GX640 PCI-E x16 @ x1 problem and other driver problems

Apparently the originals didnt have that issue either?

Maybe an app on the web that allows control over PCI lane speeds?

 

I'm posting now to confirm that PowerPlay in Max Performance mode will downclock the GPU to 100MHz while leaving the memory at 1000MHz, but I believe it only does this when the monitor goes off. It's similar to what was posted about the G73JH here.
Unfortunately, the 100/1000 clocks don't seem to bring the idle temps down very much; I think this is because the memory still eats a lot of power at 1000MHz.

On the other hand, Max Battery Life switches straight to 100/1000 as default, and would stay at those clocks no matter what. However, from what I know the GX640 refuses to boot while downclocked by PowerPlay, which means that if you set it to Max Battery Life you won't be able to boot back into Windows.

Similarly, if the GX640 goes to sleep or hibernates with PowerPlay on, it can also refuse to wake up again.

 

So is it in everyone's best interest to just turn off powerplay?

 

Yeah lack of cheese that sounds around right, GDDR5 memory will be completely warming the gpu up because of the memory placement around the GPU,

I'd say its probably best to turn off powerplay and use a manual downclocking method until we can see about fixing some of the useless bugs.

 

I did some further experimentation, and I found the following:
PowerPlay disabled, default clocks: no problem waking up
PowerPlay disabled, 300/300: no problem waking up
PowerPlay disabled, 100/1000: the screen is black when it tries to wake up
PowerPlay enabled (Max Perf), default clocks: the screen is black when it tries to wake up - it's likely that PowerPlay would have forced it to 100/1000 at the same time as going to sleep.
PowerPlay enabled (Max Perf), set with the GPU Clock Tool to 300/300: no problem waking up

As such, I must conclude that the problem is with the 100/1000 clocks and not so much with PowerPlay itself. However, since having PowerPlay enabled can clock you down to 100/1000, it is best avoided, at least with the 10.3 drivers. I'm not sure how things are with the stock MSI drivers.

Besides that, a clock speed of 300/300 caused no problems waking up, and resulted in cooler temperatures than 100/1000. Consequently, if you do want to downclock your card for non-3D purposes and you're using the 10.3 drivers, manually setting the clock speed will cause less problems and give superior results compared to PowerPlay.

The worst possible scenario is PowerPlay enabled and set to Max Battery Life, because this causes the card to default to 100/1000, which means you can't even boot into Windows.

In any case, since the 100/1000 clocks only cause problems, I must highly recommend keeping PowerPlay off in 10.3.

 

Infact, come to think of it lack of cheese, 100mhz on the core clock seems pretty low dont you think?

Maybe repeat again with windows aero disabled (Slap it into classic), i wonder if there is a registry entry we can use to correct this?

 

My gx740 goes into sleep and hybernation without problems now that i disabled powerplay. Still got the black screen issue when i close the lid and re-open.

 

What drivers are you using?

 

newest catalyst control center. dont know about the others.

 

This is what GPU-Z says for me:

 

nice work lackofcheese, guess I'm just using AMD GPU Clock Tool

 

Good work lackofcheese, I've confirmed that PowerPlay is indeed the cause of all the problems. This includes the install problems for the 10.3 Catalyst drivers.

To install any of these drivers, simply disable PowerPlay on your old drivers, prior to uninstalling and then install the new ones.

In fact it's probably a good idea to permanently disable PowerPlay as it doesn't really do any good anyways (since it doesn't downclock the GPU).

Like lackofcheese has suggested, you can find cooler/quieter laptop at lower GPU speeds. However I found using AMD GPU Clock Tool has interfered with my monitor switching. Also it doesn't seem to have any hotkeys/profiles, so you can't do a quick switch, based on hotkeys.

I've found an work around for this, use CCC's ATI Overdrive. We can see that ATI Overdrive won't let you underclock the GPU any more then it's default 625 MHz. However, you can still alter the profiles to set both clocks to a specific value. You first have to create a profile that has Overdrive settings captured, then edit the file. This data file should be located at:

C:\Users\<YOUR USER NAME>\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles

Simply change the following sections:


<Feature name="CoreClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value=" 40000" />
<Property name="Want_1" value=" 40000" />
<Property name="Want_2" value=" 40000" />
</Feature>
<Feature name="MemoryClockTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value=" 50000" />
<Property name="Want_1" value=" 50000" />
<Property name="Want_2" value=" 50000" />
</Feature>

In my example case, I have set my GPU to 400 MHz and Memory to 500 MHz. I've chosen these settings simply because I tried lower and it wouldn't work correctly. It either wouldn't go that low or the GPU would have trouble going back to 625 (to correct this, just change the profile that you originally edited back to 625 GPU and set it again).

 

This should be a permanent solution to this problem. It enables most of the features of PowerPlay (probably doesn't have the true power saving affect of it however ie. undervolt)

Just don't use PowerPlay at all, upgrade your drivers to latest versions, then manually set your clock profiles to what you want them to be.

My laptop is running much cooler/quieter now (@ 56 degrees C), the secondary fan doesn't kick in when at 400/500.

 

downclocking best used when you want to save battery life?

 

Yeah, that's the main reason to do it, along with getting the fans to run quieter.
I'm not sure whether it would make the laptop live longer overall, though, because although cooler temps are good, you're also exposing the laptop to heat cycles if you adjust the clocks up and down regularly.

 

looks like we are able to lower voltages on the GPU by editing

C:\Users\<YOUR USER NAME>\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles

<Feature name="CoreVoltageTarget_0">
<Property name="Want_0" value="0950" />
<Property name="Want_1" value="0950" />
<Property name="Want_2" value="0950" />
</Feature>

after this AMD GPU Clock shows voltage 0,950 V

my clocks are now 300/300
temps dropped from 55 to 53 and i hope this is only begining... now i am trying 0,900 V

greetings from Poland

 

Be careful, wojtal, and good luck.

 

ok you scared me

staying at 0,900 for today

 

i just installed 10.4 and it fixed itself. 3dmarks went up quite a bit.

 

Yeah, we worked out a lot of this quite some time ago. I'm about to test 10.4 to see if PowerPlay still causes trouble at the moment.

 

please do and let me know what you find, I don't think I'll be able to test tonight

 

With 10.4, PowerPlay is still using the 100/1000 clocks, and still had sleep issues with those clocks. I continue to recommend having it off.

 

Yeah, I'd also be a little careful when playing with voltages

 

Wow great find! Definately will try it out. As I experienced with processor, undervolting really helps to reduce temps. I wonder how this will work on my pc with underclocking and how will this affect battery life.

I see no danger in undervolting. It can only make some issues with stability (when voltage is too low). System crash - increase voltage - play further.

Thanks, wojtal117!

 

Awesome find, will try this on the 4850 when i get in, although its cool, i want temps to be phenominal!

 

Should a non computer savvy person like myself, who is going to do a fresh install of Win7 Ultimate 64-bit, bother with undervolting? As long as I install 10.4, and turn off Powerplay, will I need to worry about temps or the 300/300 thingy?

 

Not really. You'll probably want to check on temps under load, but idle temps shouldn't really matter much unless you find the fan to be louder than you would like.

 

I had a problem with my HP laptop, where the fan would be on constantly. It was kinda annoying, cuz other people's laptops' fans were intermittent, depending on the heat I guess. Do the GX's fans ever turn off?

 

No, fan is on constantly. You must appreciate the power of video card and forgive constant fan blowing.

Probably notebooks of other people, who keep their fan (s) off are much less powerful and don't generate so much heat. (as my oldie Dell from work)

 

I certainly dont mind the fan being on, as long as it doesnt disturb people during lectures.

 

it should be pretty quiet when you downclock the gpu and the temp around 51ish. if you dont however, it will be pretty annoying

 

Personally, I don't find it annoying even idling at stock clocks, but even if you don't feel that way it's not hard to change, as aintz said.

 

K, I will come back to you guys for a tutorial on how to underclock, how to keep my temps low, and the like. Thanks for all your help. As I've said in another forum, Time to shop for backpacks

 

Hi guys. I've recently joined and I've been looking at this forum and the Official Gx640 owners forum. I recently decided to purchase the Gx640 b/c of all the great things u guys have to say about it.

I just have a couple of questions. So I'm thinking about using the underclocking/undervolt methods provided by buff-dady/wojtal117 on page 12 of this forum, mainly to conserve battery life as I'll be using it during college. But I'll also be using the stock settings (maybe even overclock) for gaming when I have free time.

Will my Gx640 be damaged if i keep switching the clocks and volts? Also when I switch my volts, do i need to change my clocks first, or does it not matter? Finally, will changing clocks/voltages void my warranty? Sorry for the many noob questions. hahaha. I appreciate your help.

 

changing clock/volts will not void warrenty.

 

In most cases it does, actually.

 

how would they ever find out? unless you flash bios to make perm changes and somehow cant flash back.

ive only ever used warranty on desktop parts. i rmaed my 5870 this week, which mightve died because my friends cat pewpewed it with some static. as long as there is no physical damage or bios change, warranty stands. my friend rmaed a bunch of cpu/mobo he killed due to ocing.

 

The warranty is still void, it's just that the manufacturer doesn't know it.
If I was working for a manufacturer, I'd probably chase up forum posts as evidence of overclocking in order to void people's warranties - it wouldn't be too hard

 

i dont think big manufactures care much about such things. even little ones wont go through that much trouble theyd just try to refuse on the phone and fail.

 

Oh sure, I agree that it's simply not going to happen.

 

Just one notice:
When I undervolted graphic card to 0,900V, it seemed stable in furmark (5 minutes, didn't notice any difference, still 93 C max).
BUT I got few very uncomfortable blue screens when playing world of warcraft (although it's not really graphically demanding, more cpu wise)
Anyway, I don't like BSOD's so I reverted back to 1,05 V.
Going 0,8V instantly hanged the system.

 

for me 0,900V and clocks at 300/300 allowed thermal zone at 48C and gpu 49C, which makes fan almost noiseless, and stops the laptop blowing unconfortable heat when running night jobs like p2p.

i experienced one bsod (related to ati) at these settings

i have unintentionally played stalker cs for hour+ at stock clocks and 0,900V, and had it crashed after, but it could be related to unpatched, buggy version of the game (1.5.03)

 

Anyone know how to STOP powerplay from re-enabling? For some reason mine seems to do re-enable.. I haven't figured out why yet.

 

Hmm, i dont actually think my old version of CCC that came with my laptop had a powerplay included in it, i'll rip the driver/ccc after and test it.

 

Thanks for answering my questions guys, but I have a couple more.

What exactly is the point of powerplay? If I disable it will I still be able to use the touch sensors above the keyboard that control the performance of the notebook (such as eco-mode or turbo-mode)?
Also, will my Gx640 be damaged if i keep switching the clocks and volts? I plan to keep it at stock when in my dorm for college and then underclock/undervolt when outside.

 

ya hmm mines been doing this too. i notice it when the computer dosnt come back from sleep

 

haven't found a way to permanently disable powerplay. For now just always have it set to max performance and underclock manually. Also do not shut down with eco enabled while on battery because powerplay doesn't save settings for eco power options, therefore it will be at 100/1000 and you will be unable to boot to windows

 

What the? Isnt the point of ECO to save battery (therefore we'd use it while on battery)? Makes no sense to me. Shoot.

 

The ECO modes are just additional Windows power profiles, but you can't configure them yourself so I find they're mostly not very convenient.

 

How are you guys undervolting the GPU again?

Sorry i've lost where the post was.