Can't overclock Go 7950 GTX

[sizmik]

It seems that you have failed to understand simple stuff like... locking overclocking at the BIOS prevents average moronic joe to fry it's graphic card... therefore it cuts the support costs. It doesn't prevent geeky nerds to use modified BIOSes to achieve insane overclocking levels.

I'm pisses by morons that fry their card and beg their OEM for replacement. I owned at least one desktop nVidia GPU per generation since the TNT2 Ultra. I overclocked all of them but the first one and never fried anything. The TNT 2 Ultra was already overclocked by the manufacturer. (183 instead of 175) :) When you do something always ask yourself if it's worth it. The average joe has troubles understanding what he does... so it might be a long time before he understands the risks.

You own your laptop... you can do whatever you want with it... but as soon as you push the most expensive elements so they might break... it's has a fre@king impact on the support cost. So you have OEMs that chose the wise path of reliability and others that deliver unproperly cooled laptops that overheat at stock speeds. I'd rather buy a OEM1 laptop with locked GPU at a regular price than a hyped fancy geeky pushed to the max GPU that is twice expensive just to cover the costs of 50% dying GPU before the end of the warranty.

I chosed my side... I put my money in Dell for the huge screens and decent reliability. Is it too difficult to at least look for information about a laptop before you buy it? There are even "safer" OEMs than Dell...

It seems that you failed to understand my simple previous post. I'll say it again just incase you missed it.

We have bought a 7950 GTX, yes thats a 7950 GTX....1 more time, a 7950 GTX. Its underclocked by DELL, your beloved OEM who choses to believe that we are all 'morons' in your words so they lock the overclocking down. Our 7950 GTX is infact NOT a 7950 GTX, its running at 7900 memory speeds. Not only has Dell not let us overclock, they have underclocked our 7950 GTX's. Maybe because they are stupid ? or maybe because they cannot properly cool the card in their base plastics. Who knows, but all I know is that if they did not disable overclocking then we could at least have changed our cards speeds to stock levels.

Your post is bordering on calling me one of these morons and is full of patronisation. Asking me to check out my laptop before I bought it ? Dont ever try and class me or judge me in any way again.

[Fabrice Roux]

In no way I called you a moron... you are at least a couple of leagues above the average joe.

I was just pointing out the obvious reasons why Dell decided to locked the GPU clocks. For the same obvious reasons that lead Dell to use lower frequencies than "common values". For the same obvious reasons nVidia doesn't advertize mobile GPU nominal frequencies. And once again for the same obvious reasons nVidia doesn't officially support mobile GPU.

OEM do whatever fits their needs. But it can't be both "the fastest overclockable laptop ever" and "the most efficient support and most reliable laptop ever". So the OEM defines the "stock levels" that will match their target for price, performance and reliability.

I repeat again... there is currently no way to know if the fried GPU the support guy is holding went thru the hands of a uber overclock moron or if the cooling system failed. In the second case, the Dell warranty cover the expensive dead part... but in the first case it's the end user that is faulty.

There are a bunch of good contributors out here that would have helped you to select the proper OEM for your laptop. ie Toshiba makes properly built laptops but uses low/safe frequencies... Dell has a lower building quality and also uses safe frequencies. There are OEMs out there that have decent build quality... but I bet the major ones will all lock their GPUs soon.

One thing you can do when you are not satisfied by a product... it's to return it and ask for a refund.

[sizmik]

In no way I called you a moron... you are at least a couple of leagues above the average joe.

I was just pointing out the obvious reasons why Dell decided to locked the GPU clocks. For the same obvious reasons that lead Dell to use lower frequencies than "common values". For the same obvious reasons nVidia doesn't advertize mobile GPU nominal frequencies. And once again for the same obvious reasons nVidia doesn't officially support mobile GPU.

OEM do whatever fits their needs. But it can't be both "the fastest overclockable laptop ever" and "the most efficient support and most reliable laptop ever". So the OEM defines the "stock levels" that will match their target for price, performance and reliability.

I repeat again... there is currently no way to know if the fried GPU the support guy is holding went thru the hands of a uber overclock moron or if the cooling system failed. In the second case, the Dell warranty cover the expensive dead part... but in the first case it's the end user that is faulty.

There are a bunch of good contributors out here that would have helped you to select the proper OEM for your laptop. ie Toshiba makes properly built laptops but uses low/safe frequencies... Dell has a lower building quality and also uses safe frequencies. There are OEMs out there that have decent build quality... but I bet the major ones will all lock their GPUs soon.

One thing you can do when you are not satisfied by a product... it's to return it and ask for a refund.

Fabrice, I dont want you pick me up wrong, I am stunned by the M1710. Its performance is superb for my needs and now that I have it, I would never change it. I thought that Dell would at least have given us the choice when it comes to overclocking that is all.

[smax]

Fabrice, I dont want you pick me up wrong, I am stunned by the M1710. Its performance is superb for my needs and now that I have it, I would never change it. I thought that Dell would at least have given us the choice when it comes to overclocking that is all.

These laptops are engineered to only take so much heat. If Dell has decided to downclock the memory 100MHz, there is probably a reason behind it, which would mean that they were already pushing the heat limits in the first place.

Put yourself in Dell's place... Video cards burn out and you have to essentially replace an entire computer. What would you do? Downclock it a little bit so that the performance hit is barely noticeable and lock it in the BIOS so that people don't make you lose more money by not thinking.

[sizmik]

These laptops are engineered to only take so much heat. If Dell has decided to downclock the memory 100MHz, there is probably a reason behind it, which would mean that they were already pushing the heat limits in the first place.

Put yourself in Dell's place... Video cards burn out and you have to essentially replace an entire computer. What would you do? Downclock it a little bit so that the performance hit is barely noticeable and lock it in the BIOS so that people don't make you lose more money by not thinking.

Sit back for a minute and have a think about what you just said... 'Downclock it a little bit so that the performance hit is barely noticeable and lock it in the BIOS so that people don't make you lose more money by not thinking'

Are you serious ? Why dont Dell just downclock the CPU too to save power and heat. Why dont they just put in 5400rpm drives to make it less noisey and while they are at it, let them put in 2gb of memory but at slower mem speeds just because they can.

I'm in the twilight zone here.

[Fabrice Roux]

Fool proof protection... Fool proof protection... Fool proof protection... Is that too hard to understand?

CPUs, HDD and RAM are either not overclockable or pretty decently protected from side effects. So there is no point locking their clock/performance.

Once again... Dell master plan is not to deliver the least performing laptop... it's delivering the best performing laptop that doesn't cost a kidney in support and match the market so it sells like hot cakes.

Their mission on earth is not to endlessly provide 500+ ?/$ graphic card to overclock morons. So in the end if locking the clocks just makes my bill just a few percent lower I'll be happy.

[zipper]

I'm in the twilight zone here.

So are the manufacturers, they have to balance the pros and cons to get the best total economical result on what they manufacture.

[sizmik]

Fool proof protection... Fool proof protection... Fool proof protection... Is that too hard to understand?

CPUs, HDD and RAM are either not overclockable or pretty decently protected from side effects. So there is no point locking their clock/performance.

Once again... Dell master plan is not to deliver the least performing laptop... it's delivering the best performing laptop that doesn't cost a kidney in support and match the market so it sells like hot cakes.

Their mission on earth is not to endlessly provide 500+ ?/$ graphic card to overclock morons. So in the end if locking the clocks just makes my bill just a few percent lower I'll be happy.

I understand all that fool proof protection. I really do. However, answer me this...

Dell lock their GPU's for fear of morons frying their expensive cards. Yet, they sell the T7600g CPU which is fully overclockable. Now come on, they cant have it both ways. Arguably its easier to fry a CPU than it is to fry a GPU. So Dell let you overclock CPU's but not GPU's.

God forbid the morons that get the T7600g CPU's, you would think that with Dell caring about us so much they wouldnt sell it, but they do. Go figure.

So are the manufacturers, they have to balance the pros and cons to get the best total economical result on what they manufacture.

They dont manufacture anything, they build PC's and laptops from other vendors parts.

[Fabrice Roux]

Thermal throttling in CPU was implemented years and years before GPUs... remember the Tom's hardware videos removing the heatsink on a P3/P4/Athlon running Quake 3? This was probably the only good thing on the Pentium 4.

Memory on graphic card doesn't thermal throttle... it will work until it dies of an ODO (over dose of overclocking).

Plus it seems that the thermal logic is partially ran thru the driver... (see Vista thermal protection issues with mid 9x.xx drivers) which means the feedback loop is much longer than the pure hardware thermal protection of CPUs.

Dell doesn't build the elements... but they put the pieces together and their are in charge of the support. With the current trend of moronic american class actions, they'd rather protect their laptops from their end users.

If the laptop was sold without any kind of support and warranty these fool proof would not exist. They would even run a free hotline of technician laughing at your fried GPU.

[sizmik]

Thermal protection has saved me in the past when one of the legs on my p4 heatsink crumbled away. Its good yes but it will not save you from ramping higher voltages through the CPU it can still be damaged.

My point being, for Dell to let you overclock CPU's and not GPU's is quite funny. They are both processing units, but of course with CPU's having better protection. I'm happy with my m1710, but Id be even happier if my graphics card was running at the mem speeds it was designed to run at.

I dont want to keep harping on about it as I'm boring even myself.

The machine is fast enough just now, but there will come a time when I will get used to these speeds and will welcome a little performance boost. Will Dell let me do it, like heck they will. :)

p.s I have the ISO to unlock the 7950 GTX but will only use it when the time comes when the latest games require a little bit more ooomph.

[Fabrice Roux]

I'm happy with my m1710, but Id be even happier if my graphics card was running at the mem speeds it was designed to run at.

Dell designed the laptop so it match its target... you have to keep in mind that cooling has to match the laptop enveloppe. You can't fit a 20 cm high 100% diamond heatsink in a laptop. I do believe that Dell has some sort of equation where the entry points are:

- power dissipated by the GPU.

- cooling system efficiency.

- target temperature to maintain low failure rate.

If the GPUs idled at sane level temperature like 20-30°C... and reach 60°C... Dell would release the 500+ ? parts at what you call designed speed. My 6800 Go is clocked at 290 MHz by Dell while it's "design" clock is 300 MHz... and other OEM IIRC clocked it from 250 to 350 MHz. Guess what the ones with higher frequencies had the most problems... especially when the cooling system is shared with the CPU.

[sizmik]

If the GPUs idled at sane level temperature like 20-30°C... and reach 60°C... Dell would release the 500+ ? parts at what you call designed speed.

Well I wouldnt know the temps of my GPU, Dell also saw to it that using their driver (possibly other drivers I'm not sure yet) that this 'feature' is disabled.

[Fabrice Roux]

You want I8kFanGUI to log all the temps and control the fan in your laptop.

[KillerNotebooks]

Hello all,

I can't seem to get any core/memory clock frequency settings to save on my XPS M1710 with a 7950GTX card. I've tried using both CoolBits and ATITool, but neither will save the clock settings after I change them. Coolbits "looks" like it saves when I click "Apply" but when I open it back up the settings are back to stock. ATITool just reverts back to stock when i click the "set clocK" button.

I've tried several versions of Forceware from this site (and the stock Dell drivers) but nothing works -- anyone had any success with OC'ing the 7950 GTX?

Hi, I own Killer Notebooks, to eliminate the "How full of B.S. is this guy" question right away.

First I would like to say, this is an awesome forum interface, a lot of nice options and features, but to your question, that is neither here nor there.

The person that said that DELL sets their memory underclocked to 600 Mhz, that is news to me, but it also doesn't surprise me.

Maybe not a great OC'er, but it should be a *good* OC'er, especially since Dell has the memory clock set at 600Mhz. It's my understand it's a system builder option to set the memory clock at 600 or 700Mhz -- Dell sets theirs at 600 (probably for heat reasons) so surely I can easily get 650 or 700+ on the memory clock without any probs.

DELL has a lot of overheat problems, and it is because of a pretty poorly designed and constructed heatsink. I don't "quite" understand how you can sell a 7950 GTX card AS a 7950 (since it is really an overclocked 7900 GTX from the factory) if you remove the overclocking of the memory, maybe they should market it as a 7925 GTX instead of a "50" designation", if in fact the core is overclocked to 575 like it is supposed to be (7950 timings are 575/700).

Anyway, the BIOS is locked to return the card to its stock settings even if you use a software tool like CoolBits, someone already mentioned that. What CoolBits can do for you is unlock the "Detect Maximum Settings" in the clock frequencies menu of the nVidia desktop manager. With that you can see the capabilities of the card you have from the start. I say that because when the 7950 GTX first came out, it was very easy to find "good cards", cards capable of really nice O.C.'s, now it is increasingly more difficult.

The heat issues you will have with an overclocked card really should be addressed BEFORE you try to O.C. the card. You can go to the GuruOfGaming forum 7950 GTX HeatSink mod section to get some ideas of the things that I do. I am on about the 3'rd major revision and there have been several minor ones along the way, and this is to a heatsink that is infinately better than DELL's to start with. Currently I have designed a 1 piece copper base that replaces a 6 piece design from the factory, increasing the surface area of the stock heatsink about 3.5", and eliminating 100% of the silver solder, and 1/32" gap between the memory and the heatsink "feet". It replaces the "thermal sponge material" with an aluminum double fluted heatsink to dissipate the heat, as well as replacing the "thermal pads" between the GPU and memory with Arctic Silver 5.

So at the end of the day, what does this actually do for you? Well, you can read a review done at www.TechWareLabs.com on my 7950 GTX Executioner notebook that buried the dual 7900 GS card Alienware m9700 where they commented on the notebook running at 32C normal usage 46-51C hard core gaming. Do yourself a favor and plan first, because O.C.'ing the card is the easiest thing to do in the overall scheme of things. Keeping the card alive... well, that gets a little harder.

Here is an excerpt about just the temp range if you don't want to read the whole 9 page review.

We all know that heat is a computers worst nightmare. Heat deteriorates the useful life of computer systems. Overheating is your computer's biggest enemy; too much heat can fry its delicate circuitry and chips and send you shopping for a brand new system. Just as you need to keep your car engine cool to prevent damage, you must do the same for the delicate mechanisms beneath the hood of your PC. This unfortunately is very tough to do when you are speaking of a notebook computer, as space is very limited and being able to acquire such diverse items to help aid in dissipating heat can be quite daunting.

The people at KillerNotebooks have really done a fantastic job in providing you with this solution, so that you only have to be concerned with providing adequate airflow, keeping your notebook out of direct sunlight, and at least once a month cleaning the fans and cooling grills with compressed air to push out any sucked in lint or hair that could pose a problem to their cooling solution for such a high-end notebook. They provided whatever was necessary to keep the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and the Nvidia 7950 GTX Video GPU quite cool.

Easily seen above are the vast amounts of 100% copper finned heatsinks placed to provide more surface area for the heat to be drawn into. Underneath this array of copper heatsinks they have also gone out of their way to remove all traces of thermal tape and after lapping the interface surfaces, they added Artic Silver 5 to provide the best heat transfer possible, thus increasing the life of your KillerNotebook. I was very impressed with the work they have done here and that contributed to this very fast systems cool temperture numbers and general temperature 'feel'. The Executioner maintained a 32 deg. C temperature, while the office maintained a 26 deg. C ambient temperature during normal average use. While playing games such as Battlefield2142 (First Person Shooter) and LockOn Flaming Cliffs (Graphic Intensive Flight Simulator), with all of the graphics turned to max and also while setting the Nvidia 7950 GTX to use 8xS Antialiasing and 16x Anisotropic Filtering settings, the Executioner performed like a champ. Average temperatures recorded with MobMeter during actual gaming ranged from 46 deg C to 51 deg C. Let me state that this is quite cool for a high-end gaming laptop, especially one that houses the Nvidia 7950 GTX wtih 512MB of ram on it.

Edited January 10, 2007 by KillerNotebooks

[wolvorine4424]

interesting...

My 7950GTX came with 575/600 clocks... WTF...

I already have an Unlocked DELL vBios. so I will set it to 575/700 and see how it works out.

[Guest e1705GOD]

Wow, someone does not know why Dell laptops rock... I have replaced (in my Inspiron e1705, the little brother of the XPS M1710) the following (at about 1/2 hour total work time to do it):

Upgrade form 1440x900 to 1920x1200 screen

Upgrade form ATI Radeon X1400 to Nvidia GeForce Go 7900GS to Nvidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX

Upgrade from 1Gb RAM to 4Gb RAM

Upgrade from 2.00Ghz processor to 2.33Ghz processor

Upgrade from standard DVD burner to Blu-Ray reader/dvd+cd burner

And it only takes me a half an hour to do each job. Thats how easy it is. Just search "Why The Inspiron is a King" in google... See what you find...

[Guest Noob user]

hi. is this tutorial the best to follow for overclocking this GPU?

http://www.overclock...ce-go-7950-gtx/