Alienware m17x r3- no full speed on Skyward sword

[SlickDragon]

What you want to aim for with your i7 2670qm is sustaining 2.8Ghz on all 4 cores indefinitely. The advertised maximum speed of 2.8ghz with 3-4 cores running cannot be maintained after the short interval of the turbo unless you boost the turbo tdp manually via a tool like XTU. Here is a quote from NoteBookReview member SlickDude80

Quote:1) I'm talking about keeping your multiplier high (to Intel specs) so your turbo speeds are high forever. unfortunately, we can't adjust the multiplier on a non-extreme CPU so we can't make the turbo any higher. But we can work with what we have and keep the turbo speeds as high as possible (which in effect is an overclock). On my 2820, my turbo speeds will drop like 400-500mhz eventually, so if i can keep that 4-500mhz, in effect, its a 500mhz overclock.

your turbo fluctuates because of lack of power. The way the intel turbo boost works is there is a short interval and a long interval. During the short interval, your tdp is set at 55w. You'll notice your turbo speeds are very high. After say 30-45 seconds (whatever is set in the bios), you'll notice your turbo speeds drop off because the tdp drops to 45w. You can't maintain 3.8ghz when your power has been cut down. It is near impossible to sustain Intel advertised numbers unless you manipulate your tdp

To illustrate this, run PRIME95 8 threaded mixed test and monitor your cores with HWINFO64. You'll notice at first that your speeds are very high...then they start to tail off after the short interval. On a 2860qm, It doesn't matter if you use throttlestop or some other app. Your turbo speeds will drop after the short interval...you'll probably drop from the 3.8ghz range to the low 3ghz range on load.

So...download Intel Extreme Tuning Utility 2.1, set your MAX TURBO TDP to 57w. It will only use 55w, but you have to set it to 57w (perhaps due to some vdroop). Then run your test again with PRIME95 + HWINFO64. However, keep an eye on your temps as it will have bearing on how high you will be able to sustain your turbo.

Here are a few of the threads discussing how to do that http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/620272-guide-installing-new-cpu-m17x-r3-illustrated-guide-8.html , and http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/648908-overclocking-alienware-m17x-r3-problem.html , note that there are hundreds of threads regarding maximizing your m17xr3 speeds all over NBR, so if you need more help you'd be advised to go there as the members specialize in tweaking laptops to their unparalleled capabilities. Unfortunately Dolphin Forum members aren't very knowledgeable regarding laptops so its best to maximize your R3 with help from NBR, and only then worry about finding the right dolphin settings for each game.

One other thing you may want to do once you've stabilized your turbo speeds indefinitely is to overclock your Cpu via BCLK overclocking. You may be able get your cpu up to 105mhz overclock or so, which would be a 5% overclock. Here is one of the many threads that discuss how to go about doing this http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/560044-m17x-r3-overclocking-sort.html .

The good news is your graphic card is top tier, and as such you'll be able to get extremely high internal resolutions. However you may want to research the known m17x R3 580m throttling issue and try to follow the proper steps to fix it. Here is a link discussing the issue http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/648630-final-solution-guide-fixing-m17x-r3-580m-thermal-throttling.html , also http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/644970-m17x-r3-gtx-580-mistake.html , and there are hundreds more if you have the problem and wanna solve it. In anycase good luck on your overclocking