nVidia GTX 780M Benchmarks and Overblocks (vBios, Afterburner, eVGA etc)

Here's what you do:

1) OC the core only (leave memory at stock) till it crashes, then downclock till it is stable while altering the voltage as needed. - Make a note of the clock speed.
2) OC the memory only (leave core at stock) till it crashes or you see artefacts, then downclock till artefacts / crashes are gone. - Make a note of the memory speed.
3) set your core and memory clocks to the clocks you found in 1) and 2) and test for stability. if it crashes then adjust your clocks accordingly.

 

I see . So when your finding your max core overclock that's when you up your voltage to see how far you can go . Then once you find good stable core overclock you see how high you can go with memory.

Maybe if there is a thread somewhere about proper overclocking with voltages and what not maybe someone could point me in right dirrection.

My curiosity into this overclocking stuff is driving me crazy lol.

 

it's mostly trial and error so you'll be sitting for a while running tests and doing adjustments. maybe overclock.net has some guides but for the most part my 3 steps is the basic idea of what you need to do though guides will go deeper into how big your increments should be. some say to increase in 10MHz increments and decrease about 5MHz increments till you get stable.

 

Thanks for answering my questions again theghosts.

I have another one.

What do you guys have on the backside of your GPU's. I installed the 780m I got from a member but don't have anything on back of card except xbracket. Those of you that bought the alienware 17 with 780M installed did it come with anything on back of card besides the xbracet. If so what and where can I get it.

 

i haven't looked since all i did was repaste and that didn't require me to move the gpu around.

 

Can anyone with alienware 17 with 780M tell me how there gpu came padded from the factory. Was there anything on back of card besides xbracket.
Thanks

 

mostly the ram chips are padded and anything about the horizontal line of ram chips is also padded. probably should have taken a photo when i was repasting

 

Thanks for your response. I know I'm good on the top of the card. It's underneath that i'm curious about. I have Googled and read page after page of forums but odly enough no one ever mentions the back of the card. Even in youtube videos. Reason I'm curious is the eurocom video were the guy puts the black square with pads on it under the 980m before he inserts the card into the slot. I was just wondering if the 780m came from dell stock with pads under the gpu for the memory.
I know it's simple enough to add the pads underneath if I want .

 

maybe you can check an install video and see if they hint at the use of thermal pads at the bottom though i would think that there would be a gap between the bottom of the GPU and the rest of the PC not to mention it's looks like it's on mounting posts. but yeah have a look at some install videos and see if they hint at it.

 

I finally found one by mrfox but it was on his 18 gpu repast. On the back of his card it has X bracket with two ears coming off it to cover the memory chips underneath the card. My card only has a x bracket and memory chips are exposed on back of card. I called dell last week and order the original heatsink assembly for the alienware 17 with 780M so hopefully it will come with the proper x bracket also. It already shipped so should have it by monday or tuesday. I can run my 780m with slv7 moded bios stock all day long with my 2 pipe heatsink and no pads on back of memory chips but if start overclocking to 1006/6000 with overvolting card is very stable just the temps run about 82 and if I run it like that for a while it creeps up to 84 Wich I guess still ain't all that bad but I would rather it be in the 70s.
Once I get proper heatsink and padding sorted out I think I will be ok. If not i will take your advice and make custom fan tables with hwinfo.

 

is the 82 deg C at idle or at load? Just humor me and see if a constant airflow works with a 2 pipe heatsink for only about 1-2 hours and see if there's a noticable temperature drop in the GPU. you may as well do it with the CPU as well.

with constant airflow i'm seeing 30-35 deg C if i set the fan table to spin at max at anything over 35 deg C with a 3 pipe heatsink - before i was seeing in the 40-45 deg C without constant airflow. Load temps should stay under 80 with constant airflow but some games can push it into the mid 80s and i don't like that.

just run it for about 2 hours and see if constant airflow makes a dent in the temps and i believe it will. I want to see if there's a difference in temps between a 2-pipe heatsink and a 3-pipe heatsink at idle and at load with constant airflow - and i think you're the person that can answer that.

if....

idle temp (without airflow) > 2-pipe idle (with airflow) > 3-pipe idle (with airflow) = 3-pipe heatsink is a must.

report back when you get something.

 

82c is at full load. With 1006 core and 6000 memory and 1.037 volts.
I will try your hwinfo settings for fans and run it for an hour or so and let you know what happens. Can I leave the cpu fan on auto and just tweek the gpu or do I have to adjust both. Cpu stays at 68c -71c usually below 70 so cpu ain't a problem. I guess I'll figure it out while I'm messing with it. Anyway I m going to bed pretty soon I will give it a go first thing in the morning and see.

 

provided if you allowed HWinfo to read the EC sensor, you must disable EC support first otherwise it will link both the CPU and GPU to the same fan table - you don't want that. Disable EC support and you can set the CPU and GPU fans independently. setting them independently means you can have the CPU at system auto and the GPU with a custom fan table.

i would be interested to see what temps you get with constant airflow. the only downside is the noise levels - if you want a cooler pc then that's the sacrifice you gotta make.

 

You know wats crazy is the only time I've ever heard my fans running at full speed is when I flash my bios. I've never heard them get that high no matter what the temps are. What's up with that. Shouldn't they go all the way up to keep your compenents cool

 

in normal operation it should spin up at boot and stop when at idle for some really stupid reason...i have no idea what the exact fan tables are in the BIOS and that's annoying. what makes it harder is that i have fans spinning from the cooling pad and their noise dilutes me ability to tell if they are spinning at all.

the fact that you're not noticing the fan speed increase relative to GPU temps means that constant airflow is all the more important to get running.

i'm used to having constant airflow so but enabling this it put my mind at ease when it came to GPU temps.

do your tests when you're ready and report back then. if you gotta sleep, you gotta sleep!

 

I'm not at my computer but according to your guide the cpu fan goes up to 4600 rpm and the gpu fan goes up to 3400. Why didn't they just put a cpu fan in both sides

 

the RPM is set in the BIOS and not by the fan itself because I have a 3CFM fan that replaced a 1.4 CFM fan an they're both spinning at 3400 RPM....so yeah, there's BFA you can do to change the RPM unless Aliwenware unlocked it in their next BIOS update.

i'd love to have both fans spin at 4600 RPM but that ain't happening without Alienware.

 

Ok I'm trying to get hwinfo to control fans but it doesn't want to work . Mine doesn't have two separate controls for cpu and gpu .there greyed out and can't change them. Theirs one at the top for fan 1 and two together. But whatever I put in there doesn't do anything. When I click on fan control my gpu Temps slowly climb up and I have to reset computer to fix it . And this is just sitting at desktop. ????

 

It means you didn't disable EC support and allowed hwinfo to read the EC sensor.

I refer you to this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-17-m17x/767019-change-thermal-paste-clu.html#post9858920

 

Yes that was the post I was following I disabled the ec support like you said but I don't have same options. Do I need to restart computer after disabling ec support.

 

You said to make sure you alow dell ec to be monitering but there nothing there.its blank. When I click on it it says disable to I'm guessing it's monitoring it I just don't see any values

 

Ok now I got two separate fan controls fan 1 and fan 2

 

I will copy your profiles and try again.

 

cool, reboot if you need to and share your temps when you're satisfied. you probably don't need to reboot.

also, you'll need to go into hwinfo64.ini and add "OpenFanCtrlMin=1" to the bottom of the file - this will allow the fans to start at boot.

 

Next to fan 1 and fan 2 it says set manual ,custom auto, and system auto. If I set fan 1 to system auto will it just use my system bios for fan control for that fan .

 

select custom auto, that will give the tables you need as per the post.

 

Ok here is what I have noticed. With the tables you provided in your post. I makes a good impact on cpu temps. With the fan wide open . And lower idle temps as well. But cpu was never a problem before so I set that one to system auto because the fan noise to temps is good there average 62c-65c and fan isn't running full blast all the time.

Second is gpu fan . With Fan Wide Open It Does Lower Idle TEMPS on gpu but I didn't see a problem with idle temps before. As far as in game temps seem to be the same and the air coming out the back of gpu fan seem same as before. So it seam my gpu fan is already using max fan when gaming when using my system fan settings.

 

On your system is the gpu fan considerably quieter than the cpu fan both at full speed. Probably due to the rpm difference.?

 

probably maxing out the 2-pipe heatsink.

 

Yea that's what I'm thinking. Plus not having anything on the VRAM chips on back of card.
At least we know someone can use a 780m with a 2 pipe heatsink even with slv7 and jonksss moded vbios without issues. When you want to start overclocking to max potential you definatly what the three pipe heatsink with proper xbrace on the back to cover VRAM chips.

 

well, with a 3-pipe heatsink you should be able to stay under 80 for most games. dragon age inquisition won't even hit 60 deg C for a decent chunk of time though i am running the game at 30fps and that will attribute to low GPU temps (it won't stay at 60fps anyway so i am not bothering). But for the most part you should be able to stay well under 80 deg C - unless you're benching.

i suggest tweaking the fan tables to your needs when you receive the 3-pipe heatsink. if you think 40s for an idle temp is fine then adjust accordingly. the idle temps i am getting seem to be the lowest it can go on air cooling.

 

Thanks again for your help theghosts.
When I get my heatsink and everything setup proper I'll post the difference it made here.
I'd say good buy until then but I'm sure I will come up with more questions before then .

 

I remember you said something about getting a 3cfm fan. Was that for you're 17. What is the stock cfm for the fans in the 17 cpu and gpu.

Was also wondering why everyone is modding there fan profiles with whinfo. Is it for lower idle temps.

I noticed your profiles for cpu are 4600 and gpu 3400. Is that the fans max speeds.
I used hwinfo to monitor my fan speeds during gaming out of curiosity and my cpu is 4300 at around 70 and if it goes to 73 or higher it goes to 4600. And gpu at 72 runs at 3400 and at 73 runs at 3500. So it seams stock fans settings are already using max fans so don't see the need for custom fan profiles other than lower idle temps.
Is there a higher cfm fan replacement for our gpu fan that is just swap out and replace without modding.


Edit: I see how a better heatsink that could move a little more heat would benifit from max fans. It would keep fans at max at little bit lower temps for even better cooling. Once you max out your heatsink potential max fans arnt going to gain you anything because there already running at max fans at that point.

 

The fans on the Alienware 17 and 18 are crippled due to Dell's bios (Ec) policy. Fans run at the right speed as they are intended only during flashing the bios. All Alienware laptops could run cooler if we had the possibility to control the fans even with a software update (bios) with Hwinfo64 or an added feature Dell could made for this in Alien Command Center. If we had the right speed of the fans and applied Liquid Ultra on cpu and gpu would The laptops run 15-20 degrees cooler under load ..

 

i think the CPU is 1.4 CFM and the GPU is 1.74 CFM.

the CPU and GPU fans only have 3 states off, low (2000), or high (3400-3600 for the GPU and 4600 for the CPU). while they may be spinning at load they're off at idle and i think the built-in tables aren't well set as they don't kick in at the right temps to keep it down to my liking.

while playing games, i see about a 10 deg c drop with constant airflow than on the system tables, so it's shifted the range of the operating temps down rather than expanded the operating temp range.

 

Can one just buy the same fan for the 17 but a higher cfm. Or is the heatsink the bottleneck in this situation. ?
I guess if it was as simple as adding a higher cfm fan for better cooling dell would have done that from the get go.but then again some manufactures do some strange things.

 

the difference between a 1.74 and 3 CFM fan seems minimal, i will have to get a 11.4 CFM fan from a dedicated source before I can test for sure. my guess is there might be a threshold as to whether higher CFM fans can do an even bigger dent in temps.

 

Dell can not even fix a decent fan profile. If I start up Windows maintenance goes load on my oc processor at over 60 watts in no time. Should I run a virus scan starts load direct of 70 watts. The fans do not reach and start before the temperature has firmly down again after many seconds. This is perverse ...

 

Thanks for responses guys.

Maybe could you guys that are or were running the 780m in your alienware post what overvolt you were running the gpu core at for a stable everyday overclock. Not for pure benching but everyday overclock. Just to get an idea of everyone's everyday overclock.
Thanks

 

what they should have done is make 2 tables: 1 for the BIOS / UEFI and another for when the OS is in use and give us full access to the OS fan table.

 

I can see now why you guys run custom fan profiles now. I noticed in a few games that temps rise faster than fans start compensating . It will level out but initial start of temperatures aren't good. If fans are already spinning at max then it isn't that much of a problem anymore. Learning a little more each day thanks.

 

once you get the 3-pipe heatsink you should see something comparable.

 

It had been a quick fix and made an additional setting in Alien Command Center to let fans going to originally max speed. Such fans are running under flashing the bios. Those who want silent fans could only omitted and pressed the fan button in Alien Command Center ..

 

though i don't understand why they don't have fans running constantly? i expect it coming from desktops.

and that's a problem so having airflow constantly counteracts that rise.

 

So the fans can actually run higher than they are set to run. Like flashing bios fans go higher than 4600 cpu and 3500 gpu. But dell has them maxed in 4600 and 3500 in everyday use. How stupid is that.

 

Although Alienware has the best cooling solutions for laptop's, they should do as Clevo and MSI; They have poorer cooler but they have at least the ability to run the fans at full speed they are meant for with a turbo button for the fans ..

 

Cpu fan is running at 5300 rpm under flashing the bios but is throttled down to 4600 rpm in normal use. There are 13% higher than we can use as they are today. The temperature had gone down by 8-10 degrees under full load if everything had worked as it was intended ..

 

let us know how you go with the new heatsink!

 

Will do. Package now shows delivery on the 6th. Darn holiday delays.

Another guestion.
In invidia inspector my power and temperature target slider is set to 100%. It shows it from 0% to 146%. What exactly is that for?. Should I just leave it at 100%?.
Haven't fiddled with that one yet .lol

 

from what i've been told if you're gonna oc then you'd need to max it out.