Bios Mods -The Best BIOS Update and Modification Source

(09-09-2011, 04:05 AM)mw86 Wrote: [ -> ]So no fix for he 580M but perhaps if it is a driver then you could try older drivers?

Currently working on getting a set of older drivers to work to test, no luck yet!

Also since its not a temp throttle on my side of things, its the nvida overvolt protection (ovp) thats kicking in when running furmark etc at 0.92v.
I have requested a volt mod of 0.90v to be done and test since stock is max 0.87v. (Maybe the 0.92v was way too high and it was triggering the ovp) Mvktech has not responded yet to my request, unless i figure out how to mod a vbios file from 0.87v max to 0.90v, i suppose i can do it myself.

Stock volt of 0.87v max overclock is 724mhz all stable (compared to stock 620mhz) which is still roughly 20% overclock with no trigger of any throttle in furmark occt etc.

Basically as Ahmed said if its not throttling in games i think we should all be happy this is just nvidia protection which im probably happy to have.

But if any further developments or updates arise i'll update

Personally i feel the sweet spot will be 0.90v without triggering the ovp in furmark etc and will be able to get at least 800mhz stable

Edit MVKTECH has responded with
We will check again, though from our first analysis there are no in between values as the GeForce GTX 580M and lower all have some predefined voltage levels which can only be selected but none can be added, which is not like the desktop series but complete the same as the previous GeForce GTX 4x0M versions. Now we will recheck but I am quite confident there will not be something else, and for those who are playing with the voltage table to set some voltage like 0.90V or 1.00V, that won't make any difference as the voltage table only sets the label not the actual voltage as we explained multiple times before
http://www.mvktech.net/index.php?option=...3&id=61685

This is the nature of the throttle kicking in in STALKER Clear Sky.
I used slightly overclocked clocks to experience the throttle sooner: 700/1400/1580

HWiNFO64
GPU0 - max temp 74*C, max voltage 0.870 mV
GPU1 - max temp 73*C, max voltage 0.870 mV

Nvidia Inspector 1.9.5.5

Note that GPU1 is actually the primary card and GPU0 is the secondary. Since 280.26 Nvidia Inspector confuses things. It ran okay on 280.19. Weird.




blue bracket - the game is launched
red bracket - throttle kicks in

As you can see on OCed clocks the throttle is engaged right after the game starts. Temperature are nowhere near high. The throttle surely is not temperature related.

HW Monitor Pro






Conclusions?

As it seems, at least partially, the throttle is load-related. If only the cards run at full load for a longer while, the throttle is engaged.
What isn't clear is why OCed clocks speed up throttle engagement. Both on stock or OCed clocks STALKER CS easily hits 100% load.

It could be also power related, so a more complex "throttle on" equation emerges: full load + power demand becomes higher than 0.870 mV = throttle

This is probably why STALKER CS is treated as a regular stress app like Furmark.

I will test another game this evening, this time with stock clocks and forcefully lowered fan speeds. Then, I will flash the cards with a custom BIOS increasing the max voltage to 0.920 mV. Then, I will re do STALKER CS test.

---

(09-09-2011, 06:55 AM)barcode Wrote: [ -> ]Personally i feel the sweet spot will be 0.90v without triggering the ovp in furmark etc and will be able to get at least 800mhz stable

I quite honestly believe that voltage is just a part of the story. See what I wrote above.

If 'throttle on' thing is indeed load + voltage related, the throttle will be kicking in regardless of voltage applied, as soon as the cards, or at least the primary card, run at full load for a longer while.

The throttle, therefore, can be very much drivers-based, and in such case, we are screwed.

(09-09-2011, 08:38 AM)0x29a Wrote: [ -> ]The throttle, therefore, can be very much drivers-based, and in such case, we are screwed.

I will test another game this evening, this time with stock clocks and forcefully lowered fan speeds. Then, I will flash the cards with a custom BIOS increasing the max voltage to 0.920 mV. Then, I will re do STALKER CS test.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thx nice pictures! Yes i agree drivers-based! but all avenues must be explored. software-based can always be disabled.
If i can run 800mhz stable on 0.90v instead of 0.92v this would be more logical.

Yeah, I am watching that thread too. 0.870V vs 0.9V is still a huge difference. I am willing to flash my cards too, to 0.92 or 0.9.

Barcode, did you flash directly from windows 7 x64? Did it work okay?

Let's don't give up, we will figure it out! We have to!

edit: typos mV

(09-09-2011, 09:34 AM)0x29a Wrote: [ -> ]Yeah, I am watching that thread too. 0.870mV vs 0.9mV is still a huge difference. I am willing to flash my cards too, to 0.92 or 0.9.

Barcode, did you flash directly from windows 7 x64? Did it work okay?

Let's don't give up, we will figure it out! We have to!

Yes i flashed within windows 7 x64 , look at page 28 here instructions are there. np in flashing all ok dont worry, if your not happy just flash back to stock, remember always make a backup.

I think these are avenues worth exploring. I said to try .9v much earlier in the thread. Great diagram you're definitely honing in on its source.

i think its normal for the GPU to throttle when reached 100% usage as there will be no more graphics power to give................and its clear that its not temp related as temps reached 90c before with no throttle .
the only thing makes GPU throttle is using benchmark tools or playing stalker as this game drive the GPU to 100% usage and the device driver activate the OCP protection when detecting these tools .
I think no need to use any benchmark tools ........ you only care about playing games , watching bluray movies ........ etc and you didn`t buy 1200$ GPUs to use it in benchmarking but you benefit from its performance in games and other things with no need for benchmarking .
I think it will be very difficult for anyone to modify the device driver , i don`t knew any specialized people doing this............you need to search for all older drivers and install then test .

@barcode : i dont knew why you need a modified 0.90v for your GPU as its already has no throttle in games................its only benchmarking and i told you that its not important .
the modified bios will be useless if you will try benchmarking again .
the Original 580M GPU bios has throttle in benchmarking and in stalker at 0.87v ......... how will the 0.90v or 0.92v has no throttle while the fewer 0.87v already has throttle in benchmarking !!

voltage mod may make sense. if the throttle is engaged according to the "load + power" formula, more power will make the cards run faster/take on heavier loads before reaching stable 'full load' causing the throttle. at least this is how i understand this.

if the cards are fully loaded at 620Mhz + 0.87V, they shouldn't be at 700Mhz + 0.9V because that's more power (same demand vs. more power = less load )

Barcode, can you elaborate on how you were experiencing the overvolt protection issue? What voltages are you currently running? 0.92?

(09-09-2011, 07:07 PM)0x29a Wrote: [ -> ]Barcode, can you elaborate on how you were experiencing the overvolt protection issue? What voltages are you currently running? 0.92?

This is using the standard volt of 0.87v
Ok all standard clocks 620mhz standard volt 0.87 everything runs perfect furmark occt no throttle

Overclocked to 724mhz standard volts 0.87 everything again runs perfect furmark occt no throttle

Now anything above the 724mhz overclock i get glitches and artifacts on standard volts , this could mean cards requires more power or nvidia ovp/oct has kicked it im not too sure.

Overvolt mod used of 0.92v
standard clocks again 620mhz no throttle
overclocked 724mhz again no throttle
Anything above 724mhz NO glitches or artifacts but i experience throttle in furmark occt all the way to 900mhz

Okay what about this. Over at T|I a good friend and mod SVL7 did some work on an 6970m in an attempt to do a volt mod on a hardware level. You guys dont need to and are able to on the vbios... So when Svl7 successfully raised the volts the card now throttled down to idle clocks. So we all suggested in the to change the profile it seemed to switch to to the overclock speed. It didn't work at forcing the clocks but on other cards that theory does work. If I had done that to the 5870m I used to own it would work since stock was 1.05 and 1.15volt was where I could raise it to. 105 got 750mhz easy, 1.1 got 800-850 easy and 1.15v got 900core easy. So vmod's are worth it if they allow better speeds for same pricepoint. So what if you manually set the overheating profile to the overclock level? It may share the same profile as media speeds or idle speeds. See RBE editors guide to see what profiles I mean if there is any confusion.

---

Does anyone want to try renaming the executables to either furmark or that game? Since on amd kombustor doesn't runxfire but if you rename it furmark it will. Atleast I read that. Also some cards throttle furmark but if you rename it it doesn't. Could this be the case? Could NVIDIA just have programmed something like that in the drivers?

---

Oh just thought of this. We all probably hear of mobility.net a mod for desktop drivers to work on laptop graphics... I used to use it before NVIDIA and and started keeping their mobile drivers updated. There's a good chance if you get the desktop 580 drivers modded and installed that the throttle if driver related should be non existant.