New to modifying CPU/GPU for gaming/heat optimization. Couple questions to raise FPS (y510p, gt750m single, 8gb ram)

Hi, so I posted here on the y510p page but there a tons of posts there and my posts often get drowned :/. I figured I could start my own thread here since this has to do with gaming.

Goals: lower temps, better graphics, mainly FPS

My knowledge of this kind of stuff..3/10

What I've done so far:
XTU, realtemp, hwmonitor, ccleaner
XTU values
- Dynamic CPU Voltage Offset: -111mV
- Processor Cache Voltage: -77mV
- Active Core multipliers lowered to 28,28,27,27
- Processor Graphics Voltage Offset: -77mV

I think those are the only variables I should change. I underclocked CPU so I could undervolt a bit more. Also, at 32x (default), it throttles to 24x because it gets too hot, so I see no point in leaving it that high. Maybe the first couple cores I could actually. Any advice?

Problems I've run into
I put XTU through it's built in stress test and everything goes as expected, although there's a lot of information missing regarding GPU. I use HWmonitor for that.

GPU stress test (5 minutes)
- Graphics Frequency: 1187MHz
- Temp of GPU on HWMonitor: 36 increasing to 45 and peaking there

SC2 4v4 late game (very laggy, lots of units/battles)
- Graphics Frequency: 600MHz
- 60 FPS, steadily drops as more units and battles come into play, until about 15-25 makes it very choppy
- Temp of GPU on HWMonitor: 50-55 after 30 minute game

So if CPU temps are 60-65 and GPU temps are low as well, graphics frequency is only half of what it could be when gaming (sc2), why am I getting low FPS? What's not working or what can I do? I mean, I probably am not getting the whole picture, but it seems like the things I'm checking would indicate I could get higher FPS. Am I supposed to overclock GPU. Did I undervolt GPU too much if at all? (frankly, I don't even know what the settings I changed do aside from dynamic CPU voltage offset)

Any help is appreciated...be patient with me please.

 

Your temps are at 65 or under. That's actually pretty low if you ask me

You can't really do better on graphics unless you change hardware. Try playing around with the graphics settings in your video game

You mention SC2 which isn't a FPS. Do you play FPS'es or RTS'es?

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Underclocking is done in order to save power and increase battery life. It is not done to increase performance. That is overclocking. AFAIK, I've seen some modded 510p BIOSes but I don't know if anyone has successfully overclocked a 510p before.

Now I think your problem is that SC2 is a RTS and RTS'es are usually very heavy on the CPU. If you are indeed underclocking it, you are further handicapping the CPU performance in a game that already is CPU bottlenecked. In a way, the CPU gives the GPU work to do when playing a game. While the GPU does all the heavy work, the CPU needs to figure out what work to give it. If the CPU can't figure this out fast enough, the GPU will be idle at times because it has nothing to do. That is why you are seeing lower clocks. It is a power saving feature that throttles clocks when the processing demand is not that high. When a lot of units come into play, the CPU needs to do a lot of work to remember and process the characteristics of each. this makes the game slow.

Try resetting all the changes you made in XTU. See if that improves performance. Also, have you overclocked the GPU? AFAIK, the GT 750m runs at under 1000 MHz. Yours is 187 over.

 

Oops, yeah meant RTS, although I intend to play bf4 if/when the bugs get sorted out

Ok I set values back to default, and checking the graph, the processor was able to run at 3.19GHz the whole game. Temps rose to about 70-75 though, with no increase in performance. FPS dropped as low as it usually does during those big battles, and graphics frequency still staying low at 600MHz.

So I'm confused. If I was running it at 2.79GHz before, and my computer thinks it could run at 3.19, wouldn't it just turn on the second core? I'm noticing the whole time only 1 core is running at max frequency.

I'm also confused as to why I don't see any difference when it's running at 2.79 vs 3.19. Does the processor just run at max during gaming for no reason?

And no didn't overclock my GPU, but still confused as to why it's only running at 600MHz. What should I try next?

 

Do you even use nv gpu? Check nv control panel, set nv gpu for sc2.exe, run in window and monitor gpu usage, temp of NV gpu during gaming.
While you there set performance profile to prefer max performance.
If temps ok, use TS to prevent cpu throttling.

 

Ok, I selected the nvidia processor for sc2, but before it was on auto select: nividia GPU.

How do I set performance profile to max performance? I don't see that option.

 

why dont you buy a additional 750M?you dont need to worry than about fps cause 2x750m are like 770m if not better

 

I think literally everyone over at the y510p page is reporting temps of 90 and/or higher for their ultrabay 750m. it's also a bit overkill for me.

Am I wrong to assume though graphics frequency = performance? Why is it running at nearly 1200MHz during GPU stress test, but only 600 MHz during sc2?

 

Ok so I changed...

multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration --> single display performance mode
power management mode --> prefer maximum performance

anything else I can do? Still not sure why it's only 600MHz....
And what is single display performance mode? before it was on use global settings which was multiple display performance mode. does that mean like...multiple monitors?

 

bump? considering overclocking 750m to 755m...

 

PSU not giving enough juice i think, or try a modded bios

 

Hmm...how can I check if the PSU is doing it's job properly? Was I just shipped a faulty one?

 

Ok...maybe I am just getting my terms wrong.

I dled GPU-Z to get a better reading of what's going on


Dragon Age Origins Test
XTU Graphics Frequency: constant 600MHz no matter what is running
GPU Core Clock (GPU-Z): 940 MHz
GPU Memory Clock (GPU-Z): 1249.7 MHz

Are these numbers normal for the card?? What is graphics frequency measuring if not core clock or memory clock.

The numbers I'm looking at say
"Core Speed * 967 MHz
Memory Speed * 2000 - 5000 MHz

Does that mean my memory clock is ridiculously low if I'm not even meeting the minimum?

edit: crap, didn't mean to double post...

 

mem speed x4 is real GDDR5 Freq.

 

CPU does the physics(AI) that are displayed on screen, before it hands the graphics work to the GPU it has to fully calculate the physics within the screen *so not all units in the map

if the CPU cannot handle the big battle, it delivers the graphical information to the GPU at a lower frequency, thus causing the frames to drop (if it does handle the battle, then you would be seeing no fps drop, since the fps are determined by the GPU most of the time)

it is normal for the CPU being able to handle the physics at a faster rate than the GPU handling the graphical display, thus we always talk about upgrading our graphics card because most games don't put a heavy load on the CPU, most shooter games only put in a small amount of physics but a high amount of graphical work (so most FPS's are bottlenecked by the GPU, vice versa for RTS)

if you want to check that your gpu is working fully, try it with a couple FPS games to confirm that it runs at full speed, whilst in RTS the CPU caused a bottleneck doing the physics

 

Sorry, what do you mean by that? My numbers just say

GPU clock: 941 MHz
Memory: 1250 MHz
Boost: 967 MHz

It's supposed to be 4x that?

 

Hmm ok. But am I correct in assuming that if only 1-2 cores were being used during the RTS, that my CPU wasn't being bottlenecked because it still had a lot more power to use, and CPU utilization never went above like 40% during an RTS game?

 

forget about testing with SC2, the engine sucks.
I have a laptop with i7 3610qm and 680m gtx and i was getting low fps with too much stuff on the screen. Did some testing, with really a lot of stuff on screen i would get like 10-15 fps, with CPU utilization below 30% and GPU also a lot lower than max, and low temps on both.Changing graphics from ULTRA to LOW didnt modify the fps. If you google it, even people with high end desktops with i7 and gtx 780 have the same issues.

 

The vRAM is effectively running at 5000MHz because it is double wide and double pumped! Don't try to figure it out. Sometimes though the double data rate is reported, and then you'd only multiply by two.