Graphics Card Comparison

Message

hunterman223 · #61 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat May 14, 2011 4:40 am

Running an UltimateDefrag right now. What mode do you have yours set to? I left it at the default Consolidate mode, but there are a few others to choose from. I lime the program so far. At the moment I am running nice and cool at 36C, but by touch I can tell it has been hotter than that. I'll let t run for a while and let you know.

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

Colonel O'Neill · #62 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat May 14, 2011 6:18 am

I have it set to Volatility, with High Performance, Archive, and Move Directories to MFT checked. Under settings, I have the following settings (simplified for simplicity):

High Performance:
Custom: Checked Program Files; ProgramData\Microsoft,Lenovo,Start Menu,Kaspersky,ATI; Windows\System32,SysWOW64,winsxs
Filetypes: *.exe, *.dll, *.ocx, *.sys

Archive:
Automatic: Last 14 days not used
Custom: Massive downloads folder
Filetypes: *.zip, *.rar, *.iso, *.7z, etc.

I'm still playing with it to get an optimal setup; there's lots of fluff the above includes in High Performance that I'm pretty sure doesn't need to be. Your mileage may vary.

It's a highly configurable defragger, and you should end up with about 80% of the data going to the middle of the drive. As it's a new install with new filedates, you might want to let it use 80% least used for Archive. Also should enable all four options when it asked at first run (subsequently accessible in Tools under the More tab).

Highly recommend reading it's included manual; quite informative about the whole concept.

Also, Kaspersky's Self-Defense interferes with it; disable it for defrags. Not aware of any other self-defense systems that interfere with UltimateDefrag though.

hunterman223 · #63 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat May 14, 2011 12:14 pm

Thanks, running another defrag now with that config, looking good. HDD at 41C making for a nice toasty palmrest. It would be nice during winter...

BTW, what software do you use to get the fan to 4500rpm? Using TPfancontrol on it's max level of 7 I am only getting ~3500rpm.

Colonel O'Neill · #64 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat May 14, 2011 3:11 pm

41C sounds about right during a defrag.

Fan level 64 brings it to 450PRM. It's technically an unsupported speed, but htere for emergency purposes. Probably wears out the fan more. Significantly louder than 3500RPM.

EDIT: Whoops. Looks like including the filetypes in High Performance added a whole lot of useless EXE and DLL files. Never really noticed. (d'oh)

hunterman223 · #65 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat May 14, 2011 6:25 pm

Colonel O'Neill wrote:41C sounds about right during a defrag.

Fan level 64 brings it to 450PRM. It's technically an unsupported speed, but htere for emergency purposes. Probably wears out the fan more. Significantly louder than 3500RPM.

EDIT: Whoops. Looks like including the filetypes in High Performance added a whole lot of useless EXE and DLL files. Never really noticed. (d'oh)

Yeah, it seems to stay at a max of 41C with anything intensive, and gradually goes back down. For now 3500rpm seems to do it, but if I get into anything more intense I'll put it at level 64.

Hmm. Live and learn

. Should I remove the .EXE and .DLL from my config? I've been doing some research and I found that FragProtect is good to have on. Do you know anything about the "Boot Time" tab and the settings there? It seems to be a way to relocate the MFT, but there isn't much documentation on the subject.

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

Colonel O'Neill · #66 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat May 14, 2011 7:46 pm

Yeah, boot time moves the MFT, pagefile, hiberfil, and NTFS related metadata objects. I tend to leave it right inside the ring of files on the outside. It's bizarrely placed in the Settings dialog, and you have to check the "Run on next boot checkbox".

I think removing all of the filetype selectors in High Performance would be a good idea; it was picking up on all of the DLLs from Visual Studio 2010, among other things.

hunterman223 · #67 Post by **hunterman223** » Sun May 15, 2011 8:01 am

Okay, thanks. Updating the config now. I am really liking UltimateDefrag, it seems very configurable and a great tool once you get the hang of it.

hunterman223 · #68 Post by **hunterman223** » Fri May 20, 2011 5:25 pm

More news! Currently I am in the process of undervolting my T9400. I am seeing excellent results; at the moment I am running a stress test for 0.9625v, down from the default of 1.1625v, and my Max Temp. readings have gone down by 18C! That's right, 18 degrees Celsius!

That seems to be the "ceiling", as it has stayed 18 degrees lower for the past few lower voltage & stress test cycles. I also have done the half multiplier hack to make RMClock use 9.5x for my CPU. Really loving my new ThinkPad!

One quick question: I know that RMClock is capable of underclocking, or locking the multiplier to save battery life. Will this interfere with Power Manager? (since it basically does the same thing) How will I need to set this up so the two play nice?

----

Update: Black screen with the voltage I mentioned above, BSOD error 1e according to event viewer. Doing a 3 hour stress test on 1.0125v (2 steps above) and I'll let you know how it goes.

Colonel O'Neill · #69 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat May 21, 2011 1:07 am

Windows sometimes likes to set mine to 6x @ 1.000V for a split second. If I set it to 100% min/max CPU in Power Options (not Power Manager) then it seems to stop trying.

As for the 9.5x hack... My P8700 shows a 10.0x called IDA that seems to do the 2.53GHz for which the CPU is rated. Not sure if it's the same with the T CPUs.

I recommend using IntelBurnTest at 2 threads instead of Prime95; it seems to push it harder.

EDIT: Way OT, but in case you haven't stumbled across it yet, TwoFingerScroll enables some multitouch on the T400 touchpad with regular UltraNav drivers.

hunterman223 · #70 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat May 21, 2011 5:06 am

I have the IDA option too, but I read that it is best to leave it off as it is finicky. I guess it disables one core for a short time or something, according to the undervolting guide over at NBR. I edited the PStatesData key in the registry and it's working great at the moment.

I ran orthos overnight and it passed, but I'll let IntelBurnTest run for a few hours, it can't hurt to be extra stable.

I'll have a look at the two finger scrolling thing. I would be nice to have some mutitouch functionality. OT isn't much of a concern, since we have now compared graphics cards, overclocked them, talked about UltimateDefrag, undervolted, and now multitouch!

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

Colonel O'Neill · #71 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat May 21, 2011 7:16 am

IDA hasn't seemed to cause any issues for me yet.

As long as we're off-topic, here's a random tidbit:
Disable the "Intel(R) Management Engine Interface" in Device Manager under System devices. This prevents HECI.sys from loading, and reduces DPC latencies in case you have audio dropouts. I'd disable it anyway to keep it from doing unnecessary things. Not an issue if you didn't install the Intel AMT driver in the first place, but I don't like seeing yellow exclamation marks in my Device Manager

hunterman223 · #72 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat May 21, 2011 9:18 am

Thanks, disabled it. I haven't noticed any issued, but there is no point in leaving it enabled anyways.

Something interesting: I forgot to switch back to the default GPUTool profile once I exited a game, and no freezing, black screens, or anything out of the norm. HWMonitor reads the voltage at 0.9v. I guess I am just lucky

More news on the undervolting, I have finished, and I have "finalized" it. I'm running 18C cooler at the cost of nothing. On a side note, playing Burnout Paradise for 30-40 minuted warmed up the CPU more than a few hours of Orthos. Either way, the difference between before and after undervolting is still ~18 degrees Celsius.

I'm gonna let it cool down for a while and then unplug and try out the battery. I already got great battery life, so I don't expect a ton of improvement in that department.

Colonel O'Neill · #73 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat May 21, 2011 5:22 pm

It can run at 0.9V for a while with higher clocks. It's just occasionally crashy, especially at higher temperatures.

You can always try OCCT for maximum heat

Ultimately, depending on how well your GPU is, you might be able to hit even higher clocks.

hunterman223 · #74 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat May 21, 2011 5:41 pm

Ahh, makes sense. I'm glad it's not an instantaneous thing though. I might give OCCT a try tomorrow, but I'm fairly certain all is stable anyways. I think I'll leave the clocks alone for the time being, I'm quite pleased with them and I don't think I could get them enough higher to justify anyways.

OT: Does the right side of your palmrest by the HDD cover and ThinkPad logo creak? It's almost like the plastic of the palmrest and the HDD cover are rubbing together and creaking. It only creaks if I press it just right, but once I find it it's really annoying.

Colonel O'Neill · #75 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat May 21, 2011 6:25 pm

It always had. That said, it's been dropped on that corner plenty of times (probably what killed the FPR

). Enough to seriously contort the HDD cover itself, but with some heat, it bent right back into shape (more or less) and it doesn't creak anymore but the cover and palmrest don't align perfectly. Maybe lining the edge of the HDD cover with a thing piece of tape would work?

gsl · #76 Post by **gsl** » Mon May 23, 2011 6:06 pm

Just thought I'd chime in on this bit of OT: My T400 creaks in exactly the way you guys describe on the palm rest at the lower right corner. The palm rest seems to not be anchored to anything there; I've meant to remove the drive and see if the problem isn't possibly related to a screw not being tight enough or something similar. Over the 16 months or so that I've had this machine, I can't decide if various creaky parts, oddly shaped gaps, or not-quite-perfect fits on the shell are shoddy workmanship or were purposefully designed to isolate stress or shocks to a small region rather than transporting it across the entire chassis.

Back on topic: Colonel, how do you generally find the gaming experience on your T400? You've listed a few games that tax my modest desktop rig a good amount (2.4Ghz dual-core Opteron, 512MB Radeon X1900 runs the Crysis demo at about ~20-25 FPS with stuff like AA and filtering disabled and shadows turnd to the lowest setting). Gaming-wise, I've only really tried Portal on my T400; while that was before updating to some of the newer Catalyist drivers, it seemed like I had to turn down or off a good amount of the settings just to get something more or less playable. I currently have a 5.7 on the WEI Gaming Graphics section, so I would expect some decent performance, but I haven't really thought about gaming too much on this machine beyond the occasional Minecraft session. Are there any particular tricks you've had to resort to (other than overclocking the GPU)?

Colonel O'Neill · #77 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Mon May 23, 2011 7:02 pm

My T400 is moderately game-able. Wouldn't mind an HD3650, though

That said, I'm used to less than smooth FPS gameplay; used to play CS 1.0 on an ancient 233MHz Compaq laptop with a 256MB NeoMagic video card running Windows 2000.

I'm also running 32-bit Windows, so that might help with certain games. Overclocking and the newest Catalyst brought the most improvements overall, and Game Booster keeps framerates more consistent by a bit. Some games are more CPU dependent as well, like AudioSurf and CS:Source, so undervolting there lets me stay at top speeds all the time. Ramping fan speed up to 4500RPM also keeps the GPU from throttling while overclocked.

hunterman223 · #78 Post by **hunterman223** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:14 pm

I've had a pretty major breakthrough! My 3470 is now at a 60% overclock. To put that in perspective, here are some 3DMark06 screenshots.

This is the score at default clocks, 680/800.

This is the score at the settings I have been using for awhile now, 850/899.

And this is the score with my current clocks, 880/1120.

---------

I guess you were right when you said I may be able to go higher. My WinSAT/WEI went from 4.8 (non-OC) --> 5.0 --> 5.5. Not bad at all! But more importantly I am actually noticing it in games, for example when playing GTA San Andreas I used to lag quite badly when I used the turbo cheat. Everything else was smooth. Now it is perfectly smooth with no lag at all.

I didn't have much of a method, I just pressed "Find Max" in GPUTool and let it run for 5-10 minutes. It found the maximum clock speed without errors, when errors were encountered it dropped the clocks incrementally. I than ran WEI several times, the first two times I ran it I had some artifacts & black screens, so I dropped the clocks 10MHz until everything ran smoothly. That's it really. My temperature readings haven't gone up anything noticable. I am seeing a max GPU temp of 65C after running 3DMark06 3 times for the above screenshots, which isn't bad at all. It is slightly lower than that with the games I play. I said before that I never noticed the freezing when going from 1.20v to 0.9v; now I do. I just have to remember to switch profiles as soon as I am finished and everything's fine.

Tomorrow my 8GB of memory should show up, at the moment I have 6GB but it is an unmatched pair so I have been forced to stay on ATI graphics. When using the Intel I get all kinds of graphical glitches and artifacts, apparently due to the shared memory and the Intel chipset not handling the unmatched pair correctly. Live and learn, but it's strange that so few people mentioned it. I assumed it would be fine due to the Intel Flex Memory, but I guess not. I will rerun the benchmarks tomorrow and see if the score took a hit due to being in some sort of virtual dual-channel mode.

I think I have a lucky T400.

hunterman223 · #79 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:35 am

Got the 8GB of RAM today The 3DMark06 score didn't change much, the scores are as follows:

3DMarks:.....3299
SM2.0:........1122
HDR/SM3.0:..1335
CPU:............2285

Now my virtual machines have some breathing room, and my battery life is back in shape as I can now use Intel graphics again.

Colonel O'Neill · #80 Post by **Colonel O'Neill** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:24 am

MOAR! XD

My temperatures race up to 72C on the 850/899 overclock while gaming... Stuff actually starts throttling unless I kick the fan into level 64.

hunterman223 · #81 Post by **hunterman223** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:33 am

Colonel O'Neill wrote: MOAR! XD

My temperatures race up to 72C on the 850/899 overclock while gaming... Stuff actually starts throttling unless I kick the fan into level 64.

Huh. I never have to ramp mine up to level 64 while gaming, only level 7. My temps stay somewhere around 65C while gaming with the new clocks. I must be really lucky or something.

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk