GT 330M throttled - can it be fixed? Sony VAIO CW2 (VPCCW2S1E)

I've just got a Sony VAIO CW2 with a GT 330M GPU and have read that the chip is throttled from the default settings. The source is a review at www.notebookjournal.de/tests/laptop-review-sony-vaio-vpc-cw2s1-nkrt-1101, translated with Google Translate.

According to www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html the GT 330M should run at a speed that is higher than what is reported by CPU-Z:

Core Speed: 575 MHz vs my speed of 475 MHz
Shader Speed: 1265 MHz vs my speed of 1045 MHz
Memory Speed: 1066 MHz vs my speed of 680 MHz

The summary is that the chip is performing a fair bit below what it should; according to the review the throttled GT 330M performs at a level of a GT230M or GT 240M:

"As already slowing in the FW-Series Sony Series CW2 also in the clock speeds of the graphics card. Around 100 MHz can be throttled back the clock of GPU and memory. The effects of the low clock visible in the performance values. It's a good 6000 points can get hold of the Sony CW2 in 3DMark 06 - 1000 points less than the Samsung R580 with almost identical hardware."

Any ideas if this can be "fixed", so that the GPU runs at defaults levels?

 

Umm durrr, change the clock speeds with Nvidia tools or some OCing program...... also might wanna search before creating a new thread.

 

First - Follow *These* instructions.

Second - Download NVidia System Tools *Here*.

Third - When installing NVidia system tools, select only the "Performance" option for install, as the other ones are just bloatware really.

Fourth - After installation, of the drivers and the System Tools, right click on the Desktop and go to the NVidia Control Panel. Now go to the Performance --> Device Settings --> *Accept the agreement --> now click on Device Settings and now you can bump your clocks up.

**Disclaimer** I, nor NBR forums, are responsible for what you do past my instructions. If you clock your card too high you can damage it, so go slow on the clock increment increases. Go maybe 5-10Mhz at a time. And when you read the Memory clock numbers, basically since it's dual channel it's the memory frequency x2. Say the memory freq is 667Mhz, so then the total memory frequency is 1066Mhz. In System Tools the max is 936, so then the max is 1872Mhz.

 

Great instructions, thanks! Have installed the updated drivers / performance addon and will see what I can run the card at.

Am I correct in that the GPU automatically throttles to a lower speed when not performing intensive tasks (135 MHz for the core according to the CP and CPU-Z), and if I overclock I loose that throttle? E.g. it will run at the set speed at all times? It's obviously very useful when running off battery etc.

 

You're welcome! But, no. It's called Powermizer by NVidia. What it does is detect whether you are running 2d or 3d apps. If you're just running 2d apps it keeps the clocks low to save power, but the second it detects a 3d app, it ramps up to whatever you overclocked it to. And you can actually turn Powermizer off with the Powermizer switch, but I don't advise that, as owners of the 330/230/310/210 don't really have any of the Powermizer problems that the people with the GTX260m have. So I'd just leave on.

 

Excellent, that sorts that one Don't have anything that stresses the GPU installed yet (BF2 at native res peaks at the 100 fps cap according to FRAPS), but I will try Crysis next week just to see what frame rates I get with and without overclocking.

If you feel up for it I've got another laptop issue here btw: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5998487#post5998487

Cheers!

 

FWIW, notebookcheck showed the clocks for GT330M N11P-GE1, but all the GT330M in current Sony line-up (F, CW, & Z) are N11P-LP, which notebookcheck mentioned as well.

You can probably overclock your N11P-LP to get back to N11P-GE1 level clockspeed, but just realize that if the chip can operate at that speed comfortably with ample headroom for even higher clock speed, nVidia probably would have binned it to be N11P-GE1...

 

But... since NVidia has had SOOO many issues with TSMC's fab processes, that at this point we can't really tell what their bin process is, because they might just be looking (at this point) to sell every thing they can. Also the 40nm dies have a great overclocking potential. They don't put out anywhere near the heat that the 65nm dies do.

 

Either way I'll try overclocking, but thanks for the info

 

Hi Nitsson

I just got the same laptop and was wondering if you had any luck with breaking the throttle using the above instructions? If yes, which settings are you finding work best for you? Thanks in advance!

 

Yes I did, it worked well all the way up to the "normal" speed actually Every die is different however, and as people have suggested, lower quality dies may have been used for these downclocked versions. Unlikely, yes, but possible so you should overclock incrementally for your particular version.

Also, I'm actually running it at the default (lower) speed for now as it's enough for the older games I play. The maximum resolution is quite low for this laptop and thus not very taxing. Still, it's good to know I can overclock as I will no doubt use it in the future.

 

Thanks Nitsson! I will give it a shot this weekend. Atm I'm just playing Dragon Age Chronicles at the default speed and it seems fine but, like you said, it would be nice to be able to ramp it up for future releases.