880m Overclocking like a Beast HELP

Hey everyone, I'm new here. I've been reading this forum though for almost a year now though. I just didn't make an account till now because I'm having some issues and I am needing advice and help. I have to give big creds to Mr. Fox and Johnksss for all their hard work and things they have helped me with just by reading. Very Knowledgeable guys!

Anyways, here's my issue- I just bought a new Sager/Clevo laptop with the 880M. My cpu is the i7-4810mq. Anyways, I'm very impressed by this gpu, considering I was always gaming on my Wii, lol. Huge leap. Wii U doesn't count. I got a ps4 and wasn't impressed for games like bf4 so I decided to get a laptop. I custom built it with the intention of overclocking. I chose Sager because of it having two cooling fans vs one big one. I ordered from xoticpc and paid extra for the copper cooling upgrade, along with IC Diamond thermal paste. I got a cooling pad but ended up making my own ghetto homemade cooling pad that lowers temps under full load by about 6c degrees.

Under full load playing maxed out games and so on, The peak temp only gets up to 68-69c degrees. even with a mild overclock to 1050mhz. I obviously have a ton of thermal headroom. My problem is, if i raise the speed anymore, the drivers crash and games stop. I assume that i need to increase voltage from what I understand about overclocking. The only problem is, The voltage controls are locked and I can't change anything. I spent extra for overclocking cooling and I can't even overclock!

What should i do? so far the 880m is amazing and I want to unlock it's true potential. Can anyone help or explain what to do? Flashing vbios? mods or hacks? what?

thanks, and If a celebrity and mini hero like Mr. Fox or Johnksss would reply, I'd be honored!

also Have a few questions about cpu overclocking, but that's for a different thread I guess

 

You can increase the voltage with Nvidia inspector.

The stock vBIOS doesn't allow you to raise the core clock more than 135MHz above the stock clock.

 

I may be wrong, but from memory, MSI afterburner respects the clock limits, and only provides options up to these.
I personally recommend it, as I have used it to successfully overclock my old Nvidia 415m, 540m, 670m, and AMD 7970m without issues.

This doesn't really help you with your voltage problem, but you should be able to overclock it to the max supported by default.

 

Am I right in saying there is no modded vBios for the 880m?

 

Excuse me?

You have 69°C maximum with a 880M in a CIevo?

I have 91°C maximum with a 780M in a Clevo.

Are you some sort of wizard?

 

i got a ton of upgrades for cooling. i max out at 75c when im not using a cooling pad. the fans are still loud. i want to increase the voltage but cant.

 

Have you tried raising the voltage in NVidia Inspector (probably won't work in other programs like MSI Afterburner) like a previous poster mentioned, from what I understand you should be able to do this. Make sure you right click on the NVidia Inspector icon and choose 'Run As Administrator' though, in order for overclocking changes to stick.

It's well known that overclocking the 880M is a little futile on the stock vBIOS, as it has been proven by JohnKSS (you mentioned) and svl7 that there is severe throttling even at stock settings on the 880M. Overclocking will only increase the throttling issues. Really, you're better off waiting for the modified vBIOS to be released by svl7 in the Tech Inferno forums, here's the link:
NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods - Overclocking Editions, modified clocks, voltage tweaks

They've already created the modified vBIOS, and people are waiting on it's release, I would think it will be released in the coming months.

And here's a link to a review of the 880M that they did, and this talks about the throttling issues:
[Review] Nvidia GTX 880m

I recommend using a free program called GPUz to monitor your clocks, voltage, temperatures so you can learn how your card behaves with any overclocking attempts so you can see any throttling or temperature problems.

 

That's mighty impressive. I've done all I can in regards to cooling upgrades but it still hits 91°C - albeit when heavily overclocked and only in the most demanding of games that hog 95%+ GPU load on a consistent basis. Perhaps we are measuring the maximum temps in different scenarios though?

In anycase, I'd advise getting the svl7 VBIOS mod once it's available. The 780M one works like a charm and really has unlocked the full potential of the GPU!

 

so 91c is a safe temp for a gpu? no crashing or damage? if so thats a lot of headroom for overclocking.

 

Did you try raising your voltage in NVidia Inspector like myself & someone else suggested - did it work? Are you seeing any throttling when overclocking/overvolting?

91 degC seems a little high, most people's rule of thumb is probably below 90 degC for long term use. The lower the temperature the better as higher temperatures mean that silicon degradation is accelerated, especially when combined with high voltage, which creates a physical tunneling breakdown effect (think it's called electron tunneling) on the GPU core which will shorten it's life. In my eyes, below 70 degC is excellent, below 80 degC is good, below 90 degC is passable.

 

I haven't started playing around with it yet, but It actually looks like Kepler BIOS Tweaker works for this card:

 

you cant adjust voltage in inspector yet. apparently its locked still. and i just need this gpu to last me for 2 years tops, then my next laptop will hopefully be 4k

did you take that screen shot? i thought for more voltage youre supposed to move the slider to the left on voltage offset?

 

Yeah 2 years is generally what I hope to get out of my laptops too.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

I did take it. I don't know how accurate the monitoring software is, but it seems like sliding it to the right works.

 

yeah but do drivers crash in actual gaming? whenever i adjust the sliders that far, battlefield 4 just crashes and says driver problem

 

No crashes when playing Crysis 3 at 2880x1620.

 

maybe it isn't getting enough voltage....and since there's no unlocked vbios for the 880m i think you might be SOL!

 

While the slider changes the reported voltage does not so might not be doing anything at all, stays at 1.006V. For serious OC'ing have the voltage and power unlocked if you can.

 

Yes, that's just simply overclocking it too far without enough voltage, simple as.

You said you couldn't change voltage in NVidia Inspector, some people can, it depends on the make & model of laptop you have apparently. If you can't change the voltage in NVidia Inspector, then you would likely just have to wait for that modified vBIOS that I talked to you about.

 

Or you could try different software such as ASUS GPU tweak.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download ASUS GPU Tweak for Graphics cards

 

I've done some experimenting, and the voltage increase is definitely working. I can't really above 1050MHz with less than 1V.

There also seems to be some built-in power limits that throttle the card above certain levels. So, now I'm slowly upping these using Kepler BIOS Tweaker

 

tell me how it goes. ill download it if it works out for you

 

I've gotten rid of the throttling.

All you have to do is change the GPC value from 135 to whatever you want the minimum clock to be, this also unlocks the maximum value by whatever the difference is between 135 and the new minimum clock.

It's also safer to disable boost by setting the boost clock and base clock equal to each other. I increased the power limits by 50% prevent power-related throttling as well.

Now the problem is the voltage. Once throttling is disabled, you get crashing where the GPU would normally downclock. So you have to figure out what you want your minimum clock to be and what voltage it takes to achieve that.

I don't know where the voltage becomes "unsafe", so I haven't gone above 1.1V yet.





Games won't actually run at these clocks, but the low 1100s seem possible.

 

Unless you want to run anything OpenGL related, as unfortunately his 780m vBIOS kills OpenGL support down to basic 1.1 level rendering, which is useless and a slideshow in games (literally 1 frame per second).

I posted over on techinferno forums regarding this, but no one cared; this was a deal breaker for me.... otherwise, it's a nice vBIOS and allows overclocking/overvolting.

 

Honestly guys, I've tried OC this GPU and it's near to impossible via MSI or NI. The base clocks reset back to stock during gameplay no matter what you do in NI. MSI just plain refuses to adjust the memory clock, and as already mentioned, unless you can unlock the voltage, there really is no point in messing around with just the core and memory clocks. I'm also with the rest of the guys here as well. Those settings in MSI are far to high considering you don't have access to any of the other sliders. I would seriously leave the GPU be at stock level until Slv and John release there unlocked vbios for this GPU.

 

so will the kepler bios tweak download help with anything that regards this card? or should i not download it?

 

I really wouldn't bother downloading it. Wait for the unlocked vbios.

 

Oh right, wow, I didn't know that. I'm using one of his vBIOS files for my 670MX, I wonder if mine would have the same problem then. Which games use OpenGL? Am I right in thinking Rage does? That one runs fine for me. EDIT: Yep, Rage is OpenGL, and that one runs perfectly for me.

(I don't really know anything about vBIOS modding, but I don't see why modifying a vBIOS would downgrade OpenGL support, seems bizarre to me).

 

i hope it comes out soon. 880m isnt even strong enough to run some games at max settings. im starting to regret not getting the 880m sli

 

Can't you return your notebook back to the manufacturer, saying it's not fit for your purposes & get a refund? That's normally possible within a certain number of days of purchase. Then buy one with 880M sli, or 780M sli and then use the modified vBIOS to get 880M or better performance levels.

 

I'm sure it's not intentional or widespread with all of their vBIOS's, I can only assume it's a glitch in either the 780m vBIOS or with just the 780m vBIOS on the MSI cards with one of their included tweaks.

I tried five different driver versions thinking it had to be driver related, but it wasn't; it happened no matter what driver I tried. I wouldn't have even know it was a problem except for two games that refused to run with his vBIOS: IL2 Sturmovik 1946 and X-Plane 10, both of which use OpenGL for their graphics. Upon deeper investigation, it turns out that with his vBIOS installed, I was stuck with 1.1 OpenGL. With the stock vBIOS 4.4 was enabled.

A quick way to tell is to install an OpenGL viewer app that will show you what version/extensions you have installed and working. Not necessarily a widespread problem, and won't affect most games, but definitely a problem in some games or programs to look out for when using a modified vBIOS.

 

Cheers for the reply, useful info about using an OpenGL viewer app to check that OpenGL extensions are installed & working, thanks.

 

.......

 

i got my computer to give more voltage to my card, only thing is, it throttles like crazy. downclocks to almost 500mhz which sucks. temperature is still fine though and high 70s low 80s without cooling pads and warm environment. how did you stop the throttling with the kepler bios tweaker? if i use that, will it void my warranty?

 

anyone?????????

 

You're better off waiting for the unlocked vBIOS unless you want to run the risk of bricking your card. If you run the tweaker and brick you card that's not covered by warranty.

 

It looks like a modified vBIOS for the 880M has just been released within the hour! Here's where you can get it (it's in Post #2 of this thread):

NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods - Overclocking Editions, modified clocks, voltage tweaks

I'd imagine there'll be a lot of thankful 880M owners! Will be interesting to see how much of a difference this will make to performance of the 880M.


EDIT: Also the 870M modified vBIOS there too (as well as Kepler 860M)

 

880m is still hot, better when we waiting for rev.2

 

What do you mean still hot?

 

Start flashing those crippled pieces fellas :thumbsup:

 

He means that the core runs hot. I hit 93c today during testing with the unlocked vbios and 3DM11. Not good, but great that the card doesn't throttle at stock clocks now!

 

Did it run that hot before oc or just flashing? Will I notice gaming performance gains or is this just good for benchmarks?

 

My laptop was running pretty warm if I overclocked at all. I saw 85c at times during gaming with stock clocks. I probably need to look at my cooling and repaste the GPU.

 

I am running low 40's at idle and around 70c gaming on my 880's. Did you notice a bump in fps while gaming? And how do I know if I am having throttling issues? I run a monitor while gaming and never see drop below 954Mhz and in fact noticed that even when I am not gaming its sitting at 993Mhz while on the forums.

 

993Mhz is the maximum boost you 'should' be seeing. So, by using the modified vBIOS I would expect your GPU to sit at 993Mhz while gaming, without downclocking. Of course the modified vBIOS allows you to overclock past the core +135Mhz restriction, and also enables you to overvolt, you use a program called NVidia Inspector to manipulate settings like: voltage, power throttle limit, temperature throttle limit, and of course overclock frequencies. (So, this vBIOS should improve your fps in most gaming scenarios - no downclocking, and ability to overclock reliably).

 

OMG here is the modified Vbios for 880M ???!!! mine is a 4gb , when is coming the vbios for gtx 880M 4gb!!! i can't wait.

 

does this modified Vbios disable gpu boost?

 

My 880M sits at 993Mhz while benchmarking and gaming with the vbios mod. So it's pretty much always boosting.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

nice!! you should be close to 9k on 3Dmark11

 

i hope slv7 won't forget 4gb owners. i realy need it for rome 2