Nvidia 640m LE core clock issues? (Sony Vaio S 13)

Hi, I'm new here, and hopefully I'm following the rules correctly

Anyways, I've owned my Sony Vaio S series laptop for about 7 months now, and I've consistently had an issue with gaming. It comes with an Nvidia 640m LE GPU and Optimus - Optimus works fine, when I start up my games, the Nvidia card kicks in.

However, I've found that after a while, I tend to get incredible amounts of lag, making games almost unplayable. I recently found (through stress testing and GPU-Z) that the reason behind this is due to the Nvidia card underclocking itself. The core clock should underclock to 135 Mhz (from 500 Mhz)when I'm not doing anything intensive, and it does. However, this issue is, it also does this in the middle of games. It will suddenly go back down to 135 Mhz for seemingly no reason, and the game will become too laggy to play.

Is there a fix for this, or even a way to prevent the core clock from underclocking itself? Or would I have to send this laptop back to Sony to be fixed (and hope the technicians understand what I'm trying to say)? Thanks!

 

welcome

what sort of temperatures are you getting during gaming. high temps is one of the main reason that it downclocks.
when was the last time you cleaned your vents and fans out with compressed air as a build up of dust will sky rocket temps.

firstly check that it wont void your warranty removing the base plate as some companys stupidly say it will.

download nvidia inspector and core temps from my sig below and post us your temps while just brousing and then while gaming.

 

I already have GPU-Z set up on my computer, so I just used that to monitor temperature while doing a stress test in MSI Kombuster and while just browsing... as you can see, the maximum temp it reached was only 69 degrees Celsius, so it seems like overheating isn't the issue. You can also see that the memory clock stayed at 900 Mhz, but the core clock jumped back down to ~135 Mhz.

Since the laptop has Nvidia Optimus, it usually isn't using the Nvidia card while just browsing, but I set it to do so anyways..

While just browsing:


While running a stress test in MSI Kombuster: (I set it to show max temp, as that would be more useful)


Also, I'm not sure what exactly "Memory Controller Load" means, but it decreased along with the core clock.

Edit: If you would rather I use the program from your signature anyways, I can do that.

 

a good idea with gpuz is to set the gpu temperature to max. just click on the window.

what are your core cpu temps as well. i always use core temps in my sig below.

you could also try running some benchmarks with futuremark 3dmark, 3dmark11 and vantage and see if your scores compare with other owners. if they are much lower then it shows you have a hardware problem.

no idea why its dropping mhz during gaming so hopefully someone else can advise on that.

 

Oh, I remember I did some 3dmark11 testing a while back and ended up with some surprisingly low scores for my setup. I'm thinking it is a hardware problem, fortunately Sony laptops come with 1 year limited warranty though so I think the best solution for me at this point is to send it in, and hopefully have them just replace the graphics card.

I also found that I couldn't find a single other person who had this problem when searching on Google, so I imagine it must be hardware.

Thanks for all your help!

 

your welcome. hope they sort it out for you.

 

did you set the cooling options to "priority to ventilation" in the vaio control panel?

 

Hi OP, I've had the exact same problem, gpu clocking down to idle after a few mins of high activity (game or benchmark), for a while and after 3 consecutive days fiddling around its now working for me

I have the vaio S13 P (SVS13A190X), i5, 4gb ram, 640m le, 500gb hdd

Symptoms were after as soon as GPU temp hit 69/70 the gpu clock would clock down to ~120mhz from 500mhz

I think what solves it:
nvidia control panel -> (left menu) manage 3d settings -> program settings -> under 1. select program to customize: choose your program to configure (maybe need to add) -> under 2.select preferred graphics processor: high performance NVIDIA processor -> under 3. find Power management mode: Prefer maximum performance -> Apply.

(alternatively I assume you can also set this under global settings instead of only program specific)
(assuming you are on speed mode for the hardware switch)

It seems to removes the 70°C temp barrier. Problem solved for me.

Additionally, like previous poster:
go to start->vaio control center->power management ->cooling fan controls and set to Priority to ventilation for your Speed mode. (can also for stamina mode but unnecessary).

Bf3, 1280x.....@60Hz on Low gets me 50-60 frames on avg dense maps/scenarios with vsynch on, stable Temp after 1hr+ gameplay: 70°C (oh the irony).

Enjoy

PS: didn't need to fiddle with any BIOS flashes

 

hope that reply solves it also for you