GPU Throttling on Macbook Pro 9,1 [Mostly Solved]

[MarkieG]

Hi ZGR,

I have the 2.3 ghz 2012 classic mac pro with the 512mb 650m. I cannot overclock whatsoever with MSI or EVGA, but with nvidiaInspector I can force P5 state and overclock the core. I cannot clock the memory any higher than 2000mhz. I have read other people with the same issues so I guess there must be a difference between the two models aside from just the size of the memory. Just to be clear, can you please tell me how you overclock yours? Is it as simple as just opening up MSI afterburner and moving the sliders? On mine it seems to stay in P1 normally until I force P5. In P1(the dynamic clocking mode) I cannot make any adjustments. In P5 I can OC the core to a constant rate of choice but only set the memory up to 2000mhz. I do not experience any throttling due to power constrains or heat as you have described aside from an occasional time or two where it drops to 750mhz for a sec.

Thanks

 

[ZGR]

Hi ZGR,

I have the 2.3 ghz 2012 classic mac pro with the 512mb 650m. I cannot overclock whatsoever with MSI or EVGA, but with nvidiaInspector I can force P5 state and overclock the core. I cannot clock the memory any higher than 2000mhz. I have read other people with the same issues so I guess there must be a difference between the two models aside from just the size of the memory. Just to be clear, can you please tell me how you overclock yours? Is it as simple as just opening up MSI afterburner and moving the sliders? On mine it seems to stay in P1 normally until I force P5. In P1(the dynamic clocking mode) I cannot make any adjustments. In P5 I can OC the core to a constant rate of choice but only set the memory up to 2000mhz. I do not experience any throttling due to power constrains or heat as you have described aside from an occasional time or two where it drops to 750mhz for a sec.

Thanks

To overclock the memory, I downloaded EVGA Precision, and simply dragged the memory slider to where I wanted to go. I did a thorough stability test and found around 3000 Mhz to be completely stable.

EVGA Precision and MSI Afterburner do not allow a correct core overclock. For that I used NVIDIAInspector.


On my desktop, I have a few scripts that let me choose the level of performance. I made a few text documents and saved them in a .bat format.

For my script called 'Level 0' it locks my power level at 8 and disables that silly variable clockspeed. Here is the text:

C:\Users\Zach\Desktop\Files\NVI\nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,8 -setGpuClock:0,1,135 -setMemoryClock:0,1,419

This setting is great for 2d mode and keeps the temperatures cool!


Here is my 'max performance' setting:

C:\Users\Zach\Desktop\Files\NVI\nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,5 -setGpuClock:0,1,1036 -setMemoryClock:0,1,2992

After 1040 MHz core and 3080 MHz memory, I lose stability. I notice a huge performance boost from 2000 to 3000 MHz in newer games such as Assassin's Creed IV and Thief.

Here is the script I choose for default (or just restart laptop):

C:\Users\Zach\Desktop\Files\NVI\nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,16

To go back to 'P1' is not recommended when you have a memory overclock as P1 will clock my gaming speeds at 775 MHz core and 3050 MHz memory.

 

[ZGR]

I fixed my throttling issue completely, and got a big boost in performance because of trying to fix it! but the lessons I learned can be applied to pretty much any notebook:

The lower the temperature, the lower the power consumption.

I wonder how much Apple and other OEMs could lower power consumption in notebooks just by investing in better thermal paste? It kind of pays for itself in the long run...

 

[ZGR]

I've been traveling a lot this summer, and finally got around to downloading GTA V for the MBP.

I found the game to be very intensive, and required ThrottleStop or Windows power managment to stop the CPU from turbo boosting to 3.4 GHz with no performance gain from stock speed.

At stock GPU speed, the 650m would hit ~87c after about an hour of GTA V; causing it to start throttling. I brought along a mini USB fan and pointed it at the top left area of the Keyboard; blowing along the black plastic strip near the display.

http://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Deskto...ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1435435421&sr=1-5

This tiny fan at max speed lowers GPU temperatures by about 8-10C. That is just by blowing on the top left area near the keyboard. This reduction enabled me to raise the OC of the 650m (775/2000 -> 1030/2200 while GPU temperature peaks at 83C; CPU running at 2.2 GHz peaks at 87-88C .

I am extremely impressed at how well Kepler scales today, especially when overclocked. And how 1 GB of VRAM can be enough for 1680x1050. I also was surprised at how this very tiny and quiet mini fan drastically increases performance. I found power consumption to range from 67-72 watts with max display brightness and OC'd GPU.

The MBP's aluminum case dissipates heat quite slowly, similar to passive cooling. If providing an external cooling solution, the heat will quickly dissipate.

I've also been using a .bat that simply 'resets' the GPU. It provides boost and can idle at 135 mhz core.

DriveLetter\Users\Me\Desktop\Files\NVI\nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,16

GTA V also has frame scaling, allowing anyone to scale their display. If I had a Retina Display, I'd use the feature, but 1680x1050 looks fine. 2880x1800 would let me set frame scaling at 0.500 (1440x900) and it'd look good and provide great performance. GTA IV was my go to worst-case-scenario load for gaming on a notebook. Now that GTA V is in a mature state, it does not match the load level of GTA IV; not even close. GTA V runs far better than GTA IV, even on an underclocked CPU and 1 GB mobile GPU.


Average FPS:
Stock GPU: ~35 fps and ~65w power consumption
OC GPU: ~44 fps ~70w power consumption
During plain driving (no cops or combat)
About 10fps lower in combat/wanted and averaging 71-72w power consumption (2 stars or less)

Power consumption peaking around 74w(!!) during 3+ star wanted sprees. I may have to lower GPU memory clock back to stock if power consumption goes any higher.

edit: Lowered GPU clocks at 1005/2050 and CPU at 2.1 GHz and power consumption is down to ~65W. This is with the fan and the power brick is well ventilated.

 

[TheMaxXHD]

I fixed my throttling issue back to 725 mhz by having evga precision running while doing the overclocking via nvidia inspector command prompt AND while playing games, which resulted in a fixed 1050mhz core value and 2600mhz ram value the entire time and without going below 87 degrees. It didn't once in my hour play session go below 1050mhz and I did not have to throttle my cpu intentionally, it stayed at around 3.4 ghz the entire time as well i believe. It is important to note that I have the 1 gb gddr5 version which also may have something to do with my findings compared to others. Here is a picture of my results playing bf4 however do note that these are higher then what I said above because I quickly found that the settings in the picture were unstable so I backed off the core by 20 mhz and memory by 100 mhz too, which are in fact stable. https://imgur.com/dAUpYvz I will end up uploading a youtube video from shadowplay (yes shadowplay works on 650m I can explain how I did that if someone is interested) of me playing bf4 and the clocks being perfectly 100% locked at the values I told it to be at, but it won't be for a few days until I can get back to my good internet connection.

Edit: Forgot to mention a few things....1.) I was running nvidia's 353.06 driver version which was made to fix specific Kepler based gpu issues 2.) I have the Macbook Pro 15 inch non retina mid 2012 maxed out except I have the middle 2.6ghz cpu 3.)I have 16GB of ram instead of 8 that I upgraded myself (in case this info is important for some reason) 4.) I have a Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD I also added myself (which may have something to do with lower power consumption vs traditional hdd giving me more overclock headroom) and 5.) I was plugged in the entire time with High Performance in windows power options with no external fan to cool the laptop, just its own internal fans.

 

[aniwon]

Hi Max,

thank you for your very interesting findings. I came across a similar issue with my 2012 rMBP (650m, 2,6 GHz i7).

When I start Dolphin (Wii emulator) my wattage is around 70, CPU and GPU are maxed out (CPU 3,4 GHz, GPU 900/2500). Now after a few minutes with a significant load (40% CPU and 80% GPU) the CPU starts to throttle down to 1,2 GHz. Temperatures are around 70 °C for the GPU and 80 for the CPU. I've replaced the thermal compound days ago (minus 5 °C).

Switching on ThrottleStop and forcing the CPU to stay at 3,2 GHz, the GPU starts throttling and fluctuates with the clocks. Optimum setting for me was 2,6 GHz CPU and to let the GPU throttle down to 725/2000 by itself.

Problem here is, that AIDA64 shows me 55 W power usage, which is far below the magic 80 W. By unplugging the brick the wattage starts to rise again. Why the hell my Mac throttles down to 55 W with actually low temperature? This is almost as low as a 13" Macs power limit. I've tried another 85 W power supply to no avail.

Next thing would be to change the MagSafe 2 DC-in and hope the best.

 

[TheMaxXHD]

That is weird, while I tested some more and found that this is indeed a power limitation, I never needed the use of throttle stop because I never had any throttling issues with my cpu, even when my gpu is overclocked slightly. I have settled with a gpu clock of 967 mhz and a gpu memory clock of 2500mhz, with these clocks i never get cpu or gpu throttling, it may have to do with your model of macbook pro as mine is the non retina version, the differences between yours and mine are the retina display.

 

[ZGR]

Darn, Windows 10 completely broke Nvidia Inspector for many users; me included. Hopefully an update will be rolled out in a couple months...

That is weird, while I tested some more and found that this is indeed a power limitation, I never needed the use of throttle stop because I never had any throttling issues with my cpu, even when my gpu is overclocked slightly. I have settled with a gpu clock of 967 mhz and a gpu memory clock of 2500mhz, with these clocks i never get cpu or gpu throttling, it may have to do with your model of macbook pro as mine is the non retina version, the differences between yours and mine are the retina display.

Yeah it is all about that 80w cap. It all depends on the type of workload. If both the CPU + GPU are being heavily stressed, than even stock GPU speeds can be throttled. The 45w TDP for the mobile i7 really eats into the 45w tdp of the 650m. It is too bad Apple didn't give us another 10w of headroom as the MBP could easily accommodate the extra heat output. If the ambient temperature is quite high, have air blow over the 'esc' key area and the Power Brick to lower temps a good chunk and save a few watts of power. Lowering display and keyboard brightness as well as limiting USB connections help a bit too. If Intel's turboboost wasn't so aggressive than ThrottleStop would not be needed.

Well threaded games run fine with low CPU frequency; use ThrottleStop or Windows power management to lower CPU frequency as low as possible while remaining GPU limited. On single-threaded bound games that require a high clockspeed, lower GPU memory speed using MSI Afterburner, EVGA Precision, etc. to help save some power. It is surprising at how little memory speed affects FPS on some DX9 titles whereas on other games, it can make all the difference.

 

[TheMaxXHD]

So ZGR, this idea just hit me and its the solution to this problem(in my opinion), and I wondered if you ever thought of it. I'm thinking of using an external graphics solution using thunderbolt as a way to get great performance and still have great cpu clocks, making it an unstoppable machine. I did not know this was possible but apparently it is, look it up. It is costly, but since I have my old 670 from my gaming pc that I replaced with a 980, the card has been colecting dust and ive been struggling to find a purpose for it, as selling it would be a loss as it goes for like 80 bucks on ebay where i paid 350 bucks for it. Using it as the gpu would give me much more power on my macbook pro and I would have a use for it. Here is a thread of a guy using a gtx 980 for his macbook http://linustechtips.com/main/topic...guide-benchmarks-egpu-setup-windows-10/page-1

 

[jetmanfx]

Hey @ZGR, i know this thread is very old, i have thought about overclocking my cMBP GT650m 1gb, just to give it some extra oompf for a bit of GTA Online with my nephew, but i can't figure out how.

I am currently under Windows 10 Bootcamp, i have tried all of the overclocking software out there and only Afterburner seems to work, but only on the memory clock.

I have tried a batch with nvidiaInspector
-setGpuClock:0,1,900 -forcepstate:0,5
but it does nothing at all.

Is there a possibility to overclock still?