M17X R4 - 980m - Throttling Research and Workaround

A couple of weeks ago, I swapped out my 680m for a 980m. As a piece of hardware, the thing is impressive to say the least. In terms of driver compatibility however (in the M17X R4, anyway), it leaves something to be desired.

At this stage, I'd call the 980m's compatibility with the R4 somewhat limited by driver support.

Regardless, as I have been testing a lot recently, I thought I should share my findings:

Relevant platform specifics: M17X R4, 3940xm @ 43/41/41/41, 32GB ram, 980m

OS Tested: Windows 8.1 pro

Bios Tested: Premamod bios (84.04.22.00.10 - card from @woodzstack)

Testing: Firestrike 1.1, Fallout4 (standing in front of a burning object on Ultra, 2k settings)

Installation Process: DDU, clean install (though I experimented with dirty installs outside these without results that were particularly different)

GPU Temperatures: 50 @ idle, 65 @ full load

Graphics Mode: PEG/Dedicated

Drivers Tested:

353.00 Peg Mod by J95: The best tested. Used without mods, the card holds on P0 until 99% load where it toggles to P1 and holds. Using nvidiaInspector, the P1 clocks can be changed to match the P0 clocks, making this more of a blip than a hard throttle. Included game profiles txt extends its usefulness beyond its original datestamp. Not compatible with VR headsets (deal-breaker for me, because I'm developing games for the Oculus Rift).

353.06 Peg Mod by J95: Comparable to 353.00

359.06 INF Mod by J95: Stable on installation with stable overclocking but goes back to throttling after a power cycle. After power cycle: Used without mods, the card holds P0 until ~90-99% load where it drops to what reads as P1 but actually has a clockspeed of ~324mhz. Can sometimes be tricked back into a pristine state by unreliable means (series of restarts, pin-mod cables, etc). Pristine state usually holds through reboots, but not through power cycles. Powerstate matching from above has no effect. Various additional settings (adaptive/high performance, batteryboost off, unnecessary services off, trying to reset the card by loading new user profiles) have no effect.

Benchmarking 359.06:
No throttle state (right after installation, 135/200 oc): http://ift.tt/29ZjHlO
Power draw during benchmark (stock gpu clock): 183w-190w during the demo scene, max 214w on the combined test.
Power draw during benchmark (oc gpu clock):186w-196w, max 216w on the combined test
Throttle state: Radical throttling with the clock jumping from 1126, 1038 to 324. Not a lot in between: http://ift.tt/2acgrHg
Power draw during benchmark (stock): 182w-190w, falling to 112w during throttle periods during the demo scene. Similar data for the combined test.

For interest: Power draw with an underclocked processor @1.2ghz: around 163w. Doesn't help the gpu at all.

- Strangely, if you start the M17X R4 with a pin-modded cable, the CPU drops to its base clock (1.2ghz) but the GPU runs at full burn at what it calls P1 but actually clocks like P0. Benchmarks reliably but like one would expect with so little support from the CPU.

359.12 INF Mod by J95: Comparable to 359.06

358.50 by Eurocom: Comparable to 359.06.

Graphics Mode: Optimus

359.06, 359.12 INF Mod by J95: Comparable experience to PEG equivalents, complete with radical throttling.

That all said, if anyone's found a way to get this thing to run reliably under heavy load without turning into an expensive paper weight (aside from running drivers from the 347-353 era) please let me know.

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M17X R4 - 980m - Throttling Research and Workaround