Anyone playing w/ a GTX 580M?

I just started playing a few days ago and am enjoying this game more than I thought I would. I have an Alienware M17X R3 w/ a GTX 580M. I can run the game on High Settings, but I don't like what my temps look like. In town I'm usually under 70C, mainly in the lower 60s, but when I'm running around killing mobs, I hit the mid to upper 70s. If you didn't know, the 580Ms in Alienware's have a temp throttle at 78C. Once it hits that, the screen goes blank and I need to restart.

I was wondering if anyone else is playing with the 580M (more notably in an Alienware)? If you are, what settings do you play on, and if you OC, what are your clocks at? I have found myself messing with the settings so much, that I am not having enough time to enjoy the game.

With temps that high theres 1 thing you can do to help, Limit your FPS to 30 in the config.

I play on a desktop with a 6950HD and my temps go from 60c - 80c on 60FPS or 55c - 65c on 30FPS so it makes a huge diff

Solution: Run lower settings.


I suppose you could clean it with an air duster, maybe get a cooling pad. The fact is laptop cards aren't meant to handle such stress. You're only hurting your laptop if you continue to run it like that.



EDIT: And yeah, 30 fps would help to.

With my old laptop I had to hoover the fan vent out once a month because it sucked up so much dust

What are your settings, you shouldn't have to lower them for this game. I'd limit FPS as well. Try a air pad.

Thanks guys. The fans are pretty clean, and I keep the back elevated to help the air flow. I have a cooler pad, but it doesn't really help much. Gonna look into getting a CoolerMaster eventually.

I have been lowering the settings, but really want to find that sweet spot that gives me good temps with good graphics. I haven't thought about adjusting the FPS down to 30. I thought that it would force the game to not run as smooth.

I would limit to 30 FPS, clean it out as well as you can, and invest in a cooling pad, these are really nice for cooling a laptop playing games.

Also if you have overclocked your CPU or GPU, set them back to stock, overclocking does increase heat generation, you could see it cool down alot.

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Originally Posted by Daku_Naito

What are your settings, you shouldn't have to lower them for this game. I'd limit FPS as well. Try a air pad.

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These are my settings:

Multisampling: 2x MSAA
General Drawing Quality: 9
Background Drawing Quality: 4
Shadow Detail: High
Ambient Occlusion: Unchecked
Depth of Field: Unchecked
Disable cutscene effects: Unchecked
Enable hardware mouse cursor: Checked
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filtering: Highest

With these settings in town I get between 32-58 FPS and out in the open world I get between 48-60 FPS.

I know the OC increases heat, but it also increases my FPS. I'll lower the FPS limit to 30 and then work back from there. Thanks for the tips guys.

I lock my FPS to 30 and it plays completely fine, sure it isn't as smooth but it isnt that noticable

Oh, and if you want a good cooling pad, here's what I have for the Dell XPS: http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-...7634376&sr=8-3

Best one I've used so far. (The others I've used were fragile, to say the least.)

You can try undervolting your 580 for less heat. I use MSI afterburner to do that. I was hiting temps of 78 with my 7970 on stock voltage now it's sitting on low 60s.

i'm not sure on alienware as far as its cooling is concerned, but i do use a gtx 580. one thing you can do it open your precision and set your fan speeds to 85% which is its max without voiding your warranty with a third party program. mine runs around 51 degrees when crafting and low to mid 60's when running dungeons and events.

A GTX 580 and GTX 580M are 2 different things.

yes, i know the 580m is the laptop version of the desktop card, but they should both have the same fan adjustments. if it is an evga card it comes with a program like evga precision for fans for example. it did on the 260 i had for my laptop anyways.

MSI afterburner works with any card/brand lets you set fan speed, clocks and voltage.

MSI Afterburner wont allow me to change voltage settings. The only way to under/over volt is by making a modded vbios.

I use HWiNFO with custom fan settings to help keep things cool while gaming.

The 580M is more closer to the 560ti than the GTX 580. It gets a little confusing the way Nvidia markets their notebook cards.

As far as my heat goes, I've made some adjustments to the graphics config and I've also done some adjustments in Nvidia Control Panel. I haven't played too much, but I have noticed that the game actually looks a lot better with these settings and I'm running between 45-60 FPS (haven't ran into town yet) and my temps look to be staying around the mid 60s. I am also running on stock clocks. I may play around a little more and try a slight OC and maybe try to increase an option or 2 higher.

My new settings are below:

Multisampling: 4x MSAA
General Drawing Quality: 8
Background Drawing Quality: 5
Shadow Detail: High
Ambient Occlusion: Unchecked
Depth of Field: Unchecked
Disable cutscene effects: Unchecked
Enable hardware mouse cursor: Checked
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filtering: Highest

This is similar to my original settings except I lowered General Drawing Quality from 9 to 8 (I originally posted that it was 8 by mistake) and I increased Multisampling and Background Drawing Quality. In the Nvidia Control Panel, I turned on FXAA (might be useless since I have AA turned on). I had V-Sync turned on, but didn't notice anything so I turned it off. I may turn it back on and see if it makes any difference. I'm gonna try to get an hour or 2 of gaming in tonight and see if there is anything I can tweak.

Did you try settings > unlock voltage control in AB?

Yeah. I don't think it works with the 580m or perhaps just the Dell version of the 580m. I'm not too worried about it. I can always just use a hex editor to change it, but I don't want to run it on a lower volt than what it is. I'm happy with stock volts and a slight OC.

Those are some pretty high settings for a 580m. Turn on your overlay for GPU usage and if it's over 85% load that will cause a lot of heat.

I'll have to check once I'm able to get some time to play. Maybe in the morning before work I can check. I had it running for about 10-15 min earlier today and the temps only reached the mid 60s, granted I wasn't doing much but running around in circles. I also just updated to the new 301.42 drivers that got released today. Curious to see if they make any difference.

Just played for about an hour and my highest temp was 69C. I was running between 35-60 FPS. I think I'll stick with these settings for now. Once I start getting into parties and fighting in groups, I may need to make some adjustments as I'm not sure how that will affect my FPS.

your 580m's operating well within thermal limits. your fine, well at least your laptop is. your lap however is a different matter.

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Originally Posted by Valmonte

your 580m's operating well within thermal limits. your fine, well at least your laptop is. your lap however is a different matter.

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lol, I don't play this beast on my lap. I have it on a computer desk right now. Sometimes I'll play in bed, but I have my laptop cooler to place it on.

Been playing on the below settings for a few days now and haven't run into any issues.

Multisampling: 4x MSAA
General Drawing Quality: 8
Background Drawing Quality: 5
Shadow Detail: High
Ambient Occlusion: Unchecked
Depth of Field: Unchecked
Disable cutscene effects: Unchecked
Enable hardware mouse cursor: Checked
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filtering: Highest

I turned up the multisampling to 16xQCSAA and haven't noticed any drop in performance. Still running between 40-60 FPS. My GPU load is high, but my heat doesn't go above 68C. If needed, I can increase the fan profile through HWiNFO.

As much as I love the 580M, I'm awaiting for my 7970M to arrive hopefully this week. I can't wait till it comes in and I get to put it in. You just can't beat the price of free when it comes to upgrading, lol.

its a laptop not much you can do for cooling.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by indira

its a laptop not much you can do for cooling.

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You CAN buy a cooling pad, you know. I posted one earlier in the thread.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Leyza

You CAN buy a cooling pad, you know. I posted one earlier in the thread.

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Cooling pads are hit and miss, not every laptop gains much of a benefit from one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Colino

Cooling pads are hit and miss, not every laptop gains much of a benefit from one.

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So true. I have a Targus cooling pad that worked great on my old ASUS N51VF. On my Alienware, it doesn't help at all. I even think it increases the heat just a bit.

I'm looking at getting a CoolerMaster, but not sure which I want. Currently looking at Infinite EVO Notepal and the Notepal U2. There are a few others that have caught my eye, so my choices will probably change once I'm ready to purchase.