Overclocking G73JH GPU/MEM

A few months ago I added IC7 to the GPU. Temps droped to around 50c idle and 65-75''c on full. Before the IC7, I was only able to overclock the gpu to 740, after i added ic7, I can now reach 810mhz. However, memory wise, I cant increase it much without the screen jitering, and that's only increasing it 10-30mhz above stock (1010-1030). I can go up to 1080 but its unstable, no artifacts, the screens starts to jiter then afterwards it either freezes or restarts.

It seems like the memory could be overheating. I was wondering if anyone here knows a better way of cooling the ram. Possible by adding a better thermal pad or something of the like. Any suggestions?

 

It wont be the Vram if you have pads covering it with contact to the Heatsink they are fine. The MeM(IO) controller which effects the memory temperature is located near the edge of the GPU chip. Sometimes poor clearance between the heatsink and chip like mine had with 1mm pads meant I struggled to get above 1050mhz on my overclock, other times compound not reaching the edge does not make contact with the heatsink properly.

I replaced the pads with 0.5mm which allowed the heatsink to sit flush over the chip and now I can comfortably handle 1125mhz + much cooler temps overall.

This is not always the case some chips just cannot handle the overclock with additional cooling and some just run hot it is luck of the draw.

 

Ahh I see, I would like to do this then. It's worth a try. Where did you buy the thermal pad?
I would like to replace pads on the memory, last time I took it apart I had to stretch it to reach all the memory chips. I feel like it might be a good idea to replace it.

Which MEM(IO) chip were you refering to? I found a pic of the card in these forums, looks like a 5870m, could you point it out?

 

The Image I showed above is the GPU core so you can see at the edge of one side are the Dual channel Memory controllers.

They are located in the core itself near the edge of the chip which you apply thermal compound onto when repasting.

I think you are confusing Vram with the memory controllers you only need pads on the Vram and a few other sections of the GPU so that it conducts with the heatsink they do not produce a lot of heat the majority comes from the core.

Sadly I cannot confirm which edge of the core the memory controllers are located so as long as the heatsink sits flush over the core and the compound covers the entire chip you should be ok, as mentioned 0.5mm helped with my situation because my heatsink did not sit flush and conductivity with the core was poor causing very high temps which have since been fixed.

 

QHH yes I was a little confuse. I have not checked whether the HS sits completely flat on the die. I didn't have enough IC7 to do another repaste ;/.
I will be taking my laptop apart again to add AS5 on the CPU, I am out of the IC7 but from I've read there not too much of a difference.
Assuming the HS sit flat on the die itself, anything I can do to promote higher OC? Like I said, memory seems to overclock but soon becomes unstable, screen jiters, drivers stop responding, but at times it does work.
My understanding of video card overclocking is that when you OC too much, you typically get fractured graphics, artifacts, and so forth. Not the case with this one. Only thing I can do, is to get a laptop cooler, take off the bottom panel, have cool air shoot straight inside, and see if that drops the temps even more and see if maybe it will allow me to OC the memory. I'm just a little disappointed that it does not OC good considering that its DDR5 ;/

 

The difference for me was pretty clear cut to be honest ICD wins hands down and 99% of the time provides much better results than AS5, order a new tube if you can will save you having to go back in and repaste again. Here are my AS5 results.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu.../563170-g73jh-beginner-repasting-results.html

Edit: Here is a post I made a while ago about overclocking. I also explain this in my GPU movie.

 

Alright you have convinced me, I will be ordering another IC7 So I will add it to the CPU sometime early net week. I also will like to try replace the pads, I have to be missing something here as to why my memory is not overclocking at all.

I'm thinking of ordering a set of .5mm thick pads from this website

Fujipoly Premium System Builder Thermal Pad - 1/4 Sheet - 150 x 100 x 0.5 - Thermal Conductivity 6.0 W/mK - FrozenCPU.com

and adding it to the memory chips on the 5870M.

What do you think? Do you know of any good thermal pads? I already have some pads here lying around but they are 1.5, too thick. I imagine the G73 uses .5, correct me if I am wrong.

 

Those are the same kinds of pad I used same thermal conductivity as well you just need to cut them to size and make sure the Vram is covered and they sit flat on them along with the 2-3 other sections that have small pads on to conduct with the heatsink. Be very careful when applying them not to stretch the pad as they are thin enough already to make contact with the heatsink, but it should sit much closer to the die. You will only need a very small amount of ICD in the centre of the chip a 3mm blob or pea will do because it will sit flusher.

Again as above this may not solve your problems, you may see better temps but the ability to overclock is not always restricted by cooling.

Good luck

 

Only thing I do not like about IC7 is that it's not easy to apply as AS5. I typically spread AS5 but IC7 sticks too much ;/ But yeah I'll do that, thanks for the advice. I'm hoping this will solve my inability to overclock. Before I order, do all the areas of the video use .5mm?

I wish I could upgrade my CPU but unfortunately money is tight. My next goal is to get a 1080 screen, only wish they had a 1920x1200.

While I wait for the stuff to arrive, I do have 1 more question not related to my thread. How does the 560m compare to the 5870m? It is a slower card but I would imagine that the extra ram and the fact that it has 192bit would it significantly. Not to mention you can overclock it.

 

Funny, I just finished some 560M benchies The one in this G74SX-3DE overclocks very nicely, and I managed to beat all of Ken's postings. I'll be posting some stock and OC numbers in a Preview thread.

 

Only thing I do not like about IC7 is that it's not easy to apply as AS5. I typically spread AS5 but IC7 sticks too much ;/ But yeah I'll do that, thanks for the advice. I'm hoping this will solve my inability to overclock. Before I order, do all the areas of the video use .5mm?

I wish I could upgrade my CPU but unfortunately money is tight. My next goal is to get a 1080 screen, only wish they had a 1920x1200.

While I wait for the stuff to arrive, I do have 1 more question not related to my thread. How does the 560m compare to the 5870m? It is a slower card but I would imagine that the extra ram and the fact that it has 192bit would it significantly. Not to mention you can overclock it.

 

ICD is suppose to be thicker as it is a TIM and conductivity is A LOT better than AS5 and although is harder to squeeze out of the tube it is easier to apply because you just place it in the centre and lock the heatsink in place ICD does the rest of the job for you, along with having minimal if not no curing time.

When you replace the pads you will have to remove the old ones before you do make sure you take note what section of the GPU you remove them from, along with the 2 VRAM strips there are I think 2 small rectangle sections covering controllers and a small square section. Its pretty simple stuff just put the new pad exactly where the old pad was and when you reseat the heatsink you will be able to see that it is touching once it is screwed back on, carefully remove the stock pads in case you need to reuse them for any reason or if the 0.5mm are too thin etc.

The 560M at stock is not much different but remember at release the 5870M was high end the 460M/560M are mid range but because they are being released 12-18 months later they will pull off better results when overclocked and they seem to be able to overclock very well. Jan 2010 the 5870M was released and it still impresses me with its performance. Extra RAM and Bus width means nothing because Nvidia and ATI have different architecture's the 460M had a lower bandwidth than the 5870M but with a higher bus width 128bitvs192bit and anything over 1.5GB is overkill at the present time. You can overclock the 5870M very well too I get 825/1125 solid however as explained on the other page it depends on many things voltage,heat,binning.etc.