G1s- Strange GPU clock behaviour observed in RivaTuner

So first of all, excuse me for that strange thread name but I really couldn't think of anything decent that fit the issue.

So I was running my G1s on the Vista Ulitmate it came with, only some little pieces of bloatware uninstalled- I kept all of the WireLess Console and ATK stuff. I was running on lv2go 174.74 drivers and SP1 and used RMClock to underclock and undervolt the CPU. I also used RivaTuner to observe GPU temperatures regarding that stuttering issue and stuff.

Using RivaTuner I noticed that everytime I switched the RMClock from max performance to power saving (which was 6x/ 0.9something VID locked) the GPU core clock would decrease to 182MHz (supposed to be standard 2D, I think). It was totally reproduceable: Cranking up the high performance mode with 11x/1.2 VID made the GPU core clock speed up to 500something and switching to power saving made it go back to 182MHz. Produced neat idle temperatures and quiet fans, so far so good.

Now I got a new hard drive and switched to Vista Business (MSDN). Took me a little while to get all the things up and running again but as of now I'm running on SP1 and lv2go 174.74 drivers as well.
I installed all the necessary drivers in the latest version off of the Asus Website and hardly any utilities (beside the wireless console)and now guess what: The GPU won't downclock upon switching to RMClock's power saving profile to save its goddamn life. The fan is always running and idle temps of the GPU are within the mid-80s. The only way I managed to make it underclock without setting clock speeds manually was to go into standby mode and then get back to work.

A side-note: Windows Update offered to update ATK-drivers and I let it do it. I thought the behaviour might be caused due to the newer version of the ATK drivers but I uninstalled the ATK0100ACPI drivers and installed those availible on the support page again and it didn't change anything.

So the point is:
Has anyone of you got any ideas where this might come from and could you please check what your GPU does when you enter RMClock's power saving mode?

 

I'm using XP and I control the GPU speed and CPU speed separately from, respectively, PowerMizer and RMClock. Although I've never explicitly checked if the RMClock profile has any influence on the GPU clocks. But I don't see why it should...

Sorry, this isn't much help...

 

I have mine in performance mode all the time. Never change modes and have never tried to O/C and I have observed the same thing on all clocks (they coincide with each other). Some sort of new powersaving feature internal to the card? I have gotten thins card to 88C with AOE 3 and am not too worried because I have a service plan. The clock thing and temps kinda make me wonder too.


Edit: sorry guys I have the 9500m gs. Missed that part.

 

I don't follow:

 

I didn't understand that as well. What did you observe on the clocks?

@ E.B.E.: Would you mind checking whether RMClock does affect your GPU clocks when PowerMizer is turned off?

 

I'd need to install RivaTuner or the likes of it... and given that I am using XP, stock drivers, and a so much older card than yours, I don't think results would apply to your case. In other words, I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

If noone else with a G1S comes by and helps you, I might do it tomorrow evening (as in 24 hours from now).

 

Dang, of course you're right. I didn't think of the fact that you don't use a G1s yourself Nevermind, no need to fiddle around with stuff.

 

The card idles at low clock speeds, then ramps up when playing a game. All of them (core, memory, shader) do it at the same time. Never saw this on my 8800gt. The computer is in performance mode all the time. BUT this has nothing to do with your problem, which i missed, so sorry again.

 

Well I installed RivaTuner and the results are as follows:

- No effect of changing RMClock profiles on the GPU clocks.
- Clear effect of changing PowerMizer profiles on GPU clocks.

It all makes sense.

However at one point the core clock was detected as 0.03 MHz on Power Saving profile, which is not right...so I'm not sure how reliable these results are.

I've also seen mentioned recently that RivaTuner clock readings are sometimes wrong (my 0.03 MHz confirms this), so probably you shouldn't base your assessment only on RivaTuner; use another monitor and check readings one against the other.

 

Maybe you can try the latest RivaTuner 2.09? It has now officially support 174 driver.

 

That's what I downloaded last night, but I have the stock driver which is much older.

Or weren't you referring to me?

 

I am already using RivaTuner 2.09.
Also it appears that the things it showed me were perfectly right, but all of a sudden everything works like it used to do before the formatting again. Whatever. Sometimes you shouldn't ask

I just played around with some of the RMClock settings but ended up rolling it back to default eventually and now it works as supposed.

So anyway, thanks for participation and thread closed.

 

Glad you solved it. By the way, I think the GPU changing clocks when CPU changes clocks is a default behavior in Vista. It is a power management feature.

Why do I say this. I recently bought an ASUS W7S with Vista Biz and it does the same thing: when I change power profiles in Power4Gear, the CPU clocks change to follow those profiles.

Attached a screenshot, with the GPU clocks on the W7S on (a) Quiet Office profile and (b) High Performance profile.

BTW, I do not have access to powermizer in Vista either.