MSI gaming laptop overclocking help

[Chris Solomon]

I have a MSI gaming laptop (GE73-8RE) which has built in overclocking ability through the included MSI dragon center 2 software. does anyone have any Core Clock Offset and VRAM Clock Offset setting suggestions to use with 'turbo' mode (overclock mode)? I have never overclocked anything before, so i am new to this. I saw one recommendtion for a lower model of MSI gamign laptop that used 120Mhx Core Clock Offset and 220 Mhz VRAM Clock Offset, which seems to be stable, but I want too know what is the maximum i can safely use is.

[Snow]

I think you can go way higher with VRAM clock. Try +150 on core and +500 on VRAM, should be stable at those numbers or a bit lower.
Oh, and what comes to safety - overclocking is generally safe, high temperatures aren't, so keep an eye on temps.

[Chris Solomon]

thx, with my current cooling setup, the CPU is hovering between 39c snd 55c and the GPU is at 39c and 41c

also, the VRAM Clock Offset maxes out 350Mhz. should i just go with that?

[Snow]

Chris Solomon eredeti hozzászólása:

thx, with my current cooling setup, the CPU is hovering between 39c snd 55c and the GPU is at 39c and 41c

also, the VRAM vClock Offset maxes out 350Mhz. should i just go with that?

I bet your GPU can handle at least 400, but seems they've decided to make it even safer. You should experience no problems with 350.
Temperatures you told are what you have right now, but you're not running some heavy workload on your GPU right now are you? Fore a more correct temps try FurMark for example, run it for like 2 minutes and then you'll see actual temps under load. Anything under 85° is fine, but sure lower is better, I always try to keep under 70° just to feel confident.

[Chris Solomon]

just finished playing Star trek online for 30 minutes, temps never went above 55c using the settings you recommended. Of course, thats with 4 vacuum blowers cranked to max and both internal fans cranked up to 5000 rpm, in addition to my notebook cooler underneath the laptop

[Snow]

Chris Solomon eredeti hozzászólása:

just finished playing Star trek online for 30 minutes, temps never went above 55c using the settings you recommended. Of course, thats with 4 vacuum blowers cranked to max and both internal fans cranked up to 5000 rpm, in addition to my notebook cooler underneath the laptop

I'm not sure if Star Trek online is a fine GPU benchmark tbh, so I'd still recommend trying FurMark. Nice job you've done for this beast's cooling tho, I bet it will serve for a long time.

[Chris Solomon]

i did as you suggested, and the gpu temp maxed out at 56c.

I also took the opportunity to install something called msi lombustor. using the cpu burner feature, i tried setting it to use all 12 cores, and the temp spiked, just briefly at 84c then backed off to 74c. this may have been evidence of thermal throttling, idk...
but it looks like the laptop will at least try to save it self from burning itself up

[sawdust3d]

Download WHinfo (hardware monitor) and you'll be able to see exactly what's happening temp wise, including throttling.

[Chris Solomon]

i will try that now

umm do you mean hwinfo?

[Snow]

Chris Solomon eredeti hozzászólása:

i did as you suggested, and the gpu temp maxed out at 56c.

I also took the opportunity to install something called msi lombustor. using the cpu burner feature, i tried setting it to use all 12 cores, and the temp spiked, just briefly at 84c then backed off to 74c. this may have been evidence of thermal throttling, idk...
but it looks like the laptop will at least try to save it self from burning itself up

12 threads to be precise. 84 actually does sound like thermal throttling for Intel, but to be sure you've to check the CPU frequency. Fortunately, I doubt you'll come across the game that will use all 12 threads to their maximum, at least I haven't seen anything like that so far, so nothing to worry about. Yeah, modern hardware is smart and won't let you burn it, and if it for some reason goes too hot - it will just shut down your laptop at once to save it. I'd say everything looks good so far, tho I also always recommend using RTSS for gaming. It comes together with MSI Afterburner and is able to do a nice CPU-level frame limiting. Now idk if you've got 120Hz or 60Hz screen, but the idea remains - you're not going to see more frames than your screen is capable to show, so it's best to limit the framerate to your refresh rate or half of it if the game's really demanding one. This will ensure your hardware never runs too hot, and the way RTSS does the frame limiting it will also reduce the stuttering and input latency in pretty much every single game out there. Try it for various games, you'll like it. If it's something competitive tho, like CS:GO, and you can get to 180 or 240 fps (CS:GO u definitely can), then lock higher - there still is a slight input latency benefit of higher FPS.

[sawdust3d]

Yup, captain dyslexia strikes again.

Once you have it up, click on the red exclamation point that sais "temp" IIRC, to open the detail window and look about 3 sections down f o r all the CPU temps

*hey Snow.

You guys have a good night.

[Snow]

Hey mate. Looking forward to more awesome all night long chats when we're both done with our piles of crap going on all the time.

[Chris Solomon]

would this be under summary, main or sensors window? i am not finding a red exclamation on anything

Snow eredeti hozzászólása:

Chris Solomon eredeti hozzászólása:

i did as you suggested, and the gpu temp maxed out at 56c.

I also took the opportunity to install something called msi lombustor. using the cpu burner feature, i tried setting it to use all 12 cores, and the temp spiked, just briefly at 84c then backed off to 74c. this may have been evidence of thermal throttling, idk...
but it looks like the laptop will at least try to save it self from burning itself up

12 threads to be precise. 84 actually does sound like thermal throttling for Intel, but to be sure you've to check the CPU frequency. Fortunately, I doubt you'll come across the game that will use all 12 threads to their maximum, at least I haven't seen anything like that so far, so nothing to worry about. Yeah, modern hardware is smart and won't let you burn it, and if it for some reason goes too hot - it will just shut down your laptop at once to save it. I'd say everything looks good so far, tho I also always recommend using RTSS for gaming. It comes together with MSI Afterburner and is able to do a nice CPU-level frame limiting. Now idk if you've got 120Hz or 60Hz screen, but the idea remains - you're not going to see more frames than your screen is capable to show, so it's best to limit the framerate to your refresh rate or half of it if the game's really demanding one. This will ensure your hardware never runs too hot, and the way RTSS does the frame limiting it will also reduce the stuttering and input latency in pretty much every single game out there. Try it for various games, you'll like it. If it's something competitive tho, like CS:GO, and you can get to 180 or 240 fps (CS:GO u definitely can), then lock higher - there still is a slight input latency benefit of higher FPS.

the display on the laptop is 120hz. i will try out msi afterburner

[Snow]

Chris Solomon eredeti hozzászólása:

would this be under summary, main or sensors window? i am not finding a red exclamation on anything

He might be referring to a big "Sensors" button on top left of the application, tho it's not an exclamation mark but a thermometer. It's a really great in-deep monitoring utility. You can run some stress test or benchmark and monitor how temps and frequencies on your CPU act.

Chris Solomon eredeti hozzászólása:

Snow eredeti hozzászólása:

12 threads to be precise. 84 actually does sound like thermal throttling for Intel, but to be sure you've to check the CPU frequency. Fortunately, I doubt you'll come across the game that will use all 12 threads to their maximum, at least I haven't seen anything like that so far, so nothing to worry about. Yeah, modern hardware is smart and won't let you burn it, and if it for some reason goes too hot - it will just shut down your laptop at once to save it. I'd say everything looks good so far, tho I also always recommend using RTSS for gaming. It comes together with MSI Afterburner and is able to do a nice CPU-level frame limiting. Now idk if you've got 120Hz or 60Hz screen, but the idea remains - you're not going to see more frames than your screen is capable to show, so it's best to limit the framerate to your refresh rate or half of it if the game's really demanding one. This will ensure your hardware never runs too hot, and the way RTSS does the frame limiting it will also reduce the stuttering and input latency in pretty much every single game out there. Try it for various games, you'll like it. If it's something competitive tho, like CS:GO, and you can get to 180 or 240 fps (CS:GO u definitely can), then lock higher - there still is a slight input latency benefit of higher FPS.

the display on the laptop is 120hz. i will try out msi afterburner

MSI AB is my fav way to monitor stuff during gameplay. It uses RTSS for an on-screen display, thing's convenient when trying to find the best settings for each game. Also the way I overclock my GPU, but this part you don't need already anyway. When you watch some youtube hardware benchmark, 95% it's MSI AB/RTSS combo showing the numbers top-left of the screen.

[Chris Solomon]

lol explains why i could not find it then...

afterburner is installeed now, but i am not seeing this rtss thing you refereed too. also the only thing usable in the ab infterface is the core clock and memory clock. I assume this is what i am tinkering with using dragon center 2

[Snow]

Chris Solomon eredeti hozzászólása:

lol explains why i could not find it then...

afterburner is installeed now, but i am not seeing this rtss thing you refereed too

Settings, monitoring, take any parameter you like, tick it so it'd be active and then tick the "show in OSD" in it's properties. Once you do that it should launch RTSS automatically, or during the next MSI AB startup. It forces RTSS to launch with it. RTSS is installed together with MSI AB unless you unchecked the box saying "RivaTunerStatisticsServer" during the MSI AB install, then just reinstall it, takes a second anyway.

Chris Solomon eredeti hozzászólása:

also the only thing usable in the ab infterface is the core clock and memory clock. I assume this is what i am tinkering with using dragon center 2

There should be the settings button. Also yes, it's the most popular way to OC the graphics card these days, and exactly the parameters you been adjusting. It can do much more tho, like thermal limits, fan curves and voltage.

I dislike how MSI approaches what they do, with all those red dragon stuff, tons of apps that look like bloatware etc., not to mention their approach to budget graphics cards. Yet MSI Afterburner I use all the time despite I haven't got a single MSI part in my PC. They definitely got that thing right. It's weird there ain't one big general app for everything you know, like dragon center but also with RTSS integration and everything else one might want.

Excuse me, I've some nasty headache so I'll go have some rest, be sure someone will come around and help you with any further questions, guy here are friendly and know their stuff.