BIOS clocking & overvolting your Alienware m9700's 7900GS cards!

DISCLAIMER: Keep in mind that overclocking your video cards can lead to irreparable damage to your system that will NOT be covered by the Alienware warranty. What you do based off of this thread is entirely at your own risk. - Admin Staff


First, let me tell you about the results, so that you can decide if it's worth it or not.

Before the volt-mod and overclock my highest scores were:

3DMark05 - 10178 @ 1024x768, noAA, no Ansitropic, GPU @ 380/520, FSB @ 205MHz in SysTool.
Driverset: Arima nForce drivers, Arima 84.15 nVidia drivers, AMD Athlon driver 1.2.2.2


3DMark06 - 5309 @ 1280x1024, noAA, no Ansitropic, GPU @ 386/527, FSB @ 206.62MHz in SysTool.
Driverset: nVidia nForce 6.80, AW 84.74 nVidia drivers, AMD Athlon driver 1.3.2.0



After the overclock and voltmod to 1.1V from 1.0V, my best scores went up to:

3DMark05 - 10311 @ 1024x768, noAA, no Ansitropic, GPU @ 423/602, FSB @ 207.37 in SysTool
Driverset: nVidia nForce 6.80, AW 84.74 nVidia drivers, AMD Athlon driver 1.3.2.0


3DMark06 - 5531 @ 1280x1024, noAA, no Ansitropic, GPU @ 423/602, FSB @ 207.37MHz in SysTool.
Driverset: nVidia nForce 6.80, AW 84.74 nVidia, AMD athlon 1.3.2.0

(Please ignore the fact that the clocks are back at standard in that - I'm teh n00b and accidentally hit the 'No Overclock' option while taking the screenshot.. d'oh!)

That's an exellent increase in scores and frame rates, and a serious increase in clock speeds - an extra 37MHz core and 75MHz RAM! And that's just going by the 'suggested' best settings in each case.


Now, the downsides:

Before the overvolt my idle GPU temps were mid-high 50's, about 58 when sat flat on the table as in the test, 56 right now sat on my elevated aluminium plinth (fans are off in the plinth). After the overclock the idle temp was up to about 62C on the table - that's an increase of about 4C (an increase from 136F to 143F).

Before the overvolt my load GPU temps stayed under 80C even after a long 3DMark06 run - after the overvolt they hit 84C


Now to my mind, this mod isn't worth it right now - the cards have the performance as they are.. But in time, when games start pushing these cards? Well maybe it'll be worth it then. For now, call this an academic exercise in the spirit of increasing the shared knowledge


Now, the How To!

First, grab a copy of the latest version of NiBitor from http://www.mvktech.net and the latest version of nvflash from the same place.

Extract NiBitor and run it, then save a copy of your current BIOS somewhere safe. To do this first select Tools->Read Bios->Select Device to select the correct GPU (either will do, both BIOSes will be identical):


Then go to Tools->Read Bios->Read into file to safe the BIOS to a file:



Now load that BIOS file back into NiBitor and lets create a ROM with an extended voltage table.

After loading, NiBitor should look like this - if it doesn't, stop:


Go to Tools->Voltage Table Editor and you should see the following screen:


As standard the cards only have one VID entry, however they have space for two in the VID table, so lets enable the second by setting the "Amount of Active Entries" field to 02 instead of 01.

This will enable the 'Entry 2:' line, however it's VID will be blank. Drop that down and select VID 00 (currently unused) and ensure that the Label reads 1.1V as so:


Note that we can't ever have more than two voltages on these cards as there are only two available VIDs.

Click OK and you're back at the main screen. Switch to the 'Voltages' tab in the main area, and you'll see Exact Mode and VID Mode tabs.

Switch to VID mode and ensure it looks as follows:


As long as it does, switch back to the Exact Mode tab, drop down the 3D entry and select the new 1.1V entry:



Now - if you're using drivers where CoolBits work for overclocking, save the BIOS. If not, create several BIOS files with ever increasing Core and Memory speeds and save each one with an easily identifiable name - I suggest 'XXXvYYY.rom' where XXX is the core speed and YYY the RAM speed. Ok, I blatantly stole that idea from the Dell 7900GTX CD (thanks guys!)


When you are saving always check that the Integrity light is still green. If it isn't then DO NOT USE THE ROM on your card!



Now to flash the cards..

You'll need to create a bootable CD or bootable USB key with nvflash.exe and all your roms on it. If need be, ask me and I'll post up the USB Key image that I use - it has nvflash and amiflash (system BIOS) along with some other tools.

I highly suggest also creating a bootable 'rescue' CD - that CD will boot and flash your cards back to stock settings (hence saving the original BIOS at the start!) without user intervention. If you can't create one of those then ask here, and I can upload my image too.


If you're having to BIOS clock then reboot, flash with the lowest speed you created and test - then work your way up till you see artifacts and back it off a setting..

You'll want to run nvflash twice each time don't forget.. Once with '-i 0' as a paramter and once with '-i 1' to have it flash each card in turn (yes, nvflash can see both cards in an SLi system without having to remove any cards!)

Keep a close eye on temps - 1.1V bumps the temp up quite a chunk, if your cards are marginal already then don't do this. If you're worried, don't do this. If you're a pirate with an eye patch and a parrot, don't do this - use your loot to buy an mALX instead


There - enjoy!

As always, if anything bad happens as a result of this then neither I, nor NotebookForums or it's administrators are in any way responsible. Your actions are your own responsibility.

Right now it's definitely more risk than it's worth, however without the volt mod it would still be a good way for those of you with locked down cards to bump the clock speeds up.

I did this largely as an experiment to see if nvflash could cope with flashing two cards in an SLi system without needing to physically pull one - which is good to know for us all.


As for extra RAM vs. the card - actually my gut feel is I just got unlucky.. either my cards or my +ve power rail are a little weedy, and they needed an extra push of juice to get them stable at higher clock speeds..


All in all, it was an interesting experiment

Hehheh

Well I'd already thought about replacing the sponge RAMsink pads (they're 2-3mm thick) with some pure Cu pads ArcticEpoxied to the Alu sinks..

As for watercooling.. Hmm.. I wonder if it could be done

I spotted that one too - it would be great to take one apart and see how it was done I suspect the waterblock on the CPU was very thin compared to desktop waterblocks, which means some impressive micro-manufacture..

Easy for someone like Hitachi, of course, somewhat harder for me

It would be fantastic to have a laptop with fully enclosed watercooling, though, wouldn't it!

Thanks Craig - the disclaimer is good, too I'm not sure what the inside of the 7700 looks like - but one thing I do know is that creating an internal watercooling solution for any laptop is going to involve some serious ingenuity, a great deal of experimentation, and some very small, very fiddly and very precise bespoke component manufacturing.. It would be great - but I've not yet figured out if you could make a waterblock that is thin enough and efficient enough, let alone hook tubing up to it of sufficient bore to cool properly. That said, it's not impossible - Hitachi managed it.. although I notice they had to get creative with the location of the radiator.