[RESOLVED]8600M GT randomly dowclocking

[shwivel]

After searching around I've found a few posts regarding this problem, noteably (http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=18947). It is identical to my situation, although it wasn't resolved.

I'll try to explain here. This is not an overheating issue, I mean the card isn't as cool as it could be, but given the nature of the problem I've been monitoring the temperature levels as I play (the only game I play is CSS, but I've also tried playing 1.6 to see if it'd make a difference - yet same issue occurs). Sometimes the card downclocks at 70 something, sometimes at 80 something, and I've never seen the card go past 82 degrees - plus that's after awhile of gaming. The downclock comes and goes, regardless of how cool/hot the card is. It's not as if it's reaching its slowdown threshold or anything like that; it's random. Sometimes it lasts a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes. During this time, gameplay is obviously affected, and there's a lot of stuttering, framerates drop into the teens through the 30s, whereas they're normally very solid (I'm actually able to pull off very good framerates at lower resolutions because I have a T7700 processor). Of course that doesn't mean much when your card is running at 275/200, which I believe is the 2D mode for the card. Now, I should clarify, I believe that it's downclocking, and that that's the problem, I can't say I'm 100% sure. Depending on the driver I use (I have used a god awful amount at this point, attempting to fix this problem), the NVMonitor will sometimes show the dip during the stutters, but with certain drivers it SHOWS 475/400 even during the stutters. Fact is, with other drivers, the clock does go down to 275/200 every once in awhile, and it was during those exact moments that the framerate shot to hell. And once the stuttering stopped, boom, back to 475/400 again. That's why I've determined it's a downclocking problem. Here are things I've tried so far -

1. Different drivers.

I've used driver cleaner in between installs of many drivers, old and new, it simply doesn't fix the problem. With some it occurs after more time than others, but sooner or later there's a back and forth switching of smooth gameplay to stuttered gameplay.

2. Turned Powermizer off

3. Registry hacked Powermizer

I changed the registry so that it'd stay at 475/400 constantly. It works, as even when websurfing and crap like that it will be 475/400, but during GAMING, it still has the dip downs to 275/200. Apparently it thinks web browsing is a more demanding task than gaming... lovely.

By the way, I haven't been able to talk to anyone with the same problem as me, but I've never noticed any problems in the past until reformatting my computer with XP pro 64 (I used to have XP pro 32). I can't say for CERTAIN that the 64 bit os has anything to do with it, because when I reformatted I hadn't played CSS, or any game for that matter, for perhaps a couple of months. So it's not as if I reformatted, started playing a game, and was like wtf. I'm not sure if it's linked to this situation or not. I can say, however, that I never, ever encountered this problem, when I was running XP 32, with this same hardware, so it'd be interesting to see if the other people with this problem all have 64 bit OS's (whether it be XP 64 or vista 64).

Anyhow, that's my situation, any help would be greatly appreciated. If you need any more info or clarification on something let me know.

Thanks

Edited July 28, 2008 by shwivel

[anonymous1986]

For me the old drivers (169 series) did not give me this downclocking problem, however the latest ones 175,177 etc seem to downclock my gpu to 275/200 as u said after around 30 mins of gaming. It then does not go above the 275 mark. I looked around and finally downloaded powermizer switch (just google it). My gpu constantly stays at 475 core clock now, (however my idle temp is now 3C hotter nothing big) and i dont experience any downclocking whilst gaming. You should try it out.

[shwivel]

For me the old drivers (169 series) did not give me this downclocking problem, however the latest ones 175,177 etc seem to downclock my gpu to 275/200 as u said after around 30 mins of gaming. It then does not go above the 275 mark. I looked around and finally downloaded powermizer switch (just google it). My gpu constantly stays at 475 core clock now, (however my idle temp is now 3C hotter nothing big) and i dont experience any downclocking whilst gaming. You should try it out.

I've tried 169.09 and had the same issue. Although I've only used the program you mentioned to change the powermizer settings on a 177x driver, so maybe if I were to revert back to 169 and run the prog while that driver's installed it'd have a shot at fixing the problem. Just for the sake of doing exactly what you did, what 169x driver are you running? Later on I'll try installing that one and then running the powermizer fix to see if it stops the downclock.

thanks

[shwivel]

I just tried 169.61 with powermizerswitch set to max power on ac, same problem :/

[anonymous1986]

I used 169.44 for a long time and it gave me no problems whatsoever. I think that i had problems with 169.61 when i used it. Currently i am using the driver provided by dell 175.97. Try just resetting everything to the original (ie enable powermizer again).

[wook]

so you have also tried this option?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread...667#post3503667

worked for almost everyone that had powermizer downclocking issues.

also, are you overclocking your GPU?

[shwivel]

so you have also tried this option?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread...667#post3503667

worked for almost everyone that had powermizer downclocking issues.

also, are you overclocking your GPU?

I checked each entry and they're already at what they're supposed to be changed to, they were probably adjusted after running the powermizerswitcher program. And no I'm not overclocking. Also I tried turning powermizer back on (within the control panel), but that doesn't change anything, nor does switching it back off (within the cp). I'll try that other driver you mentioned but I'm really considering some sort of bad interaction with xp 64, because this same laptop never had this problem while I was running on 32 bit, and I didn't have to make any adjustments with the powermizer at all or anything like that... I simply never ran into problems. With any driver. Needless to say, I'll try that other one and get back to you

[shwivel]

Ok I've just figured something out, and now I'm really stumped as to what to do. I decided to use gpu-z to monitor the rates, figuring I shouldn't trust what nvmonitor was saying because I hadn't seen it actually dip down the clock rate for awhile now, despite having seen it in the past, and similar symptoms remaining. I said to myself, well, I'm still getting stutters here and now, it doesn't matter what nvmonitor is saying, it has to be downclocking. I'm thinking now that that may have been a bad assumption, because gpu-z agrees with nvmonitor, durring the stuttering, the clock rate is still 475/400. Now my trust in that number isn't exactly 100%, but I'm open to other possibilities. So what I did was I installed "RightMark CPU Clock Utility", and monitored my rates of the CPU during the game. And the clock rate updates like every second, so I have a feeling that it's accurate and reliable. The "core clock" remains ~2.3ghz at all times (I have a T7700, so that's all said and good). The "throttle" on the other hand, is ~2.4ghz while the game is running smoothly (as it should), but when the stuttering starts, the "throttle" number is immediately split in half. And when it gets smooth again, it's right back up at 2.4. The core clock never changes, but the "throttle" gets split in half. I don't even know what the throttle number means so I'm not really sure where to go from here. Anyone have an idea as to what I should do?

[Guest reggie]

try 167.15.........im on vista 32 bit....used to have the same problems. I hope a better solution can be found soon. I think its safe to say that in some situations, it has absolutely nothing to do with powermizer

[wook]

download an application called:

RMclock

You can unselect throttle so your CPU is always at peak speed. also, you can make the voltage setting remain constant instead of going up and down to save on battery.

EDIT: have you checked your power cord? Im thinking that its getting power surges/ cuts. That might be what is making the CPU and GPU go up and down. (on batery mode, your video will always go into 2d mode, and CPU will throttle right down)

Edited July 28, 2008 by wook (alt)

[shwivel]

download an application called:

RMclock

You can unselect throttle so your CPU is always at peak speed. also, you can make the voltage setting remain constant instead of going up and down to save on battery.

EDIT: have you checked your power cord? Im thinking that its getting power surges/ cuts. That might be what is making the CPU and GPU go up and down. (on batery mode, your video will always go into 2d mode, and CPU will throttle right down)

I love you. I really love you.

Anyhow, I've tested for ~45mins with rmclock under the max performance profile playing CSS, and for once, no dips. That's all I have time for right now but in the past I'd have at least a couple full minutes of stuttering throughout any halfhour period, so I'm thinking it's fixed. I'll get in a longer session later on and if I still don't encounter any problems I'll rename the thread to resolved, which as of now I think it is

Thanks for all the help guys

[shwivel]

So long as rmclock is running on max perf, there is no stuttering =] I imagine that both my gpu and cpu were downclocking, and that the conventional fix for powermizer and whatnot actually solved the gpu problem, leaving the cpu throttling issue still to be fixed, which rmclock is now taking care of. Thanks for the help guys

[wook]

feels good to solve a problem thats really peeing you off hey... well done!

Edited July 28, 2008 by wook

[Guest Jeff]

Hey guys... so I've been having the same problem as the original poster, except a tad different.

I run AOC on a Dell XPS M1530 (8600M GT, T9300 2.5GHz Dual Core processor, 4GB ram).

For this game, it is required that I use a 177.xx driver due to how fast they are compared to the other drivers. Whenever I play on low settings (shader 2 or shader 2x), it doesn't downclock (or at least I havn't noticed it). But whenever I play it on Shader 3 with medium-high settings, which I constantly get above 30FPS, it randomly downclocks. I have monitored it and it goes from 580/800/1160 down to EXTREMELY low settings.

I've tried the PowerMizer switch, but it doesn't do a single thing. Oh and BTW, the downclocking has never happened to me on the 175.xx drivers but I refuse to use them (call me stubborn... graphics suck on 175.xx). Lastly, I do OC my GPU.

Anyway, I have a few questions:

1) If I manually disable PowerMizer instead of using the switch, will that work better than the PowerMizer switch??

2) Do you think RMclock will work with my problem (downclocking with the 177.xx drivers while OCing on AOC)?? If so, how do you use it??

Thanks!!

[BanZai]

Hey guys - i have got the same problems!

i downloades RMclock and noticed some weird things:

when i look at the CPU monitor i see that the CPU clock (in Windows, not while playing) is jumping every 2-5 seconds up and down from 1200Mhz to 2200Mhz.

Is this normal?

I turned on the "maximal performance" profile, but my GPU automatically downclocks from 500MHz down to 250MHz after playing...

...about 20 minutes COD4

...about 20 SECONDS Frontline - Fuel of War

is there anything special i have to change at the RMclock settings?

So i tried the Powermizer Switch -> no success...

btw. i tried nearby each driver of the 17x.xx series - no idea whats the issue.

Hope anybody has got an idea! Thanks!

Here a screenshot from GPU-Z while playing Frontlines... Drop from 475 Mhz to 275

Edited July 29, 2008 by BanZai

[shwivel]

As for the gpu downclocking I'd say to check that the powermizerswitch program actually changed your registry to the correct settings. There are manual instructions for doing the same thing that the powermizerswitch is supposed to do here (http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=261929). Hopefully your situation is just that the program didn't do its job. If the entries were indeed changed to what they're supposed to be, I'm not sure of what you should do at that point.

With the cpu downlocking, I'd use rmclock to confirm what you're saying if you haven't already, and take a look at whether or not the number in the throttle field starts moving around. If there is a problem, going to the "Advanced CPU Settings" page will have a bunch of different options. Automatic thermal protection, Speed Step (EIST), and a bunch of low power settings. Fiddling with them could resolve your problem as it did with mine, but be sure that your core isn't actually overheating... because if it is it's taking the necessary precaution in downclocking in order to prevent damage. Also, by going to the profiles page, it will show different multipliers and voltages. By default I think they were all checked off, what I did was uncheck all of them except for the highest multiplier so that it wouldn't consider downclocking. Fiddling with those settings may also help out.

[BanZai]

Here a screenshot from RMclock in windows, not while playing

Can anybody tell me if it is ok that my core2duo is throtteling down by 50% every 2-5 seconds?

looks weird :)

[wook]

what you are experiencing BanZai is totally normal. the throttling going up and down depending on the services and applications you have running. RMclock can change the throttle to stay at 100%. deselect every setting in the following areas.

advanced CPU settings/ processor: every single box should be unticked. (obviously except apply these settings at startup)

advanced CPU settings/ chipset: every single box except c5 and c6 modes. (obviously except apply these settings at startup)

advanced CPU settings/ throttleing: every single box.

thats about all. you can muck around woth other settings at your will. not much will happen. unless you want to overclock you CPU.

[BanZai]

what you are experiencing BanZai is totally normal. the throttling going up and down depending on the services and applications you have running. RMclock can change the throttle to stay at 100%. deselect every setting in the following areas.

advanced CPU settings/ processor: every single box should be unticked. (obviously except apply these settings at startup)

advanced CPU settings/ chipset: every single box except c5 and c6 modes. (obviously except apply these settings at startup)

advanced CPU settings/ throttleing: every single box.

thats about all. you can muck around woth other settings at your will. not much will happen. unless you want to overclock you CPU.

Thank you!

I will keep the settings as they are, when there is no effect, i better save some energy :)

Btw. im running 175.61 from Acer now... it is working without downclock but the performance is not as well as with a new one.

here the link: Laptopvideo2go 175.61 Driver ACER

[Kaaji1359]

Just so you guys know, I did everything there is to be done with this problem. I'm using RMClock on max performance (and un-checking every box under advanced CPU settings), PowerMizer is disabled (I checked manually to see if the switch is actually working and it is), and my damn GPU still downclocks after a random time playing AOC.

Seriously, can someone PLEASE FIND A SOLUTION :) This is depressing... I was so happy about my laptop, now I hate it with a passion.

[Guest Guest]

did you restart after you disabled the powermizer? is your UAC off ?

Just so you guys know, I did everything there is to be done with this problem. I'm using RMClock on max performance (and un-checking every box under advanced CPU settings), PowerMizer is disabled (I checked manually to see if the switch is actually working and it is), and my damn GPU still downclocks after a random time playing AOC.

Seriously, can someone PLEASE FIND A SOLUTION :) This is depressing... I was so happy about my laptop, now I hate it with a passion.