Extending Navi Mobile GPU power limits (5300M/5500M)

I recently picked up a new 16" Macbook Pro with 4GB Radeon Pro 5500M. The 5500M should perform very well, but because Apple has chosen to place a 50 watt limit on the card (AMD specifies 85 watts) it performs only a hair better than the 5300M.

For example, in 3DMark Firestrike (popular PC benchmark) the 5500M gets a 10400 graphics score. In contrast, the 5300M averages 10300. Currently Wattman is not available for Navi mobile chips. MSI Afterburner is no help either. Are there any other utilities that can bump up the power?

I know that it's possible because I was able to do it in Linux. I raised the power limit to 57 watts, and my Valley score (another benchmark available for Linux) went from about 1750 to around 1920, and confirmed the scores with multiple passes.

 

It probably won't work, but sapphire trixx?

 

Sure didn't. Sapphire GPUs only.

 

Depressing, have you tried using the drivers from bootcampdrivers? I was able to OC my RX 560 that way through MSI afterburner/wattman, and they have a way newer version of the driver available that let me finish Doom Eternal on my laptop.

 

MSI Afterburner might be able to give you a helping hand at unlocking Wattman in Radeon Drivers... however, that's for Windows (and usually only desktop GPU's).

Also, even if you DO manage to manipulate the power limit, I wouldn't necessarily advise it because the cooling might not be able to handle it (and if Apple decided to limit the GPU, they may have done so because they didn't want to redesign the cooling so it could handle the 85W for the GPU).

 

My RP 560 doesn't hugely benefit from increased power limits (I can't set any higher with afterburner, only unlock core/mem speed and tune voltages a bit), gaming in GTA V, Borderlands 3, or Doom Eternal, I only see it consuming a max of 30W, with it hovering right around the 20-25W mark.

 

Well, I'm mostly interested in ramping up the GPU in Windows for games. Don't use Windows for much else anyway. You're right about Apple's cooling solution; it almost certainly couldn't handle 85w. But what I can do is hold the CPU to 35w - 40w and hopefully get a little more out of the GPU. If that were an option, that is.

In MSI afterburner with the January bootcampdrivers.com drivers, I can't do squat - except monitor clock speeds, voltages, etc. In comparison, Throttlestop lets me do a little CPU tuning, though undervolting on intel 9th gen has been locked out thanks to Plundervolt.

The 50w limit on the 5500M really chaps my hide because I could have bought a 5300M for $100 less and gotten basically the same performance...

 

Have you tried the guide on there with enabling OC mode in afterburner? Thats what I had to do