Shunt mod for MXM cards

[anassa]

Anyone have experience with doing it on our MXM cards? I am interested in all series 10/20 and 30 nvidia mxm GPUs. Just for public exposure as I have difficulty finding good info for our use. From what I can see some people get pretty detailed with going with certain resistors etc. I remember originally it was just some liquid metal placed between two shunts to increase power draw.

 

I know @Meaker has 3070 shunt modded to 180w? Do you mind sharing how you were able to do it?

 

As parts get more expensive and we need them to last longer, more people might want to pick up an older clevo and upgrade with a 20 or 30 series nvidia gpu. Or just enjoy being able to tinker with a laptop when nothing in the current market seems to support it anymore.

[Meaker]

I used liquid metal, my technique involved placing a blob and sucking up the excess that left a thin film on the surface which is more resilient to moving.

[anassa]

56 minutes ago, Meaker said:

I used liquid metal, my technique involved placing a blob and sucking up the excess that left a thin film on the surface which is more resilient to moving.

 

Fantastic! Love it - do you have a picture of between where you did it?

 

For those thinking it . . . yes it can be risky, but the shunt mod is risky as it is anyways.

[Meaker]

 

This is before cleanup.

[anassa]

@Meaker  so you just covered the below yellow circled part in liquid metal?

 

Did you do a benchmark before and after to see the difference? Would you estimate you got ~35w more?

 

Looks like it is labeled "RS1", there is also a "RS2", would adding liquid metal in the same way to that section add even more?  Also looking at the back of the 20 series and 10 mxm series, the "RS1" is on the top left instead of top right.  I assume it would do the same thing for the 10 and 20 series if "RS1" get the liquid metal treatment / or potentially just solder.

 

Anyone else try this?

[1610ftw]

19 hours ago, anassa said:

 

Fantastic! Love it - do you have a picture of between where you did it?

 

For those thinking it . . . yes it can be risky, but the shunt mod is risky as it is anyways.

 

One would not want to not overdo it with the power consumption as it is likely to reduce the lifespan especially of the top end cards and especially the RTX 3080 is still rather expensive. I would guess that it is less of an issue for a 3070, 2070, 2070 Super or RTX4000.

[anassa]

34 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

 

One would not want to not overdo it with the power consumption as it is likely to reduce the lifespan especially of the top end cards and especially the RTX 3080 is still rather expensive. I would guess that it is less of an issue for a 3070, 2070, 2070 Super or RTX4000.

 

Absolutely true, it is the risk of the person doing it.  But I think we find heat to be the real enemy, not power consumption. Heat and lifespan can be related of course, but we have laptops like P870/P775/P750 etc that can handle 200w GPUs while even a 3080 is only 165w. 

 

I also don't think we usually have a lifespan issue when there are 10series or 9series and even older GPUs floating around that have been overclocked and pushed for years way beyond the typical user use before they buy a new one, same with CPUs. Besides the target audience in this forum are not typical users and ones that usually like to tinker in one form or another.

 

Oh and @Meaker how did you figure out you got 180w? Did MSI Afterburner / HWinfo / GPUz or something actually show higher draw? Or was it roughly calculated? Thanks

[Meaker]

Based off clock speed during load. Typically it maintains 1700mhz core under heavy load.

[1610ftw]

1 hour ago, anassa said:

 

Absolutely true, it is the risk of the person doing it.  But I think we find heat to be the real enemy, not power consumption. Heat and lifespan can be related of course, but we have laptops like P870/P775/P750 etc that can handle 200w GPUs while even a 3080 is only 165w. 

 

I also don't think we usually have a lifespan issue when there are 10series or 9series and even older GPUs floating around that have been overclocked and pushed for years way beyond the typical user use before they buy a new one, same with CPUs. Besides the target audience in this forum are not typical users and ones that usually like to tinker in one form or another.

 

Oh and @Meaker how did you figure out you got 180w? Did MSI Afterburner / HWinfo / GPUz or something actually show higher draw? Or was it roughly calculated? Thanks

 

I agree that the chassis can take 200W from a 3080 and especially in the case of the P870 also 220 or even 250W but not sure how much power would be OK for the card itself. 200W would probably be OK but 220 or 240W?

 

Regarding higher power draw verification I recently used HWinfo to verify going from a 180 to a 200W bios for an Alienware 51m. Max power draw before the mod was ca. 182W and after the mod ca. 202W.

 

[anassa]

10 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

 

I agree that the chassis can take 200W from a 3080 and especially in the case of the P870 also 220 or even 250W but not sure how much power would be OK for the card itself. 200W would probably be OK but 220 or 240W?

 

Regarding higher power draw verification I recently used HWinfo to verify going from a 180 to a 200W bios for an Alienware 51m. Max power draw before the mod was ca. 182W and after the mod ca. 202W.

 

 

Considering desktop chips with similar specs take a lot more power I don't think the chip taking too much power would be an issue, if anything it might be the vrm or other chips on the board that may be impacted? But you also have desktop cards that are shunt modded and have more power pushed through and are okay.  With laptops our limitation is usual the thermal limitation, so as long as temps can be kept well - which is the owners responsibility - enough I don't think we will will be worried about the cards life.  I have heard since long ago with desktops how overclocking CPUs will cut down on the life of the CPU and while that may be true for most people it won't matter.  For example if the silicon life is 20 years, overclocking might cut it in half to 10 years, but most people don't even keep the same cpu for 5 years - purely as an example. So I am not too worried about the silicon life of the chip. Temps though - yes I want to make sure temps are good.

 

For a vbios change that is different, when you shunt mod it - from what I understand - the reading will be off because it will have more than it thinks it has. There is some youtube video that can explain it better, but to get an accurate power reading you really need to have an external reader or something.

[anassa]

https://xdevs.com/guide/pascal_oc/

 

Says:

"Note that earlier version of this guide incorrectly mentioned need to short RS1, RS2, RS3. This is wrong, and will cause card clock to lock at 135MHz. Do not short shunt resistors themselves, but add resistors like shown on photo below. Sorry for confusion."

 

So then from what I read it may bleed more current in still? Also it seems like the Liquid metal will eat into the solder over time

 

This video actually has some great information from someone doing it on a 2070 laptop:

 

[anassa]

On 1/12/2024 at 12:32 PM, Meaker said:

Based off clock speed during load. Typically it maintains 1700mhz core under heavy load.

 

@MeakerDid you get a Timespy run with it? Curious how it stacks up.

[Meaker]

Time spy:

 

Before:

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/24077416

 

After:

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/24164600

 

Time Spy Extreme:

 

Before:

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/24077715

 

After:

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/24164711

[anassa]

~1500 point increase? Nice!

[Meaker]

Yeah it's a big increase in frequency and frequency stability.

[matyee]

On 1/15/2024 at 7:43 PM, Meaker said:

Time spy:

 

Before:

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/24077416

 

After:

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/24164600

 

Time Spy Extreme:

 

Before:

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/24077715

 

After:

https://www.3dmark.com/spy/24164711

Nice one! I have also seen +10C, is it with water or normal air cooling? Amazing to see how a 870TM1 is still a very current gaming rig! 

[Meaker]

3 hours ago, matyee said:

Nice one! I have also seen +10C, is it with water or normal air cooling? Amazing to see how a 870TM1 is still a very current gaming rig! 

Hybrid water cooling, makes a big difference to consistency in FPS, the core is quite happy to run in that power range.