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780M Overclocking

Firstly: For those of you with the 780M, what are the latest nVidia drivers you've been able to install? I've attempted to install the 331.40 beta drivers, however the install fails: the screen blacks out (normal) but then fails to recover and my machine reboots after 10s or so. This includes attempting a clean install.

I'm therefore running the vanilla 311.xx drivers included in the Bootcamp 5.0.5241 package (the latest), which are "okay" but not great.

Given these somewhat out of date drivers though, I managed to run some quick 3DMark (2013) benches with stock clocks vs. overclocked:

  • Stock: 4341
  • 150/225 Core/Mem: 4969

Peak temp is about 87 deg C, without any fan control: the iMac spins up its own fans and therefore rarely sits at those temps for more than a second or two. If I can find a decent fan control for the Windows side of things I'll likely push the base speed up a bit to keep the spikes down since it's barely making any noise right now.

Edit: Using http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control to great success. Spins the fans up at ~72C and have it set to max out at >=80C. The fans does generate a bit of noise (for an iMac; it's quiet compared to a gaming rig) but this is typically only when really pushing the GPU hard.
 
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elithrar said:
Firstly: For those of you with the 780M, what are the latest nVidia drivers you've been able to install? I've attempted to install the 331.40 beta drivers, however the install fails: the screen blacks out (normal) but then fails to recover and my machine reboots after 10s or so. This includes attempting a clean install.

I'm therefore running the vanilla 311.xx drivers included in the Bootcamp 5.0.5241 package (the latest), which are "okay" but not great.
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I would like to know this too. I tried updating to the most recent Nvidia drivers in bootcamp and it doesnt work. So I am running the 311.xx version.
 
What I heard from some people, you gotta wait for apple to release a new driver update. Unlike windows(not bootcamp) where you can update soon it is released.
 
Jaguarxl said:
What I heard from some people, you gotta wait for apple to release a new driver update. Unlike windows(not bootcamp) where you can update soon it is released.
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That's not true, and never has been: you can nearly always use the vanilla [notebook] nVidia drivers without issue.

There's obviously an issue with the 327 WHQL and the 331 beta drivers though, as the former spit out "not supported hardware" and the latter lock up on install. Might take a new WHQL revision to come good.
 
Let's bump this up.. Where's the info that the 780M in the new iMac is underclocked? And I have the newest nvidia Inspector.. Anybody know what needs to be done to overclock? I don't understand the different modes? Like the low, medium, high profiles.. I'm assuming this is the idle and load modes for the GPU. I guess we only care about the loaded profile for when you're gaming.
 
Okay finally kind of figured out how to overclock the 780M.. It would seem the memory is hardlocked at 2500mhz and nothing can be done to go higher there. So far i've got the core clock to 862mhz and getting over 8100 points in 3dmark11.. Stock it was 7600 points.. So quite an improvement so far.

Just for comparison sake.. My overclocked 680M in my previous laptop at 980mhz is getting 7800 points which is a lot for a 680M.. pushing that to the very limits.. I was hoping the 780M was stronger but it's a mild upgrade over a 680M/MX.

One solid gain is how SILENT THE IMAC is under load.. It's almost undetectable.. especially if you have any kind of music/audio going.

Edit: Figured out how to OC the Memory.. 3dmark11 is up to 8208.. I think i'll leave things alone for now.. seems pretty stable.

Edit 2: 3dMark 13 i'm at 5102 on 780M

Edit3: Latest 3dmark11 score = 8700! Getting there.. I have a bad feeling i'm about to top out. Apparently the memory clocks have to equal a certain speed for the core clock to work.. I would crash at 920mhz core if I left 2500mhz memory.. but if I up the memory to 3000mhz.. all is well.. I don't get it but it works and its fast.
 
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Mac32 said:
Recommended before overclocking:
*Disable CPU turbo boost
*Use a fan controll program (like Lubbo's fan control) to set the fan speed at a static high speed like 2500rpm (not any higher than 2600rpm).

I use +250/+375 with only a small temp difference with my 680MX, and although also 285/425 is 100% stable with CPU turbo boost disabled, it does heat up the iMac a bit more and is not worth it for a miniscule performance boost over 250/375.

I'm not sure what chip design 780M uses, and how it compares to 680MX, but it could be capable of overclocking even higher since 780M=100w vs. 680MX=120w.

Looking forward to read the results! :) In Windows7 64bit, 3dmark11 highest score @ 285/425 I got is P8813/graphics 9056. (My very highest score is P8903/graphics 9248 @ 292/450, btw. stock speed =P6857/graphics 6257) However this was some months ago, newer Nvidia drivers might improve the results. I'll try the tests again soon.
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You must have one heck of a 680MX.. I can't touch your benchmark results with this overclocked 780M. Best so far in 3dmark11 is 8300+
 
Diversion said:
You must have one heck of a 680MX.. I can't touch your benchmark results with this overclocked 780M. Best so far in 3dmark11 is 8300+
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Did you run the benchmark in streched view mode? That gives a higher score, than just running the benchmark graphics unscaled.
 
Diversion said:
Yes it was stretched.. I wonder if your numbers are accurate? You're scoring pretty much what a DESKTOP 680 gets!
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Of course they are accurate. Yes, my score is about what a desktop GTX680 gets, however also the desktop 680 can be overclocked...
 
Mac32 said:
Of course they are accurate. Yes, my score is about what a desktop GTX680 gets, however also the desktop 680 can be overclocked...
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I suppose you'd be the only person with a 680mx that is that overclockable, i'm pretty sure there's no other person i've seen get into the 9000s as easily as you!
 
Diversion said:
I suppose you'd be the only person with a 680mx that is that overclockable, i'm pretty sure there's no other person i've seen get into the 9000s as easily as you!
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I'm definately not the only one, just check out the 680MX overclocking thread. :)
 
Diversion said:
I suppose you'd be the only person with a 680mx that is that overclockable, i'm pretty sure there's no other person i've seen get into the 9000s as easily as you!
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Nope not hard. I hit stable 9000 pretty easily with my 680MX but back off a little at 8646 and I run that overclock the whole time (250/375). That's why many of us were disappointed that a year later the 780M is not an improvement.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18183328/
 
I can add my 2 cents to this...

I have 780M, running battlefield 4, with the msi afterburner set with +250 on clock and +350 on memory I get 10 fps more (on high settings) than I would get with stock speed.

Temp is the same as with stock, well maybe 1 degree more.
 
WilliamG said:
Nope not hard. I hit stable 9000 pretty easily with my 680MX but back off a little at 8646 and I run that overclock the whole time (250/375). That's why many of us were disappointed that a year later the 780M is not an improvement.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/18183328/
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In stock form the 780m is probably an improvement.. overclocking headroom is small with the 780m vs 680mx it seems though. Also, even though I force pstates the 780m will downclock itself back to stock levels after a short period of time making the overclock pointless.
 
Diversion said:
In stock form the 780m is probably an improvement.. overclocking headroom is small with the 780m vs 680mx it seems though. Also, even though I force pstates the 780m will downclock itself back to stock levels after a short period of time making the overclock pointless.
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Hmm, that is disconcerting. I hope this isn't the start of a new trend. Next year's iMac will have the Maxwell GPU, which should offer a significant performance increase. If Nvidia is starting to cripple the overclocking potential of the mobile chips, that's not good. I can't even imagine playing games with the 680MX at stock speed, which would be a huge waste in terms of lost performance and no change in stability and near the same temperature. (Maybe the GPU is heating up too much, and it's the thermal protection is kicking in? I always use a static high fan speed when gaming.)
 
I received my iMac with 780m some weeks ago and i'm planning to over clock the GPU (as the CPU is not possible...). Anyone who can tell me how I can overclock it and what is the ''safe'' limit so I don't damage the card?
 
Rogier1991 said:
I received my iMac with 780m some weeks ago and i'm planning to over clock the GPU (as the CPU is not possible...). Anyone who can tell me how I can overclock it and what is the ''safe'' limit so I don't damage the card?
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dude read the thread. at least the last 10 posts.
 
Hi! Bumping this thread way the hell up here. :)

For those of you that are overclocking the 780m, when you're checking your temperatures, are you going by the GPU temperature as it appears in MSI Afterburner, or the GPU Diode temperature in Macs Fan Control? I'm not sure which one to trust more, as the Diode temperature always seems to be roughly nine degrees higher than the GPU temperature.

For what it's worth, I'm running core +150 and memory +200, and my temps are only about two degrees higher. I have the fan set to max out at 82c. GPU temp in MSI Afterburner never gets any higher than 78c, and the diode has maxed out at 85c.
 
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