The "Undervolting" Guide

I have found that for my T7700 my max multiplier (12x) is set for 1.1125, any lower and I get a bsod. I am kind of bummed because I have read some other users with the same cpu going to nearly 1v, but I guess every chip is unique. My temps get up to 76 as opposed to 82.

 

this needs to be stickied

 

flipfire, remember when I tried to undervolt the DV9700T with an earlier version of RMClock and it was showing CPU Core was "Unknown Core" and Revision was "Unknown." RMClock 2.35 fixed that.

Just starting to undervolt my Vostro and for some unknown reason, RMClock 2.35 is showing "unknown core" and "unknown" revision.

What do you think? Will I still be able to undervolt? It's a Penryn like the DV9700T but it's a T8100 vs a T9300.

 

Try going to Advanced CPU settings > Auto Detect CPU > Apply > Restart RMclock

Are the default voltages being detected correctly? if they are then it should still work

richierich from the previous page has the exact same issue as you, though he was still able to undervolt to 1.025v

 

Try going to Advanced CPU settings > Auto Detect CPU > Apply > Restart RMclock

Yep, I tried that and no change, unfortunately.

I've got minimal voltages of 6.0x (0.9250V) with a 10.0 maximal of 1.1375V. I've already turned off SuperLFM and IDA for now but SuperLFM has an FID 8.0x and VID of 0.9250. IDA is 11.0x at 1.2125V.

Should I give it a go? Sorry to be skittish.

 

Well you default voltages sound like they were detected correctly so sure... give it a try.

It worked for richierich, although his undervolt wasnt that great

 

Thanks! I'll go ahead and give it a shot then.

 

Not quite sure what to make of these results.

I lowered and lowered and never got an error. My highest FID of 10.0x got all the way down to 0.9250 (the absolute lowest!), ran for 40 minutes and never had an error. I didn't let it run for 2 hours just so I could run this by you first because I'm thinking I shouldn't run it that low no matter what the results are showing. All of the RMClock settings showed it was really running at the voltage and the temps dropped significantly.

First of all, that just seems way too low for the highest FID to run at and that just makes me wonder if everything really is working right since my processor type wasn't recognized. But I just don't know one way or the other.

I ran HWMonitor before starting the undervolt testing and Core 0 came in at 70 degrees, Core 1 at 71.

After undervolting, I left everything set at the lowest VID of 0.9250 to test it with HWMonitor and Core 0 came in at 56 with Core 1 at 57.

I would love your opinion on all this. Thanks!

 

lol wow.

-Test in simulation, Run the final 3 hour ORTHOS stress test

-Test it in real-time use, run all the programs/games you normally use (including AV and spyware scanners)

This will should completely test its stability.

Your undervolt is unbelievable but if it stable all around, then it works!

If your worried then raise it up higher just to be safe, it wouldnt hurt anyway.

 

I know! It's ridiculously unbelievable.

I would feel like it was more accurate if RMClock wasn't calling my Penryn an unknown core. I still can't figure out why the same version recognized my T9300 on the HP but it won't recognize my T8100 on the Dell.

I'll send it through the tests you suggested and I'll bump the voltage up a bit just to be on the extra safe side. Ironically enough, I was just going to undervolt it because I did the same thing to the HP. I've only heard the fan kick on once on the Dell and it was such a low sound I thought it was coming from down the hall. As for the heat, never felt a thing. My HP feels hotter (especially right over the hard drive where my wrist sits).

I just don't know what to make of these results. I'm baffled because it doesn't "feel" right but I know I did everything right and triple-checked to make sure.

 

I can only guess your chipset/BIOS is different compared to the HP. Thats why its probably not being detected correctly.

Id feel a little uneasy at those voltages aswell but hey give it a try. If it works, it works.

You make me wanna buy a T8300 penryn!

 

make sure you use the small fft as it does stress the CPU more than blend. this is widely known in the OCing community.

 

ive got two identical T9300 Penryn processors, same stepping. on the same system (!) i can undervolt one to 0.925 and the other only to 0.95. the one with the possibility to go down to 0.925 (multipliers 6x up to 10x) works with 1V @ 12x, the other one with 0.975 @ 12x.

Why cant i set the other one to 0.925?
And: Which one should i put into my notebook?

 

all processors have some variances in them.... thats bound to happen

 

Right on jbertz. Read the first part of the guide where it explains it

Processors chips are not built equally

but in terms of performance, they will perform at the same set standard/speed.

 

Get the one that undervolts better.Less power draw=more battery life,less heat and better lifespan of the CPU.

 

I recently got a Gateway 6860FX laptop.

Downloaded RMClock and followed this guide to undervolt...which worked...i think. i was able to achieve a stable undervolt for the top 11x and reduction about about 8deg in temp.

The problem is that with RMClock running (which is required) the FPS in World Of Warcraft is cut in half from 60fps to 30fps. If I window out and kill RMClock...FPS is back to normal...however so is voltage and temps.

What gives? why is RMClock degrading performance so much.

Also, I am assuming that RMClock does not do anything permanent to the CPU? So if I delete it and its registry settings everything will be back to default?

 

Uninstalling it or even just shutting it down will make the CPU back as it was.
About the fps issue,beats me.Run wow in a window and see how the CPU behaves while gaming. It might forcedly stay on low power for some reason.

 

Thats exactly how its behaving.

Normally if you select the "Run in Windowed" mode form wow...the FPS is cut about half. Even if you maximize the window to full screen. So I never use it that way,

But if you uncheck it..its back to normal.

Its like with RMClock running Wow thinks its running in windowed mode when its not.

Weird.

Thanks for the info on removing RMClock...just wanted to make sure..since obviously I cannot use it.

 

Im having some issues.

I recently bought an XPS 1530 with a T8300. I've undervolted it to .95v with no problems except that I do not get longer battery life. If put on low power mode or balanced mode I still get longer battery life than with the rmclock mode selected. I know I've followed everything right.

This happen to anyone else?

 

Using power on demand will make the CPU run as needed, even at full power.
Power saver mode will FORCE the CPU to stay at close to 1 Ghz for most CPUs and that`s why you don`t see an increase.
What you need to do is make the multiplier stop at 6,or better yet,at 5x in the profile settings at performance on demand.Just uncheck all multipliers except the first one. You only need about 700 MHz for browsing,and you`ll get a better battery life this way.

 

RMclock shouldnt touch performance at all unless you use the wrong settings.

First with RMclock OFF, check your vista power profile. Make sure it is in High Performance, then restart.

Now turn RMclock ON, and make sure all the multipliers are ticked in both Main profile page and subprofile page as per guide

If you forgot to re-tick them in the subprofile page after the stability testing, you CPU will be handicapped to like 1.2ghz

As eleron said, you will get more battery life on vista power saver profile because your CPU is underclocked (meaning less performance)

With RMclocks profile, it still gives you full performance but with less battery use. You can also underclock with RMclock(similar to vistas battery saver), you just have to untick all the other multipliers except for the 6x

6x multiplier is 1.2ghz , this should be enough power to do most things. If you need more power then you have to tick the next higher multiplier re-tick them in both the profile and subprofile page.

 

Any update on the t9300 only allowing up to 12x multiplier rather than 12.5x yet?

 

Last time I undervolted I used NBHC and somehow got it to work on vista 32 bit. I was BSODing so I uninstalled it. The BSODs persisted anyway and it's summer so I want to undervolt again. Grabbed RM clock and it's not working for me "performance on demand" shows nothing and I can't pick it under "profiles". If I click "Use P-state transitions" under say "maximal performance: I can only check off one of the multis under AC power or battery, forcing me to run that clock. What's the deal?

 

Make sure your CPU is set as Mobile CPU or else it will detect it as a desktop CPU. Check your CPU was detected correctly by looking in the 'CPU info' page

I cant remember, check the previous pages on this guide or on the penryn undervolting thread here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=228934

Someone has bound to have undervolted a T9300

 

CPU info page says nothing about desktop or mobile. I set mobile the way the guide says to as well.

 

a little info please??

i upgraded from a celeron 530P to a T5450 which resulted in average temps dropping from celeron temps of 45c min to up to 79c max under heavy loads

now w/ my T5450 my cores are usually 15 to 30 under normal usage,, and reach 50 when running WinPrirme 32,000,,, my fan rarely cicks on,,,

so what would my main benifits from undervolting be??? longer CPU life ,, longer battery life... (i can't imagine core temps dropping much but who knows)

any advice on how to procede?? with shuch low temps can i expect to get much lower voltages to run stable??

any advice will be appreicated,

thanks
bigO

 

bigozone: What are you using to monitor the temps? Theres a glitch on the T5xx0 processors which shows wrong temps on HWmonitor. Use Coretemp/HWmonitor and RMclock to see if the temps are consistent. 15-30c cores on normal usage doesnt sound right

To answer your questions, all the benefits depend on the undervolt. Check first to see if the temps are accurate

afireinside: Im not sure why you arent seeing your multiplier. All i can say for now is update your BIOS, and intel chipset drivers. Looks like speedstep isnt being detected properly

 

Just as an FYI on battery life, I got 6 hours on my Vostro 1500 9-cell locked into 6x SuperLFM on Power Saving, screen brightness around 3/8, and a Winamp playlist going about half the time, and the screen shut off set for 5 minutes (probably an hour of the time was display off). This was my first foray into max battery so I'm quite pleased with the results.

 

I'm seeing all the multipliers, it just won't let me check off more than one at a time.

 

Make sure you have selected the "Use P-state transitions" at the top of the individual profile pages. This means that the CPU is allowed to change frequency.

John

 

Thanks John. Also dont use the maximal performance profile. Use/Tick the boxes in "Performance on demand" profile.

Im not sure about this but since you tried ticking it at maximal performance. I have a feeling that profile will lock the clockspeed to the designated multiplier. Thats why you can only choose one

EDIT:
I just got home and tried out the maximal performance profile. My assumptions were correct. This profile is used to lock the clockspeed into 1 multiplier. Thus only letting you choose one. Use the Performance on Demand profile as per guide

Performance wise, how does it run on 6x SLFM (600/800mhz). Does it seem slow/sluggish at all?

 

For web, office, and light media usage, it performed just fine. I was DJing for an art show and I ran the whole time on battery SLFM and there was no stuttering in the playback, the tracks advanced smoothly, etc. It wasn't noticeably slower, so for max battery situations, I think people can set up a power saving profile using just the lowest multiplier and get by just fine.

 

I use max performance locked in when I'm gaming, dunno if it hurts or not.

 

Good to hear, i guess 800mhz is enough to run most programs. One advantage of having higherclock speed though, is the program will initially load faster.

Aslong as the temps are in good range your fine. I do suggest using Performance on demand though

 

I tend to use performance on Demand, even when running on battery. Letting the CPU run faster when there is work to do should mean it can get back to sleep sooner. The only risk is if there is some power-sapping application which will run the CPU as fast as it will go, usually while doing nothing. [The latest version of Google Earth has fixed a bug in which a warning box with option buttons to advise of a lost internet connection would max out the CPU. It's not the first time I have seen a program continously looping while waiting for a button to be pressed.]

John

 

Likewise, Performance on demand is what i stick too

John, I figured out why afireinside could only tick one multiplier. The maximal performance profile locks your CPU into one clockspeed. Which ever single multiplier you choose.

 

That's worth knowing. I prefer to let the system decide when it needs to have maximum performance. Locking a system at full (or any other speed) is like going back to the days before SpeedStep was invented. Maybe I lose out on 1% of possible performance because of the delay while the CPU gets up to maximum speed, but I can live with that.

John

 

You have a point, but then again it might be more than 1% there.
If I`m on battery,I use every possible trick to enhance battery life.I`ll do a full test tomorrow and see how much battery life I really have compared to my initial estimates when I bought it,using all known tricks(UV,downclocking,disabling paging etc).
The UV helped me lower my temps beyond expectations.
Down at 1.0375 V right now,stable after 1 h or Orthos.

 

I tried tinkering with this on my current notebook before I get my new gaming one so I know what I'm doing and I've ran in to an issue. I'm running an HP zv6000 (about 3 years old, which is why I'm getting a new one) with an Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz. RMClock reports everything right, but I don't have a mobile/desktop option even shown in RMclock. Maybe it's because it's not Intel like everyone else I've seen on here using so far, but I don't even have a greyed out place with it. It's just not there. Well, I followed the steps and selected Perf on Demand, ticking PST's and all FID's (5-10x). Then when I go to the main profile page, I select PoD as current, tick all FID's and uncheck the auto-adjust intermediate states VID's, then click "Defaults" next as mentioned in the guide. When I do this, it unchecks FID's 6, 7, 8 from the main profile on it's own, and thus in the Performance on Demand sub profile, before hitting the Apply button.

I haven't gone any further in the guide because I've not read anything about this and I'm wondering what's going on with it. Also, possibly because it's AMD, my default voltages seem a lot higher than those listed here and not really consistant.
5x 1.10V
6-8x 1.45V
9x 1.35V
10x 1.40V

My baseline temps are about 32C idle, and 43-45C (peaked at 46C for an instant but usually a couple deg lower) with Orthos Blend CPU and Ram test, which are a lot lower than reported by others. Again, being a much older proc and different brand, maybe that's to be expected. The guide didn't specifiy in the directions which stress test to use, so I used the blend because it was what was shown in the images in the guide.

 

I have the same laptop (1530 with a T8300) and I am in the same boat as you.

X2

I tried to go down to 1.0125V and it was a no go.

I came up with the exact same settings as you. Must be a bios issue?? It's nice running cooler and using less power but I feel there is more to go. SLFM works great. At 600mhz I did notice that once in awhile a song in itunes would stuter for a half a second. For most task it seems to run at 600mhz. My idle temps are really low!! Thanks to the op for this thread!!

 

I also am doing my wife's laptop right now. It's a Toshiba A135-S2386 with a Intel T2080. It detected the cpu a little weird as well (supported sleep states and can't select desktop, mobile, or auto). The good thing is I lowered the vcore on this A TON!!!!!!!!!

Here's the numbers:

Stock 13X: Voltage 1.2125V Temp@Load 57-58C (134 -136F)


Current setting:

Drum roll please--

ALL multipliers @ 0.975V which is as low as it can go!! I have been running orthos for just about 2 hours so far and no hiccup.

Temp@Load is 48-49C (118-120F)


Summed up results - Lowered load temp almost 20F and dropped the vcore a whopping 0.2375V! That's an insane 19.6% lower. I would be scared but it's running fine?! BTW thanks for explaining the other profiles. I was wondering why I could only select one multiplier when in the other profiles.

+rep

 

Interesting. "performance on demand" shows no options for me Also my damn fan won't stop running even with the CPU at 1ghz .95v and the GPU fully underclocked. 49C idle on CPU

 

i was using I8KfanGUI for temp monitoring,,
CPUID hardware monitor is showing idle cores of 40c and 35c

BTW i have been able to run my T5450 @ 0.950v at all multipliers for hours under full CPU LOAD w/ n errors.... i'm still testing and will let it run overnight w/ super PI ,, win prime and what ever else i can come up w/

thanks for the help

 

I was trying to force the CPU to stay at under 1Ghz since my normal setting is 1.2Ghz, so in the Performance on Demand tab, under Battery I disabled the P-state,since that made it run at 1.2 Ghz with the lowest multiplier ,and forced throttling at 37.5%,making the CPU idle at 800Mhz. The only problem is that whenever I start doing something it jumps to full 2.2Ghz.
How can I make it run at MAX 800 on battery?

 

@Eleron: You need to unclick the multipliers till you get down to the specific on, I do no know the exact number, but you want to limit it, just as when you were testing. You then save the multiplier preference to your battery profile. Hope this helps.

 

You see, the thing is that the lowest multiplier in the list is 6x. And that corresponds to 1.2Ghz. If I uncheck all of them, it stays on full power.

 

John: I doubt we even miss out on 1% of performance just because it takes like 200ms longer to throttle to full speed. Ill do a benchmark tonight comparing full speed and throttling

Mooncat: It says your CPU is supported on the RMclock page. Im not suprised the default voltages are high for the processor but being inconsistent is a little weird. Even if the default voltages were detected incorrectly, you can still find the optimum voltages.

Avusm3: Use SuperLFM 8x multiplier. This will run at 800mhz, it should reduce the i-tunes stutter. It shouldnt even stutter unless you keep its stuck at superlfm

bigozone: i believe i8kfangui needs to be calibrated first for the right temps. Test it with whatever you can. 3-4hours test is enough, unless you plan to use the CPU on 100% load for 3-4hrs straight on real-time use. If all is stable then your one of the few with the best undervolt

eleron: You probably overlooked something. On PoD main and sub profile page, only tick the SuperLFM multiplier and set it to 8x this will limit the cpu to 800mhz. Also make sure its the profile thats active.

Another reminder to everyone. To keep your system 200% rock stable, i suggest adding a 0.012v margin to your already found optimum voltages. Most people (like me) like to push it to the very edge but i dont suggest it unless you know your stable/unstable voltages very well. Though I still find my system rock stable as a i use it everyday and i havent gotten a BSOD for a very long while

 

Thought so, but what about RMClock unchecking the FID's when I click the default button? I can skip hitting that button and everything else will stay applied as written in the guide when I hit "apply". I take it once I do all the testing, I don't really have to worry about the default button as long as everything is stable on lower voltages?

 

You only need to hit the default button once. Just re-tick the boxes again if it unticks by itself

Once you do the testing, the default button wont ever be used again unless you wanna start back at default voltages.