Overclocking a GT330M, slight problem

[dantdj]

Maybe it's a bit more than a slight problem, though.

Anyway, I've been meaning to ask this for a while. A month or two ago, I thought I'd try out overclocking my nVidia GT330M. This worked fantastically for the first few times (I was pulling around 20 FPS with everything on the Mafia II demo maxed, at a 1366x768 (My laptop's native res) resolution). Temps also generally stayed below 70. However, from then on, it just seems to lower FPS. A lot. When I have it overclocked now, even on medium settings my frame-rate tanks to around 5-8 FPS, and I can't quite put my finger on why it's happening...

I've stayed away from it since then, but I was wondering if anyone knew why it began to do that? Stock clocks get the same FPS as they did before, so performance of the card isn't inhibited in any way.

 

[Lutfij]

^ for this you have to get one thing clear - Heat

heat is a performance robber and for a laptop, the first concern is heat, though I'm a bit curious of what you hold on your lap - or on your table?

Laptop cooling is designed for one thing, to be compact, minimal and doesn't hamper the laptop's portability or luggage weight when people take it in their rucksacks or backpacks.

Heat dissipation is done through greater surface area. Even if you have water-cooling, the surface area of the rads determine how much you can throw away from the hot object.

I hope you've learned that you can't overclock the GPU without it affecting your lap, hardware or your wallet

My 2 cents

* btw welcome to the forums, newcomer!

 

[dantdj]

Yeah, heat is pretty much the biggest problem with laptops, I think.
I have it on my lap most of the time. When games though, I have this weird gel cooling mat thing that I got for Christmas. It actually reduces temps, so I'm pretty happy with it!
But, as I said before... the GPU doesn't go above 70, really. Stock clocks put it at around 62-65 degrees, so it's not that big a temp increase.
I don't particularly mind about it's refusal to overclock, it's just the fact that it worked brilliantly one time, but sucked all the rest of them confuses me!

Thank you! It seems to be quite the nice community here! Hopefully I can learn a lot.

Also, to save opening another thread... With my CPU temps, one of them always seems to be about 10 degrees higher than the other, give or take a few degrees. My old laptop had the temps around the same, which I find more believable. I was thinking that the sensors were wrongly calibrated or something, but I've never been able to find a concrete answer.

 

[Lutfij]

^ your welcome but going on my frst post, you have to post your laptops specs so that i can tell what your running now and why you have the +10 on only one core.

 

[dantdj]

CPU: Intel i3-350M (2.27GHz, Dual core)
GPU: nVidia GT330M 1GB
Brand: Samsung
Model: Q530
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Hard-drive: 500GB Samsung HM500JI
Resolution: 1366x768
RAM: 4GB DDR3

That should be all of them.

 

[Lutfij]

what are you using to monitor temps? go here and get HWmonitor...that should be reliable

for quads and duals, one core usually is a bit higher, this is a lil bit more when you have an OC running.

 

[dantdj]

I'm using HardwareMonitor.

Yeah, but I think this is a bit more than a bit. 10 degrees is quite the large amount! And there's no OC running on this. Would be awesome to have one, but I've yet to figure it out.

 

[Lutfij]

then all i can say is, you running a laptop form samsung that was designed as an alternative to an office pc who does his work on the go.

your trying to run games off a 1st gen i3 so i'm not surprised(now) that your getting lower FPS.

Now when you add these things together, you'll understand that the cooling solution installed inside your laptop was intended to cool your laptop when under light load. You may have the laptops cooling vents clogged up with dirt/dust bunnies or the thermal paste on the coolers has taken its stage exit.

sensors can be dodgy at times...but if the laptop can't handle a bit of gaming then its time for the warranty card to play its part.

 

[dantdj]

I'd like to re-iterate the fact that the FPS is normal when on normal clocks. And that "normal" is pretty damn good.
Only when I overclock do I start getting the lower FPS.

It can handle a bit of gaming. It can handle a lot of gaming. I just went through Crysis 2 with the settings set to extreme. It can definitely handle a bit of gaming...

I'm not getting lower FPS now. As I said, it's only when I overclock.

And I'm guessing the sensors are dodgy, then.

 

[Lutfij]

^

I just went through Crysis 2 with the settings set to extreme.

be careful with that game...caused my gpu to almost melt the backplate off my rig...

OK, i retract my comment about it being a bad piece of hardware, though you should try running the machine in cooler environments.

OC'ing dpends on a couple of things, i'll skip all of them except the part about power delivery. Your laptop isn't designed to be OC'ed, at least not now. Thas why your getting a lag in FPS. To realize the GPU OC, you'd need to OC your CPU as well - and in turn OC your ram to sustain it. so all of that = stable OC, smoother frame rates and game-play.

 

[dantdj]

Yeah, I heard about some issues with it. I just decided to quit out if the fans ever went crazy. They didn't, luckily, and temps stayed reasonable.

Hm... running it in a cooler environment isn't particularly possible. I'm stuck where I am, really. Britain has ridiculously humid summers...

Yeah, you make a good point. I was mainly just confused about why it worked brilliantly once, then crippled it the rest of the time. I'd overclock my CPU and RAM, but I have no idea how to, seeing as the BIOS has no option to.

Maybe I'll just leave the overclocking until I get a desktop. A pity that time is so far away.

 

[Lutfij]

I'd overclock my CPU and RAM, but I have no idea how to, seeing as the BIOS has no option to.

for gods sake bro, that thing you have in your hand is not a swiss army knife, its a can of sardines

*open can of sardines, use it if within expiry date - dispose of if beyond the posted date

the fact that the BIOS doesn't have the option to OC is the first site that your laptop isn't OC capable - even a bios hack/swap and a bit of OC'ing would ofcourse nullify warranty. Your call though, its yours to waste or savour.

Maybe I'll just leave the overclocking until I get a desktop.

definitely sleep with that thought!!!

 

[dantdj]

I know it is! It's the best I could do at the time, though. It's always good to ask around, right?

I suppose it is. But, still, worth a try!

And yes, I think I will. For around 1-2 years.

 

[Lutfij]

It's always good to ask around, right?

yeap, it sure is - but stick around the forums, you'll learn alot.

 

[dantdj]

Yeah, that's what I was hoping to do. A recent conversation with a friend made me realize I need to learn a lot more than I already know!

 

[Lutfij]

well, we've solved your thread, please select best answer , so we can move to another thread - another help posted.

 

[dantdj]

Best answer selected by dantdj.

 

[dantdj]

Done. Thanks a lot for all your help.

 

[Lutfij]

Thank YOU for the vote! Like i said, stick around - you'll move along If you have any questions on another build- start a new thread and ofcourse anything beyond that OM me

 

[tecmo34]

This topic has been closed by Tecmo34