TO ANYONE THAT USES SETFSB FOR GAMING LAPTOP OVERCLOCKINGand that's a lot of usI recently discovered a problem with SetFSB causing 'timing issues' in games when overclocking. After a certain point, it becomes very noticeable that your games are out of sync; ever run an older game without a frame limiter and had it go in 'turbo mode'? Well, this is the same thing: even modern games can run 'too fast.' When overclocking my core i5, my character in Crysis would be running 50% faster! This is highly undesirable, and I have been searching for a fix for a week or so now. Apparently the issue hasn't been discussed much, but someone unexpectedly graced me with a solution!
Thanks to Unclewebb, the awesome, highly knowledgeable developer of the (IMHO) must-have overclocking utility 'ThrottleStop' (ESPECIALLY necessary for those of us with Core i 3/5/7 series CPU's in our laptops!!), I have found a solution for the game timing problems. Please read this post that he replied to me with, explaining the Why's and How's of it all:
Quote:
Originally Posted by unclewebb
The problem you guys are running into is a new Windows 7 "feature".
To accurately measure time in a Windows PC, software uses the QueryPerformanceCounter function. Many applications, especially games, depend on this Windows function to accurately calculate FPS as well as for many other timing purposes in game including sound.
The problem is that for many computers, this function in Windows 7 is now based on the clock speed of the processor. If you overclock in the bios and then boot up, this timer is calibrated and will work 100% correctly. If you use SetFSB or a similar program and you change the bus speed from within Windows, you have now just screwed up this very important timing mechanism. The number of applications that can choke after you do this is surprising, especially games.
I wrote a program called WinTimerTester to test for this problem.
WinTimerTester 1.1
WinTimerTester_1.1.zip
Download WinTimerTester_1.1.zip from Sendspace.com - send big files the easy way
What it does is it runs two different clocks in your CPU at the same time and compares them to make sure they are both running at the same speed. It compares the Windows GetTickCount function to the QueryPerformanceCounter function and within approximately 60 to 100 seconds, these two timers should be running at a perfect 1.0000 : 1 ratio.
If you overclock your CPU with SetFSB and WinTimerTester reports that these timers are not running at a 1.0000 : 1 ratio, that shows that you have this bug and you have also overclocked this important timer within your computer which can screw up a variety of programs in a variety of ways.
Luckily there is a solution to this Windows bug. Microsoft actually considers this a feature but for anyone that uses SetFSB on a regular basis, it's a big bug.
To fix this problem, open up a command window and type in this:
bcdedit /set useplatformclock true
You will have to exit the command window and reboot before this setting can take affect. What this does is it changes Windows so the QueryPerformanceCounter function will be based on a fixed counter that is not influenced by SetFSB. That one line of code should correct this problem and your games will run fine when using SetFSB.
If you ever want to go back to the original buggered up timer that Windows uses then open up a command window and type in this.
bcdedit /deletevalue useplatformclock
Once again, reboot and things will be back to the default Windows 7 timer. These two images should show you when your internal timers are broken and what WinTimerTester will report when your internal timer is fixed. This only applies to Windows 7. There is a similar fix for Windows XP so PM me if you need it.
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3778/timerbroken.png
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/8417/timerfix.png
Let me know if this finally solves your problem. My friend some_one over on XtremeSystems told me about this little trick.
[In reply to]Disgustipated: On a different note. It would be a good idea to run ThrottleStop and increase your TDP/TDC settings to ensure that you get full turbo boost when you are overclocking with SetFSB. If you don't increase TDP/TDC then your bus speed can go up but your multiplier might go down when fully loaded so you won't get the full benefit of your overclock. Send me a PM if you need to know more about how to properly test for full turbo boost at full load.
One last thing. Many 3D gaming benchmarks don't correct for this problem so you can't trust their results when using SetFSB if your laptop has this timing issue. I believe the 3DMark series corrects for this problem and can be trusted.
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Again, huge thanks to Unclewebb for figuring this out and taking the time to reply to me.
I am now running a constant 3.1 Ghz overclock while gaming, and my games are perfectly 'timed/syncd.' Awesome!
Also, if you want to achieve maximum Turbo Boost under load or push your laptop's performance to the max, ThrottleStop is a must-have.
For reference and context, please refer to this thread:
SetFSB Game Timing Problem? (G60JX)
Reply 1 : Must-Read: SetFSB O/C Game Problems FIXED
I guess this helps those with an extreme cpu oced under windows after it has booted to desktop as well?
I have to check it out.
Reply 2 : Must-Read: SetFSB O/C Game Problems FIXED
You only have this problem when using SetFSB or a similar program that changes the bus clock speed. When you overclock an Extreme processor like the X9000 by changing the multiplier, it doesn't screw up the internal clocks so everything should be OK. You can run the WinTimerTester program, links above, for about a minute to make sure that your clocks are in sync.
Reply 3 : Must-Read: SetFSB O/C Game Problems FIXED
A note for some people with dual HDD:
if you have a separate boot manager (linux, mac etc) you will need to either take out that hard drive and then do this, or just use a bcd editor.
