GTX 460M Overclocking

For much i understand based on your tests Thief, we're talking about 2-3 fps of difference 814/810 vs 850.

At this point ill drop my rage and luck and i will stick with stable 800/1600/1600 (half hour of furmark in xtreme burning test, 92c top).

This makes me able to gain alot in some games remaining stable with good temps. Ill call it a day and be happy.

 

Ok this is nonsense.
After upgrading my drivers to 280.36 Developer Drivers OGL4.2 (released 2 days ago) i tried to re-bench using my Benchmark OC only to find that it would crash almost into 2 minutes of benchmarking.

I remembered i was using a G73JW bios, not mine, which turns to be newer.
Ipnowlan was so gentle to post his bios and i recall using it until now.

I fired up nvflash by dos again and reflashed my bios. Guess what.
Now im able to benchmark with my bench-oc as before (814/1628/1625).
I did a full 3dmark06 run, a full 3dmark11 run and three full dirt 3 benchmark run without experiencing any driver crash.

Also since i was at it i tried to furmark the crap out of my gpu at those clocks, i had it running in burn-in for 5 minutes (i know, its not that long) and i didnt experienced any crashes so far. Temp still the same, 92c after 5 mins of furmark.

As a little bonus, before installing the new drivers, i tried to softmod the GPU id shown in some instances. Heres the result:



And this is what inspector reports, just because i uploaded it anyway.



Now the only test i can do is to lower my vram clock to 1500 and raise core clock to 820 to see what happens, but since my gpu is almost one of those binned i highly doubt that i can conclude a 3dmark run, or even a stable test.

Gotta try it now.
EDIT: well no go, 820/1500 crashes, like before. Well at least i got my stable benchmark oc back which is a good thing.

 

I go for the lowest OC with the highest FPS and coolest GPU temp and stability. The bandwidth is nice also to see if it's at high 70's to 80s'.

At 850 core clock and after 4 hrs. of straight gaming, I wonder what kind of temps one would have, specially with TW2 or any newer DX11 games..

In the test I did, 823 / 1620 is the best. Only 850 / 1625 (or 839 / 1697) can beat it FPS-wise, ...beats it by 1 FPS

...How about 925 / 1625 how much FPS? (the new card) ..

 

hey thief can I ask what clocks do you normally set?

 

I still set it to 828 / 1657 shader / 1728 memory 'cause like with The Witcher 2, I could still gain 1 FPS when adjusting shadows to low and setting LOD distance to minimum. I don't really see any difference with these if setting it to high, and you just lose 1 fps total.

In those screenshots where 850 / 1625 got 39 FPS and 823/825- 1620 got 38 FPS, ..if I do it like this..




At 828 / 1728, here're the FPS,

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/1880/witcher2201108271546089.jpg
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2537/witcher2201108271538528.jpg

..At 828 / 1701 it was still 38 FPS. I guess I should say highest OC but with the most stablility and coolest GPU temp. I've still haven't seen it go 79*C at this OC even after hrs. of testing doing boss fights.

But yes, with previous setting (high shadows / Far or normal LOD distance), 823 / 1646 shader / 1620 memory is equal in FPS with 828 / 1657 shader / 1728 memory and only 1 FPS behind 850 / 1700 / 1625 mem.

 

Thief I was wondering since you got such high oc if you want to test my user.ini?
I'm getting good fps even with SSAO enabled..I tweaked it manually it should perform better with your oc without lowering the eyecandy.
If you want to give it a go I'll post it as soon as I turn on the beast.

 

Why all this tweaking and using SSAO? Are you not satisfied with the image quality at 1080p.

SSAO is such a FPS killer and doesn't even show any dramatic improvement to image quality specially at 1080p. Why add a wall to an already good flow?

I lose alot of FPS when SSAO is on and so are others. It's not a 6970M or a 6990M or a 580M that I have to go through all this. It's already at 1080p.

I need all the FPS I could get once the boss fights starts. To tell you the truth, I could run TW2 on low and still not see the difference in image quality deterioration 'cause it's at 1080p, ..plus this CMO 1726 that I have is so neat. Monitor image will save us from putting too much unneeded graphic detail so we could garner more FPS and smoothness of gameplay.

So yes SSAO is such a FPS killer for my laptop. I could lose up to 11 FPS at 1080p, even if it's not even really needed and due to the video card's limitation (mid end card).

I'll post my gaming OC 3DMarks if you guys are interested.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor,ASUSTeK Computer Inc. G73Sw score: 16250 3DMarks

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor,ASUSTeK Computer Inc. G73Sw score: P10202 3DMarks

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor,ASUSTeK Computer Inc. G73Sw score: P2399 3DMarks

 

Yeah mate I know, I'm just asking if it's not too much problem for you to test my ini with your higher oc i just want to see how it runs on your end, so I can compare with mine.
Take it as a request, nothing much, only if it doesn't cause a problem.

 

Ok heres my configuration.
Ive disabled SSAO and tweaked some other settings to further increase the quality, not to decrease them.
Increased memory footprint on gpu as well.
Let me know how it performs i just want to make a comparison with my high oc.

 

I tried your ini and the game seems to stay at 33-35 FPS (in a quest near the end where you find triss merigold and you have to kill a buttload of guards) but the textures seems to be decreased in quality despite I see you didnt use texture downscale.

 

In fact, i didnt used any texture downscale factor. Its setted as Ultra, without blurring nor edge smoothing.

Try to do some screenshots using FRAPS and compare them, im sure its just a placebo effect, because i cant find any difference.

 

could be that I put in some mods earlier and some sort of conflict happened but anw here is some ss I took with Steam and it seems to eliminate the FPS counter of FRAPS and yes what you see is what I saw in game minus the FPS counter.

Steam Community :: ID :: long2905

and...feel free to add me on Steam if you like

 

I just want to show Geralt's new haircut / hairstyle..

Also here's the setting that you have, and SSAO=1. Also why not use my setting, I have posted it here so you could compare.

View attachment nbr user.txt

Also my default setting even from before using options menu;

View attachment user witcher 2.txt

Here're the screenshots with your settings and SSAO=1, plus the new hairstyle.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/9559/witcher2201108311551458.jpg
http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/1222/witcher2201108311550310.jpg

It's all the same actually, but I thought a little texture was missing too.

 

So you tested my config with SSAO enabled?
That's a nice fps you got there..what clocks are you using?

 

I made a mistake, I went to drive C straight. Here's your real setting without SSAO; View at 100% browser zoom. All at 828/1728 and 1080p.

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1365/witcher2201108311932477.jpg

With SSAO;

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/9503/witcher2201108311934451.jpg


What I usually use. No SSAO, No AA, No Bloom, No Uber, No Cinematic DOF.

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7805/witcher2201108311953073.jpg

 

Perfect, so the difference between my high oc and yours is just 2 fps.
Thanks for the testing and please forgive me for all the trouble

 

Hello guys and Chastity

I downloaded nvidia inspector just now and ran it on my G53JW. The core part is greyed out. As in, i cannot adjust the core. I can only adjust shader and memory cuz that isn't greyed out. What could be the problem? Am i stuck with a GTX460M that cannot be overclocked? I'm using the nvidia 280.26 drivers right now.

 

shader and core are tied together. adjust one does both

 

Thank you Chastity. You're a God send. Thank you so much once again. I'll see how successful i am at overclocking tomorrow.

 

285.27 seems great so far, I think it should be updated accordingly

 

I modified the SW vbios provided by lpnowlan and flashed it onto my G73JW and then reinstalled the driver 285.27 again. Now my GTX 460M is able to OC to Core 850MHz without crashing unlike the one before flashing which can only OC to 823MHz then it crashes. But I see some artifacts popping up when gaming.

 

I think Kingpinzero also tested subject bios but nothing changed, by the way how about the memory clock ? when core 850 ?

 

I did, with no gains at all, I couldn't oc back to my highest oc.
But I'm curious to know what Hackness modified in that vbios, care to share mate?

 

Actually in the first written comment for this bios it is saiying that 850/1100 so if 1100 is memory then maybe it can be possible but how about the bottleneck then ?

 

850/1100 will be useless as default VRAM clock is 1250. I can push my card to 825/1350, not higher otherwise it will crash.
But that clocks still have a lower texture fill rate/memory bandwidth than 814/1628/1625 that I use. Even 800/1600/1600 perform higher than that.
The VRAM clock plays a major role in performance here, having it higher spare the higher core clock.
Those lucky guys with 850/825 and 1650/1700 have a performance comparable to a gtx570m which is awesome.

Also I think that Ipnowlan bios can effect only JH owners. SW owners have a different gpu revision with different VRAM chips and timings than the previous gtx460m board.
Dev ID board code is infact V2 in our SW revision, supposedly it should have a different/lower power consumption.

 

That s why I just wanted to learn actually what is the memory when they use core as 850 because if they reduce memory till 1100 it will be useless.
I just checked tutorial and it seems we are doing same thing with some different way but almost same screen which I get but for sure each GPU acting different.
When I first start I couldnt pass 1450 memory and now I can push up to 1675 without any issue and at 1700 and over it worked but I didnt want to push more, for the core clock previously I opened some thread but not much income for voltage which I saw in some people 0.95V instead of 0.912 V which we have

 

Sorry forgot to mention that my memory clock was 1600Mhz. By the way you might need to reinstall the driver again after flashing to a new VBIOS. And the only thing I modified in that vbios was changing the sub system ID from 2048 to 2042 since this vbios came from a G73SW and it has a different sub system ID to the GTX460M inside a G73JW.

 

Oh well I can give it a shot again. Sub-Id 2042 means no modded inf right?

 

2042 is the sub system ID for JW, you shouldn't need to modify since yours is a SW. Just keep it 2048 should work fine. By the way Kingpinzero I see the v0.962 modded VBios in your signature Oo;. Voltage mod on GTX460m is possible now? Do you mind sharing that modded VBios?

 

No problem mate; im using my own vbios
There's a thread here, check there you'll find my own vbios along with a jh version and some benchmarks as well!
So yes, is it possible now ^^

 

ahh yes I see it now Thanks!

 

okay, Ive read all 19 pages of this thread so far. I think im ready to take a small leap in OC'ing.

As im absolute newb at this I have some questions and would be very grateful for anyone willing to spend the time to answer.

what do these names refer to on the hardware: Core, Memory, Shader ?

How do you know when it downclocks durring game ?

Whats a good safe temp ? I read 80c i this forum but also read some people who had it in the 90's. I work on computers for a living and most of my clients computers I keep at 55 or 60c. So im a little confused.

Is there a prgram that charts temps over time ?

what is vsynch and is it important when increasing fps ?

I hear people talk about 4-5 fps difference.. is it even worth it ?


My Specs: Alienware m18x, i72630qm 2.0/2.8 Turbo, 6GBmem, 460m 1.5 video, SSD.


Thanks for anyone who helps.

 

I will answer what i know:

How do you know when it downclocks durring game ?

if your framerates while playing games or heavy 3d tasks drop suddenly and rapidly then your GPU downclocked. Also you can use the GPU observer gadget or GPU-Z to check the clocks yourself

Whats a good safe temp ? I read 80c i this forum but also read some people who had it in the 90's. I work on computers for a living and most of my clients computers I keep at 55 or 60c. So im a little confused.

this depends, for the higher end card it produce more heat so its tolerable in 80-90*C. But theres some exception like the GTX 260M which is very hot by design thus 90*C is good enough.

Is there a prgram that charts temps over time ?

HWmonitor, HWinfo, GPU-z

what is vsynch and is it important when increasing fps?

you can google it but basically it keeps the framerates looked at 30 or 60FPS to give you smoother graphic (if your card can load more than said 30 or 60FPS), if not enabled you can occasionally see distortion in image.

I hear people talk about 4-5 fps difference.. is it even worth it ?

depends on what kind of gamer you are, but based on what you said so far i dont think it will matter much to you

My Specs: Alienware m18x, i72630qm 2.0/2.8 Turbo, 6GBmem, 460m 1.5 video, SSD.

nice machine you got there and plenty of room for upgrade

 

Thanks for the great REPLY. This was what i was hoping someone would break down for me. I am happy to be a little more informed. Ive been tossing the idea of OC'inc around for a few months. Just wanted to make sure I had some of the basic information down.

 

Hello. I am new with overclocking, but I think U will help me. I have ASUS G73SW laptop with GTX460M 1.5GB. I tried to OC with MSI Afterburner, but sometimes after about 30 minutes of "hard-gaming" my screen goes black and graphic driver says: "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered". I overclocked my GPU to 820/1450, then I went down to 800/1400 - no difference. Temperature is about 75 degrees, when screen is going black. I do not know what to do...

I will be very thankful if U help me with that - my english isn't good, but I think U will understand me .

Greetings.
PonczeQ

 

That might mean youre speeds are unstable with that driver. You try updating to the latest driver?

I hit that black screen and "recovered message" at anything past the speeds in my signature.

@everyone else

Im thinking about getting Witcher 2 and would like to know what kinda fps you guys get with what settings and speeds if you overclock.

 

Search further down and you will find a thread dedicated to witcher 2 on GTX 460M.

 

m1_1x : witcher 2 was able to sustain 30fps here maxed out at 720p only with 840/1680/1600 with occasional dips into 27-28fps.

At 1080p you're forced to use low to medium details, with some high/ultra settings, but with everything else disabled otherwise the framerate takes an absurd hit.

You could manually edit the ini file to get some fps but it's time consuming.
The problem here is the blurryness of the 720p resolution on the laptop due to the crap screen.

 

on that settings (800/1600/1600) I get 22. is that normal? only with the witcher I have that problem.(or not?)

 

Im messing around with the settings to get a decent number of fps but to no avail. Im downloading the patch 2.0 and going to see if it increases anything

 

I was hoping someone could help me with my problem. I've been looking at this thread and seeing how not all graphic cards are capable of the same clocks, so I took that into consideration. My clocking is 790/1580/1410. I was playing CoD 4 and I had throttlestop running plus a log file. After about 45 minutes, my screen froze and when it went back into the game, my FPS dropped like a rock and I realized that my GPU throttled to 200 MHz. When I looked at my log file my GPU peaked at 93C right around I froze, and when it came back, it dropped to 90C then 87C. Is this happening because my clocks are still too high or is it something else? :/

 

You need to clean your laptop or something, those temps are way too high.

 

The 460M can rarely manage over 800 core. I have mine at 750/1500/3200 and it runs very well.

If you want the best performance, knock down your core speed to 750, and push your memory to 1600 in Nvidia Inspector 1.9.5.5 since Afterburner doesn't let you go past 1500 for your memory. Test that and report. Use Vantage.

 

Yeah 800 Core seems to be the best bet. I have mine at 800/1600/1600. Runs fine. I originally had it at 820/1600/1640, but then every now and then it would crash. So I went back down

 

I remember reading here guys with the g73 clocked it to 900+ without issues. Please dont ask me to find it.

 

With all OC's, the stable point and environment will vary. 900 sounds iffy lol.

 

I just tried this setup and played CoD 4 again with a log file. I played for about 40-50 minutes and didn't notice any FPS drops or funny colors on the screen. I checked my log file and I was actually hitting a consistent 92/93C but it didn't pass that point, and it didn't under-clock itself to 200 MHz when it did hit that temperature. Looks good so far and I'll keep testing it more to see if it stays like this.

 

As Fahrenheit said, I'd be worried about those temps. That's definitely scarily high.

Maybe clean out the vents and make sure you're playing on a flat surface. I have the 53SW (weaker cooling than the 73) at 780/1510/1560 and it rarely gets to 83-84. I tried playing with a small box of staples wedged underneath to keep the back vents propped up. Seems to help a little bit.

 

I do play on a flat surface. I'll try putting something underneath to raise it a bit. Also, I haven't done any repasting to it. I don't mind cleaning the vents, but won't that affect my warranty?

 

You need the vbios overvolted to 1V to achieve over 800mhz on core.

Asus users usually got 840-860, I got 865 stable gaming clocks with my MSI 460m.