Old W860CU tuning and results

Hello, I am new to this forum and I want to share my tuning experience.
I own a Clevo W860CU with the following features:

Then I thought to myself, this is no longer appropriate. So I ordered an AMD HD7970M and an i7 920XM. The performance improved immensely:

However, I had heat problems and get power and thermal throttling on i7 920XM.
So I tried various heatsinks and could bring the situation acceptable. Now I could overclock CPU and GPU. Again the performance improved nicely:

I am now very happy with the gaming performance. One problem remains: DVI and HDMI do not work!.
When I connect the laptop via HDMI to my TV(fullHD), the TV will detect a cable connected, the laptop does not notice.
If I use the DVI output and connect via DVI-to-HDMI-adapter, the laptop detects the TV in Windows and Catalyst Control Center but the TV does not notice anything ....

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

 

awesome, loving it to see older notebooks come back to life, good job buddy!

concerning the hdmi issue, there arent any solutions unfortunately. the dvi-to-hdmi adapter should work tho!

im sure u can get much more out of ur gpu, especially the vram u can also try one of the overvolted vbios versions (link in my sig), since ur temps look quite good. based on experience, ull get around 30-40 mhz more out of the core per 25mV overvolt. can u do a 3dmark11 run? id be interested to see what ure getting with the 920xm can u actually oc it? if so, whats ur max. stable clock?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Welcome to NBR, great way to start

 

Thx for reply I read here that HDMI should work...
Maybe I didn't buy a good one of dvi-to-hdmi adapter...

I am not sure which vbios is able to run on this old mainboard. My HD7970M is already modded by eurocom (disabled enduro etc.) to boot on W860CU. Yes I will do a 3dmark 11 run, where are your results? Can you do 3dmark vantage run (profile extreme 1600x900)?

Overclocking the 920xm is only a heat issue for now. I am quite happy that I could raise TDP to 65W to run all four cores with 17x multiplier at the same time stable and without going over 85°C
Without my heatsink modification I go easy 100°C -> power off

 

highest 3dmark11 score ive gotten was like P7750. vantage extreme at 1920x1080 about X13600 with the config and clocks in my signature.

hm, 17x multiplier is already maxing out ur cpu? i thought the non-turbo frequency on that cpu was 2 ghz? what kinda mods did u do on ur heatsink?

 

Okay, I will run 3dmark11 tomorrow ( and beat you )
You thought a little bit wrong, max. non-turbo multiplier is 15x (2000,1 MHz)
I am on 17x (2266,8MHz) for all four cores at the same time, one core alone clocks at 3333,5 MHz, two clocks at 3200,16 Mhz.
No, I could go a lot higher than that but not with this little place to have for more efficient cooling.

Mods? I bought a lot of copper RAM heat sinks and placed it tactical above the original, then i cut two holes in celvo cover, so that cooler master U2 with its two placeable fans can cool the direct way. Also I have used prolimatech PK3. This way I could reduce the heat from 100 °C and above on 2000 MHz (prime maximum heat test) to ~ 85°C maximum on 2266 MHz

 

ah ok, i was thinking the bclk to be 100mhz instead of 133

haha, ure welcome to try and beat my score, looking forward to that

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

It would be more interesting when you can post your vantage and 3dmark11 scores for gpu and cpu seperatly. And maybe it can raise my chance

 

ill see what i can do buddy, wanted to do some cpu benching today anyways ill keep u updated.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

For the hdmi/dvi issue, you should try different drivers if you haven't already. I have essentially the same setup as you (w860cu/7970m/940xm) and had no hdmi output with all of the 12.x series drivers. 13.1 gave me hdmi video but no sound (even with the hdmi audio drivers installed and switching default sound device). Anything since 13.1 has worked great. Currently on 13.6 beta 2 and can confirm both dvi and hdmi work perfectly. Good luck.

 

interesting, thx for the heads up tbh, i havent even tried the hdmi port with my 7970m yet, just went along with the reports from other HM users here

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

@ crazymofo156
Very interesting info, thx. Your 7970M is also from eurocom (ebay)?
Which vbios do you have?
How do you master the heat issue with 940xm?
I am on 13,6 beta 2 and it do not work

@jaybee83
You want to keep me updated

 

havent forgotten about u buddy just that my cpu is busy atm with video encoding and that wont change for the next 9 hours or so

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Yup, got mine from eurocom preflashed with disabled enduro. vbios version according to gpu-z is: 015.017.000.001.042717. After getting the 7970m, I leave my 940xm at stock now since the system pulls close to 180w under load and I'm worried of busting the vregs as others have experienced with large power draws on this system. Under load with stock clocks, the 940 peaks at ~70°C with the original heatsink.

Odd that your video out doesn't work. I can dump my vbios for you if it turns out your 7970m is running a different version.

 

From previous experience I believe its usually the same version, but worth checking. Never worth pusing weaker voltage systems.

 

Exactly the same as mine DVI nor HMDI works. Maybe my windows installation is fu**ed up, I can not install some updates and the error is unknown in internet.

If you run prime95 (test maximum heat) for 30 minutes you get 70°C with this heatsink (look at 4:00)? Where do you live? Siberia?

Are you sure that you don't encounter thermal throttling? Without throttestop I get this nonstop on 920xm Stock, therefore temps are forced to get low. I am quite sure, if you deactivate it, you get to 100°C in 5 minutes.

 

Sorry, I should've said, peaks at ~70°C during gaming (currently playing bf3 and metro LL) when ambient is ~21°C. I have the original heatsink, same as in the video, but I've put some extra thermal pads on the vregs. I'm sure a prime95 run would heat it up more, but it's not too realistic for me since my proc is never stressed that much in even the most demanding games. I haven't encountered any thermal throttling that I know of, although I did get some funky throttling of the 7970m which was fixed by a slight OC (860core/1205mem). Most likely a powerplay issue.

 

Okay, I did a clean install of windows 7 and directly install 13,6 beta2 -> Same problems, DVI to HDMI on tv: Catalyst recognizes the tv, but the tv do not recognize the VGA -> screen stays black

HDMI to HDMI, Catalyst do not recognizes the tv, but the tv recognizes a signal -> but screen stays black

So, my last chance... what Bios do you have crazymofo156?

Maybe anyone else know, which bios (not taking about vbios) to use?

 

That GPU score is REALLY low. Seriously, you should be scoring double that in Vantage. I know first hand that the 920XM is no slouch, so this boggles my mind. o_o;

I mean, for proof of this, my 6970M scores 11.5k GPU in performance mode. Your stock, assuming this is performance mode too, is lower than that!

 

What do you mean? My score is 14k points on 'extreme' on this screenshot?

 

Yeah, not many people are used to vantage extreme since it requires a 1900x1200 display.

 

My bios is 1.00.18, downloaded from the bios thread. What motherboard version do you have? There is a sticker that states it attached to the bottom ram slot (you'll have to take off the top ram module). Mine is 4.1 (still usb2), but I heard 7970m may have some issues with even older versions.

 

You are wrong. Everybody are used to 'extreme', cause it does not require a 1920x1200 Display. It will run interpolated to simulate 1920x1200.

I have the same bios version. I am also on usb 2.0.... I had serveral times the pastic cover unscrewed for tuning the heatpipe, so I am bored to do it again, just to see it will be the same or older. In fact, hdmi nor DVI works at that moment. This is sad, but my W860cu is after all more useful than before with weak GTX260M.