GTX 680m throttling

Hi I have just realized that my GPU is throttling. I oc'ed it to 853/2400 and when running kombustor burn in it throttles the core to 213/853 every cicle. Temperature is very cool (high 60) GPU load is 98% all seems very normal to me. Is this throttling normal? Does it affect performance? How do I correct this?

 

Its a nice little feature that is known for Nvidia GPUs (the GPU will throttle to protect itself.). They don`t play nice with Kombustor and Furmark

 

Yes Cloud I know that, but since temps are VERY low and way inside limits why is it throttling like crazy? Is it afecting performance?

 

As far as I know that also stopped hackness from overclocking his first 680M further. He too had great temps.

 

So maybe I have a bad part is it?

 

Too be honest, I suspect Nvidia locks the card down under its full potential. It's also possible that the mobile kepler GPUs are more sensitive to heat and can't go as high as the old generation and therefore start to throttle before reaching that point.
But I'd guess that Nvidia might release a 685M or 780M with an "unlocked" vbios to get more money out of it.

Svl7 and Prema actually tried to modify the vbios to unlock the full potential, but as far as I know it did not work that well.

So no I don't think your card is faulty. Check your 3dmark score though. The 3dmark11 score for a 680m should be around 5700-6200, slightly overclocked 6500-7500.

 

I don`t know about Kombustor but I know that 580M throttled like crazy with Furmark even at around 60C. I suspect that Nvidia have implemented some code that cause this. And its partly good since the programs have killed some GPUs along the way. Why do you need to run these programs? They are unrealistic anyway

 

Yep, but in order to check if your card is faulty I'd suggest to run a 3dmark11 run. It is kinda unrealistic too, but shows how good your GPU works under load.

 

Tnx guys on other usage scenarios (games/benches) it seems fine (my oc'ed 3dMark 11 is P6878), I just got worried because since I can't monitor real time clocks while gaming I don't know if this is happening when thus affecting performance... Anyway tnx... Also Kepler should do exactly the opposite which is oc itself when there is room for it but our lovely clevo disabled it... well I might be just nitpicking, the system is awesome...

 

There's more than just the GPU core temperature to be factored-in. If it's like Intel Turbo Boost with time limits imposed in bios, either nVidia or Clevo, most likely impose limits on average power draw by the GPU also. The power supply components also have to be cooled down, but their temperature are not monitored to guauge if they operating within their thermal zone like the CPU and GPU. The throttling algorithms probably just estimate how hot the power supply components may be based on GPU power consumption, and they most likely assume the worse-case cooling scenario also.

So there's most likely a power limit setting in BIOS, VBIOS or EC that needs to be tweaked to work-around this child-proofing? (assuming one has a good idea that the power supplies are indeed able to be cooled sufficiently to sustain the full load indefinitely)

 

Oh, forgot to mention in the GTX680M post I made back in July. GTX680M will throttle whenever you run Furmark/Kombuster or similar burn-in programs like that. It's normal. Only standalone GTX680M aren't affected (AW F7 switch/HM).

The reason I stopped overclocking further is because the early vbios that svl7 and me worked on together ran into high memory controller load issue, also performance degradation. That's some very weird issues. GTX680M at stock voltage throttles at core 915MHz and above, that's when the voltage needs to be upped.

 

So nothing to worry about OP. Enjoy your card I hope I'll get the upgrade done in the X7200 soon.

Hackness, how far did you actually push your new baby?

 

Was 915/2400 on the old one with stock voltage, haven't tried ocing on the 2nd GTX680M I received, been gaming on it with stock clock these days.

 

Hey I don't know if you can really help but when I overclock my 680m's GPU-Z recognizes the overclock to 853mhz with a +135 but in MSI Afterburner it says Max. 719mhz. I'm not sure what's going on, in your picture is says Max. 853 so seems like you got it fine.

Memory OC is fine just my GPU I'm having difficulties doing something or just understanding.

 

Try running a game and watch the log after.

 

Yeah, after I finish a high-end game maxed out I get 719 as my max GPU for both cards.. Strange. I wish I knew how to get around this, my temperatures are well below anything unusual.

I have a Sager/Clevo NP9370/370em.

 

I had this bug too with the most recent vbios the card came with. By flashing Tonracs older stock vbios I was able to overclock normally with AfterBurner. But if you really want your 680Ms to perform great, you should try the UV Clevo vbios here: NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods - Overclocking Editions, modified clocks, voltage tweaks
You need to post 5 times to download an attachement.

 

Thanks a lot! Which one did you end up using, there are a few options there, 2 for clevo.

 

The stock vbios throttles due to programmed settings, not due to a lack of voltage.

 

I used Clevo 680m - 80.04.33.00.10 - 915MHz - 0962V - OC.zip
It's in the second post.
It is slightly undervolted and has a core clock of 915, memory is stock at 1800.

 

Sweet. Thanks again.

Lol, I got in crap from a moderator for posting crap to get my 5 posts... WAH

 

Check this out boys!!! Seems stable 100% so far. Even gaming temps are well below extreme levels, only 3dmark Vantage gave me a max temp of 84C on GPU 2.

 

Nice man. SLI ftw

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3740QM Processor,CLEVO P170EM score: P29154 3DMarks

Got about 80% of that with a single card

Also TURN OFF PHYSX. Like it was at default, it is an artificial score inflater.

 

daaaaaaaaaaaammmmmnnnn

I want a 680 lol

 

Clocks were around 1050/2575, it's a little tricky to cool at that point.

 

Yeah but still, my laptop would explode if I tried raising the clocks anywhere near that much

The 680 is awesome for overclocking, and runs so much cooler than the 7970. I don't like going past 950/1400, my temps are high enough stock. I'm jealous.

 

when im trying to play oced at 1020/1560 my max temps are 76-78max(bf3 multi caspian,64players)
what temps you have with that clocks(950/1400)?

 

It varies a lot depending on the games, if it's BF3 it's normally around 75-80, if it's The Witcher 2 or Sleeping Dogs it's mid 70s to mid/high 80s, if it's Arkham City it never hits 80. Some games run a lot cooler than others

 

The Radeons don't mind slightly higher temps so that is fine.

I'm currently on a GX60 so am on a 7970 clocked at 1020/1525 at the moment.

 

You guys run some beastly overclocks

Not trying to threadjack, but how do you like the GX60? Is gaming performance pretty similar to a 7970/3610qm?

 

You know what? Honestly, after modding my VBIOS and doing the overclock, which did get me 41,175 Vantage score (with PhysX), I did also get system crashes and even 1 BSOD I'm not nearly as happy as I am with the newest Nvidia Beta drivers..

The highest mark I got with the modded VBIOS is almost the exact same, within 1k points, as using the default VBIOS and 310.54 Beta driver, with no system crashes and definitely no BSOD's.

 

It's not quite as fast, but it's not quite as expensive either.

 

Hello all,
I recently purchased an MSI GT-70 with GTX680m card. Here is my gpuz screenshot View attachment 89404
i noticed that CUDA and directcompute are not enabled on the card. I dont know if that is normal or not.
I addition i am getting low scores on 3dmark11 for my system, namely for my graphics and combined score.
here are some of the results: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1762 score: P4657 3DMarks
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1762 score: P5304 3DMarks
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1762 score: P4940 3DMarks
this is what i get when running msi kombustor View attachment 89405 View attachment 89406
note that i have the correct optimus settings and the latest drivers from nvidia and from intel and i am on the high performance powerplan.
I am not sure if the card itself is faulty or if it is a software issue. Any help would be most welcome.

 

CUDA/DirectCompute/OpenCL is nerfed on the 680M anyway, but it should be enabled. Either GPUz hasn't been updated to detect it, or it just doesn't detect it well with Optimus maybe? Do you need to have the 680M engaged first before reading?

Anyway, doesn't matter what GPUz says. Just run OpenCL, Cuda, or DirectCompute benchmark/tools and that will verify if you have it or not.

Go through your high performance plan in advanced menu. Check that everything is in order. Like switchable/optimus is set for performance, PCI Express, Link State is set to off etc.

Also make sure hardware acceleration in flash is set to off, and if you use FireFox, set hardware acceleration to off. When these are on, 680M may be set to using it's video decoder speeds, but not likely since it runs off the HD4000. But doesn't hurt to give it a go maybe.

 

Your GTX680M is under performing but I'm not sure what's the cause, just a quick note on the GPU-Z screenshot regarding to CUDA and directcompute, go to NVIDIA panel and assign GPU-Z to run using NVIDIA GPU and you'll see all 3 are ticked.

 

hulawafu77 and hackness,
I did what you guys said and I fixed the CUDA and directcompute not showing in gpuz. I also ran 3 consecutive 3dmark11 tests and here are the results along with the msi afterburner data.
test1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1762 score: P6036 3DMarks

test2: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1762 score: P6001 3DMarks

test3: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1762 score: P5863 3DMarks


Im not realyl sure whats going on here, sometimes I get a good score and sometimes a low score.
If you guys can specify a game or two and at how many fps do you run this with specific settings so i can try to compare mine with yours to see if the card is working properly.

 

Your CPU scores are fluctuating between runs, either temperatures, TDP limits or a background program.

 

What are TDP limits? I got MSI vga overclock tool running in the bg im not sure if that has to do with anything.


here are tests 4 and 5
test4: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1762 score: P4936 3DMarks

test5: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1762 score: P5831 3DMarks


Note that during test 4 I had throttlestop running in the bg but im not sure its the reason for the low score, on other instances i have it off but still i get score drops

 

If its inconsistent, maybe also in the Nvidia control panel/Program Settings tab....in 1)the drop down box select 3dMark11 & in 2) Select the Nvidia GPU

I get similar 3dmark11 result as you are seeing - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P5998 3DMarks

 

The nvidia gpu is selected I suppose, I right click on 3dmark11 and select run with high performance graphics processor.

this is the sixth test
test6: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3840QM,Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-1762 score: P5790 3DMarks

 

Right, let's sit down and look at results 4 and 5.

There is a little variation in the GPU benchmarks, if that was all then it would be something to look out for, but then look into your CPU and combined test.

Notice how the lower score has a higher CPU test but utterly tanks in the combined test.

I think your system has CPU throttle problems (Run intel XTU, go to the graphs and enable the CPU throttle charting by clicking the little spanner in the corner).

Run the benchmark with intel XTU open in the background charting the figures. You may as well run MSI afterburner.

This IS NOT a problem with which GPU is running as you would be looking at a few hundred points for the integrated card at best.

 

Thanks Meaker,
Youre right mostly its the combined score that is causing the low score, the most amount of variation is there.
I will try the XTU and report back the results.
In kombustor i get gpu throttling on the top right in blue? what does that mean? when i run combustor on my 230m i doesnt get that.

 

kombustor is a hugely demanding program and you need a tweaked bios to stop that from happening in that test, it's not needed for games and normal applications though.

 

Meaker,
I did not try the 3dmark11 test yet but I tried some games and here are the results.

This is far cry 3 on high settings (not highest or ultra) with MSAA off and medium shadows. No throttle stop running.

same game and settings but throttlestop running.

Just cause 2 on optimal settings low aa and shadows. throttlestop running.

Borderlands 2 on optimal settings low aa and shadows. throttlestop running.
Looks like my cpu it throttling like crazy, im not sure if thats normal or not.
Here are my system specs and throttlestop settings i am using.


I got IC diamond thermal compound applied to both cpu and gpu, and i got the corsair vengeance DDR3 RAM @ 1866MHz. I have not done any OC on the system. Neither did I update the BIOS I just updated the nvidia and intel drivers. Im stating all the elements maybe we can find a solution.
Thanks.

 

Can you go to the manual tuning section and show me details, I may have an idea what it is.

 

Heres the info

 

Is it an unlocked bios and did you set a primary and/or secondary current in the cpu menu?

 

i don't know if it's an unlocked bios. I purchased it as is from GentecPC. i modified the gt70's cpu from the stock I7-3610QM to the I73840QM. I don't know if it's unlocked bios or not. How can i check? should i ask the company who sold me the laptop.
As for the currents, I have not changed anything with it, in fact i havent changed anything in the unit at all. No overclocking, no nothing at all .

 

I was just checking, only users will have flashed an unlocked bios and without knowing your level of knowledge it's hard to know what you might have done.

Is your 3840qm an engineering sample? Did your 3610qm behave this way? What thermal paste did you use? Were the VRM pads looking ok when you changed the CPU over?