Overclocking 8400m/8400GS Help requested...

Hi and thanx ahead for anyone willing to tke on this task.

I have a M1330 with the 8400m and have been trying to learn about overclocking after I was told that my 3dMark2006 was horrid at 1308.

Couple questions if I may first...

1. I am not a gamer but will overclocking improve my viewing detail in general as it enables a higher frame rate?

2. Will/Can it damage my system?

3. Once I set my system, will it remain like that whenever i restart it or does ATITool have to load bhind the scenes everytime to reset it to the new setting??

And just and addem, I watch lots of video and always have a Dell 22" monitor hooked up via HDMI.

So....

1. Downloaded the latest driver which allows overclocking (158.36 from laptopVideo2Go.com);

2. Downloaded ATITools 27b as it is said to be the best forthis task;

3. I am using Vista Ultimate 32 but will be going to 64 in the next week or so; and

3. now I sit here watching a hairy cube turn on my screen...


Any help would be apprciated, even just a snipping tool shot of someones config..

Also...3dmark score and my reg HDtune results posted below; I have a 32Gb SSD if that also helps.

 

No, it will only help in games or 3d rendering tasks.

Theoretically it can damage your system, but as long as you run stability tests and monitor your temps, you'll be fine.

It depends on what program you use to OC, but in general I believe that the OC should take effect every time your laptop goes into 3d mode.

I'm not sure what you're asking here, it sounds like you did everything right. Now you just incrementally raise the sliders for your 3d clock speeds, until it's no longer stable, then you lower them to find your highest stable clocks.

 

K now Im going to sound real new here but...how do I see if the clocks are no longer stabble? How do I determine this?

If I just link my sliders, hit find max core and find max mem would that work?

 

Here is what I am seeing right now...

 

Well, if you want you can use the programs built in "Find Max Core" or "Find Max Mem" features. To do that just click one of the buttons and wait while it finds the max clock your card can handle. Or, you can manually slide the two far left sliders up gradually (I usually do 5 core and 10 mem at a time).

 

Likewise then, am I going to have link sliders together checked???

Trebuin believes this not being checked is what causes the low scores in 3dmark. I believe he wrote about it here...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=160545

 

You can do that if you want to. I personally won't recommend it, because I have no knowledge of the thermal ratings of that card. Personally I always let the GPU downclock itself if it's getting to hot. If you believe that the temps are misreported though, I suppose you could try it.

 

What are good temps for the 8400 series?

This is something that I've been wondering (looking at OCing my 8400m GT).

 

Sorry, I don't think I answered this question. You can hit the "Scan for Artifacts" button, and let it scan for around 5 mins. If it doesn't find any artifacts, it's stable and you can keep OC'ing. If it does find artifacts, the reduce the clocks some and try scanning again.

If you find max core, and then find max mem, that will tell you the max clock speed the core can reach with stock clocked memory, and the max clock speed the mem can reach with a stock clocked core. Most likely if you want to OC both the core and the mem, you'll find that you have to clock them lower than the max, as if they're both at max it will be too hot.

 

Find it all confusing...

There should be a sticky on overclocking made easy for us new to it.

I still dont understand what I should do nor am I sure which bar to increase and how to tell the optimum point or when it becomes unstable.

Wish their was another who has fibetuned their 8400m and could just pass on the overclocking config.

Maybe Im getting over my head here...

 

Here's a tip. Find the optimal clock frequencies in a place wherein the room temperature is slightly hot. Perhaps around 30C. If you try finding the optimal clock frequencies in, let's say, a place with a room temperature of 15C. You never know. Your laptop's GPU might just fry out if you try running it with those settings in a hot place, say over 35C.

 

Just keep increasing the core and mem clocks slight until you run into artifacts. I would recommend running 3dmark to test for artifacts. If you see some then its time to turn your clocks down a bit... It's really quite simple. Also, watch your temps. Notebook GPU's run hot. I guess if you see anything in the upper 90's, then thats a little hot and you should turn things down...