Alienware Alpha GPU Overclocking Test/Results

[Ｋｙūｂｏｉｄ 九尾]

The Alienware Alpha uses a standard nVidia GTX 860M Maxwell Chip with an inital Core of 1020MHz and 5000MHz Memory. This is the 640 Core Varient and is known for being highly overclockable with low Wattage requirements. You can find more information by installing GPU Z and looking into the nVidia Control Panel in Desktop Mode

--

Final Overclock Benchmarks, been testing from +135 Core and +870 Memory to achieve the stable clocks and best Firestrike Score.

I've posted below my two highest scores, unfortunately as I've done this over 3 days, I don't have the Afterburner Memory Clock for the first score, but I believe that was around +802 to +821, which were the OC's to get Firestrike to actually finish.

Non OC Score: 4001
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4189486

Core clock: 1,020 MHz
Memory bus clock: 1,253 MHz

Best OC Score: 4696
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4189016

Core clock: 1,155 MHz
Memory bus clock: 1,656 MHz

^Unstable in games!^

Best Stable OC Score: 4660
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4198594

Core clock: 1,155 MHz
Memory bus clock: 1,590 MHz

Potential most Optimal OC Score: 4631
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6160133

Core clock: 1,155 MHz
Memory bus clock: 1,500 MHz

Temperatures for the first 3 clocks where funnily enough, similar and max at 79C [174F] and performance gains past 1,590MHz Memory Clock [+675] where minor, if not at all. I the considered Optimal 6000MHz Memory which showed only 77C max Temp and has similar performance to my +675 Clock in Firestrike.

My +675 transfers into 6360MHz Memory Clock from 5000MHz, and 101.76GB Transfer from 80GB. Playing Ryse I now get 44 Frames max, with a low of 33 FPS; this was formerly 34 High, 24 FPS low, which was not THAT playable as it spent more time lower then high. So that is respectably 20% - 30% FPS gain [+10 High, +9 Low] and makes Ryse very playable in 1080P.

On 6000MHz my FPS was more or less the same, showing that past that point performance is either held back or minimal for aggressive clocking. It has a 96GB Transfer from 80GB, so 5.76GB less then my best Stable OC but in practice has minimal if no actual performance gain. To achieve that clock you need +495 on the Memory gain. The rumor is this actual clocking scheme only uses 5 additional Watts, I figure maybe a little more with the Core bump taking away Turbo but seems it could or should be the more achieveable and safe clock. If the Alpha was able to use more of the 135W PSU [100W wall pull] we could probably safely achieve better results, at least on an actual perfomance to tempature and stability factor.

Overall, for what should translate to a 20% - 35% performance gain in Games that can use it, I think it's not a completely bad idea to give your Alpha a little boost, but be prepared to have to ditch the Alpha UI to keep it, because you'll need MSI Afterburner running for the clocks to stay, and Alpha Console profile does not seem to let it start, even if you set it to auto start with Windows on your main Desktop Profile.

Your mileage will vary depending on your Silicon, the Alpha should be able to run +135 Core and 6000MHz Memory [+495] without any issues. It seems beyond this performance and stability will vary based on your Silicon quality as the limitations on the Alpha's pull may actually decrease the potential stability and performance. Based on what I've seen, some games do not like Overclocked GPU's but given the Wattage limitations, this may be a mixture of the Game, the GPU and the potential power pull being a little shakey and causing the driver to malfunction.

For any overclocking, always use Kombuster or Furmark to regulate Temperatures and Stability, if the image clips or pops, reduce clocks until it stops. 3DMark Firemark is a good Benchmark to run when you think you've got a stable clock, if it flickers or gets strange screen clipping, Cancel the Bench with ESC; reduce your OC and re-run, if you let it finish it may crash the driver and get an error, meaning you'll have to reboot your machine before you can carry on. If it can get through without flickering or clipping and your Temps do not pass 79C [174F] then you've pretty much got your sweet spot. However, keep in mind that just because it passes Firestrike, does not mean it'll actually work with all your games; unfortunately life is not that simple.

Trust me, you'll know if you've got to adjust as:

A. Your games don't run, crash randomly or have weird on screen behaviour like popping, flickering or colour lines.

B. Your screen goes black when you try apply a Clock and nVidia pops up saying the driver crashed.

C. You can't run any benchmarks to brag about your new scores.

D. Your GPU doesn't seem to be scoring any better then it did at a lower clock [if you pass Benchmarks]

and the all important E. Games feel like they're running worse or having no actual gain.

This may be because of Alpha's Wattage limitations throttling components. 100W pull seems to be the limit, so with a 35W CPU, 45W GPU and based on what I've seen on Google, 5W for everything else [85W load], there's only 5W - 10W to actively play with.

So be considerate of your other components when Overclocking the Alpha GTX GPU.

--

I recommend going for +495 Memory and +135 Core for optimal results, aggresively overclocking the GPU on the limits presented may causing issues when running games despite passing Benchmarks or showing good stability.

[Suikito]

Just so I am correct on this, are you saying that if I boot a game from the Alienware UI it does not use my OC settings? If so that explains a nagging issue I have had, in that games look far better when launched via Steam on the DT compared to the UI.

[Ｋｙūｂｏｉｄ 九尾]

Yes, UI uses the Alpha Console profile which doesn't seem to launch Afterburner behind, I tried to run Firestrike in UI and scored only 4000 vs the 4680 with the OC in my profile, add on the rather broken return I'm convinced the UI won't run anything but basic pre-scripted functions to prevent interference.

I ran Firestrike in DT without my OC and scored 4000 again, so UI Profile isn't loading it either because the UI has limitations enforced or MSI isn't starting which can not be fixed as there is no desktop anything when signed into Alpha Console.

[McKean Family]

The Alpha UI is pretty worthless anyway and it hurts as much as it helps. I use a program called XBStart that lets me control Metro with the Xbox controller like on the XBone. It also has a mouse mode and let's you pin big picture to the Start screen. The only thing AlphaUI offers beyond that at this point is blocking/killing backround processes.

You can intermix your shortcuts for Steam, Uplay and Origin in Metro and ignore big picture all together if you watned. You also get the benefit of being able to use the Netflix and Hulu Plus Metro apps.

[Suikito]

Using XBstart, could I delete the Alienware UI and still use the XB360 controller as a mouse like the UI? Cause I hate the UI with a passion but love my Alpha in DT mode

[Ｋｙūｂｏｉｄ 九尾]

I brought a cheap small Logitech Wireless Keyboard with a touch-pad on the side so I can navigate Desktop. I want to put XBMC on mine as I've seen those little Android TV boxes with them. Hell, I may just start using my Alpha for a Console & Media Centre and write off my Playstation 4, pretty much every game I'd play are coming to PC anyway and I'm getting too busy to care purely for the Graphical differences now!

P.S I've settled on +135 Core and +675 Memory, +650 -+ 675 seems to be the Alpha's sweet spot, anything past +675 makes 3DMark crash/flicker with next to no score gain and Ryse didn't even want to open at +700 lol.

[Dudeman6802]

I ditched the UI within a week of getting the unit back in November. I love this little computer, but am getting pretty pissed about the fact that the touted and advertised "open" architecture of the Alpha is, in fact, a bit of a lie. Just like the cake.

Why on Earth doesn't GeForce experience recognize the GPU? Whatever wizardry was done to provide the Alpha's "custom" solution, can't that be patched into the GeForce program to allow for detection of the 860M GPU? I guess I wouldn't even care if Alienware was keeping the drivers fresh within a reasonable time after NVidia releases, but . . . right. Nothing. Nada. Zip. The only live-ish discussions concerning the Alpha I can find on the net are, obviously, this entire forum, and a random Reddit page being sporadically haunted by xRavenx from Alienware.

[j0rge]

They said somewhere (I can't find the link now) that they are working with nvidia on getting the custom maxwell chip supported by the normal drivers.

[Joe2400]

Originally posted by jorge:

They said somewhere (I can't find the link now) that they are working with nvidia on getting the custom maxwell chip supported by the normal drivers.

I remember reading that too a while back. I don't think this is something that should be hard for Nvidia to implement, so I don't know why this is taking long.

[McKean Family]

I hope the GeForce experience support comes soon. It honestly makes both Alienware and Nvidia look bad.

[MuthaBuffer]

Finally got around to overclocking my Alpha. Went with +135 and +550. Temps stable at 77-79 on 20 mins or so of kombuster and no artifacts so have decided to jump straight into Arkham Origins!

Just ran Benchmark and both the average and minimum FPS are up 7 FPS. Doesn't sound much, but it was 40 Average now its 47. I make that a 17.5% improvement, very happy if it stays stable and I don't think I'll bother pushing the mem clock higher.

Might drop PhysX and play in glorius 60FPS, but then again it's nice to have the option! Finally I'll play this game now rather than test on it!

Might go see what affect it has on Black Flag was pretty dissapointed with the performance I was getting in that game, some drops to 20FPS in foliage and IMO the games not exactly a looker. I decided not to play it as I wanted to play it on something more powerful, might see if I can persuade myself otherwise.

[MuthaBuffer]

So Arkham Origins has been crashing on me (I started a thread on that) but now I'm pretty sure it's the overclock thats crashing it, even though I had a modest +135 +500 set in the end to try to overcome it. Now to work out whether my card is just a crap overclocker or the game itself doesn't like overclocked cards...would appreciate anyone else who has the game and an overclocked GPU to see if they get similar results. It doesn't crash on startup but during play. Sometimes 10 mins, sometimes an hour or so but it always crashes to desktop with the card overclocked.

[Ｋｙūｂｏｉｄ 九尾]

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6160133? - +495 Memory and +135 Core; reads exactly 6000MHz Memory. GPU Temps are around 77c on this and performance in Ryse is exactly the same if not a little better compared to +675 and Red Faction ran fine.

Please give those exact numbers a go and see if the crashes go away, those are the exact proclaimed 5 Watts extra power as seen on Youtube but I kept the Core as that basically just takes away Turbo to keep a consistant clock.

[MuthaBuffer]

So I've been playing Black Flag pretty much all day without a crash. On a tip on the Nvidia forum on the Nvidia control panel under 3D settings I changed power management to maximum performance. Now I haven't played Arkham Origins again but the fact that the overclock has been stable all day means to me either it's the game that was crashing or that change in control panel needed to be made to make the overclock stable.

[Dudeman6802]

Originally posted by Dave&Jessica:

I hope the GeForce experience support comes soon. It honestly makes both Alienware and Nvidia look bad.

Seriously, I know. Most of the PC "build your own" comments I saw all over the press of the Alpha pre-release were centered around upgradability, cost, and driver support. I gave Alienware a big benefit o' the doubt and took the comments with a grain of salt.
- The Alpha (I bought the i7) is NOT expensive. Check.
- I have upgraded the HDD to an SSD, used 16GB RAM from my laptop that didn't need it, and added wireless KB/M to unlock desktop mode. Check.
- Driver support. Crap.

[McLuvvnn]

Just a heads up. You can add MSI afterburner to steam and run it from Alpha UI in steam. You can also do this with Origin, so you can run those games without exiting to desktop mode.