'ing until today. I thought it was just simple edit in the BIOS...lulz

Too bad coz now it's pretty much $10 (800 yen). And i just wanted to OC my CPU to try something out...So if I do buy it but it doesn't help what i need it for, I just threw away $10. Pretty much a gamble for me...I wish he had a trial version or something...

Anyway, wouldn't it be cool if we could edit how Twin Turbo worked? That would be sweet. Higher/Adjusted OCs in the press of a button!

 

If it prevents the need to buy a new CPU then its worth it to be honest and the freeware does not have the settings for the JH model you need to pay the donation.

As long as you apply the windows 7 timing fix and get the settings its very simple to overclock the CPU you just raise the PLL and test to see how high it can go by increasing in small increments and running Prime to stress. You should see 200+ mhz each core but it differs for each person.

Edit the BIOS at your own risk

 

lol i wouldn't even know where to start..

 

Me either

 

... I guarantee you waste $10 every week on pointless things. Smokes, chocolate bars, soft drinks, coffee, parking, heating costs, over-usage on internet ...

Seriously. For the price of a few days of coffee, you could donate to get setFSB. And if you don't know if you need an overclock, then you don't need an overclock. It's like getting a turbocharger in a car. If you don't know what it is, or does, then you don't need it.

 

seriously? um...i DID know that I need an OC. I just wanted to know 1.what my stable OC limit was and 2.if it will be sufficient for what I need it for.

...anyway....

Read up some old OC threads here and it seems like the majority of the g73jh owners here were able to OC the 720qm ONLY up to about 1.78GHz. Yet, there are some like the person who took this screen:

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/3852/73408844.jpg

who got to over 1.8GHz on the same rig, only difference is that he had 8gb RAM as opposed to 6gb...which brings me to my question. Does available RAM affect OC potential?

 

The RAM could be different, it's definitely a factor when overclocking. I'm not sure the amount of ram matters.

 

Just saw NGX's OC results on 6gb ram...

CPU-Z Validator 3.1

if his rig didn't shutdown or freeze up after validation then...
Mind = blown

 

In regards to your screenshot the 720qm cannot reach the 24th multiplier he must have somehow unlocked the turbo to reach that or its a fake because I have 8gb 1333mhz ram also and if you look at his screenshot the RAM speed and FSB have not changed to show the speed difference.

In mine HWINFO32 cannot register the fact that when running all 4 cores on the 720qm you dont actually see the results shown in the screenshot because the 720qm cannot reach 3ghz over all 4 cores as shown because turbo boost does not work like the XM model as the multipliers are locked:

Core 1: 21 Core 2: 18 Core 3: 12 Core 4: 12

So if all 4 cores and threads are active you only see 1.6ghz as stock or with my max overclock I see 1.93ghz over all four cores. You can see this by running Prime 95 and having HWINFO32 open.

One of the main benefits for me is once applying the windows 7 timing fix my ram runs a lot faster and my benchmarks push much higher, gaming is noticably faster in CPU intensive games and my Windows experience raises the CPU to 7.2 and Ram to 7.6.

I can go to 179 PLL to get my max but it gets a bit grumpy and anything above the voltage cannot handle the clocks and I get a BSOD. Stock PLL is 139. Big gain.

 

True dat.

I see you have 8gb RAM...and I see you got your sliders at 174 when many cant even get past 165 unless they like insta-BSOD's or shutdowns. Did you just start off low and every now and then kept increasing it or were you able to get to your max 179 the during first testing?

Im just baffled at how I have the same rig as many here, yet were all getting different OC stats...

 

Every chip is different its the same with GPU's and my max GPU clocks are 840/1130 which is also high but I dont need it to be that high because stability is very important.

Creep the PLL up 1-2 increments and stress test each one, you will notice as you reach your max the system will run sluggish and the first thing to go for me is the gadgets they will stop responding and windows will shut them. Once you go above what the voltage can handle you will BSOD and restart, SETfsb will reset and you can then find the nearest stable clock and stress it.

I usually use 174 because its a good round FSB number 156.00 I found that 176 is my highest stable. 179 works but you cannot stress it or I will lockup.

 

That's normal, all the i7 CPUs are manufactured by the same process. Intel tests the manufactured chips in regards to clock speeds, voltages, TDP, etc. and labels them accordingly. This is called binning, you can google that for more info. Basically this means that some 720qm will have barely passed the tests while others were close to passing the tests to be labeled as 820qm so the overclocks you can achieve will be different of course.

The only way to know how much you can OC is to test it.

I haven't tried to OC my CPU, but i can't OC my GPU memory as far as Dallers can. 1090 is the absolute max to which i can push it without getting artifacts in furmark. You won't know until you try.

 

You can overclock with setfsb for free on the G73. Look in this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu.../557601-overclock-your-g73jw-setfsb-free.html

That is how I overclock my CPU and I never spent any money.

 

Will this work on the earlier JH though because most of us have the 720Qm, I notice you have the 740Qm which is what the JW came with and that post if for the JW. So I would assume the setting would still be ok for you to use but maybe not for the rest of us. Has anyone tested this?

 

Yeah sorry I forgot about that. Not sure if it works with the 720qm.

 

Would be nice for the OP though who really doesn't want to pay the donation lets hope someone has tried it although I think the settings would cause some issues.

 

Ive never noticed a problem, but Ill check anyways. Thanks for this Dallers

And I can only get about 163 on the PLL but since I have an 840 I get about 3.6ghz lol Think it might be my RAM or something, as to why I cant go higher on the PLL

OP, I know others preach this, and I might have missed your response to it specifically, but setFSB is worth the relatively small donation

 

Your welcome fella. Its not really known because its on the gaming thread but the timing is screwed up and that timer shows you how badly I noticed a massive gain in my memory timings by running that fix and trying to spread the word round because that unclewebb knows his stuff.

 

Ya but even in games I havent noticed a difference? Maybe because I play mostly RTS, idk lol

But correct me if I am wrong; This fixes the memory timings, possibly allowing you to OC more (or just increase stability?) and therefore performance?

EDIT: To be clear, I do know its original purpose is to just fix the bugs caused in game, where the game runs differently than it should. Im just curious if there are other, positive or negative, repercussions

 

And what do you need the OC for? Because your ignorance about the factors related to overclocking suggests (to me) that you've never OC'd before, and don't fully understand what it does. Again, suggesting that you don't really need it, because you can't know that you need something ... when you don't really understand what it is.

 

Memory configuration definitely makes a difference when OC'ing with SETFSB.
I originally had "only" 6GB (3x2GB 1333mhz) in my G73 and could reach 150.7 mhz BCLK, 166 PLL. Now I have 12GB (2x2GB plus 2x4GB) and can only reach 146 mhz, 159 PLL.

 

From what I have read the memory timings go out of sync causing lagging and such however all I noticed was that I did not gain FPS in games I lost them when I overclocked I couldn't understand it because benchmarking and such was fine and provided results but in games or when using software it would decrease performance.

Once I ran that timer with my o/c I was at 1.432 when it should be as the fix says running at 1.000. Since removing that built in timer it runs perfectly and I get proper memory readings in HWINFO32 and CPU-z and although minor a visible performance increase in games. I have not seen one negative aspect since removing it.

Its very nice to see simple fixes like this I can build a computer from scratch but when it comes to software im like a fish out of water

 

I just wanted to add that the SetFSB / Windows timing bug is not a problem for all games or benchmark programs. Many games and programs know about this bug and correct for this automatically so even if you screw up the high performance Windows timer with SetFSB, if the software you run corrects for this problem, you won't notice any difference whether you fix this bug or not.

It's still better to correct the problem with the recommended fix because there is too much software out there that ignores this issue.

 

First off, *facepalm, i never claimed to be an expert on the topic, if you would actually bother to read posts you would have read in my third post that i am a noob at OCing. First sentence too...jeez. Second, according to you, when the hell did I ever suggest that I dont really need SetFSB? Obviously i needed it to OC, hence the topic. Third, I never thought I'd feel compelled to spout my business but Okay, i'll bite.

I needed to OC for emulating. Guess what it did help. And yes, I knew it was going to help, but again, (and please read this part slowly this time as it may help you understand it for once, ) I didn't know how much it was going to actually help since I did not know what my MAX OC potential was. Again, Id be the first to tell you that i was completely noob when it came to OC'ing , but I knew enough to know that it would help me for what I need it for, just not sure to how much degree since I did not know my stable OC limits. My limit might be sufficient for an awesome performance boost, yet it may not be enough for any significant gains, rendering it useless it my case. And guess, what, now that I know my stable OC limit (which was only about 1.750mhz) , it was in fact not enough for the performance boost I needed. It increased it some definitely, just not enough. In other words, paying $10 for SetFSB would have been a complete waste of money for me.

Now do you understand or do you want me to hold your hand this time around as I explain it again in even simpler terms?

 

I seem to be having OC difficulties. I used to be able to go up to 165 on the PLL but now that setting as well as 163 and 161 insta-bsod idk why but I was able to test with 159

Without OC after 200 seconds, it was at .9999

With OC after 200 seconds, it was at 1.0003

Something wrong?

 

@unclewebb

Thanks alot for throttlestop & the windows timing fix!!

 

I was using the freeware SetFSB for a while. I could only set the hex value to 39 which gave me a 152.3mhz fsb was the highest I could push stable (3A etc.. were unstable in the mid 150s fsb).

I have donated and use the official setfsb now and able to push to 187 (164.7mhz fsb) but not always stable. I prefer 180 which is a nice equal 160mhz


EDIT: I gotta try the timing fix!! Throttlestop is awesome, using it on a 2500k

 

So you were able to surpass your previous OC limit after a donation?

 

Do a google search for ASUS G73JH Final locating the .pll file to import into the freeware setfsb. OR create a G73JH specific .lut for for use with setPLL (see sig).

 

Nice, wish I found that a while ago but no regrets having already donated a few weeks ago to Abo.

So the way it affects only the PLL will allow me to keep my eee 1015pem overclocked and be able to use sleep/resume without it hanging due to other controller clocks getting messed up.. Wonderful

 

Hey crappyalloy those timings are fine if you remove the timing fix and test your overclock you will see vastly different results mine is not always dead on when im overclocking but its a big difference from the 1.423 that I saw before I used the timing fix. Also it is a little strange that you could overclock higher before and now not as high, wondering if it could be the temp sensors doing their job is your paste pretty new or could be on its way out? even so you are using the 840QM so your clocks are much higher per voltage than our 720's.

Very very nice overclock you have there the highest I have seen on the 720qm if possible could you post up some screenies of you testing/stressing it would be interested to see what speeds you reach. Clearly they pulled a nice OEM out of the pile when making your laptop

In regards to the donation the person who invented the program has spent a lot of time and hardwork making sure it is upto date, personally I find $8 a bit of an insult compared to what he could have charged for it. So I gave him $10.

 

Sure, I'll bump it up this weekend and take some SS's for ya. I can prime95 at 160 and haven't error'ed out - longest I've benched was 2hours at 160fsb. Near 165 I get a error after about 5minutes though.

Dallers, in a diff thread you replaced your thermal pads. Which pads were those (1mm or 0.5mm)? I am going to order some copper heatsinks and would like to replace my pads in anticipation of a future 920xm

 

The pads Dallers and I used were 0.5mm,but even with 1mm pads if they are better quality then it's still good.

 

Not major gains with new pads but gains non the less. The important part of changing the pads for thinner ones I found was that my heatsink sits flusher over the GPU.

 

Cool you both used 0.5mm - great to know!

Sorry I want to make clear I understood you right. Thinner pads like .5mm gave a greater seat/flush fit to the GPU core right? Keeper ram on thermal pads but good contact with GPU was what you meant?

Sorry I am trying to make sure I understood. TY

 

Might be only me but my pads where pretty thick far too thick in fact and I noticed the bottom side with the hook shaped part of the heatsink was slightly raised once all 4 bolts where put in fully. I believe they use 1.0mm pads as stock but considering how thick they where im pretty sure they where 2.0mm.

If you are going for a dissassemble and your removing the heatsink you might as well do them as they are only cheap and although pads are perfectly reusable the unwritten rule says to change them because of dust/grease etc when you are repasting.