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

I was wondering about undervolting. Does it matter what the number is?

As in, does it have to be a number like .95 or 1.1. Or can you play around safely with the numbers, like .967 or .988? Stupid question but just wondering.
And is there any way to tell if I went to low on the voltage and it would harm the notebook?

Thanks
clay

 

Hi blackMamba,

Sorry about the delay I was too busy last week.

Err... I actually don't know. Undervolting is not obligatory. It is just a method to cool your notebook down. I recommend it, but sometimes it is just not possible. Try RMclock software and see if it sees your voltages.

Your temps are fine anyway, so perhaps you just don't wanna bother with it.


Cheers,

Ivan

 

Hi Clay,

There are no stupid questions - only stupid answers (at least people say so )

Well stability drops with undervolting and you could see BSOD or reset probably in games. That is the most obvious sign you have undervolted too low.

And any step you choose is valid and can be used.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

By undervolting my CPU using ikovac's methods I was able to reduce my CPU temps 8-9 degrees. This reduction was sighted during hardcore CPU and GPU trashing

 

Hello ikovac,

Your guide has helped my once called Asus V1Jp "LapHotTop" become nice and cool. I do have a couple of questions for you, if you have the time to answer them.

I dual boot Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista Business, I used your guide for the Windows Vista Business OS and right now my X1700 card is overclocked to 540\464 from standard 380/310 without any problems. Do you know if it is safer to go higher with the X1700? I am playing it safe though, I tested to 540/464 without any problems thus far...should I go higher?

Also, can your guide be applied to Windows XP Pro? I noticed a huge difference in heat when I boot XP Pro (since I didn't use the guide for XP Pro)? I am asking because I want to be sure there are no extra steps to take (or additional programs are needed) to overclock and undervolt on XP Pro.

Because of this guide and a special deal I'm getting, I'm buying several additional Asus V1Jp notebooks for my company's design team.

Frank aka Twinkiez of F.R. MediaWorks

P.S. I know a lot about PC's and Notebooks in general. Before starting my software company, I worked full time as an A+ Certified PC Repair Technician, but I'll be the first one to say I don't know everything. In this industry we have to learn more and more everyday, thanks for the great guide and the new knowledge.

 

Hey i was just reading this post and i am really interested about the whole undervolting thing.I just want to say this tutorial has been very straight forward and easy to follow and for that i gotta give you props =).

I am fresh of the boat and i am about to get my first lappy, and i am very excited however my laptop through the reviews done seems to give alot heat so i stumbled on this sticky and there are somethings i don't understand. I cant seem to find the multiplier for the T2500 processor but i was able to find out that FSB is 667 so i am kinda lost from there. Can you clear it up for me. I did get the whole ATI overclocking thing though, the laptop i am getting the W2JB has an X1600 so i think i can squeeze something similar to your laptop

Best regards and Thanks for the Help

Monkie

btw first post

 

Nice post ikovac.

Now is there any way I can get the notebook to remember the undervolted settings so that even after reboot they will be automatically applied--kinda like OC'ing from BIOS?

I am a performance WHORE and absolutely do not want any programs running other than the app that I currently need, so the fancy little graphics display of the battery and icons in the taskbar annoy me a little bit about NHC. Yes I know it only uses like 3MB of RAM, but still!

And how about the OC'ing of the videocard? Can it be implemented into the drivers so I don't have to manually set it each time I start up the laptop?

Thx.

 

Has anybody tried underclocking the Santa Rosa CPUs? Are they the same?

 

Wave: I plan to do that, but I just dont' want that NHC program running in my taksbar and taking up my CPU/mem (yes I know it's barely anything but ITS THERE AND I DONT WANT IT).

 

Do you mean underclocking or undervolting?

 

anyone try for the MR X1900? i got to 500Mhz Core and stayed stock on memory, 470Mhz but i know that 515mhz is my core max but i am wondering what the max for memory is. im so scared though cause i dont wanna fry my notebook. but i did get a 20fps boost in fear with maxed settings. oh yeah 90 FPS!!

 

Is it possible to use NHC to undervolt a Core 2 Duo T7500?

When i ran NHC all the fields under the Voltage tab are not-selectable and no processor is listed by the question mark area of the page...

 

Hi Frank,

Sorry for delay. I was extremely busy for the past few weeks.

I am glad my posts help people. That is why I like this forum. Many helpful people around. Actually I had some issues with BIOS on my old ASUS 5 years ago and that was the first time I found NBR. I read posts that helped me and decided to join after a while. So here I am. Not so frequent, but still around.
1. I don't know any limits for x1700. Actually every card has its own limits in a way. I would recommend following the overclocking procedure as I explained.
2. Yes it can be applied to XP. It is even easier. No Vista UAC for example and both ATT and NHC work perfectly in XP.
3. Lol - you find this guide so nice? I am glad you like it. I hope everything works out nicely for you.

Yes I am second to say I don't know everything. But I know a lot! Every day something new. That is my logic. I learn a lot and I know how things work - the only way to control things around me - including notebooks.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Hi Monkey,

As I explained above - I apologize for the delay.
Thaks for your kind words. I wanted to make it easy to follow.

Were you using NHC? If NHC can't show multipliers then it is the BIOS, motherboard or NHC issue. Try RMClock. Every CPU has multipliers. Check google for your CPU.

I think your x1600 will be overclockable at least 20%.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Hi Glostix,
There is no solution if you cannot set it in BIOS OR you buy NHC and use advanced settings that allow you starting the NHC as a Windows service so I guess it may use even less memory and it can be rendered invisible (no icons).

I actually never tried NHC to see if it can be configured so it applies the settings and then turns off.

I hope there is some way.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

20 fps? that is a lot! Great overclocking. Memory overclocking is not so hard. It will show artifacts when you go over the limit. then just lower it down by 10 MHz or so.

Memory is even more importnat than GPU clock! Try overcloking to the max.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Hm. I guess you will need to wait for the next NHC version.

Ivan

 

Hi i just purchased a Asus V2Je with the following specs

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.0 GHz; 667 MHz w/ 4mb Cache)
Graphic: ATI Mobility Radeon X1450 256MB (512MB Hypermemory)

What should be my
core clock speed and memory speed for my X1450


also what voltage should i use ?

also i noticed when i undervolted my cpu there seems to be a lag now.. is there a way to fix this..

*edit tthat was just me.. i was running like 20 programs when the CPU multiplyer stuck at 6.... hhehehe i am an idiot

Edit #2 8/28/07 with a new motherboard installed onmy V2je i have successfuly OC it too 554:536 from the stock 480:380 i think this is the max for the GPU

 

Ive had notebook hardware control issues with this system since day one.

Ive been reading and reading abut this stuff and decided to try playing.

I set the voltage to 0.950 for 6 thru 10 on my t5500 Z96J and my temp dropped about 10c. Odd thing is, my voltage ran 0.950 but my multiplyer would NOT drop off 10 no matter what power setting i used within windows or NHC. I went into the bios and changed the setting for OS (vista now, xp months ago) to control the cpu to "disabled". "Enabled" should work for the OS to control the cpu speed but it doesnt. Im guessing this is just a freak thing with my system, although ive seen a few others post in other threads about this that they had the same problem.

Im running 54 to 57c at idle normaly, and when i changed the voltage, EVEN THOUGH it ran at 10x and max cpu speed, it was mid 40's C !!!

Why???? It kind of makes a little sense, but further thinking, it makes no sense. And even in the OP write up, i shouldnt see a drop in temp at idle !!??

My goal in starting to actualy do this, is, drop cpu and overclock the gpu for when i play games ONLY. I also want to down clock my gpu in another preset in ati tray tools for when im just napping around the internet. Less heat, less stress. Less for the same! If i do this, at idle, or just browsing, it should stay very cool in the non airconditioned house!

Ok, 52c, but its late, fan is blowing on me and the notebook and im quite chilly LOL

I played with clock modulation on the cpu speed page within NHC. I set the AC clock to 50% and then i get some weird stuff on the speed reading. 1662MHZ (832MHZ). 1.1875 voltage reading on dynamic switching.

Ugh, i wish dynamic switching would work on this stupid freak of notebooks. Its SUPPOSED to !!!

Gonna go switch the BIOS setting back and hope for some suggestions!!

Thanks all

 

Ok, now ive switched the BIOS setting back to enabled on the OS controls CPU speed and my CPU clock is dynmic (changing from 1663mhz to 997mhz), but my voltage wont change off of 1.1875.

I went in and changed all the voltages to 0.950, hit set and then dynamic CPU speeds woouldnt work anymore.

Oh oh oh...... I just noticed something, as im writing. My multiplier IS changing. Its bouncing from 6x to 10x on the bottom of the CPU speed page. I also seen the voltage change to 0.950 a couple times REAL fast.

So im guessing the dynamic (multiplier) is now working but the voltage doesnt change as fast as it should on the main status page of NHC, thus ive not seen the change on that page ever opps



Ok, so now. Any ideas for getting the voltage to 0.950 on all the mulipliers and get the dynamic multiplier to still be dynamic?

 

Hm. Strange.

1.

- it is normal if you have it on idle. Top multiplier and no actual CPU load will still make CPU cool. It is on idle.
2.

I think NHC sometimes shows changes too slowly. I heard that from many people. To determine if it works - make sure the dynamic multiplier is enabled and it works. Play game and check temp. If temp is like 10 degrees lower - it works. You can make your life easier - set only the 10x multiplier to lower voltage - it assures the highest drop while the CPU is under heavy load.

Hope this helps,

Ivan

 

great - you have your own answers. Sorry for delay.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

How come my cpu isn't being recongnized in notebook hardware control? It doesn't show up cpu voltage in voltage section...

EDIT: I used RMCLOCK and it sccuessfully detected cpu voltage. However, my cpu voltage is set at 1.412 at 11x multiplier and lowest voltage being 1.050v. I can't get any lower than that.

 

Well NHC sometimes cannot access that info. I see you have found the solution - RMClock. Check C2D voltages on intel pages. Perhaps it is the lowest.

Ivan

 

after playing around some settings I just realized that I have to select mobile cpu lol. Well I thought CPUClock will do everything automatically but I was wrong. After selecting mobile cpu I have access to 0.937v. But I couldn't get cpu to stable till I hit 1.000v bah. Thanks for the guide ikovac that I didn't know I could lower cpu voltage to prolong cpu life, battery life. I'll try GPU overclocking part later

 

Good for you hirush! What is the temp difference?

 

An hour of GW playing session I hit 61C~63C verse 73C~75C before undervolting, huge difference for me
Count me as one of happy notebook user right now

 

Great! I am glad the article helped.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

ikova, in your article you said the lowest voltage for C2D cpu is 0.950v, however mine is 0.937v. Why is that?

 

I guess different processors have different lowest voltages. I have T5600
0.950 V is my lowest setting. I think Intel pages can give you this answer.

 

Is there anything out there i can use to monitor my multiplier and voltage real time so i can see if NHC is doing its job? I was messing with RMClock last week and it reported better updates than NHC, but brightness didnt work.
Some how i got RMClock to set my voltage on .950 and it reported dynamic switching with that voltage. Thats a plus!

The only way to get brightness to work in my notebook (ASUS Z96J) is with NHC and ACPI enabled.

RMClock is a bit harder to use, but seems to report better info in the monitor and has pretty good options. Some of it is still confusing to me. I really wish i could try some of the options i cant use without shelling out 20 bucks for possibly nothing. If brightness work in for me.....ugh

Hate having all this crap running. Want one simple program to do what i want done!!

Why is it that Vista WONT change my power scheme according to power source????? Why doesnt Vista have an option to turn off some stuff to save battery when on battery???? Ugh, annoying

To game on my system as i have it set, for some reason, now i have to go to max perf, back to balanced, and then back to max perf to get my ati clocks to max out!!!

EDIT, oh yeah, also, the new version of RMClock i just played with the other day works with vistas power schemes

 

Hm. Strange.

1. NHC is still beta and there are some problems with it in Vista (brightness for example doesn't work well for me). NHC ACPI causes error for me. In XP works fine.
2. NHC can control voltages and ATI clocks (but ati clocks again don't work well for me in Vista).
3. I had issues with RMClock - it would show me all is ok, but actually it didn't work! Dynamic switching and voltages didn't work as set.

My Vista powerschemes work as they should, and perhaps BIOS update could help you? Check your website for Asus Z96j. Or get rid of all this and wait for a new NHC.
The bottom line - NHC actually is probably the best "1 in all" tool for Intel/ati platform but when it works fully and stable. Unfortunately this is still beta.

I wish you luck in finding the working combination that does everything you want.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Just out of curiosity what voltage your cpu is running at right now ikovac? It is funny that I could get some error running applications ocassionally under 0.987v but not gameplay. Strange enough.

 

Hm strange.

All multipliers are 0.95V except x11 (top) which is at 0.9625V Not a single glitch since I have written this article. I am very happy with it.

An interesting thing happens now - since this is a thread about ATI OC too - I installed Ati 7.8 plus a new beta ATT 1.3.6.1053 and I cannot get ATI clocks (GPU/MEM) so high anymore (not stable for gaming anyway) - but I get higher scores in all tests! Very interesting indeed! Hah - less OC - higher scores! It must be some driver optimization.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Dropping in to say great article!

 

Thanks Gator! I am glad to hear it.

Ivan

 

Hi All!

I want to thank you all of you for all the help here! especially to IKOVAC, I Undervolt my Acer Aspire 5670 T2300 1.66 Ghz. ATI X1400 to 1.1v. and it seems to get 5 to 6 degrees less! which is great for me! before was 56 c. now it's 49 c. to 51 c.

I would like to ask you 2 questions:

1.- Which it's the diffrence between Dynamic Switching and maximun performance, I set it to maximun performance, is there any problem with that!
I'm not a gamer at all! I just use it to work, word, excel, Mozilla, etc.

2.-Is there any harm for the laptop doing these undervolting things and can I Run NHC all the time without harming anything at maximun performance all the time at 1.1v! or should I active dynamic switching?

Thanks in advance for all your help and support!
Muadeep

ACER ASPIRE 5672 WLMi, v.3239 BIOS
ATI Mobility X1400 128MB (Hypermemory to 895 MB)
Merom Core 2 Duo T2300 1.66GHz
2GB DDR-2 667
TOSHIBA MK1234GSX 5200rpm 120 GB SATA
Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
8 x DVD-RW Dual Layer Super Multi
WINDOWS VISTA BUSSINESS EDITION

 

hm...i am unable to change voltages in NHC on a dell 1520
the voltage section just has blank boxes for me
anyone know whats up?

 

Hi muadeep,

1. Dynamic switching changes multiplier depending on CPU load. Max performance locks on the max multiplier. Dynamic switching is usually the best option.

2. You can do it - some people do. I haven't heard bad reports. I personally have NHC on all the time on dynamic and undervolted.

Some laptops are not (yet) supported in NHC - try RMClock.


I hope this helps,

Ivan

 

Has actually anybody tried downclocking your GPU/MEM freqs ?? How big difference in temperature did You get without loosing any 2d/desktop/NOT GAMING performance??

 

Do you know how low the Santa Rosas will go?

When enabling the power saving function it drops the 6x to 0,937v, is it possible to lower it more to get some more battery time ?

 

I decided to go ahead and try to o/c my Vostro 1500. So I started going through the steps, and downloading the appropriate software.

Notebook Hardware Control / NHC gives me an error when I go to run it I get an error:

object reference not set to an instance of an object

Anyone know what this is and how do I correct it?

Thanks.

Nevermind - I found the little link below the download specifically for Dell PC's...

Well, damn, now it won't show any system voltages? How do I control the CPU voltages?

 

Even though this guide is for Vista it might help you out htwingnut. Your thread was not getting much attention so I merged it into a more known thread. It might be more visible in here.

 

THANKS SO MUCH for this undervolt suggestion! >>>> rep inbound!

Me and my Vostro 1500 thank you!

At stock speeds my CPU temps dropped over 10C. I was running over 75C previously running small FFT's in Orthos. Now I'm running 63-65C.

I am running Orthos simultaneously with RTHDRIBL and seems like everything is at about 63-65C.

Now time to O/C the video card and see where it goes!?

edit: Thanks Chaz - I ended up using RMClock.

 

Yes I have. Temperature drop is minimal, and battery lasts a bit longer. x700 goes down to 90/90. I haven't tried 1600 yet, but I might. Interestingly 90/90 saves more power than Max Battery Powerplay setting! At least that was the result of my test.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

I don't know. I expect the same 0,2 V tolerance or more.

You will not actually get any more battery time (not noticable anyway) on idle multipliers. The biggest difference shows at highest multiplier under the 100% load. Undervolting can help there since:
1. Less power is consumed
2. Fan works slower due to the lower amount of heat produced, thus saving power.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

im surprised how high you can get your core/mem ikovac.
at above 520core i get artifacts.
i just started trying this OCing on the video card.
got to 45fps in GW at a certain place, from 40 before OCing.
il be playing around more with it.

by the way, i think the C2D seem to undervolt better than the CDou.

 

It could be memory. Not core. But yes I heard that too.
Some people stated I have GDDR3 memory, but in all places I found (CCC, ATI Tray Tools) it says GDDR2. I find x1600 very "overclockable". It easily reaches much better scores than on default.

I must admit it depends on drivers somehow. I cannot find any logical explanation than the driver simply changes ways of using the GPU and MEM and optimizes the code so it runs in a different way. I saw a big difference between 7.2 and 7.8 drivers. I could overclock 7.2 more than 7.8, but still 7.8 is faster even at slower clocks. Now this is interesting, since I reinstalled 7.2 again, and could overclock it higher, but was having lower scores.

I also would like to point out that some people say "I will not overclock my card for 10 fps". I understand. 60 fps to 70 fps isn't much of a difference. But if your game runs at 15 fps and now reaches 25 - I say it is a big difference. The point is to check the relative speed increase, not absolute (fps). If your card is 30% faster - it is 30% faster - always.

And yes core2duo seems to like undervolting to the lowest voltage. 0.95V in my case for all multipliers except the highest which is at 0.962V. It is a huge difference to the default 1.212V. It runs stable ever since I have written this article. I am not having a single glitch.

An update: I am using currently RM clock ver. 2.30 and it finally runs fine on my system. I actually removed NHC since RMClock doesn't mess with my brightness every time it is started. I will update the article with RMClock part.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Good to hear all this about C2D Looks like with the lower voltage and underclocked HD2600 my new HP 8510p will last for good 4 hours or more on the battery saving mode

 

Heh - I hope it will. Lower temp actually makes fan working slower or even off, so you will save some power there too.

Cheers,

Ivan