GX640 automatic downclocking/undervolting using CCC profiles

Here's by bios info if that matters:

BIOS Version 012.020.000.032
BIOS Part Number BR35701.030
BIOS Date 2010/06/04

 

im not good at updating bios stuff, and i dont have discs or usbdrive so doesnt matter anyway i rather not screw up the laptop which hasnt even reached 1 month old

 

If you didn't flash Vbios, nothing could go wrong since this underclocking/undervolting is performed in high level (ontop of OS).

If you flashed Vbios and screwed it up, it's a different story. You've got a very tiny chance to blindly flash (if you're sure the computer passes the POST phase while loading) - one user in this forum performed this successfully. Other way is just RMA it.

Anyway, procedures in this guide work at software level and is only applied after windows and Catalyst Control Center loads up so if you cannot see anything prior to that, it's a different problem

 

Mine's the same. Downclocking/Undervolting works properly for me.

 

I have the same vBIOS version, yet I cannot seem to make profiles work...

Edit: Okay, so I put the profile in and rebooted, now I'm having the same problem as the above guy. Every time I boot into Windows normally, my screen goes totally blank and I can't see a thing.

I can boot into Safe Mode, but booting normally causes my video to go dead. Trying uninstalling the video drivers and reinstalling them to see if it returns everything to normal, then I'll try and find out what went wrong.

Edit #2: Managed to get back up and running by stripping out all the AMD graphics drivers, CCC and whatnot, then reinstalling them... but still, no functional profiles and a GPU that won't downclock below 405MHz. =/

Edit #3: The screen-blank may have something to do with UXTheme Multi-Patcher having bad interactions with Windows 7 Service Pack 1. The screen-blank would always happen the moment it switched over to a custom Aero visual style. I removed it and replaced it with UXStyle Core... no problems so far.

But still, no 100/150 clocks on idle. =/

Edit #4: Yeah, the screen-blank problem is absolutely due to an interaction between the graphics drivers, custom Aero visual styles and SP1. Weird. But profiles STILL aren't working. It just stays locked to 625/1000 no matter what I put in the profiles.

I'm afraid to change the PowerPlay values with RBE, I don't want to brick my GPU. =|

 

Thanks for detailed describtion. Indeed I did not updated to SP1 yet. Somehow I'm not tempted to do this.

Well, if you wish, you can downgrade to Catalyst 10.11 drivers, try the method. If you succeed, then try updating to 11.2 (overwrite on top). Because this is exactly what I've done. The profile remained and is still working flawlessly.

 

I havent installed SP1 as well.. Didnt know SP1 already exists lol.. I just checked my Windows Update and saw it. Looks like I wont be updating to SP1 anytime soon

 

Yeah, I flashed my vBIOS, and it seemed that it went fine since I did that before I started trying to mess with profiles. I did have a similar problem to synaesthetic wherein the screen would go blank once CCC loaded in windows, but I fixed it by booting into Safe Mode and cleaning out my ATI files.

I had my profile running successfully for a bit (I don't recall if I rebooted successfully or not), but after that, it would load without video output.

I got it to randomly load once, and upon entering windows, I found that the graphics display was recognized as a "Standard VGA adapter," and was unable to install any video drivers, but after that I got the blank screen again.

Oh well, I already sent it in as an RMA.

 

I downgraded my drivers because 11.2 was causing tearing and other artifacting in the Steam version of Mass Effect.

And since I downgraded, profiles work great. Awesome. My GPU is idling at 100/150, whee!

 

Are you on SP1?

 

This is working for me but not how I'd like it... Ultimately there seems to be something else affecting the clocks that holds priority....

Off topic for a second, ableton live 8 (an audio program) stresses this card more than oblivion and ME2 sometimes. I REALLY don't understand it. Runs at about 70c just with the mic monitoring bar on. Pretty sure this doesn't happen with nvidia cards, I guess it could be a win7 thing but I dont think so.

I want something to force these clocks. I set the "want_1 & 2" values to the same as "want_0", but the card will still go to full clocks whenever it wants to including when I scroll fast in a web browser.
CCC crashed for me after I did this but it does seem to be sticking to the lowest clocks more for which I am grateful.

 

I have the exact same problem, here is how I fixed it
remember that touch button at the top that, according to msi, "optimizes" the computer for what ever task you may be doing? Yeah, the "eco" button. First, set it to off mode. Then go to power settings, click change power settings for the active power management plan, choose advanced power settings, then under the ATI graphics card drop down panel, set both to "MAXIMIZE BATTERY LIFE", this will always keep the GPU clock at 300/400. Save and exit.
Now, press the eco button again so it goes into the gaming setting. Do the exact same procedure as described above except this time under the ATI graphics setting change everything to "MAXIMIZE PERFORMANCE". This will crank your GPU clock up to whatever you OCed to when a 3D intensive application is launched.
Save and enjoy! Whenever you are browsing the web, just set the eco button to "off", and whenever you are gaming, set the eco button to"gaming" mode.