Overclocking the GT 420m

Is it true that the GT 420m is the same chip as the GT 435m? If so, is it possible to overclock the GT 420m to match the GT 435m performance?

If so I will order the i5 with GT 420m

 

Well technically its true that you can overclock 420m to 435m speeds.But why dont you think that you can overclock 435m higher.Anyway 435m will be powerful.But if you are a die hard optimus fan,then get 420m with i5,oc performance will be good for 1080p medium gaming!

 

I doubt the 420M's 500MHz core will hit the 435M's 650MHz.

 

I'm pretty much a noob to oc but will try it when I get the xps. However someone told me the 435m basically is a oc 420m, wouldn't that give the 435m a limit in oc because of the build?

 

Well so much for that. That's one heck of an overclock!

Does it game at those clocks, for extended periods?

 

Thank you for confirming it! Will get the xps 15 with i5 asap now.

Even found someone running beyond the normal 435m clocks but dont know if its possible/stable on the dell.

 

Just because it worked for one person doesn't mean that it will work for everybody. Overclocking is a crap shoot. One person may be able to overclock to 700, and the next can't make it past 550. The 435s are binned higher than the 420s, and should handle the higher clocks better, so even if you can get up to 435 levels with most 420s, the 435s could be clocked even higher than that.

It's also a question of voltage. For example, the 5730 can clock higher than the 5650 even though they're the same chip. This is because the 5650 runs at 1.0v, and the 5730 at 1.1v max. I don't know if the same is true of the 420/435, but it's very possible.

 

GT 420m = GT 435m

the only difference is that dell gives one additional gb of vram with the 435, but i guess that doesnt gain u sh*t anyways
so basically its just a mocking of the customer, as always

 

You could say that about any GPU, CPU, or RAM, so your point is kind of silly. Also, like I mentioned above, chips are binned during manufacturing. This means that before they turn the chip into a 435 it is first tested to make sure that it's stable at 435 speeds. Chips that fail at 435 speeds, but pass at 420 speeds, will be sold as 420s. So with a 420 you have a chance, but no guarantee that it may run at 435 speeds, but with a 435 you do.

 

While on the topic of overclocking, what's the easiest/best way to overclock? Which program should I use? I've never done it before and I'd love to get an extra bit of kick out of this new laptop.

 

Yes, I've played COD MW2 campaign from beginning to the end with it (~6 hours), max GPU temperature is 78C.

I still haven't found the ceiling yet, this is where I am at right now, proven stable.

 

come on get a life, i bet my new xps 15 (lool) that any gt 420m can at least run at 435 clocks!! its not like something special...

 

He is saying (and is correct) that most (probably not all, too early to tell) 420m's can hit the 435m speeds.
Binning makes it so that very few 420m's will hit the OC'ing ceiling that the 435m's can get to, as they are proven to handle higher clocks reliably, which is why their stock clock is set higher.
This is common among all chip makers, Intel, AMD/ATI, nVidia, Samsung, etc. This is the reason why some people get insane OC's and some can barely get 50mhz boost, for any GPU/CPU/etc, not just the GPUs in question.

 

When you buy a 435, you're getting a better chip that can run at high clocks. What part of that don't you understand?

 

^^ But it is not available with i5 for Optimus na
So many wanna go for the i5+Gt420M just so that they can get some better Battery life
With i7 and 435M it will have good performance but pretty low battery life
SO if 420M can OC to 435M clocks then i will be very happy
I have also ditched i7+435M for Optimus

 

Yeah, that really kills me. There's no (technical) reason why they couldn't sell the 435/i5 combo. Though if it's anything like the SXPS 16 was, they will start selling that, just 6 months later.

 

The 435 and I5 is standard on two of the UK XPS17 builds

 

RivaTuner says the drivers or incompatible with overclocking or something. What did you do to manage to be able to overclock?

 

That why I wanted to know if its a possible good oc. Bought the XPS 15 with i5 yesterday. Hope it gets here soon with al the delays.

A few people in the Netherlands were able to order the i5 with 435m on the phone after calling with tech support. Tech support here said it was a bug in the system since the i5 and 435m should be compatible and they would solve it. After a few weeks tech support called them with the explanation that it was impossible because the connection on the 435m was 2cm higher/lower so they could not connect it to the motherboard.

I don't know if its true but it is the only explanation so far.

 

So I guess I'll just ask this again... How did you overclock your GPU? Rivatuner still isn't working for me, not sure why, etc. I installed the latest drivers from laptopvideo2go.com and still no luck.

 

Here you go: NVIDIA DRIVERS 6.06

 

Nice! Thanks!

I kicked it up to 620/850 for now, should be a good boost in power.

 

GT425M OC to 730/1460/1800 OMG!!
Check here
Jagat Review | Mobile Graphics Overclocked: NVIDIA GT 425M

 

I have 3 newbie questions concerning this link:

1) Why does Nvidia provide a tool for over-clocking its processors? Doesn't that undermine Nvidia's ability to charge higher prices for higher default clock-speeds?

2) What are the risks (common and uncommon) associated with using these drivers to overclock my GT-420M (on a Dell XPS 15 w/ i5-560m)? Most importantly, can I accidentally fry my GPU and what are the warranty implications?

3) Lastly, can anyone vouch from experience that an overclocked 420M (using this link) supports Optimus just as well as a non-overclocked 420M?

Many thanks for your answers -- cuz I'm clueless!

Jay

 

Hey guys, I was looking into overclocking my card but when I open GPU-Z I notice that I don't have OpenCL, CUDA, PhysX or DirectCompute. Anyone else find that really weird? When I run the PhysX test engine it says that I don't have it installed.

Any suggestions?

 

....install Physx.

 

Not trying to be a dickwad at all, but if you are asking these questions you really shouldn't be overclocking your laptop video card. I only say this because you need to be much more diligent in watching temps and knowing what's going on with a laptop because of the size, heat, power constraints on laptops that aren't present in desktops, or at best to a much lesser degree. And as you said yourself, you are clueless...I wouldnt advise you to. Start with your desktop which is much more forgiving and less expensive if you eff the whole thing up.

It's not hard core by any means to dial up a slider in NVIDIA's driver app, but if you fry your video card it's not exactly easy to get replacement parts cheap, and if you have warranty its still a pain to send the thing in for weeks. Desktop you just switch out the part and get on with life.

To answer your first question, NVIDIA provides a driver to overclock because they need to stay competitive. Overclocking processors and video cards is the norm in the enthusiast area of PCs. This has a trickle down effect as the enthusiast are always the ones to accept new tech sooner and pay out the to get it as soon as possible. What this group chooses to be the winner or the best greatly effects how the 2nd and (less so) the 3rd tier of buyers choose. They come to forums and ask "Sorry, noob question, but what's the best video card for under $200?"

You dont see very many posts starting with "Sorry, noob question, but what's the best SLI/CFX setup for under $1200?" The guy/gal paying $1200 for SLI knows exactly what they want and why. Sooooo, to get back to your question, by enabling users to overclock (which the enthusuast market demands) it means they have a better chance of capturing the tier 1 users and reaping benefits from the trickle down.

Also, because you can overclock your 420 to 435 speeds, do you think users with 435's arent going to overclock their's to much higher speeds as well? It's been stated before, not sure if you read the whole thread, but processors all go through a binning process. 435's have been tested as being superior 420's that can handle higher clocks with the same voltage. Now, because of the naturally inherent uncertainty of the die creation process, some chips just turn out better than others. These are the 435's.

BUT, sometimes they need more 420's than they are getting through the binning process, this means that they will take a chip that has been binned as a 435 and rebadge it as a 420 to fulfill an order from an OEM. So some random lucky people might get a 1GB version of a 435 as a 420.

An example, I have an i7 920 processor in my desktop, 2.66GHz stock, I have overclocked and water cooled it so I can run it at 4.2GHz. I paid $199 for my i7 920. They dont even make an i7 that goes to 4.2GHz, but their highest level quad i7 is about $1300 or so. Meaning I netted an $1100 savings for better performance. BUT, if I got the i7 980x for $1300, I could go higher than the 4.2GHz for mine, and I would have bragging rights. Big whoop, to me. Important to some. Intel talked about possibly locking processors down to their intended speeds. The backlash from the enthusiast community was so big they stepped back on that one real quick. Its the enthusiast that get the word out, the mouth to mouth marketing that makes them billions a year. They arent messing with that.

This is a complete crap shoot and I personally would rather get the known better chip at the time. I also can't imagine buying a dual core laptop. I do too much gfx, encoding, video work, etc. to ever use a dual core proc again. Plus so many game are now being written for quads that I think buying an i5 right now is sort of a step backwards.

The risks are easy, you can fry your card, possibly your motherboard, and your psu.

There's zero reason Optimus shouldn't work while you are overclocked. Its the exact same thing just running at a faster clip.

Sorry for the long winded reply!

 

I agree with most of what you're saying, but it's nearly impossible to actually fry anything by overclocking as long as you don't alter the voltages, which isn't possible to do on a laptop anyway (well, at least without some serious BIOS modification). You're right, one needs to be careful, and OP probably should learn a bit more before he tries something like this, but you greatly overstate the risks involved (as long as voltages aren't touched). If you were talking about desktop overclocking where voltage adjustment is easy, then I'd be more apt to agree with your risk assessment.

 

Will overclocking result in higher temperatures?

 

yessssssssss

 

Would it not be installed automatically with the drivers? Also wouldn't CUDA be enabled by default?

 

My Physx was installed along with a game that required it. Before then, it was not installed.
The XPS 15 video driver only has the graphics card driver and the NV audio driver.

 

Perfect! Thanks for the clarification. I've done a stable OC of 740/960 MHz and highest was 76 degrees so pretty happy about that. Will test more with some heavy games.

 

why ur physx, cuda, direct compute all is ticked while mine just physx is ticked? isit cos of driver?

however i've tried to oc my gt420m to gt435m clock and is quite stable..

 

I'd like to know the same. Nothing is ticked for me, I'm about to reinstall PhysX though.
Edit: Installed PhysX and it finally showed up, but what about the other 3?

 

see whats up with that. The XPS 17 has i5/435 running on optimus but the xps 15 wont allow the 435 on optimus. Tho if u get lucky and get a good 420 that ocs to or above 435 speeds then its not bad.

Can anyone point me in the direction of videos and reviews of the B=RG LCD screen?

 

Can't you just google it? It's really not that hard.

Search for "kriios" on youtube. He has a few XPS 15 review videos.

 

y nt all 420 can be oc to 435 spds? due to quality prob?

 

I got my GT420M OC to 720/936 with no probs
Playing since 3 hrs
Max GPU Temp was 77
Frame rate was above 40 all the time in SHATTERED DIMENSIONS at 1366X768 ON HIGH SETTINGS

Even the CPU Temp was idling around 38 and on load 53
So its cool even without a cooling pad

 

Because nothing is created equally...

 

With my GT 420m, I'm sitting at:

Core Clock: 720MHz
Memory Clock: 960 MHz
Shader Clock: 1440MHz

Played Crysis for about 1.5 hours and reached GPU temperature of about 74c. No freezing or instability noticed so far. No cooling pad being used currently.

Anyone been able to go any higher? I have a feeling I can push it just past 735MHz before it reaches that unstable zone.

 

I was playing at 740/960 for over 2 hrs when i saw some green artefacts in between for 2-3 secs
SO i guess it is unstable
At 720/960 np at all
So i will stick with that

 

so the memory u stick with 800 rite?

 

Nope. The memory is 960 and clock is 740.

 

I got 750/960 with 63c max running 3dmark06. It was running on my bed with the vents covered and I haven't reapply the thermal paste so it could be a couple of degrees lower. I think I got a very nice chip. 3dmark06 score is 8497.

 

Thread needs more 435M OC numbers.

 

One question,

both graphics (GT 420M and GT 435M) have the same disipation on XPS 15?

 

That sounds amazing! But really 63c max is really low for a graphic card that was OCd this high. Perhaps trying playing a recent game for a couple hours and see what kind of results you get?

Would be very interested to know.

 

I found one (IMHO) important thing. Check the VDDC of the GT435m through GPU-Z and you will notice that it's 0.95V, instead the GT420m has 0.9V. That's probably why some people sticks around 75-80 degrees in gaming and others stay around 90 °C. The funny thing is that due to temperatures issue, the GT420m once overclocked, can overtake the performance of the GT435 without the same amount of heat. (on 672/900 par with the GT540m in gaming i can't go over 77°C for example)