Common Causes of 8800m GTX downclocking?

So, I'm writing this on my NP5793 from powernotebooks.com! I love my machine. It recently had to be RMA'd because of a faulty video card that died but everything went smoothly there. However...now it is staying at lower power clocks on the GPU. The CPU seems normal but playing a game, plugged in, the clocks are staying at 275mhz and 301mhz. Right now they're clocked even lower down to 200 & 100. As you can imagine this makes some games unplayable.

I'm set to high performance in the power settings...unplugged it and plugged it back in...not really sure if there's anything else I can do except for change the Power Mizer? thingy in the registry settings...which I have no idea how to do. Anyone have any advice?

Temps are fine. Fans full blast for games...everything is at 40C or so right now and the HDD is at 50C currently min&max.

BTW this is happening to me in...the only 2 games I really play....World of Warcraft and Bioshock!

 

Maybe I should mention...drivers version...

7.15.0011.7490

Should be stock drivers that came with the machine...I haven't messed with them.

VBIOS rev. is 62.92.23.00.14

BIOS 1.00.08s

Hope that's enough info...thanks everyone!

 

Did u try disabling powermizer?

 

Step 1 - Press the "window" key + R . This will lauch a command window. Type ((regedit)) then press OK.

Step 2 - Now navigate to this registry.

\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{**a series of numbers that are different**}\0000\PerfLevelSrc

Step 3- scroll down and once you find PerfLevelSrc edit it by double click it and change the value to 3333

Step 4- Find "PowerMizerEnable" and set the value to 1
Step 6- Find PowermizerLevelAC and change value to 3.
Step 7- Close out and restart.

If that doesn't work, try a different driver.

 

Thats some serious downclocking!!

Mine only downclocks to 3D clocks often! So i can say i too have similar kind of prob!

@ RAMBO nd bwhxeon

If the powermizer is disabled, wont the GPU stay on 'Extra 3d(500-800-1250)' all the time whether ur running games or not??

Also, will it downclock on battery or stay the same 500-800!!??

 

If there is no powermizer it would always be at the 3D clocks I think.It's job is to downclock the card when not needed.

 

That sounds pretty odd/bad. It could be that this card is also affected by nVidia's manufacturing flaw ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3760710).

 

The main reasons for downclocks are:
- you must be plugged into AC power for full performance
- Nvidia drivers and config (PowerMizer must be disabled, or set to Full Perfomance)
- Windows config must be set to full perfomance (as opposed to power saving)
- and overheating.

And yes, you have to be gaming to see the clocks throttle to full speed... use RivaTuner to monitor the GPU clock while in-game.

 

The settings I gave you for your registry are what it should be set to if you want powermizer working properly. Downclocking while not gaming and full clocks while gaming.

 

Is this powermizer that 9800 cards have it as well? Is it something that you have to install/installed automaticaly?
I don't like how it sounds.

 

K! thanks man! This downclocking prob had me going nuts!!

I'll try the method u described and report asap!!

 

I forgot to ask, you aren't using a external monitor by chance when this happens? For some reason when I plug into my external monitor it forces my clocks to max. Suppose the opposite could happen.

>.> powermizer is a function thats built into a graphics card I believe, you can disable/enable it in the nvidia control panel. The problem is and it has happend to me a few times is, your registry can get messed up for whatever reason and powermizer can start having problems.

 

Thanks for all of the replies. I contacted powernotebook's tech support and they helped me out.

Tried the registry changes...I could only find the PerfLevelSrc registry on mine, though. I changed it and it didn't help. Couldn't find the PowermizerLevel or PowermizerAC.

Then tech support had me install newer drivers. The latest Forceware release on laptopvideo2go.com actually. Fixed the problem!

It still sort of worries me though. Why would my GPU all of a sudden downclock? There were no changes to my machine lately. This is the first time I've used anything other than stock drivers on it. Anyway...they work...temps are still fine. In the 50's C while gaming. Plugged in...set to high performance. And no I don't have any external monitors. =)

Thanks guys.

 

Any recent updates installed? Have you recently run a registry cleaning program?