T61 - NVS140m - GPU Clockdown?

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Kryptonic · #1 Post by **Kryptonic** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 3:40 am

Hi guys,

Ive found the cause of my aero lag... The nvs140m GPU keeps clocking its self right down when its not in use, and as soon as activate flip3d, there is a bit of lag while the gpu clocks itself back up to 400/600mhz, once its clocked up its really fast, but after a few seconds of no use it clocks back down again!

Ive tried changing the power settings to "Maximum Performance" (with ThinkPad Power Manager)

The laptop is very very rarely on battery so id rather just disable this "feature" and maintain a smooth Vista interface

Cheers guys,
Will

SMG · #2 Post by **SMG** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:14 am

Turn off the PowerMizer in Nvidia Control Panel

Kryptonic · #3 Post by **Kryptonic** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:17 am

ive just had a good munch about and i cant see any reference to this feature :S

ive even installed ntune to give me more advanced options and its still not there.....

#4 Post by **Harryc** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 7:57 am

The latest version of NHC is supposed to interface with Powermizer, you can try that. My question is whether or not Powermizer is even implemented in the T61/T61P Lenovo Nvidia drivers? Anyone with experience with the latest NHC on a T61/T61P with discrete graphics?

Kryptonic · #5 Post by **Kryptonic** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 8:13 am

sorry for sounding thick - but what is NHC??

#6 Post by **Harryc** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 8:20 am

Notebook Hardware Control -

http://www.pbus-167.com/

#7 Post by **Harryc** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 8:29 am

I just tried it. Powermizer control is there, but greyed out. There seems to be very little control over discrete Thinkpad nVidia GPU power management in Vista.

Kryptonic · #8 Post by **Kryptonic** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 11:28 am

i seem to remember reading that its Vista that doenst expose the functionality? One trick ive found to get round it is to put DreamScene on...

barich · #9 Post by **barich** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:53 pm

I have this problem as well. It's very frustrating, because I spent a lot of money on this laptop, and one of the reasons I spent extra for the Quadro is because I don't like the decrease in available memory and memory bandwidth that is caused by integrated graphics. But because of the clockdown, Aero runs a lot smoother on systems with the GMA X3100!

I wouldn't mind this happening on battery if it improves battery life significantly, but I also want control over it and I definitely don't want it happening when the laptop is plugged in. I think it is BIOS-controlled, so it'll take a BIOS update to fix it.

I've also noticed skips when playing back audio, and they seem to occur when the GPU is clocking up or down.

Kryptonic · #10 Post by **Kryptonic** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:26 pm

barich wrote:I have this problem as well. It's very frustrating, because I spent a lot of money on this laptop, and one of the reasons I spent extra for the Quadro is because I don't like the decrease in available memory and memory bandwidth that is caused by integrated graphics. But because of the clockdown, Aero runs a lot smoother on systems with the GMA X3100!

I wouldn't mind this happening on battery if it improves battery life significantly, but I also want control over it and I definitely don't want it happening when the laptop is plugged in. I think it is BIOS-controlled, so it'll take a BIOS update to fix it.

I've also noticed skips when playing back audio, and they seem to occur when the GPU is clocking up or down.

yes its VERY annoying... and we're all in the same boat! All of my colleagues have T61's and they all feel the same, it could be worse... Some of them have the T61p, with the same problem!!

Apparently its more of a feature with the way Vista handles power management on gfx card, and im half hoping it will get address when SP1 comes out in Q1 2008...

Also, ive found installing the IBM PowerManager driver helped a bit as well... it still locks down the gpu, but it seems alot of faster to "get going" again... When you talk about audio skipping, ive not experianced that. Ive created a custom profile on the power manager, and when its plugged in i run the CPU at max power (2ghz), if only i could do that on the GPU!

barich · #11 Post by **barich** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 4:08 pm

Apparently its more of a feature with the way Vista handles power management on gfx card, and im half hoping it will get address when SP1 comes out in Q1 2008...

I actually subscribe to Microsoft TechNet and they just released a Release Candidate version of Vista SP1. I've installed it, and it has not fixed this problem (though it does seem to make Vista run faster). I think it's more of a Lenovo BIOS problem, because I have access to other brands of laptop with nVidia GPUs, and they don't have this issue.

Kryptonic · #12 Post by **Kryptonic** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 4:38 pm

barich wrote:
Apparently its more of a feature with the way Vista handles power management on gfx card, and im half hoping it will get address when SP1 comes out in Q1 2008...
I actually subscribe to Microsoft TechNet and they just released a Release Candidate version of Vista SP1. I've installed it, and it has not fixed this problem (though it does seem to make Vista run faster). I think it's more of a Lenovo BIOS problem, because I have access to other brands of laptop with nVidia GPUs, and they don't have this issue.

oh... bugger.... lol, ill keep an eye out for BIOS updates... i know they recently upgraded the BIOS, to improve "performance".... i guess they need to redefine their term "performance" ahaha

eecon · #13 Post by **eecon** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 6:08 pm

Kryptonic wrote:
barich wrote: I actually subscribe to Microsoft TechNet and they just released a Release Candidate version of Vista SP1. I've installed it, and it has not fixed this problem (though it does seem to make Vista run faster). I think it's more of a Lenovo BIOS problem, because I have access to other brands of laptop with nVidia GPUs, and they don't have this issue.
oh... bugger.... lol, ill keep an eye out for BIOS updates... i know they recently upgraded the BIOS, to improve "performance".... i guess they need to redefine their term "performance" ahaha

Is there a way to tell if the NVIDIA cards are also clocking down under WinXP Pro systems?

Kryptonic · #14 Post by **Kryptonic** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 6:33 pm

as far as i remember.... yes they do get clocked down, but i think im right in saying that in XP, you can access the Nvidia PowerMizer functionality in the nvidia control panel, and basically, tell it to get lost! lol

eecon · #15 Post by **eecon** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:35 pm

Kryptonic wrote:as far as i remember.... yes they do get clocked down, but i think im right in saying that in XP, you can access the Nvidia PowerMizer functionality in the nvidia control panel, and basically, tell it to get lost! lol

Thanks ..... I just looked at my Nvidia PowerMizer setttings in the Nvidia Control Panel and you are correct .... the setting is still functional (not greyed out) and it was already disabled by default (at least while I'm docked here with line power running WinXP).

Kryptonic · #16 Post by **Kryptonic** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:48 am

i think all us Vista + NVS users can do is wait for a fix to be released!

T61 - NVS140m - GPU Clockdown?

T61 - NVS140m - GPU Clockdown?

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