Overclocking the GT 540M

I can't go into details as to the specifics of why your RAM score increased with 2x2GB RAM sticks, but it has to do with your RAM now in dual channel.

Tom's Hardware has a pretty good breakdown of single vs dual channel RAM.

 

I didn't realize this was dell xps laptop section.. I'm new sorry guys. I'm on an Acer Aspire 5750G which has terrible ventilation ):

 

And i'm on Acer S5755G. So we good. No problem. Don't mind these Dell boys. Lol.

 

This is the most comprehensive 540m thread I've come across. The Dell peeps have been great about sharing it - many thanks.

 

This is VERY true. Very. Most comprehensive i've come across. I actually envy the dell XPS laptops. But i'll say. My Acer got some power too...

 

I'm on an Acer too, I feel like acers are budget gaming laptops but man, I swear my acer has horrible ventilation.. I can't even open it up to thoroughly dust it out..

 

Hi all,
Just signed up to say cheers for everyone's info on here. Been really useful in getting an idea of what was realistic and what wasn't. I have an Acer 4830TG, which I didn't think I'd have much joy with, since it's heat dispersion is embarrassing. In the end I've settled on a seemingly stable 820/1020. GPU never gets above 80. Of course the CPU gets to about 98, and I lose my nerve, but it does that with the GPU at stock too. Running Throttlestop and limiting the CPU multiplier to 20 rather than letting it run to 24/28 (turbo) keeps it all in check. It seems at around 2GHz on my i5 that the GPU is still the bottleneck for better frames anyway. So, yeah, cheers guys. Wouldn't have worked any of that out without your help. Crysis 2 is now my b**ch.

 

Also, for the Acer bods out there, it sounds obvious but I bought a decent Belkin laptop cooler pad, and it strokes about 12C off my CPU temps straight off the bat. In a nutshell I can game for hours with the i5 at 20x and the 820/1020 o/c and keep my whole system around the 80-84 mark. Happy days.

 

Hey guys, I've read that for some GPUs, OC-ing the memory clock above 1000 can make the laptop start freezing. I used to be able to OC it to about 1035 (highest I ever attempted) but these days it starts freezing at 990. I'm just wondering if this means that it's somewhat fried.. Could anyone clarify?

I also seem to find that MSI Afterburner is rather unstable on my L502x, possibly because it's a 32-bit application running on a 64-bit system. Are there any other alternatives other than Nvidia Tools?

 

Don't think anything is damaged, otherwise you wouldn't be able to play games at all. I would say it's because of the heat. OC'ing the memory will greatly increase its heat output, and that's usually not a very good thing. Be glad that you can OC your memory that much! OC'ing the memory

I've never had problems with Afterburner, it's never crashed on me. It wouldn't crashed because of it being a 32bit application either. Why would you call it unstable? Does it crash, or do something else?

 

what version are you using?

I am using v2.10 without any issue.

however I had a lot of problems with newer betas, being slow on menus and crashing.

I highly recomend version 2.10 instead other versions

 

540M@890/1080

3DMark 11 --> P1402 3DMarks / GRAPHICS SCORE 1267 / PHYSICS SCORE 3682 / COMBINED SCORE 1245
3DMark 06 --> CORE 11179 3DMarks / SM2.0 SCORE 4862 / HDR_SM3.0 SCORE 4522 / CPU SCORE 3531
PCMark 7 --> SCORE 2156 PCMarks


Lenovo IdeaPad Z570 i5 HD GT540M W7HP - review

 

Alright, hi everybody! This is a bit offtopic, but I figured I'll post it here. It's a long(ish) post, so skip the list below if you don't want to read through the backstory.

tl:dr list

Running the latest drivers 296.10

Specs: 5755G, i7 2670QM, GT540M, 6GB of RAM

Temps shoot up to 98-105 under load

Fan speeds stay near idle under load

Can't run any game without lag(besides Minecraft)

Current clocks are stock, no OC

No fan nor exhaust blockage




I bought the Acer Aspire 5755G laptop in January of this year and it was running 45C max when playing back 1080p video (both GPU and CPU) and 80C under load on high performance plan for the first month. After that, the temps kept increasing and increasing... fast forward to today and the CPU is running 54-57C idle, the GPU is running at 46 idle. I bought this laptop with the intention of playing games such as BF3 on the go(after having a look at videos on YT of the GT540M running BF3 fluently) when I don't have my i7 desktop rig handy and I quickly realized that the fan wasn't spinning up to the RPMs it should. I discovered this because it recently hit 105C under load and shut off. I quickly rebooted the laptop and I heard the fan instantly spinning up as high as it could(and should under heavy load) to cool down the GPU and of course, after a few seconds, it slowed down again to its usual speed.

When I first got the laptop, it ran BF3 at 35-60 FPS@80-85C constantly on low with AA off, which was okay for me since it was playable. Now however, the first minute or two, it stays at 50-60 like it used to and then drops down to 20, later to 15. The temps shoot up to 98 and sometimes to 105, causing it to shut off. The fan problem hasn't gone away and I have the strong suspicion that the thermal compound has just disappeared because I don't have any other explanation to this. And yes, I've done everything possible on the nVidia Control Panel to make the game run faster. I really don't get how I'm struggling to get 30 fps on low meanwhile others with the same GPU are getting the same FPS on ultra. I also tried overclocking it, I reached a stable (but high) temps at 95 with 805/960/1360. It didn't help too much in the long run though. I also reached 9992 points in 3dMark06 with overclocking.

 

have you used compressed air and cleaned out any dust inside your laptop? also, have you tried re-pasting your CPU and GPU?

 

I did use compressed air, it didn't make a difference though. I'm in the process of building a new desktop rig, so I'll repaste them both at some point in the near future.

 

Hi guys, I'm Argentinian and recently got an ASUS N53SV, which specs are:

Intel Core i5 2430m
4gb ram
750gb hdd
nVidia GT540m 1gb
Win 7 64 bits

I have to say, I know NOTHING about gamer notebooks nor their gpus, gpu clocks or voltages.-

The thing is, as I began to use and test the capabilities of my notebook, also checked over a lot of forums about the performance of its hardware, finding a lot of threads talking about latest games running on mid-low graphics in order to achieve a playable amount of FPS. Ok, that was fine for me, since I bought this notebook as a modest replacement of a desktop machine because I have little space on my appartment, so, as I'm a casual gamer (because of my full-time job, not because I don't like it, which I do) the gamer aspect of the laptop wasn't a problem.

But, when you know that you can run a game, you'll always want a better one and with the sharpest graphics... its a fr***ing curse

Anyway, started installing games like Deus Ex HR, FO3, even Rage (wich runs surprisingly smooth even with a high resolution -HD- and graphics settings at high) and finding that it can take some of them quite well, at around 40/50 fps in some cases, with the stock specs. That was until I tried Skyrim, which is the game that I wanted to play the most, even when I already finished it on desktop pc, and, as it have been told before on countless forums, it's really a heavy load for this gpu having to low the res and graphics to mid-low... Another game that forced me to almost uninstall it was Street Fighter IV, since its fully animated backgrounds make it run at around 20 FPS if you happen to have Ambient Occlusion activated on the GPU's global settings, as I did at first until find out.

Obviously, dedicated gpus eat battery in minutes, so, when Windows warns about low battery charge, I plug it, and continue to play while charges (always unplugging it after a while), nothing weird.

NOW, I DO WHAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE THE RIGHT THING, USE IT PLUGGED WHILE I CAN, WITHOUT THE BATTERY.

Also, noticed some performance boosts at certain moments while using the notebook, that I didn't associate to any reason until I gave it real thought and came to the theory that is was WHEN PLUGGED, theory confirmed as I began to use the notebook plugged without the battery, and BAM! ALL THE GAMES IMPROVED THE PERFORMANCE REACHING OVER 60 FPS, INCLUDING SKYRIM AT HD GRAPHICS WITH SSAO ACTIVATED!

As nice and happy this phenomenon is, for me is also worrying as nothing comes freely... So got nVidia Instector, HWinfo, AIDA 64, GPU-Z and began to control the temps (always less than 65/67 celsius max since I don't game without my CoolerMaster Notepal U2 that I bought for this notebook) and the spec that worries me the most, VOLTAGE.

At first, voltages of the gpu were always around 0.83v (pressumed stock), at least when paid little attention. But as I became aware of the potencial problem, find out that when loaded or nVidia Inspector is running, it reaches a constant 1v (!), which was high for me, as I don't know much of this matter. It also ranges from 0.83, 0.86, 0.9x (or something, I'm writing this at work) to 1v.

SO, THE POINT AT LAST: Is it normal? Am I slowly frying my gpu gaming while plugged? I read somewhere in a forum, that someone suggested this gpus have a range of 3 or 4 different voltages for different power requirements, but it was the-only-hint-on-the-entire-internet about it, or stock voltages, everyone talks about overclocking but few about volts.
As I bought this as desktop replacement, and use it plugged without battery, I'm affraid that an overvoltage is causing the performance boost as burns my gpu or other hardware on the background...
So PLEASE, as much as I like the recent performance (started using it plugged w/o battery 3 days ago, and own the notebook for about a month), it also worries me a lot, since there's no thread made to settle this matter, or at least accurate information about stock voltages on this gpu.

Sorry about the massive post, and forgive my crappy english. Thanks in advance.

Victor

PS: If this shouldn't be posted here but on another threads, forgive me, and redirect me to it, please.

 

overvolting shouldn't kill your GPU, as long as the temps remain under ~95C. The GPU can probably handle higher than 100C, but it would just be smarter to avoid going that high.

That said, I believe the GT540M normally goes from 0.83V to 0.95V in its normal operating limits. Check out this thread for some numbers on the GT540M (in the Dell L502x): Dell XPS and Studio XPS Forums - Page 2

So it sounds like your GT540M is working just fine. As for why it performs better without the battery, I have no idea. Battery in or out shouldn't make a huge difference, but I could be wrong. At least for me, I also leave the battery out maybe 75% of the time (my L502x is my primary computer for work at the office and for play at home). At least when I'm at home, I do not find that I get significantly better framerates without the battery.

 

HI, thanks for the reply

And no, as far as I know, there shouldn't be any improvement as its supposed to work with the same voltage, that's why I'm affraid something's wrong... The only thing keeping me using the notebook regardless the issue, are the temps. After an hour and a half playing Rage and Skyrim at high settings (but HD res only) gpu gets to 65 celsius max which I've read shouldn't be troubling, while cpu reaches 80/85 (high, but can't remember exact amount anyway). Of course, using the Notepal U2, so temps might be little higher w/o it.

Forgot to say:

_ Also installed Crysis 2 with Hi-Res pack, HD res, all Ultra settings but Water, hig-res textures activated and Tesselation, running at least at 40/45 fps as it runs undeniably smooth for those settings. The only thing about it is that the graphics look blurry no matter Blur is activated or not, kind of lacks definition.
_ Skyrim runs also at least at 50 fps with all settings high except for FXAA and some settings regarding decals (as I took the inicial settings from a video on Youtube where some guy plays it at 1080p on mid settings)
_ All my drivers are up to date

 

It sounds like your ASUS is running as smooth as it can/should be. 65 GPU/ 85CPU is fantastic. Even with my custom-built cooling pad (thin aluminum frame cut out from old desktop side panel + 3 aftermarket fans), I still get 70C GPU/85CPU these days with the stupid summer heat at 27C.

Given what you've stated, you should be one happy camper (no pun intended, unless you're into FPS...).

 

Cool, so I should be a little conforted then... until it bursts into flames

Here is hot too, in north Argentina. My appartment is pretty cool because of the humidity, but still heat is a troubling factor that I will suffer this summer, for sure. And here, summer means over 45 celsius

On the other hand, is it possible that some error/something wrong with the bios or so make sensors show incorrect voltage/temps? My bios version is 2.14

Or could it be my battery? Undervolting everything?

 

That you will have to ask in the ASUS forums. I can only tell you what I know about the Dells. Usually the BIOS wouldn't be released if it was reporting (to the system) incorrect values. That would lead to some pretty dangerous stuff down the road. I think it is safe to assume that, unless there is hardware damage, the values reported by the BIOS are very accurate.

 

Yes, I got here through Google, since no other thread about this matter shows up on the search results, but I'll try on the ASUS forums anyway, thanks!

 

Just O/Ced to 800/1000 MHz on my ASUS N53SV and I can see a big difference in games, especially in CS:GO. Earlier unplayable with 1920x1080 full settings (no AA, anizo), now works smoothly! Max temp logged for GPU was 70C. Not bad I think.

 

Hello everyone,

Great thread! I have a question regarding the overclocking possibilities of the GT 540m, now, I have overclocked my own GPU to 890/1000 MHZ settings. The only problem I sometimes get is that if I start a game, the driver crashes and gives me the bluescreen. I know that my laptop (ACER ASPIRE 5755G) can handle it since I was able to play games at those settings without crashing before. How can I fix this problem?

Thanks for your help!

 

@biowulff

are you sure games can handle such high OC?

well, also not all games can handle OC similar, directx9 games doesnt like the OC as good as dx10 games does.

also keep in mind a graphic driver update can also affect that stuff, did you updated gpu drivers before you expenced blue screens?

for some reason I found some driver versions works better with OC than other ones

 

Hey! Thanks for replying.

Yeah most of my games that I play (Batman Arkham City, Assasins Creed 2) can handle it easily on max settings. Temperature is a steady 85/7 degrees. I dont know about the drivers tho, I just installed the new beta drivers from nVidia but still no changes. Which driver version would you recommend to me (have 304 right now)?

Thx for your help!

 

well, if just a game crash with that settings, you can try different OC profiles by creating another profile for that game with lower OC settings, I use msi afterburner for OCING with allow up to 5 different profiles.

before I used different OC profiles for games, now I just use 3 profiles (keep in mind I have a gt525m and not a gt540m)

- underclocked profile for save power and lower the heat, (300 mhz)

- stock clocks profile (600 mhz)

- max stable OC for all drivers and games (704 mhz in my case)

not sure about the driver versions, if you are interested on keep your OC stable, you can try with some voltage tweaking, I did some bios hacking on my xps 15 to allow different GPU voltages.

you can try to search on the net if someone already modded your ACER ASPIRE 5755G

 

I finally kinda fixed the issue, instead of 890/1000 MHZ settings. I use 960 MHZ for the memory clock and 960 for the core clock x) and it runs the game just fine . I will think about the OC profiles, but for now I'm going to play those games without those damn BSOD ^^. Thx for your help mate ! Much appreciated

 

pleased to help ^^

well, memory OC generate more heat and it isnt as noticiable on fps as the core OC, that is why I left the memory untouched on mine ^^

anyway nice OC you have there, I wish my 525m could handle at least 800 mhz on core ^^

 

Didn't know that about the memory clock, I might try using factory stock with only the core clock tweaked. You can always sell your laptop to buy a better one ^^ I sold my desktop system to buy this laptop (desktop system was an AMD gaming rig )

 

My Geforce 540m 1GB reduces the clock, even at 750/950 or something , I can somehow solve this problem? My laptop is Acer 5830TG , I use throotlestop to get rid of throttling and help, but gefoce reduces the clock, I have the latest bios and nvidia 306.02 beta drivers, the other drivers were also lowers the clock, I have MSI Afterburner 2.2.3 on other versions of the same thing, sorry for my bad english. Anyone can help me?

 

if your card reduce the clock it can be because it is not being used at all and it enter in powersave status
the another reason is that it detect an unstable OC and it downclock and lock to 300 mhz,in that case system or driver restart required in order to remove the lock.

 

The 540M throttles back when it's about to melt thats 100C or more. So keep it cool and it won't do that. Your ONLY solution is to pull the laptop apart find the fan connector. Using a tiny safety pin pop the tab out on the connector and pull the blue PWM wire... test to make sure the fan is constantly at 5v.

PROBLEM SOLVED MY BROTHER!

 

GPU temperature does not exceed 90 .

 

I've seen it throttle at 75*C and above. Volt mod the fan to keep it at 65C max and you will be 100% fixed.

 

How j can exactly do this?

 

First remove the battery and take a small Philips head screwdriver and remove all the screws on the bottom of the laptop, all covers and the hard drive then remove covers or pop clips to pop up keyboard then carefully remove wires from connectors etc to pop the top panel to reveal the motherboard. Locate the fan and it's wire connector. It should contain say 5 pins. One is blue and is the pwm pin. Use a tiny safety pin pop back the pin holder on the tiny fan connector be extra careful not to brake the wire. Then once u pop the pin holder on the connector the pin should slide out. Wrap wire pin end with electrical tape but u should be fine without taping it at least I was but it could still short. That removes the ability for the board to control the fan based on temps and forces it to 5V constant. This will make your laptop run extra super cool always. I run my Core i7 2720QM 2.2Ghz at it's turboboost clock of 3Ghz always and run my GPU to 800Mhz core, 1600Mhz shader, 900Mhz memory and I see idle temps around 35C on the cpu and gpu and 65C under head gaming load. While playing battlefield bad company 2 i get 60fps constant and I see the cpu and gpu hit 75C while locked down at 3Ghz turbo boost mode and gpu overclock which is out standing. Performance is out of this world and stability is as well.

later

Otherwise find a Service manual for your laptop or go on youtube for a disassembly.

 

thanks for the quick answer, let's start

 

Hey guys, this is my first time tinkering with an OC. I set my core clock to 770 and left everything else stock (worried after reading about memory not having a temp sensor, so I left it alone). So, it looks that i ran Team Fortress 2 just fine, FEAR 2, Arma 2 also. I tried an Open GL game, and within 10 minutes I crashed pretty badly (looping sound, blank screen), and came back with a reported BSOD x124. Anyone know a possible culprit, or what to try?

I haven't had much time to test this clock's stability, to be honest. But it seems that the L502x shouldn't have that much trouble getting to 800 core according to other posters.

 

Hi, I have few question. My laptop is ACER Aspire 5750G, i5 2410m, 8gb or RAM, and GF GT540M.

When I play Counter Strike: Global Offensive sometimes I have fps drops. So I started monitoring my GPU temp etc. I think I have too hight temperatures, while free working it's about 38-42C, but when I play CS:GO it's go to 80-89C (never reach 90C). I tried to OC my GPU and i was shocked. Core clock from 672MHz@830MHz, Memory clock from 800MHz@950MHz (I used MSI AFTERBURN). Temperatures while gaming were same as before OC, never reach 90C. Everythink looks stable, never crashed while playing. But I think it's too hot! What you think?

@EDIT: I've done 3Dmark06 test:
Resolution: 1280x1024
stock config of core and memory: 6356 points
after oc: 6711 points

Resolution: 1024x768
stock config of core and memory: 8219 (3587/3433/2422) points
after oc: 7703 (3446/3218/2159) points (lower than stock!!!)

I feel it's low..

While testing temp was 96C! Too hot I think...


GF 540M Driver ver. 306.23

 

No one can help?

 

I dont think it is related about high temps, my gt525m reached up to 98C with default thermal paste and settings.
if you have fps drops you can try check windows power plan and set it to performance.
check if you have fps drops with other games or just with CS.


in the other hand, if you want to reduce GPU temps, you can try to repaste and or undervolt the GPU via some bios hacking.

on my laptop i did following things:

* repaste
* remove dust filter
* undervolt the gpu by flashing a modded bios

temps went from 95C to 72C and I even have medium/high OC ^^

 

Hmm thought I might add a quick update: I have my card back at 770MHz core, and ran the same game in DX mode instead of OpenGL, seems a lot more stable (completely stable so far). Interesting.

Another minor question: Since I'm a bit worried about temps, would bumping the memory clock have any noticeable effect on performance? I'm still keeping it at the default 900MHz rather than boosting to, say, 1000MHz.

With 770 base, default memory and shaders I'm having decent GPU temps!

 

@supertoast92

well, core OC have the most impact on FPS increase.
I noticed a nice improvement while OCing the core on my 525m, OCing the memory just made the OC unstable and increased the temp.

I would not OC the memory unless you really need it since temp will increase and performance boost will not be as noticiable as core OC.

your choice ^^

 

Thanks for the reply capitankasar!

OCing the memory only to get higher temps and less stability for slightly better performance; sounds like I'll keep it stock then

Might try to push the core instead, keeping an eye on temps of course. I won't be trying for anything more than 800.

 

Actually, I can benchmark on 830MHz core and 960MHz memory with my GT 525M, I gathered 6000 points in 3DMark Vantage :
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2630QM Processor,Dell Inc. unknown score: P6000 3DMarks

My max temp was about 68C, I'm using a different machine though ( sig ).
I also repasted using Arctic MX-4.

 

Hmm...it looks like I can't get 780, so I backed back to 770 core. 780 was crashing one of my games after about 10 minutes of gameplay. Temps seemed fine though. A little on the warm side, 80s.

 

I will give laptop to service to do cleaning inside it....

At now I found fast solution of my problem:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Uploaded with ImageShack.us

No fps drops in CS:GO :> Temp are about 85C (earlier was 95C)!



@EDIT: after using this white big fan results of 3dmark06 test are:

Resolution: 1024x768
stock config of core and memory: 9200 (3921/3817/2882) points. +1000 points.
after oc (gpu 770 mem 900): 10194 (4485/1372/2814) points. + 2500 points.

So, the temperature is main problem of my laptop.

 

Set max 60 fps, and so there is no difference in the game and the laptop surely will not be as hot.

 

@popielasty

hehe nice cooling system

basic but functional ^^