Problems with P170EM

My laptop is a XMG P702 PRO with a Clevo P170EM, Radeon HD 7970M (+ Intel HD 4000), i7-3610QM and 8 gigs of RAM. The performance of the rig while gaming has never been very good, but I just took it to be a problem of laptops in general, but after reading on the matter here and elsewhere, it turns out that the specs SHOULD pump up some respectable performance.

My most immediate problem is a case of something throttling the GPU to minimum clocks after playing some games (on high graphics usually) for a while. So while the factory clocks are 850 MHz for the core and 1200 for the memory, what usually happens is that after half a minute or so of playing the core drops to 450 MHz, and then about half a minute later it drops yet again to 300 and the memory crashes down to 150. MSI Afterburner does say that the GPU utilization is at 100% (while GPU2 is at 1-2%), so it's not evidently a case of the discreet card being switched off by PowerPlay or the like.

My current AMD and Intel HD drivers are from a Leshcat Labs bundle (14.12 Omega WHQL UnifL v1.0 with 10.18.10.3958 for the Intel drivers), and I have been shuffling around with legacy releases, some drivers straight from Clevo from the time the mobo+gpu combo was introduced, and the newest general drivers from both AMD and Intel, but there hasn't been much of a discernable difference (some combination of legacy drivers actually brought the performance down even more).

The most immediate examples of the above problem have recently cropped up in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and EuroTruck Simulator 2. Both start up at ultra (Skyrim at full, ETS2 with some modifications) @ 60fps, drop down to ~40 when the core jumps down, and finally crash to the vicinity of 10-15 when the memory clocks drop as well. With lesser graphics (even at lowest possible) the throttling happens, but the effect is not as devastating (ETS2 comes down to 35 fps with 0 mirror surfaces activated).

But the throttling gives rise to another problem. I could live with 20-30 fps, I'm not that picky. But once the gpu clocks drop to the lowest point it gives rise to a ridiculous input lag within the games. I haven't timed it, but I would estimate it at around 0,3 seconds. This is what makes the games nigh unplayable, not the low fps in itself.

Some other observations: Star Wars: The Old Republic used to get the same treatment at highest settings (but not lower, which is different from the aforementioned two), but does so no longer. This was almost a year ago, so I don't remember the exact specifics to how I solved the problem. Probably updated drivers mainly, but I also have a distinct memory of expanding the Windows Page file, and that might have been partially responsible for the heightened performance. To give some counter examples: Alan Wake (and American Nightmare), Sid Meier's Civilization V, TrackMania Nations, LEGO games and Heroes of Might and Magic V (possibly some other examples exist as well, but my memory escapes me) have not demonstrated similar symptoms, even at high settings.

I realize that there is a thread on the front page of this particular sub-board that has pages upon pages of customer experiences of lowered game experience due to GPU utilization with 7970M, but I am not 100% sure if mine is a similar problem.

I've tried altering the clocks in MSI Afterburner, and giving them a small nudge while in game usually boosts fps back to 60 for a while, but it ultimately comes down (MSI gives max clocks as follows: 1105 for core, 1560 for memory). Voltages can not be altered, nor can fan speeds. BIOS has zero options for GPU customization. BIOS lists the following information:
-MB series: P170EMx
-BIOS revision: 1.00.07
-KBC/EC firmware Revision: 1.00.06


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Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Feel free to ask for additional specs, I will provide them as I can. Thanks in advance.

 

...yeeah, you can pretty much disregard all of the above. The most obvious of actions hadn't crossed my mind yet, so I went and opened the laptop for the first time in the 2 and a half years I've had and played with it. A crapton of dust later, Skyrim is currently running on ultra at consistent 50-60 fps with 75-100% GPU utilization and no GPU clock problems. I feel so damn stupid now.

But while we're here: anyone have experience in overclocking the HD 7970M in a rig similar to mine? Since the clocks are modifiable, I would like to try to boost the power a bit, but I have ZERO idea of safe limits (and as I said before, voltages cannot be modified in my current setup) so any advice on the matter would be great.

 

Voltages can be modified but you need to mod the vBIOS.. it's quite easy to mod the vBIOS with VBE7 and then you flash it in DOS: http://forum.techinferno.com/amd-video-cards/1738-[guide]-amd-vbios-flashing.html

Max voltage to use is 1.1V.. For normal OCing, I'd suggest using Saphire Trix: You need to apply OC each time you boot... Also clocks wise, you want to test them.. Start with 900/1300 and then increase memory to 900/1350.. Then 950/1350... Till you get artifacts.. if you do stop immediately and drop down your clocks to 925/1325 and basically test it till you get stable clocks..

 

the first thing i was going to ask but youve already answered it was when you last cleaned the vents and fans out with compressed air. its recommended every 6 months or so and even more if you have cats or dogs around the house as hairs get everywhere.

keep an eye on your cpu/gpu temperatures with something like core temps/hwinfo64/hw monitor which all can be found in the link below.

a thermal re paste of your gpu might be worth it as well if its never been opened since you bought it.

as you said there is no override for the fan speed on our EM laptops but there was for the previous HM and the newer SM

 

You can max out the fan speed if you do the prema mod bios.

https://biosmods.wordpress.com/