# (Question) Overclocking the 960m past the 135mhz overclock limit



## Imglidinhere

Ashes of the Singularity is... a very VERY Alpha-current game. It's not to be used as an example. The first generation DirectX 12 games are usually overly taxing on the hardware. It didn't become mainstream for most devs to care about DX11 until a solid year and a half after DX11 was first introduced. Same goes for DX10 too.

It depends on the machine in question. The 960M is effectively a GTX 750 Ti, in fact, it's exactly *just that*. So keep this in mind. Also, how much Vram does the card have?

The model I have can do Fallout 4 on Ultra settings, so long as SSAO+ and AA are off, which isn't an issue for a 15" screen.


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## InfamousLegend

It's the 2GB variant


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## Imglidinhere

Yeah... the 2GB framebuffer limits the card pretty heavily. I know because Dying Light is unplayable on a friend's 860M and he's got a 2GB model too, but I get 40 FPS on the same settings.

As far as the overclock goes, what's the machine in question? Can you provide a link so I can better assist your needs good sir?


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## InfamousLegend

This is the model I own: https://us.msi.com/Notebook/GL72-6th-Gen-GTX-960M.html#hero-overview

I seem to have fixed whatever was wrong with Ashes of the Singularity, I'm now pushing 60fps @ 1080p on low settings. My best guess is somehow the laptop defaulted to the on-board graphics and not my GPU. Although the next problem I ran into is MSI Afterburner does not display or read my core clock properly. It jumps between 405MHz and 540MHz, although GPU-z reads the GPU core clock properly. 1336MHZ if I recall correctly, which means Afterburner is applying the overclock even if it doesn't read the core clock correctly.

Another question, this laptop came with a 1TB HDD and I want to upgrade to an SSD. Obviously I could buy 2.5" drive and pull the current HDD out, but I'd prefer an M.2 drive for booting and the HDD for mass storage. The problem I'm coming across is whether or not the laptop has an M.2 slot on it. There's a sticker next to the keyboard that says PCI-E Gen.3 SSD (Optional). I want to assume that means there's a slot available but I don't want to buy the SSD and find out I don't have a slot for it.

Thanks for all the help!


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## Imglidinhere

Oh it's MSI! Then yeah you'd be able to flash the Vbios on the GPU. I'm not sure of the exact process of getting around it, I'd prefer not to deal with that stuff due to bad experiences with expensive cards at the time. I know the folks over at NotebookReview could probably help you out a bit more than I could.

As for the SSD, I'd pop the bottom cover open and see if you can find the slot, also if this is the case, then that laptop should be NVMe capable. :3


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## MindBlank

You need to lower your expectations surrounding this GPU. It is a very nice value for 1080p gaming as long as you realize that you need to run new games at medium/high settings at best to have 35+ fps.

I own a 960M laptop and have it overclocked 200+ MHz on the core and there is a definite difference in performance next to stock, but by no means has it turned into a GTX 970M...

However, highly overclocked it is pushing on GTX 870M/880M stock teritory in some cases, especially in games that benefit from the Maxwell architecture. At least that's what comparing my perfromance to other people running 870M/880Ms shows me.

I'm satisfied with this GPU and did not expect it to deliver the way it does. I did go in with adjusted expectations, though.

You can flash a modded VBIOS if you want to go past that +135MHz barrier. If you want to see what kind of performance to expect between clocks, it's like this:

Far Cry Primal benchmark on a mix of High and Very High, except Shadows on Normal:

- Stock 960M = 31fps
- +135MHz 960M = 35fps
- +220MHz 960M = 38fps.

So that's roughly a 22% difference. Heat output is increased, but not drastically. Just so you can compare, a GTX 970M at those settings averages 51fps at stock. So, yeah...

EDITED: Because I accidentally mixed the average fps for the 970M with that of another card. Corrected now.


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MindBlank*
> 
> You need to lower your expectations surrounding this GPU. It is a very nice value for 1080p gaming as long as you realize that you need to run new games at medium/high settings at best to have 35+ fps.
> 
> I own a 960M laptop and have it overclocked 200+ MHz on the core and there is a definite difference in performance next to stock, but by no means has it turned into a GTX 970M...
> 
> However, highly overclocked it is pushing on GTX 870M/880M stock teritory in some cases, especially in games that benefit from the Maxwell architecture. At least that's what comparing my perfromance to other people running 870M/880Ms shows me.
> 
> I'm satisfied with this GPU and did not expect it to deliver the way it does. I did go in with adjusted expectations, though.
> 
> You can flash a modded VBIOS if you want to go past that +135MHz barrier. If you want to see what kind of performance to expect between clocks, it's like this:
> 
> Far Cry Primal benchmark on a mix of High and Very High, except Shadows on Normal:
> 
> - Stock 960M = 31fps
> - +135MHz 960M = 35fps
> - +220MHz 960M = 38fps.
> 
> So that's roughly a 22% difference. Heat output is increased, but not drastically. Just so you can compare, a GTX 970M at those settings averages 51fps at stock. So, yeah...
> 
> EDITED: Because I accidentally mixed the average fps for the 970M with that of another card. Corrected now.


Can you provide proof of those framerate improvements?

I know I can run Fallout 4 on Ultra with 40 FPS with my current overclock of +135/+400.


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## Twitch Alucard

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Imglidinhere*
> 
> Can you provide proof of those framerate improvements?
> 
> I know I can run Fallout 4 on Ultra with 40 FPS with my current overclock of +135/+400.


Goodluck with 40 fps ultra .... Ive got the 965m and it wont hit much higher than 50fps on ultra everything if i remember correctly. Fallout 4 optimization is terrible.


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## MindBlank

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Imglidinhere*
> 
> Can you provide proof of those framerate improvements?
> 
> I know I can run Fallout 4 on Ultra with 40 FPS with my current overclock of +135/+400.


Hey!

Check out 



 on my YT channel. I benchmarked the 960M overclocked to 1382MHz, so that's +180MHz over stock clocks. Keep in mind that was recorded with Shadowplay and that eats around 1.5fps average on this card.

if you really want, I can benchmark with the same exact settings but at stock and then +220MHz. +220MHz is only for benching as it is not fully stable on my card. Some people that are luckier that me can actually get +240MHz or even more stable on the 960M. Mine completely craps out at around +230MHz.


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *MindBlank*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Imglidinhere*
> 
> Can you provide proof of those framerate improvements?
> 
> I know I can run Fallout 4 on Ultra with 40 FPS with my current overclock of +135/+400.
> 
> 
> 
> Hey!
> 
> Check out
> 
> 
> 
> on my YT channel. I benchmarked the 960M overclocked to 1382MHz, so that's +180MHz over stock clocks. Keep in mind that was recorded with Shadowplay and that eats around 1.5fps average on this card.
> 
> if you really want, I can benchmark with the same exact settings but at stock and then +220MHz. +220MHz is only for benching as it is not fully stable on my card. Some people that are luckier that me can actually get +240MHz or even more stable on the 960M. Mine completely craps out at around +230MHz.
Click to expand...

Fc primal reminds me so much of fc2... For the power consumption and temperatures I'm pretty impressed with the 960m. Now it's still about 4x slower than my gtx970 desktop but for a laptop it's pretty darn good. Good video to show the fps of the 960m. Although I'd like to see your cpu usage during the benchmark too...just to rule out a cpu bottleneck.


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Twitch Alucard*
> 
> Goodluck with 40 fps ultra .... Ive got the 965m and it wont hit much higher than 50fps on ultra everything if i remember correctly. Fallout 4 optimization is terrible.


It's not a matter of LUCK it's a matter of that your 965M likely only has 2GB of Vram vs my 960M holding 4GB and it DOES make a pretty significant difference. Also, it's not a lucky thing either in any case. I DO get 40 fps on ultra. I shut AA off because 15" screens just don't get jaggies enough to notice during gameplay...


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## Twitch Alucard

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Imglidinhere*
> 
> It's not a matter of LUCK it's a matter of that your 965M likely only has 2GB of Vram vs my 960M holding 4GB and it DOES make a pretty significant difference. Also, it's not a lucky thing either in any case. I DO get 40 fps on ultra. I shut AA off because 15" screens just don't get jaggies enough to notice during gameplay...


oooooo my bad i was thinking of my old 660m.... derp..... wow no kidding the 960m has 4gb? 965M still out performs though in all games.

Edit: After some research I found that even though your 960M does indeed have 4GB It doesnt really make it perform much better as it isnt powerful enough to utilize all that Vram, sure you will be able to play all the modern games as of now but not at max settings if you want a full 60fps+ you will have to dumb things down in your settings to achieve that. What Nvidia should have done is give that 4GB Vram to the 965M rather than the 960M.


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## MindBlank

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Fc primal reminds me so much of fc2... For the power consumption and temperatures I'm pretty impressed with the 960m. Now it's still about 4x slower than my gtx970 desktop but for a laptop it's pretty darn good. Good video to show the fps of the 960m. Although I'd like to see your cpu usage during the benchmark too...just to rule out a cpu bottleneck.


GPU usage is in the video. I always show GPU usage. It's pegged at 99% with the i7 at 2600MHz.

Yes, the 960M pulls off great performance for its segment. Playing it is very cimfortable with KB&M, as it sits at around 38-40 fps average and it's stutter free.

Regarding the above comment about VRAM, I don't agree. I'd rather have High/Ultra textures and lower shadows in order to maintain above 30fps then Low textures and shadows due to low VRAM. Low textures always suck.

Sadly, I only have 2GB, but it does work with High textures in RotTR, so I'm actually impressed.


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Twitch Alucard*
> 
> oooooo my bad i was thinking of my old 660m.... derp..... wow no kidding the 960m has 4gb? 965M still out performs though in all games.
> 
> Edit: After some research I found that even though your 960M does indeed have 4GB It doesnt really make it perform much better as it isnt powerful enough to utilize all that Vram, sure you will be able to play all the modern games as of now but not at max settings if you want a full 60fps+ you will have to dumb things down in your settings to achieve that. What Nvidia should have done is give that 4GB Vram to the 965M rather than the 960M.


That's actually one of the dumbest accusations I've heard before. If you think the 960M can't use 4GB of Vram, then go look at my review of this laptop. Dying Light pulls 3.5GB without any issues or slowdowns. Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army pulls 2.6GB. That's two games already you're completely wrong about.

Also, Nvidia doesn't give the GPUs the vram, it's the manufacturers' final decision. Also, I never said the 960M would be more powerful than the 965M just because of the Vram amount, I said it'd be able to handle games better, further down the road.


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## Twitch Alucard

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Imglidinhere*
> 
> That's actually one of the dumbest accusations I've heard before. If you think the 960M can't use 4GB of Vram, then go look at my review of this laptop. Dying Light pulls 3.5GB without any issues or slowdowns. Sniper Elite Nazi Zombie Army pulls 2.6GB. That's two games already you're completely wrong about.
> 
> Also, Nvidia doesn't give the GPUs the vram, it's the manufacturers' final decision. Also, I never said the 960M would be more powerful than the 965M just because of the Vram amount, I said it'd be able to handle games better, further down the road.


Woah woah woah. Hakuna your tatas buds... I said after some research. Meaning that was what i found online. I was simply sharing my findings. I never said it was fact. I am simply sharing info i found.


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Twitch Alucard*
> 
> Woah woah woah. Hakuna your tatas buds... I said after some research. Meaning that was what i found online. I was simply sharing my findings. I never said it was fact. I am simply sharing info i found.


And your research is dead wrong. Benchmarks show a single number to show an average after the run is done. They don't show, however, the actual video to give you an actual idea behind what they're seeing. I've seen benchmarks that show avg 50 FPS on cards that would jump around from 15 to 100 fps in games back and forth, back and forth. The only thing that's killed this GPU are things like SSAO+ and Anti Aliasing, which the latter is useless on a 15.6" 1080p screen. Jaggies aren't an issue when you're fighting things.


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## Twitch Alucard

Lol i think i figured that out in your last post. Chillax bruh. Im not against you here i was simply sharing my findings.


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Twitch Alucard*
> 
> Lol i think i figured that out in your last post. Chillax bruh. Im not against you here i was simply sharing my findings.


Yeah I realized my initial post was kinda harsh. Sorry bout that. ^~^ Didn't mean to sound THAT angry. x3

I've gotten a LOT of flak for buying a 960m laptop from other people...


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## Twitch Alucard

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Imglidinhere*
> 
> Yeah I realized my initial post was kinda harsh. Sorry bout that. ^~^ Didn't mean to sound THAT angry. x3
> 
> I've gotten a LOT of flak for buying a 960m laptop from other people...


Yea i ALMOST bought the 960m but that little squeek of more performance from the 965m sold me as i reakly wanted the 970m but coukdnt swing it.


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## Klem

If someone wants unlock Nvidia overclock limit +135MHz, for 950M, 960M or 965M, you can write me in PM.


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## iamvinzkie

I've been roaming around the internet, dying to look for instruction or someone who can help me to figure out on how to overclock my graphic card which is 960m. But then I saw Klem and PM'd him if he is open for help, I'm so glad that he isn't snob. Because I just saw his posts or even replies to the users who has the same problem like me. If you guys out there reading this, and that if you wanna get help with those kind of problem, I'm recommending Klem guys for you, PM him in a day, and you will get your modded vbios right after you follow his instruction accordingly. And lastly, I'm forever be thankful with this guy for lending his help!


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## tosomax

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Klem*
> 
> If someone wants unlock Nvidia overclock limit +135MHz, for 950M, 960M or 965M, you can write me in PM.


I've sent him a PM and he helped me unlocking my bios really fast
By the way, i've got an acer v nitro with 960m, now i can overclock without 135mhz limit.
Thanks Klem


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## DrzkaCZ

And your results?

Is this possible to my dell 7559?


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## Maggaen

i know this is an old thread, but I go over this in (some) detail on my channel: 




have fun!


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## smex

Also read
https://www.bios-mods.com
https://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Acer-Nitro-VN7-591G-BIOS-help-Unlocking-nVidia-135MHz-limit


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