Step by step guide - Overclocking ATI and undervolting Core 2 Duo in Vista (+results

Overclocking ATI and undervolting Core 2 Duo in Vista
by Ivan Kovac

+ RMCLOCK guide by blackbird. Thanks!


So here we go again. Finally I tested both my favourite tools for making a notebook with Ati card cooler and faster than it used to be. This guide can be used as a reference just for ATI overclocking or Core 2 Duo undervolting. These two are not connected.

I have a HP nx9420 notebook equipped with Ati x1600 256 MB DDR2 memory and Intel T5600 Core 2 Duo at 1,83 GHz.
Based on my previous experience with x700 and Pentium M I was eager to try the same ideas with Vista and current hardware. Finally Notebook Hardware Control (beta) came out and Ati tray tools (beta) making this procedure possible in the way I prefer – clean, fast and stable.
I will be using words like:
• ATT – Ati Tray Tools – program for overclocking Ati cards
• Powerplay – ATI technology that can change power consuption and speed of the ATI GPU – it makes overclocking unstable or impossible – this should be turned off if you overclock.
• NHC – Notebook Hardware Control – program for managing processor, disk, ati card, temps, and recording it all for a further analysis.
• CCC – Catalyst Control Center – the configuration utility that comes with ATI drivers.
• UAC – User Account Control – Vista's feature that protects your system from yourself and that makes me nervous along the way. Disable it in Control Panel – Security – Security Center – User Account Control – Off
• GPU – Graphics processing unit is like a CPU - Central processing unit, but only for graphics.
• BSOD – Blue Screen Of Death – unresolvable error that requires restart
• BIOS – Basic Input Output Settings – there is BIOS on the motherboard responsible for the whole comp (CPU, memory clocks, boot etc...). And there is BIOS on the graphics card – takes care of the GPU (default clocks, Powerplay options, latencies etc...)

Overclocking Ati GPU
Attention: Although in my long experience I have never seen a damged or dead Ati GPU even in a worst scenario (heatsink that wasn't fitted well and the temp went up to 120 degrees C), there is always a possibility to damage or kill your card. Temperature isn't a big issue and GPU can go over 100 degrees C without any impact to the card. I have done the extensive testing to see the temperature difference while overclocking the GPU and the difference is 5 degrees at most. I have no responsibility for any damage or cost that was caused by overclocking. Restarts and stops are possible and damage of the data on disk is possible due to the unscheduled restarts. But if you read this carefully there should be no problems.

Edit (17.09.2007): I recommend Ati stock 7.8 drivers. Simply download the newest Ati Vista drivers and use the Modder tool http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool/ to make them compatible with mobility platform. Install Catalyst Control Center (actually works much better than in XP). Disable Powerplay in CCC. Ati Tray Tools cannot turn off Powerplay, and Notebook Hardware Control in this version has the Ati Powerplay greyed out. I hope to see NHC actually being able to turn off the Powerplay. Then I would save 150 MB of space needed for CCC.

First I downloaded Ati tray tools http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/ATI-Tray-Tools.shtml. Be sure to click on BETA link! It works well in Vista despite the Ray Adams' initial resistance to this OS. (Obviously the resistance was futile, and we have this great tool working in Vista now ). It installed without a glitch (make sure UAC is disabled)
ATT has many features – but I will cover the most important ones. Once started you will see the small icon in the tray. Previous versions used to have two ways of overclocking – driver level and hardware level (or something). This version 1.3.6.1041 has only driverl level enabled making the steps for overclocking harder to set.
1. For advanced users only - Right click on the ATT icon – Tools and Options – General options – Advanced tab. Uncheck the Use overclocking limits. Close the dialog. The rest will be protected by ATT and will not be able to overclock to the limit – thus minimizing the possibility of the BSOD.


2. In General options tab uncheck the Load with Windows if you want. Otherwise ATT will load on every restart. In some rare conditions this could be a problem. I recommend manual start once the Windows are loaded.
Right click on ATT icon– Hardware – Overclocking settings. Now x1600 in my comp is set to 390/250 by the BIOS default which is way lower than it can go (it overclocks to 425/373 in games). I found that the stable gaming speeds for me are 560/472,5 that can be easily set.


I cannot give the general procedure since every card is different, but these rules apply almost always:
• Don't pull the sliders all the way up. Go by steps and do the check for artifacts.
• First overclock memory speed – it will bring you more speed at less risk. Then check, then overclock GPU core speed. Check again.
• If your screen becomes scrambled try hitting the button Set default clocks on the ATT overclocking dialog. It will stop. Learn this fast click – you will need it if the screen starts to get scrambled. Refresh the screen by moving any window and the start bar. F5 may help. Set the lower clocks and try again.
• If the computer hangs wait a few secs for VPU recover to try resetting your Ati card. Check the powerplay setting. It must be off.
• If it is completely stopped – turn off the notebook by holding the power button more than 4 secs. Turn it on again. It will be set to the default speeds.

The procedure

1. If this is your first time doing this then move the sliders for 10 MHz. Or move them immediately for 50 MHz if you expect your card to work at that speed. If you left the overclocking limits, it is very unlikely that you will mess something up. No risk, but not much speed either.
If you want to go all the way first check Google for your card and overclocking speeds that other people already checked. Use the fastest but lower it for 20 MHz. Due to the nature of the Driver level settings you will not be able to set any speed you like. The slider will jump to the closest lower setting. So if you want higher numbers – move the slider even further more than you initially wanted. Click Apply. Here you will see the new speeds (probably lower than you have set) applied and possible errors can occur. Don't panic. Try hitting the set default clocks button if the screen is starting to get scrambled.
2. Press Show 3D renderer.
3. Press Scan for artifacts. Watch the number at the footer of that animated 3D. If it says 0 after some time – you are most probably OK. If it shows any number besides 0 – lower the clocks. I recommend leaving your desired speeds for a longer period of time so you can check that there are no artifacts.


4. If you are satisfied with the speed check the Include clocks in profile box and click on the floppy disk button down below. Enter the name of your profile (like „Fastest“, „default“ or „gaming stable“ and press OK. Loading is different – choose the profile and click the icon next to the floppy. Apply.
5. If you want to check other speeds of your card go to the step 1. You can underclock your card too.

Finally once when you have found the top artifact free speed, lower the speeds at least 10 MHz. This is based solely on my experience in games. Games are putting much more stress both on CPU and GPU, so it is better to be safe. Otherwise you could see BSOD or the game could exit and leave you with the desktop.
I recommend installing and running the 3dmark05 at overclocked speeds just to see if everything went ok. If you see no spikes, flashing textures, white boxes, artifacts – most probably everything is ok. If you went all the way to the top speed – you will most probably see a 20-30% increase in speed.

Additional registry settings

Right click on ATT icon – Tweaks – Standard tweaks.
• On system tab check WMV acceleration.
Right click on ATT icon – Tweaks – Advanced tweaks.
• Check the boxes like below in Advanced D3D tweaks:



EDIT: One nice program that can push your GPU to the limit is rthdribl - http://www.daionet.gr.jp/~masa/rthdribl/

There are more settings that can be done, some dangerous, some not. Check here: http://www.tweakguides.com/ATICAT_1.html
Ok now you have overclocked your ATI card and you are happy with the stability and performance. Well you can make it even better! You can make your notebook even cooler than it was before you overclocked your card. Read on!

Undervolting using Notebook Hardware Control and RMClock

What is undervolting? Processors work at a certain voltage. There is also electrical current flowing through its circuits so CPU can work. Roughly speaking the electrical power is voltage multiplied by current. When CPU works, it uses power and produces heat. More heat means higher temperature of the CPU and more work for the heatsink and fan. When CPU is under load it heats faster and more since more of its circuits work and additionally they work at the highest speed.

Intel mobile processors have a technology called Speedstep built in. It enables a CPU to use different power levels depending on the load. Higher the load – faster it works – more heat is produced. It does it in steps. When on idle it uses the lowest multiplier, when under 100% load it uses the highest multiplier. It can sense and switch steps every 1/2000 of a sec. What is a multiplier?

CPU is connected with main memory over a Front Side Bus (FSB). Data travel between CPU and memory on it. FSB works at a certain frequency thus synchronizing the frequency of Memory with frequency of CPU. In this particular computer the FSB works at 666 MHz or actually 166 MHz quad pumped (4x166=666) and the memory chips work at 333 MHz but at a double data rate so they are also at 666MHz. Now this 166 MHz FSB frequency is also used by CPU to determine its internal speed. CPUs work at much higher frequencies than memory or FSB. So CPUs have multipliers or numbers which multiply the initial frequency of the FSB to give the internal core frequency of the CPU. So for example 166(FSB) x6 (Multiplier) = 999 (internal frequency of the CPU) in MHz. In fact T5600 has multipliers from 6 to 11 ranging the speeds from 999 to 1830 MHz depending on the load. So you can already guess – to overclock a CPU for example you must overclock FSB and it will make both memory and CPU work faster. This is very hard to do on notebooks since there is no software that can do it (there is, but very unstable - some models are easily overclockable, but most notebooks are not).

Every multiplier works at a different voltage. Lower the multiplier lower the voltage thus lower the heat produced. The lowest multiplier (6x on T5600) is locked on Core 2 Duo CPU meaning it will always use the lowest voltage available and that is 0,95V. The highest is 11x and it uses 1,2125V. 11x and other multipliers are open for the voltage change. Please note that other processors can have even higher multipliers.

The logic is like this: if we can lower the voltage per every multiplier – the CPU should be cooler since it uses less power for the same job. And that is true indeed. The question is only how low it can go? This is an important question since the stability of the CPU drops along with the voltage. So is CPU stable after we have lowered the voltage – that can be tested with stress tests like Prime 95 and other programs. Even 3dMark05 can show some of instabilities in work. NHC offers a small stability test and it can show big instabilities. I have tested the given voltages in work, stress tests and games and found no instabilities. But I have seen the significant temperature drop in games – over 15 degrees C. It is important to mention that the SPEED of the CPU stays the SAME! It is cooler, not slower. That is the main difference between Vista powerstates and undervolting. Undervolting is giving you the same speed but at lower temperatures.

So how to do it?


Go here and download NHC: http://www.pbus-167.com/. For RMClock read on.
1. Install and you will see a few small icons in a tray (battery, speed, load meter etc...)
2. Right click on any of them and click Show.
3. Go to the Settings tab and click Show all NHC options and settings and you will see more tabs showing
4. Click on Show Advanced NHC settings
5. Check Show CPU temperature and change the colour of the font used on a tray to white (it is easier to see in Vista). Close that dialog.
6. EDIT: I recommend checking the ACPI TAB and clicking the Show ACPI Temperature details. Check available thermal zones. In the lower right corner change the thermal zone to core 0 if it is set to some other zone. Or download some other temp utility like CoreTemp and check what thermal zone actually measurest the core temp.
7. Click on Voltage tab
8. Set the voltages like this:


The lowest multiplier 6x is always set to 0.95V so don't change it. Check and see what is your highest multiplier. Other multipliers on T5600 are from 7 to 11. I found that all of them (even the top 11) can work stable at 0.95V. Now if you are unhappy with this approach you can lower every multiplier by roughly 0,2 V and press Set. A short test will be activated for every multiplier to check the stability. If you get BSOD under the stress test or later in games or Windows work set multiplier 11 at 0,9625 V or even higher. Since this is the multiplier that is most important perhaps it is a good idea to be extra safe and raise voltage a bit on this multiplier. I will do the tests with 0,9625V for 11x, although it works well on 0,95V too.

Edit 20.09.2007. : Since RMCLock ver 2.30 works fine now with my system I recommend trying this software too. Before there were issues with RMClock actually not undervolting even if you did everything right. NHC is still beta and some people cannot see the voltages. If you don't like NHC or you cannot use it properly - use RMClock.

Go here and download RMClock: http://cpu.rightmark.org/download.shtml
1. Install and you will see a few small icons in a tray (speed, load meter etc...)
2. Right click on any of them and click View/Hide main window.
3. Go to the Profiles on the tree menu on the left
4. Check on all multipliers and set the desired voltages as stated above in the NHC section.
5. Click on Performance on demand in the left tree
6. Check "Use P-state transitions (PST)" for AC and battery
7. Check all multipliers. Voltages should be the ones you already set on Profiles tab.
8. Click Apply

EDIT 06. November 2007.: For a more detailed information about the RMClock undervolting read this guide with pics made by blackbird!

Cooler? How much? Let's see.

And that is it! The CPU is cooler. But there is no temperature change on idle! Well we haven't changed the lowest multiplier voltage. And that multiplier is used on idle. How to test the stability and the temperature change under the heavy load?

1. Try putting the lowest voltage you are prepared to test for 11x (or whatever your highest multiplier is) and download this stress test program called ORTHOS Stress Prime 2004(based on Prime 95): http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=199.
2. Start Orthos (no installation is required – just start the exe file)
3. Click on button Start
4. Record the temperature after at least 15 minutes (NHC is showing that in the tray - make sure you have chosen the corect thermal zone - I recommend core0 in NHC - see the red step 6 up above)
5. Stop Orthos
6. Now, set the 11x multiplier to 1,2125V (default voltage) in NHC
7. Do steps 2-5

Results

In my case the difference is huge. As you can see the first image shows 70 degrees celsius after 40 mins of torture with ATI clocks on default speeds and the default T5600 voltage. Check the numbered areas on the image.
1. Test time
2. Voltage and speed
3. Temperature
4. ATI clocks in Ati Tray Tools
5. Frames per second of the 3D view





Undervolting of the highest multiplier shows a great temperature drop – it hits 55 degrees only! That is 15 degrees lower than on default. ATI is still at default clocks.





But let's see how overclocking of the Ati GPU influences the temperature. There is no change in temperature! But check out the FPS at the lower right corner – it says 89 – well it is between 85 and 110 in comparison between 54 and 68 at the default speeds! The 3dmark05 shows 3900 at default speeds and around 4800 at overclocked speeds! That is a great improvement in games.



Conclusion

The temp difference will depend on: the fan speed, room temp, and voltage set. If you run ATT 3D view window along ORTHOS and load the GPU along with CPU – temp will rise since you will be simulating the highest load possible – both CPU and GPU will produce a lot of heat and most notebooks have both CPU and GPU under the same heatsink. Even more, Orthos will load both cores at 100%. This is similar to the actual gaming stress (despite the fact that games usually use only one core). You should check it and see what the temp difference has undervolting brought to your notebook. 5 degrees is already an achievement since most fans change speeds following the 5 degrees temp differences – at least your comp will be more quiet!

But the point is that I have much faster and much cooler notebook now. The graph shows the gains in FPS and lower temperatures. The graph starts at 40 degrees C – the idle temp which is the same for all three settings.



And at the end – undervolting is safe in terms of usage of the processor. You cannot damage it (well I guess you could, but let's say it is almost impossible). System instability on the other hand can bring some damage of the files on the disk and BSODs – but this is also extremely rare. In that case just raise voltage a bit.

Try experimenting with the default speeds and voltages – record the temps and then undervolt a bit and overclock a bit – if the temp goes down and the speed goes up that means you just have optimized your machine a bit.

Finally - if I have missed something please be so kind and post, so I can update and improve this guide. Thanks in advance. Cheers.

Happy overclocking/undervolting!

Ivan

 

Great work! Thanks a lot!

 

Nice! I've had a lot of problems with OCing, and maybe something like this would help. What are your scores after OCing?

 

"You need to spread some love before adding to ikovac's reputation again."


Anyways fantastic article, I have a couple questions though. Your first CPU test (stock volts) lasted 42 minutes, your second cpu test (undervolted) lasted 8 minutes. Do you think those extra 34 minutes would have an impact on that temperature?

Second, I found it interesting the overclocked GPU didn't result in a CPU temperature increase when comparing it to stock GPU speeds. Are your CPU and GPU fansinks connected? Did you notice your fan coming on more during this test period compared to the other?

Finally, how were you able to judge your GPU temperatures during these tests? I say this because it gets me nervous as my model's fan only comes on when the CPU reaches 60 degrees celsius. Meaning no matter how hot my GPU gets the fan won't come on until the CPU hits 60. If the CPU is undervolted do you think this will cause the GPU to get too hot on some models? If the heatsink is connected between the GPU/CPU will this eliminate any possibility of an undervolted CPU causing an overheated GPU?

You've practically convinced me to try this out I just need those questions answered first, thanks. Again, great review!

 

Very helpful. However, I think you have been lucky to have a CPU which will safely run at full speed at 0.95V. My T5600 fell over at 0.975V but has run happily at 1V for the past 3 months. A few days ago I left a T2250 running 2 x Prime95 at 0.95V and it seemed stable so I left it running overnight but it crashed after 6 hours. (The same CPU also overclocked to 2.6GHz at its design voltage, but that's another story).

John

 

That is our Ivan going overclocking again Great tutorial!

Ivan: time to do some timings tweaking?

 

Hi Night,

As somewhere in the post is stated - 3900 3dmark05 before, around 4800 after - it is the second best score on the 3dmark ORB for this card last time I checked (a few months ago).

And wave - thanks!


Cheers,

Ivan

 

That is incredible! Awesome! I never would have thought doing both would be successful like that

 

Lol - I didn't know I am so reputable!

1.
Actually I was thinking someone will bring this up - yes you are right - there was no point in waiting, so I ended it after 8 minutes. No it would not have an impact, and I can tell you why - Undervolted processors have a much smaller impact on the heatsink (amount of energy they produce is way smaller) so the heatsink and fan that are constructed with the default voltages actually have no problems with keeping 55 for example. I can do that test again, but I would bet you that the temp would be still be 55.

2. There is only one fan on my comp so I reckon there is only one heatsink (I am 99% sure) - and yes the temp difference is so small that it doesn't impact the overa temp. But GPUs DO HEAT CPUs! Meaning if you run the test that only uses CPU -temp will be lower. GPU adds heat, but actually doesn't suffer of the high temp differences when overclocked. I actually did the whole test with x700 and I can give you graphs and other data.
The fan will speed up with GPU working hard. Much quicker than if I was using the CPU only. But again the heatsink and fan easily get the hot air out when the CPU is undervolted.


3. No i think you are fine if you have the common heatsink because the heatsink will conduct that GPU heat and actually heat the CPU even if it is undervolted - don't worry - your heatsink and fan will only have an easier task. And my conclusions are also based on my previous x700 experience where I was able to actually check the GPU and Ambient GPU temp. I can assure you that ATi GPUs are so tolerant towards the heat and if your fan kicks in at 60 - it will surely keep your gpu at 80 anyway. GPU will not cross over 90 for sure, and that is still way low for ATI GPUs. I was unlucky to test the overclocked ATI x700 with an airpocket in the thermal pad. Temp was 120 and there were no issues whatsoever! I was actually playing games until I fixed that! That card is still working and can be overclocked.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Hi John!

I guess I may be lucky then - and thanks for the info - do you think i should change that bit about the highest multiplier voltage? Or at least make a warning?

(This is not for you John!) - Can anyone else confirm that the lowest voltages cannot be applied to the highest multiplier (not stable config?)

You seem to be quite experienced in overclocking, so do you have anything else to add? I would appreciate it!

Thanks,

Ivan

 

Hi Charlie!

Yes I am on the road again!

Actually no timings (latencies) tweaking since ATT cannot read them. That is the curse of the brand notebooks. I was already thinking to dump the BIOS and change latencies in ATi Tool. But I am happy with it now. SO until I get bored....

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Hey Alex!

Thanks - actually this is the old stuff wrapped in the brand new Vista paper. I was so happy that it actually all worked like I expected. That means I did it right before with my old x700, Pentium M and Windows XP! The same logic is here again, and the results are even better. I like to think that notebooks are way off the optimal state when you buy it. Manufacturers must provide the best settings for them in order to have no servicing problems afterwards, but noone says that those are the best settings. I like to optimize notebooks. Cooler and faster? Yes by all means!

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Thanks, im off to give this a try on my computer. Ill post results and pictures if I can (hopefully one of the heatsink so you guys can confirm it covers both.

oh and a side note. I like to leave powerplay on, it doesn't seem to cause a problem even when my GPU is overclocked. I.e. if im running my gpu at overclocked speeds it still goes down to battery default when unplugged and if i plug the power back in it just goes to performance defaults.

 

Hey link!

But if you set the overclocked speeds, and enter the game - does it stay or does it revert to the default speeds?

 

If I get the new G1S
-T7500 C2D 2.2 GHz
-8600M GT 256MB

any preliminary thoughts on how well that system can be optimised?

 

Well - Alex - I think that system is already "optimized"

But by all means - undervolting should work in the same way - and that graphics card will produce a lot of heat. So every little thing helps.

Not sure how overclocking works on 8600 GT but I guess it is the same logic.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

sweet guide dude. If only someone did this for nVidia cards too.

 

1. Each CPU is different and some will undervolt better than others. The voltage at highest multiplier should be approached by stepping down progressively from, say 1.10V (they all seem to be stable at that voltage), while both cores are fully loaded. If the computer crashes go back up a couple of steps. If you are lucky enough to have the CPU stable at full speed full load at 0.95V then I recommend either a multi-hour soak test or going back up a couple of voltage steps. Summer is approaching and as the cooling system gets clogged up then it will be less effective.

2. My only experiment with overclocking a CPU was with the Samsung R20. There are some more comments here. I did it out of curiousity because a forum member had reported that ClockGen worked with the ATI 1250M chipset, and I assumed that a CPU which would undervolt well would also overclock well. But for normal use I prefer the undervolting and a fan which never gets faster than its first speed.

I did try changing the clocking of the X1700 GPU in my Samsung X60 plus but that was to try reducing the clock speed, power consumption and heat. However, halving the core speed only too a few watts off the power, and below that it become unstable.

John

 

Ok I got some preliminary results as well. this ones with core duo though. the t2300 stock voltage was 1.26 volts with a max CPU temperature of 68-69 degrees celsius.

1.2375 volts - 66-67 degrees celsius


1.1125 volts - 62-63 degrees celsius


1.0500 volts - 59-60 degrees celsius


I got to say wow I was very impressed with this undervolting method. I dropped 10 degrees celsius in temperature! The lowest I tested was 1.0000 volts and that caused my system to freeze. Ok now for the question I had, will this cause my GPU to get hot now or is the hot air all in the same heatsink.
I think it is but have a look guys.


and i believe: 1 = cpu, 2 = gpu, 3 = northbridge.

Finally ikovac when I downloaded the notebook hardware control program and started it up it caused my screen to decrease in brightness. I can fix it by using FN + F8 to increase it again but its annoying everytime the program starts it decreases my brightness. Did you notice this or have a possible fix?

In conclusion other then the slightly buggy software I am impressed enough with the temperatures to keep it on.

 

You mean you must have an X1600 with GDDR3 memory because you are able to go above 400mhz stable.

I confirmed my X1600 uses GDDR2 because it will not OC past 420mhz stable.

 

great job, ivan. though i have to admit, i personally prefer rmclock. for some reason, nhc undervolting caused a lot of bsods for me, and this was when i was on voltages greater 1.1 v (t2300 cpu, btw).

 

Link you got 54 degrees for your hard drive there, I would be careful mate. 50 degrees is seen as a 'safe' maximum for hard drives.

 

I can't help it , it came like that ;0

 

Great guide Ivan, thanks for your efforts. I added your guide to the new sticky:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=122340

 

I'm surprised Core 2 Duo will run at 0.95V at max multiplier; I never imagined it'd be so low. It certainly blows away the 1.356V my Pentium M is currently running on

 

Hey guys - just a quick post from my PDA.

John - yes you are right - it seems that 1,1V is mentioned by many people as the safe voltage. Now I started easily, and soon realised that it is working at the lowest voltage. I did a few stress tests (for hours) and had no errors. And as I said I am also a bit surprised by the stability at such low voltages. BTW it seems that even the smallest voltage difference does a visible impact on temp.
And when you already mentioned ClockGen - I must warn people that even when I managed to find the PLL chip code and could set the speeds - the comp slowed down and I had some disk errors afterwards. I reinstalled windows just to make sure everything is fine. That was a week ago - under Vista. So FSB overclocking is a big NO for me at the moment.

link - I think everything is under the same heatsink, and your GPU shouldn't suffer any excessive heat.
NHC has that bug indeed. I disable the light sensor and then reenable it. It fixes the issue. I also found an ACPI bug with disk (SMART errors) and ACPI nx9420 control code (Errors + fan goes wild). Also NHC cannot control powerplay. I believe all of this due to the beta state of the software. Well in fact both ATT and NHC are betas. But the procedure would work on new versions too. Consider this guide a training and practice!
BTW - a nice temp drop. Keep it above 1V and enjoy a cooler notebook.

usapatriot - actually I am not sure what GDDR I have. I think CCC and ATT both report GDDR2 (and I was unhappy reading that). But since I have read at many places about the OC issue with DDR2 I believe you may be right. I will try to see and confirm what memory I actually have. Do you use ATT beta when overclocking?

ejl - I have the opposite experience - RM clock gave me only headaches - it would report lower voltages and I could see it did nothing. I set everything by the book, and still had no luck. NHC works for me the way I like - stable.
But I know RMclock must work well too - so you are welcome to add the RMclock guide - it may work for people who don't like NHC or have problems with it.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Yea ikovac I just uninstalled it and went back to the disappointing 10+ celsius degrees higher . I couldn't stand the light sensor malfunction, no powerplay, and some of my windows mobility center settings changed for no reason.

I was still nothing short of amazed, I gamed for awile and even on the CPU intensive sup com demo the fans never came on high and the bottom of my notebook didn't get nearly as hot as once it has been. It really lets the GPU hot air get out of the computer more efficientely. I hope they release the final version soon.

 

umm.. just some noobie questions...
will this overclocking work on an integrated ATI 1150xpress vid card.??
and can i do the underclocking on an AMD Turion64x2.?? sorry for the noob questions.. i dont know a lot about computers in general..

 

Hey Chaz - thanks! Good idea that sticky of yours - putting everything in one place - much easier to see the important stuff.

Well I think my old Pentium M was going lower than 1,356V. Well Pentium Ms are also good undervolting candidates.

Integrated cards are - well integrated. I think I have read some sucessfull reports on x200 but I really can't help you with that.

You mean undervolting Turions? I think it is possible.

Hey link - well at least you know some nice tweaks now - when NHC is released the way it was for XP I think you will come back to it.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Hi usapatriot,

I have checked all of the places I think give the relevant info. ATI tray tools checks the BIOS and gives some nice info that no other tool can give - and it states DDR2!

here is the excerpt:

CCC hardware info states the same.

So do you know any other way of telling for sure what type of VRAM I have?
I am aware of the thread here on NBR where many people cannot overclock over 420 or so. Hm. My personal record was 483 mem and 576 core. It went over 4900 3dmark 05 but it wasn't stable enough for gaming.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

very nice guide, thanks!

my T5600 was happy to run at 0.950 x 11, short stress test [30mins or so] all pass, but i decided to go with 0.975 as ive found in the pass, bench programs often pass, but real world wouldnt always be that stable [that is with overclocking though]

so i let ORTHOS ran for 7hrs 38mins 21secs with both cores at 70c, and i NHC was showing 60c for the cpu* [same as TAT]



before the cores were at 82c and 81c so a nice temp drop on the cores, and NHC showing 55c*

*NHC and others use TZ 2 as the CPU area, but im not sure, mulling...

1. at v0.9750 temp was 57c, v1.1250 temp at 55c,
2. the temps are not simular, on my desktop, the cores are 31c and 36c, and the cpu area is 36c
3. if you watch TZ 0 the temp is much more alined, although not accurate, it seems to round up and down [38, 48, 58, 68, 79 those the ones ive seen] looking at the ACPI TZ info on NHC it then goes 85, 91

this was done on a NX9420

as for the x1600, it was stable at 525/450 [900] 3DM05 > 4751 and 3DM06 > 2268

does anyone know where the thermal zones are in the NX9420?

 

Whoa! Dude, thanks a lot! that helped my card.lol

 

Good going sunn!
Great difference - and yes thank you for bringing this up - NHC seems to detect 6 thermal zones and 2 cores.
All my temp measurement was done on the core 0 which seems to be a bit warmer than core 1. I will add that ionfo in my guide! Thanks for reminding me about that. So I would recommend you to choose the core 0 or core 1 in NHC prior to the test. Other thermal zones obviously measure some other temps inside nx9420.

I was uncertain what temps to check, and finally installed CoreTemp software which in fact was showing almost the same numbers as NHC does on core0. They change fast and according to the load so I assume core 0 is the thermal zone that should be relevant.

And as you confirmed obviously it is possible to run t5600 at 0,95V! Heh I am not sooo lucky then!

Cheers,

Ivan

 

nealy 3 hours later i think i found the thermal zones



-TZ 0, it was from HP on the NC8430, i think its meant to be the chip that control fan speed, hense not a accurate temp as it uses the predefined thresholds
-TZ 1, simular to core/s temp
-TZ 2, get hotter durring RTHDRIBL, and hotter still after the OC
-TZ 3, Intel's 945GM technical specs say it has its own thermal sensor and has a max of 105c, HNC also report this so i believe TZ 3 is the chipset
-TZ 4, it was from HP on the NC8430, complete guess
-TZ 5, as above, but it would seem that later the 10 idle where temps lower, makes sense

 

Hey sunn! That looks interesting! Do you think tz2 is the GPU? EDIT: I saw you have edited your post recently....

It seems that other numbers (including tz2) don't change in the way I could decipher what is going on. For example I could read the x700 temp in my old comp - it would heat REALLY FAST. 60-80 in 2 secs. Here I cannot see any difference when I start some GPU test. Strange.

Ivan

 

yea, i thought i should explain it better

i know, after i read your guide i had the same thing distinguishing which temps was what. so after googling around and not finding anything useful, i thought i yet it ago, but today i returned to the quest kinda without knowing

i only did short tests today, at 30s intervals for 90s and on the gpu test the first two samples were quite lower [i think like 60 and 61] then the last sample was 68, i imagine it would of resin more if i'd left it

i was going to use 3DM06 and CSS as my 3D test, but remember using RTHDRIBL back in the day to stress out the graphics. it always made the gpu hotter than anything else at that time, and i think it worked perfectly as it used very little cpu utilization while maxing out the gpu

ps thanks for the Rep

 

Just an FYI. On my 2 year old Mobility 9700. I OC'd from 390 core to 560(!) core. Mem was more reasonable 175 to 200. Of course I found out that normal undervolting software was incompatible with the Athlon 64 3700+

 

That is a huge overclock for you Alex. I found that memory overclocking is giving better speed gain than core oc. So in case of instabilities - it is usually good to lower the core speed a bit first.

sunn - rthdribl really push the card to the limit - perhaps it would be agood thing to check when overclocking cards. I agree. I will add it in the guide.

I was playing FEAR multiplayer for hours yesterday at 0,9625V - not a single glitch. The comp was nice and cool! I think T5600 is a very good proc considering the (under)voltage and speed and performance.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Ati Tay Tools 1.3.6.1044 is available: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/ATI-Tray-Tools.shtml

Some Vista improvements and registry tweaks. Works well.

Ivan

 

Overclocking with ATT still doesn't seem to work for MR X1800. So I use Powerstrip for OC'ing instead and ATT for other settings. Undervolting might not be very good idea for this laptop unless running on battery or not doing any GPU intensive tasks (games..). UV'ing may overheat the GPU: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=99171

Nice guide though.

 

Great thread, helped me lots, thanks!

Highest I have got on my card with no artifacts is 560 on the core and 513 on the memory.

Specs: T2600, 2GB DDR667 RAM, X1600 Mobility 256MB @ 560 / 513, Vista Ultimate.

3DMark 2005 score of 4865. Aiming higher though as I iron things out...

Screenshot:

 

UPDATE!

I just upped the core to 567, left memory at 513 and closed all unecessary processes etc and now I scored 4945 in 3DMark 2005!

So close to 5K now, dammit! haha!

 

Dammit all! Can't get any higher than 567 / 513, so looks like that's the limit!

Any ideas guys? I really wanna get 5K now! Is there no way to overclock the CPU on this laptop?

 

Put it on your air conditioner, and go a bit higher. Its a number though is it really worth it ,

 

Haha, I suppose you're right, it's just frustrating getting 4900 something and not being able to just push it that little bit further to 5K.

Nevertheless, I'm very happy with the overclock, 567 / 513 not too bad at all I think.

 

To the undervolters:

Try doing some more tests than the default NHC stability tests. Run a wPrime 1024M test and run a demanding game (like company of heroes). I found that my core 2 duo was doing fine on the NHC stability test at .96 V but pooped out when running CoH.

 

1st i have to say nice guide!!! after i undervolted my laptop, temperature drop for about 5~6 degrees (all to 0.95V, 12x to 0.9625). the only problem is the nhc. i'm facing the same problem as link1313 which is decrease in brightness...help anyone?

 

Good going ryanrich! Post it on ORB - it is faster than mine! 5K you say? Well I think some driver improveents can fix that.


And as FusionBurn says - test the undervolting settings with care. I recommend one notch higher than the most stable you have found. In my case that is 0,965V for 11x multiplier on T5600.


Cheers,

Ivan

 

Ivan, I got referred over to your thread from Chaz. I need your help here buddy.

For some reason, NHC isn't showing up my voltage numbers...take a look...

View attachment 7480


I have a core2 duo running at 1.66ghz and as you can see, my voltage stuff isn't showing up. Thats the latest version of NHC too. Is there something I need to do first in order for my voltage stuff to show up?

And also, do you think I even need to undervolt?

These are my temps...

CPU IDLE: 43ish
CPU LOAD: 60ish (highest I saw it go was 61)

Hdd idle: 34ish
Hdd load: 39 (never goes over to 40)

I would gladly appreciate your assistance.

If you need anymore screenshots, tell me.

 

Geez....my CPU idle temp is 56!