GTX 260M Underclocking after stock overclock

Hi guys, I'm having a little trouble after overclocking my gpu (to stock settings on a G72GX) and playing Borderlands for a while.
I can play ok for like an hour or 1:30 and after that it underclocks as if I were using my laptop on battery (383 Core clock, 500 Memory clock and 550 shader clock). I've been monitoring my temps with GPUZ and it reaches 87 °C at its peak. As far as I know, this is more than acceptable for the GTX 260M.
Also, I noticed in GPUZ that the voltage changes from 0.95v to 0.85v.

Can anyone help me prevent this underclocking or explain me why does it happen?
Does this have something to do with powermizer?

Thanks in advance.

 

It might did you try disabling it?

 

does it happen only during bordlerlands or other games/synthetics as well? what driver version?

 

@IKAS V
I did, so far I haven't had any more trouble, but also I haven't been able to test it a lot since I disabled it.

@thalanix
It has also happened while playing Blur, but it is not as frequent with that game. I'm using 197.16.

Thanks for your interest!

 

update to the latest bios if you haven't already; http://dlsvr.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/G72GX-ASUS-0602.zip
install the newest drivers; NVIDIA DRIVERS 257.21 WHQL

i'm not sure if it's the g72, but i remember that one of the bigger models had a bios issue that was causing the underclocking.

 

Best Buy G71gx model had that problem until a BIOS revision. Unsure of the reseller variants.

 

@thalanix
Thanks for the links, I'm downloading the drivers right now. About the bios update, I installed it but my laptop started behaving strangely, so I went back to 502 or so.

Also, when this underclocking occurs, the game I was currently playing minimizes and then returns to full screen but running slower (due to the underclocking).

 

doubt this is the case, but when it throttles to 383/500, check if mem controller load is at 100% in GPU-z. that's what happens when GPU protection kicks in, most often from an unstable overclock but could also be a sign of a dying GPU.

 

@thalanix
As far as I have noticed, mem controller load has never reached 100%. I really hope a dying GPU isn't the case, since my lappy is pretty new and I absolutely love it. Also, I haven't put it through a lot of stress to suspect that it could die on me (I think :S).

Should I re-disable powermizer after installing the new drivers or does it stay disabled?

 

I was actually about to start a topic just like this. My problem is a little different though, my card doesn't downclock.
So here's the scoop, maybe people can help us both out.
I've been using the 186.81 drivers this whole time until I decided to update my drivers recently. My card after so long of gaming, usually only when I tried to put it back at the clocks it should be, powermizer would kick in, the screen would start getting choppy and I could clearly see that my card had been downclocked, even though my card never exceeded 74C. So I updated to those 257.21 drivers but they kept "failing" so I tried some other ones and always had problems so now I'm back on the 186.81 again. This time around though, I'm leaving it at the clocks asus put on it (slightly downclocked) and now it does the exact same thing but now my GPU isn't downclocking, it's just randomly getting choppy... And when I installed the 257.21 drivers, it said that nvidia should automatically detect if I have a laptop card and give me the option to disable powermizer, well, apparently it couldn't detect my GTX 260M is a laptop card.

 

Change drivers, most drivers fix things and brake others.
Downclocking in 3d game in to 2d clock settings nothing new, just as staying in 3d clock speed and never downclock to 2d speeds.
Find the driver that works for you .. LaptopVideo2Go Forums

 

Well I just updated my bios to 602 and played Left4Dead2 for about 5 hours straight with no problem and never exceeding 74C, so maybe my bios was giving me problems. It happens frequently on fallout 3 so I'll test that tomorrow.

Edit** Just threw in another 6 hours on L4D2 (I'm injured and have to sit all day), and not a problem. So now to test for Fallout 3. In fact, I'm even going to overclock the card to nvidia clocks because I'm feeling confident it was a BIOS problem.

 

I also re update the BIOS to 602 and installed the latest drivers (257.21), previously using driver sweeper. So far it has run pretty well, but tonight I'll stress it a bit and tell you guys about it.

Cheers!

 

I've played Blur for about 1 hour with stock OC, max GPU temp 80°C and keeping the clocks stable. I'm really hoping it stays this way. Thanks for all your help guys!

Edit: Tested it with Borderlands and as soon as I reached 87°C it downclocked again. The memory controller was about 40.
I disabled powermizer and played Borderlands but couldn't achieve 87°C with my GPU, so I ran Furmark and reached 95°C and then stopped it, I was trying to see if it was downclocking because of the temperature, but it seems that's not the reason. Maybe Borderlands doesn't like OC'd GPUs like Batman AA. I guess I'll try it again with powermizer off and try to get over 87°C during gameplay. I hope that disabling powermizer solves the problem. If anybody else has had this issue, please tell me how you solved it.

Cheers!

 

How are you disabling powermizer... 257 drivers couldn't pick up that I had a mobile GPU. And my temps never get over 74C but I still had downclocking problems. With the new bios though, it hasn't downclocked yet, but when i overclocked it to nvidia clocks on Fallout 3, the display drivers failed almost instantly.

 

I used Powermizer Switch that I downloaded here in the forums.

Since I can't find the thread right now, I just uploaded it so you can download it. Hope I'm not breaking any rules.
Powermizer Switch.rar

Good luck!