880m SLI throttling

Hi All,

just got 880m SLI in a clevo p375SM (metabox in Australia), i noticed one of the GPUs pumping out hot air, the other was only warm so i ran Furmark to see if everthing was ok, results below.

seems the primary GPU is throttling 15% and still running 13c hotter than the main (compare the max temps not the current). Does anyone else here have 880ms and can help with some temps and numbers?

3dmark11 performace = 12800.

Specs;
i7 4700sm
32GB ram
2x880m in SLI
fresh install of windows 7
latest nvida drivers (beta ones with all the improvements)

 

That's really weird to me. Usually your cards'd downclock at 92 degrees, but you haven't hit close to that (and for a furmark your temps don't seem that bad). Your slave card usually always runs cooler than the main card, but mine is always 3-4 degrees within its range. And never with less performance. I suggest forcing some demanding games to 1 card via nVidia control panel and seeing how that stuff works out. If you can't get 99% scaling on a single game, that's a problem.

That being said, SLI in windowed mode/borderless windowed sometimes will give +15% scaling to your slave GPU. It doesn't mean too much, you'll still get most of your performance unless the game is really bad with windowed mode *cough* BF4 gives literally +30 frames switching from fullscreen windowed to fullscreen *cough*. Your furmark was in a window so that may have been what happened, but tinker around and see. If you want a guide I wrote on the benefits and downsides of SLI (and what you may or may not know about it), you can check this link out and get a feel for what to expect.

If your main GPU is still that much hotter than your slave in all games though, then you probably have a paste issue and I suggest getting that looked at. Also, more importantly, enjoy your laptop bro <3

 

cheers for that D2, i will read up on the guide

i found out last night that GPU shark was reporting the video cards the wrong way around. so GPU 2 was hitting 85%. i ran 3dmark11 and it didnt seem to have any throttling using SLI so what you say seems to fit perfectly

i might them to look at the seconds paste once i do some more testing to see if it really is running super hot

very much enjoying the laptop! she is a beast

 

Good good! The slave card should ALWAYS be cooler than the main card though. If you want to really see which card is your main, here's a good trick to find out.

- Open nVidia control panel.
- Go to manage 3D application settings.
- Go to program settings.
- Select game that you KNOW uses SLI. BF:BC2, CoD Black Ops 2, BF3, BF4, etc all will do this by default. Skyrim without any mods will also do this by default I believe.
- Change game's SLI setting to "Single-GPU"
- Run GPU shark and launch game, preferably in windowed mode (unless you have two monitors).
- Play game for a while and notice which card is being used/heating up in GPU Shark.
- That card is your master card and the other unused card is your slave.
- Repeat test for any program which numbers both of your GPUs in testing. Some programs list the cards backward; for example Playclaw 5 has "GPU 0" and "GPU 1", but my "GPU 1" is my master card. Conventional naming would put the primary as "card 0".
- When complete, return program back to using SLI in control panel (if desired).

Alternately:
- Select game which uses single-GPU by default (like Titanfall).
- Repeat monitoring steps above.
- ??????
- Profit + simultaneously hate that game will not use both your damn 880Ms
- Bite back feeling of wanting to raze developer building to ground
- Order pizza and watch anime

 

D2 you might know this as well, is the only way i can overlclock the CPU via a BIOS mod? i tried installing Intel XTU and it said my system wasnt supported.

what score do you get in Firestrike stock btw? got 8,600 last night and everything seems to be running normal.

 

I used Intel XTU before, but it caused me problems with booting the system once I edited anything. No idea why. I started using my BIOS to change my clocks/volts. I have a mythlogic machine, so I don't need a bios mod, it comes unlocked from the start.

Also, I cannot remember running firestrike; though I DO own 3Dmark 11 (someone bought it for me on steam XD). I'll try it when I get back my computer and I get everything set up, but don't expect a firestrike response till maybe the weekend.

 

looking up your model number we basically have the same chassis. clevo p375/p377. what do you use to create a new bios with out of interest?

 

No I really have no idea. I have the P370SM3 model, not the P375SM/P377SM-A model. But like I said, by purchasing it from Mythlogic, The laptop CAME with an unlocked BIOS for overclocking. I never had to do it myself, so I can't help there. I DO suggest looking for NBR member Prema as he does a lot of the custom BIOSes.

 

Furmark will exceed the tdp limits at full clocks. Throttle is exactly what it should do.

 

@Meaker: sounds spot on then

i will try Furmark in full screen and see if that makes a difference.
all other bench marks are running at full clock speeds with near 100% GPU usage on both cards so it seems fine.

 

Yep, throttling in furmark means it can set higher clocks for games rather than catering to a stress test.