Overclocking the GT 540M

Yes. Not only do every single bios update cpu microcode. There are several other enhanced functions including the cpu fan speed. That's one feature that is always updated in every bios update for any laptop. It may not be noticeable but I noticed my fan kicked up a little faster than before. Didn't make a huge difference, but it did in fact make a difference by a tiny amount. If only they would dial it in to kick up to 100% when the cpu or gpu hit 80C. I wish I could mod it or something.

Recently while gaming playing Jurassic Park The Game on PC on my 40" 1080p samsung lcd over hdmi. I was playing the game maxed out at 1920x1080 all maxed out and it running fine about 30fps. Anyway even when before the gpu hit 80c it crashed back to stock 3d clocks. It did this even when I reduced the percentage cpu clock in advanced power options. So that says that all games are different and stress the gpu differently. So, I backed it down to 800Mhz-1600Mhz-1000Mhz. Then I set the cpu min and max to 100. While gaming it rose up to 88-89C but was stable. So I backed the percentage back down to 99% which dropped the gpu to 75*C continuous. So it looks like most of the time 815Mhz is ok but is Unstable. So I would recommend 800Mhz max to anyone for continuous stability.

I played that Jurassic Park game for like 6-8 hours and it was totally stable at 800Mhz. By the way that game is pretty fun! I have to say it looked pretty good too. I liked the awesome cinematic dinosaur animations, not bad at all.

Later

 

Chris:

I have now updated my bios, but I get worse results now than before. And the temps havent changed at all.


What to do?

 

What's your laptop brand? What are you setting your Processor Percentage in Advanced power options? All manufacturers should alter the fan spectrum but if it's acer, sometimes they just don't even bother. A lot of times some manufacturers are more obvious than others in there money making strategies. I wish we were making the money right? Rather than being on the bad end of the deal.

What I advice you do is reduce your max AC power processor percentage until your stable. I have the to do the same. I had to reduce it down to 90% or less sometimes to be stable in game since the core i7 produces so much heat. This is even after re-pasting and putting a copper shim under the gt 540M. Just keep your temps below 80*C but really 87*C maximum is OK as long as it's stable. The thermal max on the gt 540m and core i7 is about 100*C but the GT 540M may want to throttle back at that point. The only thing you need to worry about is the solder on the chip. Always remember lead free solder used in today's computers melts at like 211*C. The gt 540m is held on with this solder. Otherwise the chip isn't going to burn out or anything.

Let me know. Thanks.

 

Where did you get a copper shim?

 

Ebay and it was like $1.99 but I bought like 8 for $6 shipped.

 

Chris: I got the Asus K73SV. And only info that was given from Asus about the bios update was "update cpu microcode", nothing about fans or anything.

I also tried reducing CPU as you said, without being able to reach 800 on GPU core.

Guess I will have to try IC diamond or something

 

get AIDA64 and go in the sensor section and see what your gpu core voltage is at. In 2d mode it should be 0.830V and in 3d more it should be 0.980V. If for some reason ASUS decided to back down the 3d voltage because of heat or something that's the only thing that would hinder the overclock. What app are you using to overclock the gpu? use EVGA Precision. Firstly you should have a fresh install of Windows 7 x64. Then go get the latest driver from nvidia. Make sure to clean the old driver and nvidia data with Dot Net Driver Cleaner. If you want me to provide more info. We will have to continue this convo over private message. The requirements for a good overclock in a fresh install of windows 7 x64 with the asus atk 0100 driver, intel chipset, intel graphics driver, Nvidia 296.10 x64 windows 7 driver. You may need to force Windows 7 in "Test Mode" which will allow deeper than typical driver level manipulation. You will need a special app to enable it and I can provide it as well. First thing is your gonna need to get AIDA64 Extreme Edition to monitor and get an idea of where your temps are at. Then we need to know what your gpu voltage in 3d mode is at. Then we can know what it can handle. Take some screenshots and post them up of your "Sensor" page in AIDA64. It will be at 0.830V 2d mode when not under load. Open up a 1080p .mkv or something to put it under load for the moment to see the change to 3d voltage in the "sensor" section. Post a screenshot of it in 3d voltage mode as well.

later bro

 

Here's my personal experience for anyone interested:

Asus K43SV
i5 2410m
540m (of course, hence the thread)
4GB RAM
Win7 x64

The most stable I've gotten with the latest beta drivers (301.24) is:
gpu 825
memory 960
shader 1650

I haven't tried with higher GPU clocks since it seems risky, having read this thread. I have found, however, that even without touching the GPU/shader clocks, if my memory clock is anywhere around 970-1000MHz, i get artifacts and ingame failures, from anywhere after 1-20 minutes.

I've got my CPU power set to 99% so it doesn't enter turbo mode and overheat. On the heaviest of games, the GPU will hit the low 80's at most, CPU at about 85.

One thing I have found tho, that easily lowers my temperature by about at least 5 degrees is:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/579780-how-force-g73-fans-100-a.html
It forces your fan to go to 100% and stay there. I turn it on when I expect to play a game for an extended period of time. To reset it back to normal, I just hibernate or shutdown and turn it on again. A restart won't do it (have not tried if sleep mode works).

DISCLAIMER: The thread talks about ASUS laptops and works on mine. I'd be very careful looking at trying this on an ACER or DELL.

 

For the record:
GT540M@750/1500/990MHz@0,85V. <-Edit;-)

CPU: i7-2670QM@2,8GHz
RAM: 16GB-1333MHz

3dmark2006 results(1280x1024):
3DMark Score 9322 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score 3746
HDR/SM3.0 Score 3339
CPU Score 5312

GT1 - Return To Proxycon 31.36 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest 31.07 FPS
CPU1 - Red Valley 1.81 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 2.49 FPS
HDR1 - Canyon Flight 32.83 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze 33.95 FPS


Max Temps during 3dMark2006:
GPU 71°C
CPU 89°C

No artifacts visible. Will try 800/1600/1000 soon.

 

I supose you mean 0.85V instead 1.85V, right?

not sure how that card would handle such high voltage, you would get really high temps for sure, and a lot of chances to damage the chip. ^^

 

For the record #2:
GT540M@800/1600/1000MHz@0,85V

3dmark2006 results(1280x1024):
3DMark Score 9740 3DMarks
SM2.0 Score 3949
HDR/SM3.0 Score 3523
CPU Score 5146

GT1 - Return To Proxycon 33.11 FPS
GT2 - Firefly Forest 32.7 FPS
CPU1 - Red Valley 1.77 FPS
CPU2 - Red Valley 2.39 FPS
HDR1 - Canyon Flight 34.73 FPS
HDR2 - Deep Freeze 35.73 FPS

Max temps:
GPU 71°C
CPU 89°C

 

For the ones that reach 800 or more on core:

Have you flashed bios on your 540m? Cuz I tried just about everything else and I cant seem to go higher than 770. Tried everything discussed in this thread, set cpu to 85%, updated latest nvidia drivers etc.

 

It's really strange, some people have trouble running 800mhz, and for others, extended gaming sessions at much higher clocks are no trouble at all. I game for hours at 832/1061 at 65c without a hitch. I can pull a 10500 3dmark06 at 870/1061 all day long. I do have a Vaio f23 and not a dell, but there seems to be a HUGE range of OC results with the 540m that aren't dictated thermally. I'm no expert, but many refer to the binning process these components are subject to.

 

Its all about luck , there are too many variables in microscopic tech , but most of the cards are capable of reaching 760MHz + , nothing to complain about .
BTW has anyone got pass my 900MHz yet ?

 

I agree with the contention about luck. I can do 820/1000 stably but 3dmark06 won't run at that point, it crashes after the first portion. At 800/1000 I get 8159 but that's because it was benched with a Core i3 2310m that I limited to 1500MHz, as that is the speed I limit it to in-game to avoid throttling to 1200MHz.

 

I got the Asus K73SV, it seems the max core clock for my 540m is 770mhz, I am surprised I cant clock more cuz I dont even hit 70°C.

Does anyone know if its possible to flash bios on the 540m? I used to do it on my desktop computer in order to reach higher clocks, increase voltage and so on.

 

Yes, it is all about the luck of the draw. I worked a scanning electron microscope producing microchips for cirrent semiconductor back in the late 90's. My job was to spec wafers as they made their way through to different processes - metal, chemical, photo, etc. If the wafers met spec, they continued through the process. By the end of all those processes, you ended up with chips which all fell within specified tolerances, but fell into what could be considered a wide range of performance levels. They are ALL sold, however at that point.

 

I still havent found anyone that can beat my clocks, 846/1688/1086 stable

 

Do you have any screen shot with those clocks?

 

Yep,

I dont know if the pic will show up this way, still a little new here.
Anyways, thats the highest stable i can get up to after that my vram actually doesn't have enough voltage to keep clocks up and same with my gpu.

 

Err.. lol try this

And i just saw for some reason my fps in furmark shot up for no reason lol but anyways it averages like 14ish @720 everything off and nvidia control panel everything is at highest quality/8x supersampling.

I got a really lucky chip on my 3830TG but my temps are also so low because ive done some modding to it, thats my max stable for everything though and i can play all day no problem

 

Have you tryed the overvolted modded bios ? it gives you more overclocking headroom if you have good chip .

 

I've been looking for one but i can't find one, if you could help me out that'd be awesome

 

Try here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...modded-bioses-download-gpu-voltages-more.html

And let me know how far did you pushed it .

 

be carefull, those modded bioses are only for L502X

and I think mulzoffh have a Acer's TimelineX 3830TG-6424 laptop wich also have a 540m GPU (saw at his profile).

keep in mind that flashing a bios from another computer will brick your machine, it happened before at this forums!

 

Yeah i know, i have a timelinex, so that wouldn't work, but if someone could help out with either a modded bios for my lappy that's has my gpu overvolted that'd be awesome

 

Sorry i have missed that you rock on Acer man , i thought you own the XPS as most of the people on here ( note to my self - read more carefully next time ) .

 

Haha no problem man, im surprised with this thing man, Acer has come a long way and this thing is really high quality and i got a amazing chip + vram.

Oh and another thing, i managed to get this thing to run DDR3 1600 (PC3-12800) lol and i only got a i5-2430m.

 

Hey guys, first of all, sorry for my bad English.
I have a problem trying to overclock my GT540M, when values ​​increased to more than 810/910/1620, the card is reset and returns to the factory settings.

Anyone but something happens like that? Anything I can do to fix these values?

Thanks in advance

 

Why dont you read trough this thread before you ask questions ?

Stay below 800MHz and you will be OK.

 

I read this post and i saw + 800 STABLE overclockings... ¬¬

 

Your running your card too high, every chip is different, like mine is crazy and probably holds records for stock voltage and maybe even overvolted cards, i also was able to get amazing memory too somehow. Its all luck, if your having trouble with that try 800, if that doesnt work, then go lower, if it does, then go by increments of 1, same thing even if it doesnt work, try to find a stable clock then go from there. Your memory though, usually won't reach a high enough clock to have problems with voltage and will artifact after it gets too high, this can happen with the core itself too, but it is rare. If you see memory artifacting when your oc'ing your vram, lower the clocks untill you find it stops then like before, go by increments of 1.

 

Like I and everyone said, every chip is different.

 

Thanks so much Mulzoffh, i´ll trying to see how far i can go.

What would be an acceptable temperature?

 

Depends on preference, i would say definitely don't let either your cpu or gpu get over 95c ish

 

I would say mid to high 80s would be your max though

Edit: Thats my preference, i don't let go anything go over high 80s low 90s for short periods, but over long periods of time try to keep it to the low 80s or under

 

Try to stay under 80 degrees to prolong the cards lifespan , and yes as it was said milion times every GPU is different dont expect the same result as everybody else .

 

I also want to Over-clock my GT 540M. I'm new to dis. And i don't own an XPS. But i own an Acer Aspire 5755G-2434G75 notebook. 4GB, 750GB, Core i5-2430, 1GB Nvidia GT 540M. Any advice?!

 

The best advice one could possibly give you is to hop on the first flight out and never look back. The easy part, the gpu; simple. Use either nvidia tools or MSI afterburner (which I prefer), to increase clocks incrementally. My guess is you should be able to start out at 750/1000. Run some benchmarks to see if you're stable there, perhaps some gaming sessions as well, and if you don't run in to any artifacting, random crashing, etc., increase clocks a little more and repeat the process until you find the sweet spot for your particular hardware.

 

Anyone got any news on a overvolted bios for thee 3830tg? I know theres undervolted ones out -.-

 

Hey! Thanks a millie bro! I used MSI Afterburner and i was able to push it up to 801/1010. But the thing now is i have temps as high as 89C, tho my laptop is sitting on a cooling pad(fan is kinda slow so not really effective). What do you think? Also, shouldn't i be scared of frying my card? Cuz i really am! U would not believe how much i got this laptop.

Also, what benchmarking apps should i use?

 

89c is a bit on the warm side. What's the ambient temperature where you typically use your laptop? I have a Vaio, which seems to run a little cooler, but most of the users in this thread are running Dell's, and 89c while gaming or benchmarking oc'd seems to be normal. Some people purchase a copper shim for a few $ to paste to the gpu, and then re-paste the cpu as well, as this is where much of the heat comes from. It has been suggested by others, to change set the cpu to 99% instead of 100%, in power management, to prevent turbo mode from driving up the temps so high. As far as benchmarking, most prefer 3dmark06, and 3dmark11, both of which can be downloaded for free in their basic versions.

 

I think you're getting 89C because you're OCing your memory too much. I would bring it back down to 900. I cannot confirm this, as I've not had it happen to me before, but some people have said that OCing your memory could lead to higher instability (crashes) and even physical damage. Just thought I'd share the warning.

Just the other day I was able to OC in Max Payne 3 at 825/1700/900, and was getting a solid 40+fps at 1600x900 (Textures High, everything else Normal, AF x16, AA off, V-sync on).

 

Thanks for suggestions guys. In other news, i noticed that even without OC, my laptop hits 80C. After a while of gaming of course. So i guess 89C is not 'too' weird now afterall. Also, i'm able to play Max Payne 3 at 60FPS. Native 1366x768 res. Medium settings. My current OC is 801/1602/1010. And temps are at around 65 - 80C.

@Gabrielgvs, i did reduce my brothers dv6 (intel hd graphics tho) from 100% to 99% and it became soooooo slow! (Core i3) And i kept wondering why. You asked for temp i use my laptop normally, its 50 - 60C. Mostly low 50s.

I guess i'll also try 825/900 OC. And see how dat goes.

I forgot to add. You guys are great!!!

 

Hey guys, what software are you using to check out the CPU and GPU temperatures?

 

Msi Afterburner checks Temperature. Or get GPU-Z and Speccy from filehippo. com (I don't want to spam, so join the site name together.)

 

HWMonitor works quite well

 

I'm at a stable 823/1040 OC right now, running at 80 ~ 87C at it's peak, only 5C more than usual. This is on a cooling pad though

 

I game at a stable 841/1063 at 67-69c, on a Vaio F23. There has got to be a way to cool down these Dells.

 

Nice Temps you guys got. Also, can someone explain to me why when i swapped the Single 4GB RAM that came originally in my Acer S5755G with double 2GB RAMs = 4GB, performance increased a GREAT DEAL. Also WEI Ratings went.

Processor: 6.9 to 7.0
RAM: Still remained same 5.9 (surprisingly)
Graphics: 4.7 to 6.8
Gaming Graphics: 6.7 to 6.8
Hard disk: Remained 5.9 (Of course).

So my lowest system subscore bumped up from 4.7 to 5.9. That quite huge.
Image below confirms it.



Also, i could use a little lecture on RAM Speeds cause i'm sure i saw something like 10600 on the new RAMs i put in.