Windows 7 and 9600M GT

[nismo91]

Hey all, I just noticed something not right with the nVidia 9600M GT and Windows 7.

Ok first thing is that my laptop, Acer 5930G, has its recovery partition messed up because I deleted the Acer Arcade Instant-On partition. I thought it has nothing to do with the recovery partition turned out I have to delete the recovery partition otherwise system wouldn't boot to C:

To address the problem I currently use Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit until I have completed my backup of the entire computer and restore the Vista 32-bit using recovery dvd or image backup that I have.

The problem is:
In Windows 7, the graphic card seems to be throttling at its full speed. I used the latest driver and same option for the power option like in Vista. When I check the frequencies with MSI Afterburner, in Win7, the speed would be always 500/800/1250. However, in Vista, it used to throttle down to 400/800/300 to 275/550/300 to even 169/338/100 when idle.

This clearly makes my laptop runs hotter than it used to, when idle. To confirm this, I have another friend who runs Win7 on her MacbookPro 17 (2009) which also uses identical 9600M GT. She claims that her laptop runs hotter than when she was using WinXP.

Anyone have any idea on what may have been causing the problem? Do SP1 have updates that patches the issue or should I revert using old drivers? My GPU temp idles at 15*C hotter than it used to be in Vista, with same cooling fan setup.

I would revert back to its original Vista (I had no single problem with Vista in this machine) asap but my backup is not completed and the recovery dvd and images are not guaranteed to work either (have not tried before) so I have a good chance of running 7 a little longer with this machine.

 

[nismo91]

finally my backup is completed and restore the Vista using the backup image I have. what a relieve.

now it goes down to around 400/800/300. original speed is 500/1250/800. I think i'm gonna try earlier driver to see if i can get the low speed back. Now the 9600M GT is idling at 10*C lower than yesterday.

 

[mailpup]

You might want to check for dust build up inside on the CPU and GPU heatsinks.

 

[tipstir]

Open a window and Blow it out with leaf blower or you use a dry-vac in exhaust mode. Does the trick. Make sure it turned off the laptop, netbook or desktop.

 

[nismo91]

Edited post:

I've make sure that there are no dust buildup in the heatsink. In fact I've dismantle the bottom cover and re-apply thermal gel to the heatsink.

Earlier I have installed bunches of Windows Updates to this machine (it already has SP2) and then the graphic card is stuck at max speed again. However after a rollback of driver and reinstallation of 266.58 driver, the speed is back, so I assume this is a driver and windows clash issue.

For nVidia, this 'speedstep' ability is called powermizer. Consulting to google I've actually found there are lots more people experiencing the same problem with powermizer in Windows 7 than in Vista. Fortunately for me I don't have stuttering issues with powermizer (except old dungeon siege 1) but I really appreciate cooler temp and longer battery life, when idle or browsing.

 

[nismo91]

SOLVED= uninstall all nvidia graphics driver, including uninstall the driver in device manager and tick "delete driver for this device". Install older DOX 185.85 (my favorite driver) and voila!

now the display goes down to its lowest speed when idle using my notebook LCD. but if I use HDMI (and disable laptop LCD) it actually uses higher clock when idle. No problem though, at least it isn't at full throttle all the time.