Nvidia bios mod to fix random downclock?

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cutepuppy671

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I currently have a Nvidia GTS 250 (512MB memory)

with a stock speed of 756MHz gpu and 1100 for memory (by EVGA)

while gaming, the card will sometimes drop to the 2D clock speeds of 300MHz core, 100MHz memory

rivab.jpg


when this happens, theres nothing I can do to get it back to the 3d performance clock speeds, (forcing performance levels does not help and launching a game does not help)
the only way to fix this is to restart the PC (I have tried many different driver versions)

this problem happens on both stock speeds and overclocked speeds

I was thinking about editing the bios to my overclocked settings for both 3d and 2d

and using the voltage table editor to change the voltage from the stock 1.2V, to 1.22V

I was wondering if someone can look at the bios settings and tell me if these will work



here are the changes

ni1a.jpg

ni2j.jpg

ni3x.jpg

for the memory timings, I did not make any changes
ni4c.jpg


I uploaded the original unmodified bios to mediafire.com

http://www.mediafire.com/?qinnmtwyt13

if anyone doesn't like mediafire, I can upload it to any other file hosting place as requested


PS 1 other question, do I have to worry about the memory timings for the 2D mode and does the voltage for 2D mode differ from 3D mode?
so all in all, what I want to do is

1, stop the random down clock by giving both 3D and 2D modes the same clock speed and voltage
2, I want to do a slight voltage increase to ensure stability
 
I have a similar downclocking problem for my four 250 gts's. I was going to do the same thing you're going to do today or tomorrow and I basically did the steps you did. Just need to boot up nvflash and starting flashing away. A BIOS flashing tutorial can be found in this link:
http://www.overclock.net/nvidia-drivers-overclocking-software/149879-nvidia-bios-flashing-11.html

Click to the first page. There's even a guide for doing it in 32 bit Windows XP. I'll let you know how mine goes.

Yes you need to change the 2d voltages. When downclocking from 3d mode it also decreases the voltage.

No you can't increase the voltage over the current 1.2V for 3d without hardware modifications. I don't care what the voltage table says.
 
I tried the update with just the standard 1.2 and both 2d and 3d at the evga specified stock speeds and during bootup, the screen completely distorted, I had to restart and reflash the original bios

not sure what to do now, this downclocking problem is really annoying,

if your card is a evga GTS 250 512MB ram videocard with a clock speed of 756GPU and 1100 memory then please can you upload your bios file if yours works.

I was considering sending the card in for a RMA but since this problem seems wide spread I don't want to risk being with out it for like 2 weeks + high shipping cost to get another card with the same problem


I was thinking about setting the card to just 1 performance level and use the clock speed but then the green button turns yellow so I am not sure if it is safe to do
 
Or you could try the new beta drivers that have the power manager and lets you force the card into high performance mode (no down clocking) at all times while gaming?

Secondly, you never said the performance drops while it down clocks. How do you know it's down clocking outside of using monitoring programs?
 
bigdogchris said:
Or you could try the new beta drivers that have the power manager and lets you force the card into high performance mode (no down clocking) at all times while gaming?

Secondly, you never said the performance drops while it down clocks. How do you know it's down clocking outside of using monitoring programs?
Click to expand...

Meh beta versions suck. I just verified that command I posted above. It does indeed work quite well. Took under a minute too.
 
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when it downclocks while playing second life, the framerates drop to like 2FPS

when it downclocks while playing fallout 3, the screen distorts and also goes down to 1FPS

I will describe the problem in full detail

when the downclock happens, the only way to get to a normal clock speed is to restart windows, none of my programs or running any games can get it above 300 core and 100 memory

(i never talked about performance because i thought is was implied that a 1000MHz drop in memory and a 456MHz drop in GPU clock speed will impact performance)

when the downclock happens, the screen flickers and the clock speed drops

this causes games to crash that are 3d intensive and low end games like SL just run extremely slow

In rivatuner I tried forcing a 3D performance mode and the downclock still happened, it is as if the driver is failing and the card ic kicking into a low clock speeds

I will try that registry fix and see if it works
 
This has occurred because of all the "green power douchebags." Basically some turd bags wanted the same thing to happen like their laptops i.e. when not being used the cpu down clocks itself. So the pc guys were like well if these "turdbags" want hardware to slow itself down until 3d is required lets add it to even desktop hardware.

So really this is a faullt of a bunch of fgts up in Berkeley, CA.

Basically this means second life is too poor of a game that the video card thinks is 2d so it lowers the clock speeds to something very low. You have 2 options. A either play a better game *hint hint* or B I dunno flash the card with a bios that runs the clock speeds at a static speed. Yes you can do the 2nd option. I won't tell you google it.
 
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Mega0v said:
This has occurred because of all the "green power douchebags." Basically some turd bags wanted the same thing to happen like their laptops i.e. when not being used the cpu down clocks itself. So the pc guys were like well if these "turdbags" want hardware to slow itself down until 3d is required lets add it to even desktop hardware.

So really this is a faullt of a bunch of fgts up in Berkeley, CA.

Basically this means second life is too poor of a game that the video card thinks is 2d so it lowers the clock speeds to something very low. You have 2 options. A either play a better game *hint hint* or B I dunno flash the card with a bios that runs the clock speeds at a static speed. Yes you can do the 2nd option. I won't tell you google it.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your anti environmentalist tirade but you failed to answer any part of the OP's question. I've already supplied the link on how the flash the bios.
 
SL is not too poor of a game, It gets lower framerates than crysis (the rivatuner screenshot was from when I was playing fallout 3, on ultra settings

PS this downclock also happens with crysis, fallout 3, and many other games, I can even run 2 games at 1 time on 2 different screens and it will still happen after a while, this downclock happens independent of GPU load.

the only time when the downclock doesn't happen is when I am not running any games

i think the only way to fix this is to disable the 2D mode completely. nibitor can set to 1 performance level but then the clock speeds go from extra, to just 3d and it takes on the clock speeds of the 2D mode and this leaves me to believe that the card will take on the same voltages and will have the same distort problem

and when the downclock happens, it is completely stuck at the low speeds until I restart windows. none of my tweaking apps or games are able to get the clock speed higher. it is like 3d mode no longer exist until I restart windows
 
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You sure this isn't a power related issue? If it's downclocking in to 2D mode, it should come back out. The behavior you're describing is more like a hardware protection downclock, since it requires a restart to get 3D clocks back. Maybe your PSU isn't up to task.
 
cutepuppy671 said:
SL is not too poor of a game, It gets lower framerates than crysis (the rivatuner screenshot was from when I was playing fallout 3, on ultra settings

PS this downclock also happens with crysis, fallout 3, and many other games, I can even run 2 games at 1 time on 2 different screens and it will still happen after a while, this downclock happens independent of GPU load.

the only time when the downclock doesn't happen is when I am not running any games

i think the only way to fix this is to disable the 2D mode completely. nibitor can set to 1 performance level but then the clock speeds go from extra, to just 3d and it takes on the clock speeds of the 2D mode and this leaves me to believe that the card will take on the same voltages and will have the same distort problem

and when the downclock happens, it is completely stuck at the low speeds until I restart windows. none of my tweaking apps or games are able to get the clock speed higher. it is like 3d mode no longer exist until I restart windows
Click to expand...

I mean 2nd life isn't the most demanding game but it may need some processing so I apologize. However running the clocks at 100% 24/7 would work

Still make sure you don't have anything running.
 
I have 2 12V rails each at 30 amps

Field Value
Sensor Properties
Sensor Type ITE IT8720F (ISA 228h)
GPU Sensor Type Diode (NV-Diode)
Motherboard Name Gigabyte MA770 / MA790FX / MA790GP / MA790X Series
Chassis Intrusion Detected No

Temperatures
Motherboard 48 °C (118 °F)
CPU 50 °C (122 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 37 °C (99 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 37 °C (99 °F)
GPU Diode 61 °C (142 °F)
Hitachi HDS722580VLAT20 42 °C (108 °F)
Hitachi HDS721616PLAT80 43 °C (109 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU 2184 RPM
Chassis #2 2700 RPM

Voltage Values
CPU Core 1.44 V
+3.3 V 3.31 V
+12 V 12.39 V
VBAT Battery 3.22 V
DIMM 2.16 V

(currently have fallout 3 running with everest opened)

it should be enough power to handle the card.
 
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