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    Overclock/power consumption

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by unkoman, Jul 11, 2006.

  1. unkoman

    unkoman Newbie

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    I'm planning to OC my 7900gs but have a question about power consumption. If I don't increase the voltage to 1.24v and clock the card higher than the default clock, will it eat up more battery?
    Thanks
     
  2. Ice-Tea

    Ice-Tea MXM Guru NBR Reviewer

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    Yes. And because I'm not allowed to post less than 10 characters: absolutely.
     
  3. sample

    sample Notebook Consultant

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    can u post a guide for me :D
     
  4. Final_Spirit

    Final_Spirit Notebook Consultant

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    You cannot overclock the 7900gs in the inspiron by normal (software) means. You'll need to flash the bios of the gpu itself to run it at higher clock speeds than normal.

    You'll need to download an iso which has the files necessary for burning a boot disk. There is a user from NBF named Joker 5150 who has created an awesome bootdisk for flashing the gpu bios. You should read through some of the thread here:

    http://www.notebookforums.com/thread157393.html

    The download link for the boot iso is there as well in the first post. After you get the iso downloaded, extract it and burn it to a cd. You should have a ton of rom files with numbers in front of them, ie: 4801100.rom, which is what i run my gpu at. The numbers correspond to the clockspeeds you'll be running.

    To flash the bios itself, reboot your computer, and on the bootup screen, hit f12 to start the one-time boot sequence. When prompted, select Disc Drive, then select the Max Memory option. Another prompt will appear, just hit enter.

    Now you should eventually see R:/ appear. You can now type in the commands you need to perform the overclock. The format will look like:

    R:/nvflash 4801100.rom

    typing that in will begin the process of flashing the bios with the 4801100 rom file, you can type in whatever rom you want to use. There is also a file named stock.rom which you can use to return to factory defaults. For reference, the stock clock speeds are 375/500 (1000).

    Hope this helps. As a disclaimer, you can ruin your gpu through overclocking if done incorrectly.
     
  5. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    Right, and be very careful with overclocking. Any particular reason you need to overclock the Go7900GS? It's an extremely powerful card out of the box.

    Also watch your temperatures while overclocking. If you updated your drivers, then go into Desktop Properties, Settings, Advanced, and hit the Nvidia tab, there should be a temperature thing you can see your temps.
     
  6. scriccs

    scriccs Notebook Consultant

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    Beautifully done my friend. I oc'ed mine a couple days ago using this same method from notebookforums. It was a little confusing and scary at first, but its honestly not that bad.

    Keep the stock voltages and flash the speed you want in the bios. Then test everything and make sure everything runs fine. Id stay below 500 core and 1100 mem with a single pipe just to be safe. I never tested with 3marks, but rather FEAR and HL2 tests. My fear average went up 7 fps and my HL2 jumped up 10 fps from 375 to 450. Id say its a very nice increase and safe.

    Good luck and post your results.

    Anyone think we should make an official 7900gs thread for the gaming forum?
     
  7. hydra

    hydra Breaks Laptops

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  8. unkoman

    unkoman Newbie

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    Thanks for the great infos. Another question; will flashing the bios on the card void any kind of warranty (not damaging the card from OC, just flashing the bios)?
    Thanks
     
  9. sample

    sample Notebook Consultant

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    im kinda scared just got this laptop dont want to ruin it.. wonder if my warranty would cover it
     
  10. hydra

    hydra Breaks Laptops

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    Your kidding right? Why would Dell support any kind of modification to their bios? But don't take my or anyone's word for it, call Dell.

    Happy clocking!
     
  11. hydra

    hydra Breaks Laptops

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    That's good. Be very afraid unless you research and understand just what you are doing ;) I'm sure there are lots of untold disaster strories out there :rolleyes:

    I watch my OC tempertures very carefully.
     
  12. sample

    sample Notebook Consultant

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    its just 7-10 frames :( i dont think its worth risking my machine maybe later on
     
  13. Final_Spirit

    Final_Spirit Notebook Consultant

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    Flashing the gpus bios will not affect the warranty of your system as a whole. However, I'm certain that if you ruin your gpu due to overclocking, Dell will not cover it.
     
  14. sample

    sample Notebook Consultant

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    ya and i dont wanna ruin that. how did you overclock yours i use xtreme g drivers and only get it up a bit
     
  15. Final_Spirit

    Final_Spirit Notebook Consultant

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    Using dell stock drivers, just did what I said in my post, flashed the bios. You don't do any overclocking through the drivers or other programs, as it won't work. I found that with pretty much every driver set other than the dell stock, I got some glitching in CS 1.6 of all games lol.
     
  16. scriccs

    scriccs Notebook Consultant

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  17. unkoman

    unkoman Newbie

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    Is the stock(default) bios included in the rom package, just incase something goes wrong?
    Thanks
     
  18. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    Let's have everyone go to this thread for overclocking the Go7900GS:
    Link.