Is it possible to unlock power limit of GPU of acer predator helios 500 (i7 8750H + gtx 1070)?

Newpreoc
Newpreoc Member Posts: 2 New User
edited November 2023 in 2018 Archives
My gpu temps are around 55-60 C which is way below 91 C temp limit of gtx 1070 and I cant achive stable core clock speeds above 1823 MHz due to gpu power limit which keeps downclocking after few sec on clocks above 1823.

Best Answers

  • tobimaru
    tobimaru Member Posts: 315 Skilled Practitioner WiFi Icon
    edited December 2018 Answer ✓
    Your GTX 1070 may have a Tjmax setting of 91C, but the Pascal architecture it is built on is actually designed to start down-clocking as early as 60C. This is how all Pascal designed cards work, the higher you go above 60C the more it steps down. You should also never see a power reading above 1.093v as this is the max voltage Pascal is designed to handle.

    If you're using MSi Afterburner and seeing greyed settings for the Power Limit it is because those settings are locked. Perhaps you could unlock them with a custom BIOS or software; but that is beyond my realm of skills. As it ships, your GPU power limits are set and unchangeable. That being said, you can still overclock the card via core/memory sliders.

    Try running your fan profile at 100% and see how it affects your thermals. If you can stay below the thermal limits of Pascal, it will not down-clock.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/5g9jo9/gpu_boost_30_how_it_works/


  • fejerm
    fejerm Member Posts: 97 Fixer WiFi Icon
    edited December 2018 Answer ✓
    Yes it is possible to unlock the TDP limit of the GPU. With higher TDP limit the GPU could boost higher and could achieve the same performance without OC as it gets now with OC. 
    However the problem is that the the Pascal vBIOS is using an RSA key encryption and if you edit the vBIOS at home this encryption will loose it's signature . 
    Because it is not signed it is not possible to flash via software because when the flashing starts the software checks for a valid signature if none is found the flashing process is aborted. 
    There are only 2 ways to flash a vBIOS with higher TDP (and unlocked TDP slider in MSI Afterburner):
    1) wait for Acer to release one (they can edit the vBIOS and use their developer kit from Nvidia to sign it) -> close to 0% chance to happen
    2) edit the vBIOS on your own and use an SPI programmer like the CH341A or the RT809F (it is much more expensive than the CH341A , but much more reliable)

    tl;dr: Possible to flash a vBIOS with higher TDP, however removing the Winbond chip (which stores the vBIOS) and flashing manually with an SPI programmer is the only way. No other way as of today. 

    Lets not also forget that you can not go all the way out and give it 200W TDP limit like some GTX 1080 cards have, because there is a limit in the EC, if you set the TDP too high the EC will pull the plug and will not allow the laptop to boot. ( increasing this limit in the EC is only possible by the devs at Acer)
    My modded Acer Predator G5-793:
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/acer-predator-g5-modding.826771/


Answers

  • tobimaru
    tobimaru Member Posts: 315 Skilled Practitioner WiFi Icon
    edited December 2018 Answer ✓
    Your GTX 1070 may have a Tjmax setting of 91C, but the Pascal architecture it is built on is actually designed to start down-clocking as early as 60C. This is how all Pascal designed cards work, the higher you go above 60C the more it steps down. You should also never see a power reading above 1.093v as this is the max voltage Pascal is designed to handle.

    If you're using MSi Afterburner and seeing greyed settings for the Power Limit it is because those settings are locked. Perhaps you could unlock them with a custom BIOS or software; but that is beyond my realm of skills. As it ships, your GPU power limits are set and unchangeable. That being said, you can still overclock the card via core/memory sliders.

    Try running your fan profile at 100% and see how it affects your thermals. If you can stay below the thermal limits of Pascal, it will not down-clock.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/5g9jo9/gpu_boost_30_how_it_works/


  • fejerm
    fejerm Member Posts: 97 Fixer WiFi Icon
    edited December 2018 Answer ✓
    Yes it is possible to unlock the TDP limit of the GPU. With higher TDP limit the GPU could boost higher and could achieve the same performance without OC as it gets now with OC. 
    However the problem is that the the Pascal vBIOS is using an RSA key encryption and if you edit the vBIOS at home this encryption will loose it's signature . 
    Because it is not signed it is not possible to flash via software because when the flashing starts the software checks for a valid signature if none is found the flashing process is aborted. 
    There are only 2 ways to flash a vBIOS with higher TDP (and unlocked TDP slider in MSI Afterburner):
    1) wait for Acer to release one (they can edit the vBIOS and use their developer kit from Nvidia to sign it) -> close to 0% chance to happen
    2) edit the vBIOS on your own and use an SPI programmer like the CH341A or the RT809F (it is much more expensive than the CH341A , but much more reliable)

    tl;dr: Possible to flash a vBIOS with higher TDP, however removing the Winbond chip (which stores the vBIOS) and flashing manually with an SPI programmer is the only way. No other way as of today. 

    Lets not also forget that you can not go all the way out and give it 200W TDP limit like some GTX 1080 cards have, because there is a limit in the EC, if you set the TDP too high the EC will pull the plug and will not allow the laptop to boot. ( increasing this limit in the EC is only possible by the devs at Acer)
    My modded Acer Predator G5-793:
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/acer-predator-g5-modding.826771/


  • Newpreoc
    Newpreoc Member Posts: 2 New User
    Thank you for your response.

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