AW 18 with QUADRO RTX 3000 - TDP 40W problem

[sliderfra]

Hi fellas, and happy new year BTW,

I tried to upgrade an alienware 18 (Haswell, BIOS A12 unlocked) with a PNY MXM 3.0B Quadro RTX 3000.

Installation wain painless as the card is standard MXM.

Driver installation and inf mod was also easy (I'm quite used to doing it now 😁)

But when I start any 3D app, as soon as the card hits 60°C barrier, it starts to thermal throttle hardly until temp is below 55° (or so...), and it goes up again, and then down again...

In details:

- core frequency stays the same ( between 1600Mhz & 1800Mhz)

- RAM throttles down to 200Mhz (instead of 1750Mhz) !!!

- TDP reports 50%

- Power reports ~40W

- Perf cap reason on GPUZ: Thrm (Thermal, but WHY???, card stays below 60°C)

 

What I tried already:

- I thought at first it was that crap of windows 11 --> I installed win 10 = same behaviour.

- I tried with 3 different drivers (the 3 latest for quadro RTX 3000 mobile) = same behaviour.

- I tried 330W & 240W psu = same behaviour

- I repasted the card twice and checked if all RAM chips were properly covered by thermal pads

 

What do I try next:

- alternate vbios?

Do you have any idea of what's wrong with that card? Or is it the alienware itself?

[aldarxt]

I have no clue but just for reference m17x r4 RTX 3000 I just ran Time Spy. Here is a pic of TechPowerUp GPU-Z

 

My first guess would have been "Are you plugged in?"

[sliderfra]

Holy crap!

I think I figured it out...

Tested the card on an MSI GT60 haswell without battery and exactely same sh*t happened.

Then I remembered something: MSI GT60 haswell uses some kind of Hybrid power with a battery connected (as the PSU was "only" 180w on that model)...

I tested with a battery connected and BINGO! VRAM of the card does not throttle at all.

 

So maybe there's a goddamn driver / programme on the alienware 18 that does the same kind of sh*t.

 

@ssj92, any hindsight as you have the same laptop?

[aldarxt]

2 hours ago, sliderfra said:

Holy crap!

I think I figured it out...

Tested the card on an MSI GT60 haswell without battery and exactely same sh*t happened.

Then I remembered something: MSI GT60 haswell uses some kind of Hybrid power with a battery connected (as the PSU was "only" 180w on that model)...

I tested with a battery connected and BINGO! VRAM of the card does not throttle at all.

 

So maybe there's a goddamn driver / programme on the alienware 18 that does the same kind of sh*t.

 

@ssj92, any hindsight as you have the same laptop?

Do you usually run without the battery?

[sliderfra]

Unfortunately no dice on the AW 18.

Still the same problem. All drivers are up to date.

I tried a full bios reset and nvram reset (uplugging coin & 30s power button push).

 

 

as you can see on GPUz board draw goes from 80W to 40W all along...

IDK why and I've already lost two full afternoon working on that thing.

I reinstalled the 1060 that was inside and it works perfectly fine.

The RTX was tested in a MSI GT60 Haswell and also works perfectly fine.

[aldarxt]

15 minutes ago, sliderfra said:

Unfortunately no dice on the AW 18.

Still the same problem. All drivers are up to date.

I tried a full bios reset and nvram reset (uplugging coin & 30s power button push).

 

 

as you can see on GPUz board draw goes from 80W to 40W all along...

IDK why and I've already lost two full afternoon working on that thing.

I reinstalled the 1060 that was inside and it works perfectly fine.

The RTX was tested in a MSI GT60 Haswell and also works perfectly fine.

Put the GPUz on max values so we can see where its going, I can see where the memory clock keeps dropping out in fact all the power draws keep dropping.

My m18x r2 has RTX 4000 running fine and m17x r4 has the RTX 3000 running fine. What vBIOS in the RTX 3000

[sliderfra]

 

 

I tried that card on M17X R4, 17 R1, DELL M6800, DELL M6700, MSI GT60/70 Ivy & Haswell --> trouble free

I tried the HP version of Quadro RTX 3k on the AW18 and it was also trouble free. IDK why this specific card / AW18 give me headaches...

[aldarxt]

I thought you had problem w/RTX 3000 but this is missing physx directML and other info not showing. if it works in other machine then the problem is the PC. starting with  something simply as some dust

[sliderfra]

this card is actually an RTX 3k, only the string was renamed into Geforce RTX 2060 in the inf NVIDIA file.

It definitely works fine on other computers, but strangely the 1060 that was originally mounted on the AW18 works perfectly fine as well. Only this one goes nuts...😌

[TruenoG7]

On 1/3/2024 at 11:50 AM, sliderfra said:

Unfortunately no dice on the AW 18.

Still the same problem. All drivers are up to date.

I tried a full bios reset and nvram reset (uplugging coin & 30s power button push).

 

 

as you can see on GPUz board draw goes from 80W to 40W all along...

IDK why and I've already lost two full afternoon working on that thing.

I reinstalled the 1060 that was inside and it works perfectly fine.

The RTX was tested in a MSI GT60 Haswell and also works perfectly fine.

I have the same problem, before I solved it by setting it to GPU use only and then restarting it to the previous way..., but it seems that nvidia did something that no longer allows me to do it.

[aldarxt]

I got my highest score setting to GPU use only on RTX 3000

Notice!!! This setting does not work for all demo's. I got a BSOD on Solar Bay so I reset to Graphic and Compute Needs.

Not setting to Graphic only again, but as TruenoG7 suggested may prove useful.

[ssj92]

On 1/3/2024 at 11:04 AM, sliderfra said:

 

 

I tried that card on M17X R4, 17 R1, DELL M6800, DELL M6700, MSI GT60/70 Ivy & Haswell --> trouble free

I tried the HP version of Quadro RTX 3k on the AW18 and it was also trouble free. IDK why this specific card / AW18 give me headaches...

I still have same issue. Two identical cards, one in M18xR2, one in AW18. M18xR2 runs fine. AW18 gives me thermal reason in GPU-Z and drops to ~40w TDP as well. I had  a similar issue with GTX 1080 in AW18 and am thinking it's some weird power thing with AW18. 

[sliderfra]

Hi mate. Exact same issue... 

That's really weird because hp rtx 3k works well in Aw18...

 

 

[TruenoG7]

On 2/4/2024 at 8:44 PM, ssj92 said:

Todavía tengo el mismo problema. Dos tarjetas idénticas, una en M18xR2, una en AW18. M18xR2 funciona bien. AW18 me da razón térmica en GPU-Z y cae a TDP de 40w también. Tuvisí un problema similar con GTX 1080 en AW18 y estoy pensando que es algo extraño de energía con AW18.

This problem arose after updating certain versions of drivers, I have not been able to solve it but it seems to be something related to some power option. I have tried everything.

[kela-slk]

Who solved this issue? 

I installed p4000 and p4200- both throttle periodically 2-3sec up and down core speed... I try p3200, on stock bios (TDP - 75w ) - throttling, 

Then i flash vbios from 7530 with 60w TDP, and card work flawlessly! No drop core or memory. 

But p4000 and p4200 no bioses with low TDP... P4000-80w, p4200- 100w TDP

[Maks0098]

33 minutes ago, kela-slk said:

Who solved this issue? 

I installed p4000 and p4200- both throttle periodically 2-3sec up and down core speed... I try p3200, on stock bios (TDP - 75w ) - throttling, 

Then i flash vbios from 7530 with 60w TDP, and card work flawlessly! No drop core or memory. 

But p4000 and p4200 no bioses with low TDP... P4000-80w, p4200- 100w TDP

what laptop do you have? and you can first try the free throttling trick, it helped me when I had a similar problem, but with a consumption of more than 100W on Alienware M18x R2.

Shut down your PC

Boot in Bios

Select unlocked advanced menu

Set gpu to Igfx

Reboot saving settings

Enter Bios once more

Select unlocked menu once more

Set gpu to SG and reboot to windows

and you can also try downloading MSI afterburner without flashing the BIOS and where the power limit is set to +60 or +67 for P4000 and P4200, and +76 or +87 for p3200 with stock bios check if this problem exists.

 

and also, p4000, like p4200 100W video cards. and p3200 78W, only p3000 75W.

[kela-slk]

Alienware 18 (m18x r3) 

7 minutes ago, Maks0098 said:

 

what laptop do you have? and you can first try the free throttling trick, it helped me when I had a similar problem, but with a consumption of more than 100W on Alienware M18x R2.

Shut down your PC

Boot in Bios

Select unlocked advanced menu

Set gpu to Igfx

Reboot saving settings

Enter Bios once more

Select unlocked menu once more

Set gpu to SG and reboot to windows

and you can also try downloading MSI afterburner without flashing the BIOS and where the power limit is set to +60 or +67 for P4000 and P4200, and +76 or +87 for p3200 with stock bios check if this problem exists.

 

and also, p4000, like p4200 100W video cards. and p3200 78W, only p3000 75W.

 

[kela-slk]

In other thread make power resistor mod for best voltage. but there is no proof that this will always work. Only one resistor R004 need soldering to an existing one, or 2pcs need soldering to existing one?  Most pictures are not available, links are not valid

[kela-slk]

Alienware 17 (m17x r5) have same issue with power draw down... Try both laptops (haswell) with p4000, p4200 . Tdp down after few seconds 

[Maks0098]

1 hour ago, kela-slk said:

Alienware 17 (m17x r5) have same issue with power draw down... Try both laptops (haswell) with p4000, p4200 . Tdp down after few seconds 

what manufacturer/vendor are your video cards? HP/Lenovo etc? You can send photos of all 3, if possible.

and have you tried the free throttle trick on your 18? on the 17, maybe if an unlocked BIOS is installed, try it too. and did you modify the driver yourself or use NVCleanStall? and what charger are you using?

[kela-slk]

11 hours ago, Maks0098 said:

what manufacturer/vendor are your video cards? HP/Lenovo etc? You can send photos of all 3, if possible.

and have you tried the free throttle trick on your 18? on the 17, maybe if an unlocked BIOS is installed, try it too. and did you modify the driver yourself or use NVCleanStall? and what charger are you using?

Without an unlocked BIOS it is impossible to use video cards after Maxwell (pascal, touring, ampere.) because the screen has an LVDS interface and not an EDP. cards from 1060 work only with EDP, with the exception of only Quadro P5000 with an ES video BIOS.

I use max 330w power supply

video cards vendor is does not matter, i can flash any bios and change vendor. i use P4000 from Dell precision 7720 and p4200 HP zbook 17 g5 with soldered vbios chip w25q40wnig and flashed vbios from Precision 7730\7740 (dont remember which one). card quadro p3200 from zbook 17 g5 with vbios from 7730 not property working in AW18 (throttling, 75w tdp) but with vbios from 7530 (15,6" LCD) tdp 60w working well!

i use drivers in device manager choose p4200 from list and install (no need moddind inf file). i use MSI afterburner and i can cange power limit to low, and if i change lower (80% power) - core clock less different from the standard valuem, core drop is from 1200mhz (standart with no turbo is 1418mhz) to 670mhz, but if i change power to 60% - clock stable 900 mhz +\- 60 mhz, no hard throttling and stable working on full load, but no turbo. furmark start fps stock (no core power mod)  -  220fps after 3 sec drop to 418-600 mhz with 41-50 fps, if use power limit - 900 mhz - 145-150 fps with same conditions... problem is in POWER LIMITS IN bios. Bios Cuts power to 40-60 watt, not more. if video card consumption less than 60-65w - wideo card will be working fine, if higher  - will dropp core or memory frequency. Sleep mode than power on - not solve this issue, change graphics NVIDIA driver power settings (hi performance, adaptive...) - also no sucsess. and i dont know if RESISTOR modding can help in this trouble

 

[Maks0098]

15 hours ago, kela-slk said:

Only one resistor R004 need soldering to an existing one, or 2pcs need soldering to existing one?  Most pictures are not available, links are not valid

looks like you only need to add one. I found a comment from ssj92 where the pictures are available.

Well, you can also try using pascal tdp bios tweaker (I can send you a link or even a file if you don’t find it) change the tdp level to 60W, flash it and use it like that, maybe it can reach maximum boost frequencies with a limit of 60W. It's strange that when you use MSI afterburner it doesn't reach the maximum frequencies. Can you post screenshots of the GPU-Z graphics? and you can try something other than furmark, something lighter, where the video card can reach maximum frequencies with low consumption. try some game.

[kela-slk]

[Maks0098]

7 hours ago, kela-slk said:

Well, I think for your 18 you need to make a resistor mod, but for 17 I don’t know, I haven’t heard of such a thing. and by the way, what’s strange is that I have 17 and there is an m3000m there, it works without problems even if I increase the tdp Limit to 100W and it will consume up to 100W without problems. Here I don’t understand why there are problems with cards newer than Maxwell.

[Maks0098]

On 7/10/2024 at 2:54 PM, kela-slk said:

Without an unlocked BIOS it is impossible to use video cards after Maxwell (pascal, touring, ampere.) because the screen has an LVDS interface and not an EDP. cards from 1060 work only with EDP, with the exception of only Quadro P5000 with an ES video BIOS.

and I forgot to say that I meant if you have an unlocked BIOS installed on your 17, since you can install video cards on it without an unlocked BIOS, the same as on an unlocked one, if the screen is LVDS, with an eDP screen, I don’t know. since it uses SG mode natively with LVDS screen, it does not need to be enabled in unlocked BIOS like in 18. so have you tried the free throttle trick at least on 18 or not?