Poor graphics performance with NP9150 and 680m

Hardware & Software:
Model: P150EM Special Edition
OS: WIndows 7 Ultimate x64
GPU: nVidia GeForce GTX 680M 4,096MB
Nvidia Driver: 320.49
CPU: 3630QM
RAM: 16GB at 1600Mhz (8GBx2)
HDD: 1TB Seagate Hybrid @ 5400RPM

No overclocking has been performed on this system.

I've suspected for a while that I was having problems with graphics performance, but I tend to be pretty easy on my hardware since I've been "out of the game" for quite some time now and don't necessarily know how games these days perform on which hardware. However, I was trying to play Borderlands 2 the other day and was just barely able to eek out a smooth experience in 1920x1080 by turning all the graphics options on low, while my brother who I was playing with (NP6370, 660m) was able to get a smooth performance with all graphics settings turn up at 1920x1080. This really didn't seem right to me given our respective hardware so I ran 3dMark(/11) benchmarks (being sure to turn the fan on full boat with fn+1) and they seem to confirm my suspicions:

Original 3dMark benchmark

I couldn't find any good comparisons for that at first, so I switch to 3dMark 11:

First 3dMark 11 benchmark

After running the 3dMark 11 benchmark, I noticed that it was reporting my RAM speeds incorrectly (800mhz vs 1600mhz), so I tested my RAM with dmidecode and it told me 1333mhz instead of the 1600mhz that I was supposed to have. Not 800mhz, but still a problem. After some testing, it turned out that the RAM I added is somehow incompatible with my original RAM (despite having nearly identical specifications) and was causing my RAM to clock lower than it should. I removed the two sticks and now dmidecode says that my RAM runs at 1600mhz. So I retested it:

Second 3dMark 11 benchmark

It's a few hundred points higher, but I'm guessing that's basically just statistical error, and it's still significantly lower than others I've seen on the same hardware (minus HDD). Also 3dMark still misreports my RAM speed, but further investigation suggests that's just how it do.

My laptop WAS in power save mode (unbeknownst to me, I still haven't gotten used to the non standard tools Sager includes with these laptops), but I turned that off before I benchmarked, so that wouldn't cause me to have these terribly low scores.

Anyways, any ideas what could be the cause of this issue? Is my GPU being limited in software somewhere? Generally I would think a hardware issue would manifest itself in a much more ... obvious way, but I'm not really a hardware expert. Am I imagining it? I'm not really sure where to begin looking after this, since I haven't interacted with GPUs very much. Thanks in advance for any help on this issue.

-Josiah

 

welcome
turn it onto high performance and leave it there while at home or on mains power but on the move use power saver or balanced as you cant game on battery anyway. click on the battery icon in taskbar bottom right of screen and click high performance.

now this is going to sound silly as its a total waste of time normally but can you run the windows performance and see what scores you get.
they are defo low scores you are getting.
out your above spec you are letting your system down by having the slowest 5400rpm hard drive so when you can afford it buy a ssd and you will see a world difference in speed.

 

Borderlands 2 on low... sounds like you are running off integrated graphics (HD 4000) Turn that off by going into Nvidia control panel and selecting 3D performance tab, and use the drop down menu to prefer the Dedicated Graphics card over the integrated. If that doesn't work, download GpuZ or similar program to monitor your temps and clockrates, as you could have severe throttling issues while the GPU is under heavy load.

 

Thank you.

I did that before running the tests. The problem persists.

Processor: 7.6
RAM: 7.7
Graphics: 7.7
Gaming graphics: 7.7
Primary hard disk: 5.9 (low as expected)

Glad I'm not imagining it.

That's just windows. I tend to live in Linux, which stores programs on a 128GB mSATA SSD with the home partition on a 750GB@7200RPM. Since my usual interaction with windows is "boot->play game->leave", I went for storage space over access times (I'm down to ~100GB left on my windows partition). Would slow disk access times hurt the 3D performance likes this?

Yep, I have the nvidia gpu set as my default, and I added a special case for borderlands 2 to use the nvidia GPU. No good. It's not like when I run it on full graphics it's super jumpy, it's just a little laggy, maybe 15 FPS. I wouldn't think the onboard would get that.

Aha. I can't run 3dMark in windowed mode, so I used unigine heaven benchmark and, yeah, my clockrates (GPU and GPU memory) are being heavily throttled in the places I get slowdown, sometimes down to ~100mhz for the core clock and ~400 for the memory clock. The memory clock also seems to run at 900mhz max, regardless of load. This happens right around 90 degrees. So is there a fix for this? Is my cooling system inadequate? It seems to sit around 90 degrees whenever I'm using it, so it might just be getting too hot.

 

Yes, you definitely 100% have a cooling problem. How long have you had this laptop? If not long it could be just a bad paste job, if over a year or two you should clean out the fans with compressed air and repaste it anyway. I'd recommend Arctic Silver 5 or IC Diamond for your paste, you don't need much, just get the smallest tube (they run about $12). Your Target high temp should be in the mid 80's C, but as always, the lower the better.

 

It's been about 6 months, but there was a period of ~4 months when I would run World Community Grid while I was at work and overnight, so ~16 hours a day of 100% usage of both GPU and CPU, might have caused some problems in that regard. Looks like they have Arctic Silver at Radioshack, so I'll head there and pick some up and update when I've applied it. Thanks.

Edit: Grr, the GPU heatsink screws are smaller than I have a driver for, I'm starting to strip them. Might take me some time to get back here.

 

Oops, broke my video card. One of the transitors on the top got disconnected, now the computer won't boot for more than 30 seconds (when it does, I can see that the GPU isn't recognized). Unfortunately, I don't believe Sager or XoticPC's warranty covers "f*cking up", so now I'm in the hole $900 for what turned out to be this:




Gotta make mistakes some time, just wish it wasn't such an expensive one. Anywho, anyone got a line on a cheaper 680m than I can find on Ebay?

Or maybe it's time for what I like to call an "unplanned upgrade" and just get a 780. Are these real, or is there anything there I should be wary of? I've never bought a mobile GPU outside of a computer before:

Dell Alienware NVIDIA GTX780M 780M Video Graphics Card Alienware MSI Clevo | eBay
Alienware M17x M18x VGA Upgrade Kit New NVIDIA GTX 780M 4GB DDR5 MXM 3 0B | eBay

On the upside, the fans are beast right now. Should have no trouble keeping the new one cool.

 

Did your computer inhale a hamster or something. What is all that on the heat sink? I have to clean mine once a month cause of our cat.

 

How the heck did you break your card?

Not sure you can just run the 780m blind. I think you have to flash that card.

You may be able to still get some $ back for your damaged card. I will recommend to sell your card on ebay "as is" and post what exactly is wrong with your card. There are some people out there who seek damaged card and are able to repair the card themselves.

 

xotic have reps on here but i would recommend contacting their support as you should still be in warranty and even though something is damaged they should still be able to help you out.

 

Right the sagers will not run without a gpu, the ec panics and shuts down the machine.

The 780m is not currently working with the em series.

Maybe go to xotic and bat your eyelids to try and get a card at cost.

 

It appears to just be dust, it's just a lot to have collected over such a short period of time. No animals.

The last screw on the heatsink got totally stripped because I started at it with the wrong screwdriver, so I just pivoted the heatsink out of the way to clean and reapply the thermal compound. Worked fine until the long end of the heatsink got caught on something and pivoted too far, breaking off the small chip on the bottom left of the card. It appears to just be welded on there (and a page referencing the chip directly above it seems to suggest that is the case), so I suspect that if I had another I could fix it, but I don't know where I would get one. Or I could just be totally wrong about that and it's complex beyond my skills.

It appears you are correct. Bummer. This is why we ask questions instead of just doing. Thanks for the info.

Yeah, I read about that. Unfortunate, since I could still run stuff off the onboard gpu in the meantime.

Alright, I'll contact them and see what happens. Thanks.

 

Alright, XOTIC says it's going to be $785 for the card and $45 added for a heatsink. So it looks like I'll be better off hitting up eBay. Thanks.

 

It's time like this where I feel it's probably better off to get a desk top than a lap top.

 

Depends what your need and budget is really, notebooks are more fiddly to work with a source parts for but you can't beat the power density.

 

Generally speaking you are correct, especially for high performance machines. However, I am currently on contract 2000 miles from home. Until just recently I lived in a hotel, and even now my only piece of furniture is an air mattress. So, for me, a desktop is simply out of the question, at least for the next six months.

 

Same here. I travel a lot for my job, and can't bring a desktop around. Another issue with desktop is the amount of heat generated from the power supply unit. Especially, if I'm overclocking, made my room like a sauna.

 

Clevo P150EM P151EM P170EM GTX 680M 4GB MXM 3 0B VGA Notebook Module | eBay

I've got one for $625 shipped. Just the card. Came with BIOS that's in the pic.

 

Well they can be very efficient too, it's just desktops all around are less concious about heat.

 

Got my new GPU, installed, ran benchmarks:

3dmark 11
3dmark

Not fantastic scores, but certainly better than what I was getting before, and the average temperature for the GPU was ~78 degrees. So problem fixed, I guess.

 

They are pretty standard for a stock speed 680M.