Stuck at 540 MHz

[felix_h97]

My Nvidia 960M GPU seems to be stuck at 540MHz, while in games i use msi after burner and RTSS to show what speed it is running at. It should hit about 1200Mhz. When i open up TechPower GPU-Z it shows the core clock speed as 405.5 and mem clock speed at 202.5.

They should both be at about 1200MHz?
Any suggestions?

 

[Starcruiser]

What section of GPU-Z says 405? Current, or default?
Mobile GPUs aren't great at overclocking to begin with, they have major power constraints to worry about.

 

[clonazepam]

If you are just sitting at the desktop looking at GPU-Z, there's no load on the GPU and so it'll show idle speed. There's a button there to open an additional window that allows you to put a small load on the GPU, to see the numbers you are looking for.

The other possibility is that the display driver crashed and recovered. This can cause it to report the incorrect values to monitoring software programs. In these cases, its either running at the value displayed, or its actually reverted to its default clock speeds and you just can't tell, due to misreporting the values.

 

[felix_h97]

What section of GPU-Z says 405? Current, or default?
Mobile GPUs aren't great at overclocking to begin with, they have major power constraints to worry about.

It is on current. I have not yet overclocked.. i was planning too, but then noticed its not even running at what it should!

 

[felix_h97]

If you are just sitting at the desktop looking at GPU-Z, there's no load on the GPU and so it'll show idle speed. There's a button there to open an additional window that allows you to put a small load on the GPU, to see the numbers you are looking for.

The other possibility is that the display driver crashed and recovered. This can cause it to report the incorrect values to monitoring software programs. In these cases, its either running at the value displayed, or its actually reverted to its default clock speeds and you just can't tell, due to misreporting the values.

When i run GPU-Z and also run the render test it shows it running at the correct speeds.
GPU core Clock 1201.6 MHz and GPU Memory Clock 1252.8 MHz

However, i've entered H1Z1 and the Core Clock speed alternates every few seconds between 540 MHz and 405 MHz.

I dont think the drivers are an issue as i have tried a System Refresh, Rolling back the drivers, using DDU to clean wipe it and reinstall for NVidia.. Heelllllppppp

 

[Starcruiser]

Sometimes Afterburner will cause more issues than it's worth. Try installing Nvidia nTune and set it back to the stock settings. (Which should be the default ones in GPU-Z) http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

 

[felix_h97]

Sometimes Afterburner will cause more issues than it's worth. Try installing Nvidia nTune and set it back to the stock settings. (Which should be the default ones in GPU-Z) http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

Maybe I will uninstall afterburner, I have just downloaded nTune and will perform a tune. Is there another less intruding piece of software which gives me live feed of temp, speed ect like MSI Afterburner does?

 

[clonazepam]

If you are just sitting at the desktop looking at GPU-Z, there's no load on the GPU and so it'll show idle speed. There's a button there to open an additional window that allows you to put a small load on the GPU, to see the numbers you are looking for.

The other possibility is that the display driver crashed and recovered. This can cause it to report the incorrect values to monitoring software programs. In these cases, its either running at the value displayed, or its actually reverted to its default clock speeds and you just can't tell, due to misreporting the values.

When i run GPU-Z and also run the render test it shows it running at the correct speeds.
GPU core Clock 1201.6 MHz and GPU Memory Clock 1252.8 MHz

However, i've entered H1Z1 and the Core Clock speed alternates every few seconds between 540 MHz and 405 MHz.

I dont think the drivers are an issue as i have tried a System Refresh, Rolling back the drivers, using DDU to clean wipe it and reinstall for NVidia.. Heelllllppppp

Is the game configured to use the 960M or the integrated GPU on the CPU? If its basically showing idle or 2D speeds while in the game, then perhaps its running off the iGPU. I don't have it in front of me to look at, but that'd be found in the nvidia control panel.

 

[felix_h97]

Sometimes Afterburner will cause more issues than it's worth. Try installing Nvidia nTune and set it back to the stock settings. (Which should be the default ones in GPU-Z) http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

Have just tried running NTune, and 3 times now i have had a blue screen crash, System Service Exception (Nvoclk64.sys)
Which seems to be a driver crash...

 

[felix_h97]

If you are just sitting at the desktop looking at GPU-Z, there's no load on the GPU and so it'll show idle speed. There's a button there to open an additional window that allows you to put a small load on the GPU, to see the numbers you are looking for.

The other possibility is that the display driver crashed and recovered. This can cause it to report the incorrect values to monitoring software programs. In these cases, its either running at the value displayed, or its actually reverted to its default clock speeds and you just can't tell, due to misreporting the values.

When i run GPU-Z and also run the render test it shows it running at the correct speeds.
GPU core Clock 1201.6 MHz and GPU Memory Clock 1252.8 MHz

However, i've entered H1Z1 and the Core Clock speed alternates every few seconds between 540 MHz and 405 MHz.

I dont think the drivers are an issue as i have tried a System Refresh, Rolling back the drivers, using DDU to clean wipe it and reinstall for NVidia.. Heelllllppppp

Is the game configured to use the 960M or the integrated GPU on the CPU? If its basically showing idle or 2D speeds while in the game, then perhaps its running off the iGPU. I don't have it in front of me to look at, but that'd be found in the nvidia control panel.

It is definitely running of the Nvida 960M,. I have tried running it off the iGPU just to test and obviously it runs horrible, but at least i know that its running of the 960M.

 

[Javin]

This is my 2 cents on the matter. I had the same problem where every time I would boot up a game it would start to climb to the amount of mhz that it's suppose to be at then crash back down to the 500 range. What it ended up being was that I had a very weak power supply that couldn't support the new graphics card that I had just installed. It would throttle the power and wasn't able to reach full performance. What kind of power supply do you have? Specs of PC?

 

[felix_h97]

This is my 2 cents on the matter. I had the same problem where every time I would boot up a game it would start to climb to the amount of mhz that it's suppose to be at then crash back down to the 500 range. What it ended up being was that I had a very weak power supply that couldn't support the new graphics card that I had just installed. It would throttle the power and wasn't able to reach full performance. What kind of power supply do you have? Specs of PC?

I'm on an Asus Laptop. Model GL551J
CPU: i7-4720HQ @2.6 GHz
GPU: GTX 960M
16GB ram
Windows 10

I use it plugged in to the standard charger it came with, which says on it; 100-240V, 50-60Hz, 2.0A

 

[Starcruiser]

It could very well be the power supply. What are the DC output reading on it, under the AC input you listed?
Try running it on just the battery and see if you get the same problem.

 

[felix_h97]

It could very well be the power supply. What are the DC output reading on it, under the AC input you listed?
Try running it on just the battery and see if you get the same problem.

While on a game and unplugged it says (using RivaTuner) that its at 405 MHz, as soon as i plug it back in, it jumps up to 540 MHz.

 

[Javin]

It could very well be the power supply. What are the DC output reading on it, under the AC input you listed?
Try running it on just the battery and see if you get the same problem.

While on a game and unplugged it says (using RivaTuner) that its at 405 MHz, as soon as i plug it back in, it jumps up to 540 MHz.

With you saying this right here, it's making it sound like to me that it is a power supply problem. You plugging it into the wall is giving it higher results that you're looking for. The power supply dosen't seem to have enough juice to give the graphics card what it needs to reach its full performance. From the sounds of it, it's a laptop? Which makes me question as to why they would put a PSU that can't fully support the system that they put it in....

 

[felix_h97]

It could very well be the power supply. What are the DC output reading on it, under the AC input you listed?
Try running it on just the battery and see if you get the same problem.

While on a game and unplugged it says (using RivaTuner) that its at 405 MHz, as soon as i plug it back in, it jumps up to 540 MHz.

With you saying this right here, it's making it sound like to me that it is a power supply problem. You plugging it into the wall is giving it higher results that you're looking for. The power supply dosen't seem to have enough juice to give the graphics card what it needs to reach its full performance. From the sounds of it, it's a laptop? Which makes me question as to why they would put a PSU that can't fully support the system that they put it in....

Ok, so is there a way to test if it its this? and how i can find out a PSU which does supply enough power. Yes, it is a laptop which as you said is odd as i can't imagine them giving a power supply which isnt right.

 

[felix_h97]

It could very well be the power supply. What are the DC output reading on it, under the AC input you listed?
Try running it on just the battery and see if you get the same problem.

While on a game and unplugged it says (using RivaTuner) that its at 405 MHz, as soon as i plug it back in, it jumps up to 540 MHz.

With you saying this right here, it's making it sound like to me that it is a power supply problem. You plugging it into the wall is giving it higher results that you're looking for. The power supply dosen't seem to have enough juice to give the graphics card what it needs to reach its full performance. From the sounds of it, it's a laptop? Which makes me question as to why they would put a PSU that can't fully support the system that they put it in....

I'm now thinking that this might not be the problem, as if you goodle "540 Mhz Nvidia GPU" a lot of people seem to have this issue and it seems to be something to do with the drivers. I have Refreshed, uninstalled, reinstalled all gpu drivers and nothing....