860m is a Beast

It throttles...

 

Considering the power in a 13.3" chassis it is understandable the cooling suffers. Pretty amazing performance for a tiny laptop.
I am also pushing similar temps now although I did just overvolt my 920xm to 3.8ghz all cores

 

So you are enjoying the beta!

All the newer GTX860M vBIOS use tighter vRAM timings than the older ones.
There is no hardware difference in OC potential between all the Maxwell systems that we have tested.

If everything goes as planned I'll release the no throttle, unlocked core and max voltage slider - overclocking BIOS Mod for the W230SS, W350SS, W355SS & W370SS Clevos within the next 24h...

 

Oh wow, that sounds so perfect. My w230ss is on order, should arrive to me next week Will be Heatspring'd on both CPU and GPU

 

Yes, thanks for letting me try out the beta vBIOS - I'm enjoying it very much. I was glad to donate to this work, especially since it's all volunteer effort, and everyone here benefits from it.

The vBIOS gave a noticeable boost to the memory OC, compared to what was possible with the stock vBIOS (...but I guess that's more related to the type of memory chips used). The actual GPU limit was about the same with the stock / modded vBIOS. I went back and tested again with both, and it's around +300 for both (...without any voltage increase either). Haven't attempted to go any higher, because it's probably just diminishing returns at this point. The highest 3DMark 11 Pscore I've seen is ~6400, which is a substantial increase to what I used to get with an OC'ed 765M (~5000).

 

The Mod also removes throttle and allows you to raise the voltage to 1.2v, just use NVIDIA Inspector...also check your mail.

 

Would you guys mind giving me a quick run down on how to overclock the 860m gpu and tell me the programs you are using? Thanks.

 

Yes, the voltage increase to 1.20v does indeed stick with the modded vBIOS. I sent you a couple of GPU-z sensor screenshots which show that the voltage can indeed be maxed out without any problems, and the increase is consistently held throughout benchmarking.

What was a surprise to me was that at stock voltage the GPU temperature was around 45-50 degrees after a 3DMark11 run. After applying the maximum voltage increase and repeating the same run, the temperature barely increased (...5 degrees or less). When gaming after a long session, I do see higher temperatures in the mid 60's on the GPU, but that's with a fairly significant overclock (+200 core / +600 effective memory). Compared to the Kepler GPU's that I've previously used, the 860M seems like a good improvement in a variety of areas.

 

So you NEED the BIOS mod to push past +135mhz? I have the P34Gv2 and with afterburner it can go max +135 but I KNOW it can do more

 

Jep, as the core OC limitation of max +135 MHz as well as voltage restriction is defined in the vBIOS you need to modify it respective need an already modified vBIOS with the anulled restrictions.
Don't know if this is done by prema amongst others...?

On the other hand i don't know if that really brings noticeable benefits, as the further improvements generally don't get so much higher... (think maybe another 5% or so...?)
Maybe it's more beneficial to clock the VRAM higher and therefore leave the core clock on +135 to leave enough potential for the VRAM overclock as this could rather be a weakness of the 860m because of the small 128bit interface...?

But feel free to test different settings out. Looking forward to your results, Sebi!
Do you have an idea, when we can expect your repasting and OCing video?

 

Is there any side effect for overclocking a gpu? Sorry guys im a noob in terms of OC

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As long as you stay around 90C when overclocking (long term), the silicon and the other components in your computer should stay healthy. Shouldnt be a problem to go above that when just benchmarking though (short term). There are sensors on the GPU that shuts down the computer if you exceed a limit to protect it.
The side effects with OC is higher temps, higher power consumption and maybe more noise.

 

Alright, using an unlocked vBios... here are the max overclock scores I've been able to maintain. While I can hit +300Mhz on the core, I get better scores when I back off the voltage and core clocks to +280 because it appears to actually maintain the boost. When clocked to +300, the GPU hits 83-84c and it appears to stop boosting until its under 81 again. Thus, my best scores were with +280 Core and +510Mhz Actual mem (1020Mhz Effective), and I needed +280mv on the core to get there. Any more voltage than that, and it wouldn't maintain overclocking boosts at all. (I actually got lower benchmarking scores with the previous overclock of +200core/+500mem +350mv than I did on stock voltage because average boost was only +145). This seems odd to me because it wasn't boosting properly even when temps were below 80.

Anyway, here are my scores:
Firestrike: 4605 (4996 GPU)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/3163783?

3dmark11: P6275 (6071 GPU)
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/8380294

Interesting note: I had a P6104 3dmark11 and ~3800 Firestrike score on my P150em with gtx680m two years ago. That was a 100w card, and this little guy just beat it while consuming 1/2 the power. When maxwell gets a die shrink, it will be incredible. I'm pretty pleased with this, though still a little jealous of the Asus / Sager cooling. :thumbsup:

 

I've had the same experience - sometimes my highest benchmark scores occur with the lower OC values. IIt's probably just a matter of finding whatever the sweetspot may be for your particular GPU, because of how the boost algorithms work. The highest 3DMark11 Pscore I've obtained was 6454 with OC values of +250 core / +700 effective memory. If I OC higher than that, the scores actually drop a little.

 

Is it possible to oc this thing to more than gtx 870m?

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Not likely. 3DM11 score of 6200 doesn't even match 870m stock performance. Unless you get really lucky with your core and vRAM being able to overclock considerably faster and/or able to get your voltage up even higher, even then, not likely to get much higher than stock 870m. The W230SS seems to be limited to 1.20V max, so only a 0.05V voltage increase, so you won't get much faster, although there's plenty of thermal headroom for more.

In any case with Prema's vBIOS released yesterday:

3DMark11 P6459 (graphics: 6199): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7 4900MQ,Notebook W230SS

3DMark11 X2080 (grpahics 1870): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7 4900MQ,Notebook W230SS

3DMark FireStrike 4662 (graphics 5064): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7 4900MQ,Notebook W230SS

Here's temps and peak GPU info throughout the testing:

Spoiler

 

Impressive scores nevertheless, HTWingNut.
What are your OCs on this? Is the voltage limit restricted by the laptop manufacturer or the nvidia gpu itself?

If you have a lil bit time, could you maybe run some integrated game benchmarks like Metro LL, Hitman, Thief, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite or what you own at all once with stock clocks/voltage and once with your OC and post the min, max and avg fps (or easily the screenshots)?

Would be great to compare with stock settings on the one hand and on the other hand with the 870m's results (for example from notebookcheck) as well.

P.S. I linked the games to the notebookcheck benchmarks(settings) for orientation.

 

You can see clocks and some more info on the above 3dmark runs here (expand spoiler tag): http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...18-prema-bios-mod-review-150.html#post9676728

I plan on running the gamut of tests I ran on the 860m originally here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...ger-np7338-clevo-w230ss-review-htwingnut.html

Maybe I'll add Thief to that list.

 

But it can come close to 870m i guess seeing from your result in 3dmark11 right? What tools did u use to oc the gpu?is msi afterburner a good one?


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You can use Afterburner, but I've only been able to change the voltage using nVidiaInspector ( currently version 1.9.7.2)

 

Anyone else having issues updating to the newest drivers and it says "incompatible driver detected" or something along those lines?

 

Hi everyone, here's my results with my w230ss with a 4702mq :

This is the extrem limit before I have artefacts on 2 runs of 3Dmark11 :

Voltage : +400,0mv GPU : +270 Mem : +350 MaxTemp : 77° 3Dmark11 : P6414
Voltage : +387,5mv GPU : +260 Mem : +350 MaxTemp : 77° 3Dmark11 : P6376
Voltage : +356,5mv GPU : +250 Mem : +350 MaxTemp : 64° 3Dmark11 : P6320
Voltage : +300,0mv GPU : +240 Mem : +350 MaxTemp : 64° 3Dmark11 : P6302
Voltage : +000,0mv GPU : +000 Mem : +000 MaxTemp : 63° 3Dmark11 : P5343

So for me, the best choice is :

Voltage : +356,5mv GPU : +250 Mem : +350

Thank you Prema, you did a great job I have a true PS4 now

 

Now I want to flash my GPU bios to have everytime those frequencies. How can I do it ? I already did it with an old desktop G92 but I don't know if there's a difference for a mobile Maxwell. Thank you for your answers

 

Ah, yes. The spoiler tag. My fault!

Thanks for running your whole bunch of tests again with your Prema Mod OC. :thumbsup:
I'm a bit confused about the min fps though, which in some cases were on par or sometimes even a bit lower than on your basic OC measures and in one case (thief) even under stock settings...
Can you explain that?

As a non-expert in this topic i don't understand technically why the performance gain isn't completely stable and constantly and why there a some drops in the (min) fps down to lower and therefore actually slower clock rates, as the higher clock rates at core and vram simply should mathematically result in a higher performance? But why is it not faster constantly in every situation?

Edit: For everybody who wonders about which tests i'm talking. HTWingNut kindly added his latest benchmarks with the Prema Mod OC to this post, for comparison with his former basic OC and stock measures.

 

Note that there are only really THREE true steps with voltage. 1.15V = stock, 1.18 = intermediate, 1.20 = Max. The slider really only represents one of those three voltages. At Voltage = +356.5mV if you look at GPU-z max V for the GPU is likely 1.2V. And with such a small voltage increment, I'd say bump up to max that the slider it will allow to ensure a solid 1.2V.

Yeah, min FPS are a bit of a mystery, If you plot the true FPS though you will see the trend in general shifts UP linearly, so your overall experience is improved.

 

So I have the Y50 with the 860m and I'm sure there is no custom BIOS.

What is my best program for OC'ing and what settings should I play with? I have been using MSI Afterburner and increasing the core clock to +100 and memory to +300

 

Are we ever going to see unlocked clocks and voltage for the Kepler 860M? I'm able to do a bit of tweaking with Kepler Bios Tweaker, but it's a big pain to flash and test over and over. This is on the P150SM-A.

EDIT: Nevermind, figured it out. P6465 with 1125 core (+210), 3100 mem (+600), and +75mV (1.05v)! And who said the Kepler chip was inferior?

 

PM me!

For Kepler cards vbIOS check out THIS thread:

 

Very good scores, Wulfy.
+75mV seem a bit much to me though? How much did your temps rise in comparison to stock voltage? (of course the P150 has more than enough cooling power though )

Would you mind running some more tests for comparison with the maxwell 860m and for comparison with your stock clocks/voltage?
Especially some of the tests HTWingNut did (Firestrike standard graphics score, Ingame benchmarks like Bioshock, Tomb raider, Thief or Metro LL would be appreciated.
One thing what would be quite interesting to see, is whether the OCed kepler 860m has the same occasional drops on the min fps values as well as seen in HTWingNut's 860m game benchmarks...

 

The min FPS in certain games is probably another component that can't catch up, maybe CPU...

 

Exactly. My min FPS in Battlefield, PlanetSide 2, Rising Storm, and other CPU-bound games don't increase with GPU overclock.

 

After an almost maxed out BF3 round in my Apache pro my 860m only hit 70°.

So, I guess I can easily overvolt it till 80's, can I?

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I'd be more worried about CPU temps in BF3.

 

HAHA I agee... BF3/BF4 have a tendency to kill my CPU... My CPU easily reach 85 - 90C but my GPU sticks to 70C ....

 

And can anyone of you guys explain that? An i7 shouldn't be a bottleneck in the performance region of a 860m i guess? And even if that would be the case, why are avg fps higher with the OC but not the min fps? If the cpu would be the limiting factor, than the avg fps wouldn't benefit from the OCed gpu...?

 

yeap a i7 4700hq is eq to a 2600k desktop, so it should be more than enough with a 860M

 

Because PlanetSide 2 is not a well multi-threaded game at all and bottlenecks on a single CPU core. Same goes for Rising Storm. Battlefield is multi-core optimized but it's just very CPU-heavy in general and nearly maxes out my 3630QM at times, causing FPS drops.

CPU is the limiting factor for min FPS, but if the benchmark is not hitting that CPU bottleneck often, then a GPU OC will still raise FPS everywhere else, which will increase the average and max FPS.

 

Probably not, as I don't know any 2600K owner who keeps his at stock.

 

Thanks for the clarification, Octiceps!
But the min fps can be gpu limited as well, can't they? I mean in very graphically demanding scenes, the fps will drop although there maybe isn't much stress to the CPU...?

If you take a look at notebookcheck's watch dogs benchmark (which i would consider as CPU heavy as well?) the 860m has significantly lower min fps values on max settings than the 870m (14 vs 22) (the graph under "Resultate"). By itself expectable, as the 870m is a stronger graphics card, but if the CPU would be the limiting factor for min fps, then shouldn't these min fps be around the same, as both are equipped with the same 4700MQ...?

 

It depends on the game and settings. At max settings, I would very much expect Watch Dogs, and most games for that matter, to be GPU-bound. I was simply remarking that min FPS in some situations might not increase despite GPU OC because of bottlenecks elsewhere in the system, usually CPU.

 

I was experiencing some cpu bottlenecks when playing bf4 with my 4700hq and still having some programs running in the back ground. They can even be windows services. For example, fps would drop to 20-25fps like clockwork every 5 minutes when my windows background would change. Other big offenders were outlook downloading new messages, my displaylink software, windows defender, and office updating.

 

I dont use win defender because of it's huge ressources needs, kill outlook before gaming, office updates ? never and use NOD32 as an anti viral suite it's deactivates auto when you run s.th on full screen

 

Part of my problem is I don't run things on full screen. I prefer windowed borderless to alt-tab out of things easily.

 

Can 860m run bf4 assassin creed in ultra?

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I'm assuming you mean both BF4 and Assassin's Creed.

BF4 you can run Ultra, sure. Not sure why you would online because you'd be at a disadvantage, but yes you can.

 

Yes i mean bothh , how about creed can it run on ultra?im really hesitating between 860m or 870m. In my place noe the difference is just 200 dollar is it worthed?

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I think it's worth it for $200, but that's just me.

Beamed from my G2 Tricorder

 

Any chance for a modded BIOS for the P34G v2? It also has the 860m maxwell and I'm hoping to get it to beat 870m scores

 

Since 860m is a directx 11.2 GPU, does that mean this card would perform much better in windows 8 then 7?

 

This Card is a beast:

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/2284296

+250mhz on the GPU and +375mhz VRAM (msi afterburner reading)

This is a huge increase vs the 765m I came from:

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/682686


This thing is faster than a GTX 580 (desktop card) stock.