Why you be gaming on such beasts?

Well if AMD can offer m295x [~970m] performance and overclocking ...and still win on price, then I can legitimately recommend them over the 970m, which is all that matters. If there was a CF version, I could kick the 980m to the curb too.

 

How are the thermals on the r9 m295x? i have heard it runs quite hot a lot of the time so it might not be able to overclock too high.

 

Despite NVidia shenanigans, I would take 970m still. The thermals on 204 are amazing. 154 OC on 980m core, 71C playing Crysis 3 with 99% usage. Simply amazing.

 

I think you're missing the point. It sounds like any Maxwells shipping since the last month or so will have OC locked down completely, so you wouldn't have your nice little OC's your enjoying.

 

I'm not missing the point, my 980M was bios locked on arrival. I'd still take the 970m because it's performance is impressive at stock and the thermals are amazing.

 

OK, just you mentioned about OC which is why I responded as such. I agree that the performance is still very good, just that I can reach close to 980m performance with 970m with a slight voltage bump and temps under 80C. I'll keep my P650SE for now and guess see how the whole OC fiasco pans out.

 

Smaller gaming laptops with high end GPUs and CPUs tend to have cooling and/or cause the fan(s) to go into overdrive which creates an excess amount of noise to keep the laptop cool when playing high demanding games. Of course there are exceptions to it but that's what I've noticed.

 

This is the case. I was looking at my temps at 71 the other night thinking to myself "Maxwell isn't that cool"... but they I realized the fans weren't barely on. They do run phenomenally cool. It's almost eiry now having it play a graphically intense game and be totally silent. Things weren't always this way with my trusty Keplers.

 

71C even with fans on high at perfoamce of 980m from 28nm is still amazing to me. Especially since this laptop is thinner than my previous.

 

Maxwell does great until you really push the chip. For example I got Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition yesterday and immediately jacked everything to their highest settings and fans on max and hit 88C and started to throttle in just the benchmark. Locking framerate to 60 didn't do much even though I was between 90 and 100 average before doing that but kicking AA down to medium SSAA (one step down from the max) and the game runs at a max temp of 75C without the fans kicking up past the very first curve which is to say - quieter than the CPU fan.

It would seem that Maxwell loses its efficiency with a full load and basically turns into an 880M. It's the same story with Bioshock Infinite. It doesn't help that nVidia locked out undervolting on the fly for some reason so the chip uses more voltage than it actually needs (people are pulling 100-200MHz+ stock voltage overclocks which means there is likely ample room to undervolt and save some heat).

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I don't know, I can't fault it on thermals yet. My 980M has never exceeded 75°C in everything I have thrown at it so far. Even whilst using only the auto fan setting and whilst experimenting with overvolting.

 

Which vbios? Svl7s is quite different from Prema's. And it has to be a game to game comparison. I tend to force the absolute max settings I can get, regardless of whether or not it's a noticeable difference (SSAA high doesn't look any different from SSAA medium to me, for example), its just how I am.

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Question: was this with downsampling turned on? I don't have definitive edition, but I don't go below 60 at stock 780Ms using max graphics in Sleeping Dogs at stock 780Ms, and my max temp is around 82... I can't see how your 980Ms are surpassing my 780Ms in heat output and throttling, especially with your dual PSU setup. Your FPS gains over mine also sound like you were at stock speeds?

I can't figure out your 980Ms. Unless the definitive edition is a huge graphical upgrade, of course.

 

It's not. Ethrem's GPUs just seem to run hot for whatever reason.

 

Prema's. I think that's the only one compatible with the non-MXM 980M so far.

I think Crysis 3 at maximum settings, native 4K with all the AA applied is pretty demanding it was about 10fps, after all.

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Definitive Edition has a high quality HD textures pack, I didn't have down sampling on, just everything maxed out.

My luck I guess. It's winter and we don't use the furnace so it's between 65 and 70F I'm the house pretty much year round. I have noticed though that there is not a lot of heat coming out the back of the machine from either card when they heat up - i can stick my hand back there and leave it without feeling any burn while it was toasty as hell with the 880M. Might have to take the machine apart and see what the paste and mounting situation looks like. Or just not push ridiculous AA settings that I don't need in problematic games. Most games run in that 70-75 range with the fans never kicking up so I don't know what to think about it. Maybe the sensors are wrong? It's certainly not transferring the heat into my keyboard which is what the 880M cards did, keyboard gets warm but not uncomfortable at all.

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I think you definetly need a repaste.. I haven't seen 980M's reaching the temps you reach tbh...

 

That doesn't explain why turning the AA down one step runs the cards at 70-75 range without the fans kicking up from the first point on the fan curve. I should grab a stock image and see if the behavior is the same. I'm betting the power consumption goes up which will cause stock to throttle. Prema removed the power limit all together in his vbios. I really should invest in a kill-a-watt at some point.

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That probably doesn't help either... My temps even with fans on moderate/moderately high fan speeds for GPU barely exceed 60C with Svl7's unlocked vBIOS... I can try this supersampling/downsampling is someone can tell me how to set it up.. (Note, I'm using Optimus)...

 

I'm not using down sampling in that game. Just the in game SSAA extreme setting with everything else maxed out.

I'm afraid to try svl's vbios on my Clevo to be honest. I had so many problems with the last one for the 880M - since I was using XTU, the system would randomly not want to turn on and I'd end up having to try two or three times to turn it on and if I used legacy mode, it soft bricked and I had to flash with my M17xR1 to get the cards working again. Now I doubt that would even be an option with the new board layout. I'll leave well enough alone.

Down sampling with nVidia is easy - you make your own custom resolution and then select that resolution in game. Kind of eliminates the need for AA altogether IMO.


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The default game has one too you can download; that's what I was using to play it. Granted I'm sure there's a couple differences between normal and definitive, but not... to that extent of heat. As it stands, your 980Ms at stock appear to be hotter than my 780Ms in a game we've both played using the same settings. It's... odd. You should be FAR cooler, even with SSAA/downsampling.

You also have a far cooler ambient temperature, and with a prop up and max fans there should be no way at all you'd ever get that. Please note: I can't make my slave GPU pass 82 degrees using FURMARK. You can do it by downsampling on a ~15 degree celcius cooler card in regular games.

Also, I would suggest checking the paste and probably using some nice GC Extreme or something. If you want to remove IC Diamond, let it soak for a few minutes before trying to wipe it off in alcohol or Arcticlean. It'll wipe off without resistance or scratching your dies at all if you do so. If you try to use alcohol wipes or something it'll be a disaster.

Finally, my 780Ms even at 90 degrees (well the primary; the slave never got so hot) doesn't seem to transfer heat to my keyboard. I think that might have been a problem with your 880Ms directly. It actually always amazed me how no matter how warm my internals got, my keyboard was always fine, because my D900F didn't do that. It was slightly warm in the 80s and 90s on that D900F.

I believe hitting "exit" on XTU via system tray should kill that restart bug, but I haven't noticed it yet. You could always uninstall it and then reinstall it between flashes; it's on your official driver disc/spec sheet anyway, right?

 

If I get around to it I'll flash back to stock and see what happens. It doesn't really bother me since Prema has built his vbios to throttle at 87C in reasonable increments (svl7s 880M vbios would throttle straight to 400 when it hit whatever the temperature target was set at which would obviously tank performance until it went down a degree and shot back up and it was just up and down, up and down after that) that aren't as noticeable.

As for the bug with XTU, I'll just stick to Prema's vbios rather than risk it.

The heat with the chassis? It's warm when I'm gaming but again, not like 880M.

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Can confirm 980m is much cooler than 880m

 

You don't need to confirm this lol.. No one needs to it.. it's obvious