The "Undervolting" Guide

Because they'd be too many stickies. Instead they started putting one sticky in each forum and linking great threads like this to that one. This is featured in the sticky in the hardware forum.

Regards

 

I dont get it i only got one bsod and i keep lowering the voltage on different multiplyers and it seems to work.

 

I won't get BSOD. I wonder why. I set my CPU to perform maximal(max FID and lowest VID). It doesn't goes BSOD.
But my desktop and another old laptop may get BSOD if I max out FID and set lowest VID for them.

Anyone here know how to unlock BIOS(acer). Acer locks the BIOS setting for TM1 and TM2 and EIST. DAMN! This cause a lot of problems for me(or other acer 6920G owner with vista/7).

 

I installed an X7800 in my ThinkPad and followed the guide to bring temps down. The results were not as good as I had hoped. I have achieved about 6C drop and no BSOD. The VID for all seven FIDs was set at 1.2125v. I have lowered all seven VIDs to1.1000v. That is the lowest VID available. Is there some way to enable lower VIDs? Dropping from 90c to 84C under full load is a good improvement, but more is better, right?

 

Seems high for a low limit. Did you select "Mobile" at the bottom of Adv. CPU Settings ?

 

Yes, I did. I think that was the first thing I did. Any other suggestions?

 

Bizarre, on the Intel page for that processor, it doesn't even have a voltage range - it does for pretty much every other processor I've looked for on there.

X7800

Examples of others:
P8600
T9600

Odd.

 

I'm guessing again, but how about your BIOS. Turn off all bios power control and let the operating system handle things ? Also, use the RMC reg tweaks to unlock VIDS. Only helps if they're not locked up by your bios or the cpu already. Keep twiddling the knobs. It works for me.

(I'm an Honorary Newfie)

 

Okay guys quick question, when my laptops running on battery or charging it nevers go past 1.4ghz or the 7 multiplyer when i run orthos and on high performance. how can i make it go to 2 ghz it full potential?

 

@Fragilexx, the range that was available in RMC was 1.2125-1.1000v. It is strange that there are no specs on the Intel page. Thanks for the links.

@scott.ager, I tried your suggestions, but no change. I will play around to see if I can figure something out.

I have noticed that on the Advanced CPU setting page of RMC, both the "Engage Intel Dynamic Acceleration (IDA)" and "Enable Dynamic FSB Frequency Switching (DFFS)" are grayed out.

OT: scott.ager, you have been to the Rock , kissed the Cod and chugged the Screech? Quite the initiation, eh.

 

Guys i fixed the problem is was that i had only two pstate check.

 

@mklym - OT: scott.ager, you have been to the Rock , kissed the Cod and chugged the Screech? Quite the initiation, eh

Heh heh. And, I lived through the experience to further my undervolting career !

Cheers Buddy

 

i have 2 laptops. 1 on FSB 667/T7600 and FSB 1066/QX9300.
from what i gathered only those with FSB are capable of IDA and SLFM.
yeah I have seen my QX9300 doing IDA. just run prime95 single thread and it goes to IDA.

then there's the CPU with FSB 800. not sure if it's capable of IDA.

 

T8100 has a front side bus running at 800 MHz and does IDA and SLFM. I just turn them off because they're a waste of processor time.

 

thnx for this great guide op

 

Hi, first of all thanks for the guide to undervolting. I was crazy enough to start from the first page to the 312th page, but it was a real pleasure and eye-opener. This is my first time undervolting a laptop but i had a ball of a time spending hours on end doing all the required tests to get the ideal VID values for the various multipliers.

For your infomation, im using a Intel Centrino 2 P8700.

FID VID
superlfm 6.0x 0.8750V
normal 6.0x 0.8750V
normal 7.0x 0.9000V
normal 8.0x 0.9125V
normal 9.0x 0.9375V
IDA 10.0x 1.2250V ( i left this unchecked, as i understand
that RMClock doesnt suppoer .5x
multipliers and didnt undervolt it)


I did a stability test of 45mins for the 7.0x and 8.0x mulitpliers and got no error messages. While a stability test of 45mins and 3hrs 20mins respectively for the 9.0x multiplier and got no error messages.

However, like other posters, they have mentioned of having some sort of CPU load spike, that is, frm 10%-77000% eg. I too face this problem and was wondering how to resolve it.

Another question in regards to voltage spike, i thought it was normal for the voltage to check when stepping up or down. What does one actually means by having voltage spikes as im unsure if im facing such a problem too as it seems to come hand in hand with the CPU load spike.

I hope someone can shed some light regarding these issues, i would very much appreciate it. Thanks!

 

Ok guys, just spent a decent amount of time today undervolting my P8400

So far I have successfully undervolted the highest multiplier (x8) ~2.1GHz [100MHz below normal due to downclocking ]

The stock voltage was 1.1125v, and I followed flipfire's guide to the dot.
Maximum temperatures when testing at stock voltage were 70°C and 66°C after running to tests of ~10 mins
Thumbs of results:


All was stable until I reduced the clocks from 0.9375v to 0.9125v, while stress testing this produced my laptop's first ever BSOD

Increased the voltage a little to 0.9250 (between the two) and this was stable after ~50 mins

I decided to stick with 0.9375 as my final value and after ~3 hrs stress testing using ORTHOS the max temp reached was 55
Result:


So overall I was able to reduce the voltage by 0.175v (1.125 > 0.9375), and this dropped my temps by 15-11°C (70/66 > 55)

I think that is awesome
Off to play a game for a while and see how much my temps fall by under load when gaming.

This image confirms my voltage using CPU-Z 1.4:


I plan on undervolting all multipliers tomorrow, to improve all temps and battery life
PS - Will idle temps fall by undervolting lower multipliers???

Hope this answers your question

 

Is it possible for me to go lower than 1.2 ghz because thats the lowest it goes?

 

By the way, you probably wont notice massive drops in temps when gaming as most games are GPU intensive rather than CPU intensive. You will see some difference though; especially with the more CPU intensive games out there (GTAIV, some parts of Crysis, etc)

 

Took a while for the Screech to wear off but I checked out your processor at the Intel site. It seems that your Extreme 8700 is a rugged version built with wider 65nm interconnects instead of narrower 45nm "wiring". It draws more power, 45 watts vs. 35. It's built more like a Diesel than a gas engine. I'm going to venture that the VIDs are locked on the high side, again for reliability. Xtremely annoying, eh. Must be designed for a notebook server, whatever the hell that is.

 

No, not crazy. Refreshing

 

Thanks for the info. I have been playing with this for a while, and can not get any voltage lower than 1.1000v, no matter what I try. Mind you, that is a lower voltage than the member I bought it off of was able to get when it was in his notebook. Lowest he got was 1.13v with RMC. I am going to reapply the IC7 this weekend. I ordered some copper sheet and will use some as a NB shim. That might help a little, seeing as it's heatsink is also the GPU/CPU heatsink.
Yea, it is annoying, but I guess I will have to live with it, or sell this proc and buy a T7800.
Thanks for your time and effort.

 

So I've just completed the undervolting process but have one significant question. I'm putting the computer through the 3 hour stress test and RMClock shows my processor working at 2.25 Ghz - I have a 2.53 Ghz processor.

After looking at the settings in this thread I unchecked IDA - which is my 10X multiplier, when checked I think I'll be able to reach 2.53 Ghz. My question is why does this guide recommend unchecking IDA? It seems like I am sacrificing processing power by having it unchecked. Screenshot coming.

 

How do you take a screen shot of your desktop? I'd like to do so, so I can post what my undervolting info looks like because I feel like I may be doing a few things wrong, and I'd like to correct it.

 

It is very useful information to some extent. Please help me out regarding this topic going on. Any DB members tell me to what exact direction discussion is going on now?


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Hi, in regards to my previous post.
I tried 1313's suggestion to read up on this post http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=276661 by 7oby (once again thanks for the great write-up) to solve the "spike" problem.

I changed the current energy profile of Vista such that the mininum processor power state = maximum processor power state as suggested and would like to post some screenshots on whether this problem is still recurring.

This was when my laptop was supposedly in idle state
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This was when i was opening a programme
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Im not sure if i have voltage spikes. But im 100% certain that i have CPU load spikes even after trying the the method suggested. Cause i still see my CPU load jump from 20%-70000% at times. Anyone has a solution to this? Thanks

P.S Darth Raven to take screenshots of your desktop you can use the snipping tool found in your start -> programmes-> accessories folder

 

Guys,

As a courtesy, could you post your giant screenshots as thumbnails please. Then, everyone can expand them with a mouse click and still read other posts without scrolling across a city block to finish reading a single sentence. Big pictures screw up the reading layout for everyone.

Thanks,

 

My sentiments exactly

Especially when viewing on WXGA

 

Fn + Print Scrn key the paste into paint and save,
Function + Print Screen keys...

 

sorry if this has been asked, but 314 pages is a lot to go through.

is there any way to get voltages lower than 0.9250V?

thanks

 

is there any guide for using the programs that allow for half multipliers? thanks!

 

Hi kazaam55555, i managed to try this method and apparently it works. Checking the IDA multiplier on the profiles tab and unchecking the 'Engage Intel Dynamic Acceleration' on the advanced CPU settings tab. Im using a P8700 which has a 9.5.x multiplier i believe and from the monitoring page i can see my CPU running at the full 2.5ghz. But what you need to do is to also undervolt the IDA multiplier. I managed to get the lowest possible VID on it which passed a 3hr stability test. Things look bright for now..

You can try this if you wanna engage your .5x multiplier

 

Hi
I just recieved a Dell Studio XPS 13 yesterday with a P8700, and I'm undervolting today.

For some reason, the default 9x multiplier with a 1.125 (not the IDA)voltage, I'm currently at 0.950v and still stress testing (still no BSOD or anything after 30mins); is going down THIS low normal?

I'd also like to ask about this; All my other multipliers (aside from SuperLFM and IDA) are default at 1.125v except for my 9x multiplier, which as i mentioned is currently at 9.50v. Are they all supposed to be the same? Or am I able to lower them too to stable voltage similar to my 9x multiplier?(without needing to stress test each time; I dont intend on using the auto-function either)

 

You should be able to select numbers from the range or check auto adjust and work from there.

 

Hi helldemon,

im using a P8700 too and managed to get my 9.0x multiplier down to 0.9375V after a stability test of 3hrs. So i believe going at 0.9500V should be fine as long as you test it's stability. Just for you info, maybe like a benchmark. 0.9375V was the lowest i could go. For the next lower VID @ 0.9250V, i got an Orthos error after 2hr 10mins mark. And for VID @ 0.9125V, i got a BSOD straight after starting Orthos. Hope this helps.

 

Oh awesome, thanks Shinseijuro.

How about the rest of the multiplier's voltages? Because it seems when my CPU is using a lower multiplier, it uses more volts o___o
i.e. this is how it looks like

FID VID
6x 1.125
7x 1.125
8x 1.125
9x 0.950

How much would I be able to lower the other multipliers?

 

Hi helldemon,

one reason you may be seeing all the same voltages is RMClock isnt reading your multiplier VIDs correctly. You can solve this by simply pressing defaults first.

 

Ohhh thanks so much again Shinseijuro!

I just have two final questions; so if i have SuperLFM, should I turn it on? As the OP said, it's good, but at the beginning he said to untick it, so I'm not entirely sure if its suggestable or not =/

And my second question is, for the rest of the multipliers, after testing my max (9x) one, when going for the rest, do I untick all the multipliers higher than it? I.e. testing the 2nd last mutliplier, I should only have my lowest (not IDA), i.e. 6x and my second lowest 7x ticked off in index and in the profile page right?

 

YAY! Somebody got it. I've been posting this forever. You can fool RMC into using your highest half-multiplier by selecting the last IDA box for your FID and then tell the program NOT to use dynamic acceleration. Since this is not exactly a speed switching thread (God, I wish ....), don't forget to undervolt first so you can run cool while you're running fast. If you paid good money for a fast CPU, use it the way it was built for. See my avatar.

 

Hiya,

i believe the reason why flipfire said to untick it was to not confuse readers as not all have the SuperLFM enabled. I quote flipfire " SuperLFM stands for Super Low Frequency Mode. This ingenious feature lets your processor idle at an even lower clock speed by dynamically cutting the FSB in half. In turn, means even lower clock and voltages thus more battery life and efficiency. '' Its rather subjective though, but you can try to see if it works for you. For me, i seem to be having CPU load spikes as suggested by scott may be because of the SuperLFM. Im still currently trying to look into this for now.

Yes youre right. I assume youre trying to undervolt the 8.0x multiplier after undervolting the 9.0x. So you just need to untick the 9.0x multiplier in the Profile page. While still having the 6.0x, 7.0x and 8.0x multipliers ticked.

 

Once again, you have helped me Shinseijuro!

Thanks so much!

 

Hey guys ...
I have a P7350 CPU and since it has half-multipliers undervolting would result in underclocking because RM-Clock does not support half multipliers.

I have been using CrystalCPUID over the past 2 days or so ...
I changed the Voltages for the maximum multiplier which is 7.5 for my cpu ... and I experienced 0 temperature decreases.
I can change the voltages all the way down to 1.050 for the maximum multiplier (ORTHOS crashes on lower ones) but the temperatures remain unaffected.
I tested in ORTHOS and tested by playing Mass Effect.
Temps remain the same regardless of what I do with the multipliers.

Any ideas ... or is this cpu simply too stubborn for undervolting or impossible to undervolt at all?
Btw ... I'm on Win7 RC1 x64

 

HW Monitor seems to be one of the better ones. Everest, despite being really useful for a lot of things, seems to report completely different temperatures to everything else I use. Either they are all wrong and Everest is right, or the other way round.

I didn't get on well with Crystal CPU either.

 

try CPUgenie trial for now. They full support C2D cpu's

Everest's CPU database doesnt get updated that often, so the Tjunct max info arent accurate which makes the CPU temps offset compared to HWmonitor or coretemp.

 

EDIT: just saw a response ...

I tried CPU genie ... it won't install under x64 OS (and those are the only ones I have).

One other thing ... while CPU-Z registers that the highest multiplier is on a new Voltage of my choosing, the temps remain as high as before.

Why doesn't undervolting work on P7350?
Or am I doing something wrong?

 

@ Deks, it sounds like your heatsink/fan is dirty. How old is the laptop? If it is new, then I think the thermal pad was not installed properly at the factory.
If the heatsink is dirty, or the pad is on wrong, undervolting will not help with temps.

 

Ok, tell me if I did something wrong here. I followed the guide and everything and the RM Clock showed two different multipliers in profiles. The first one is 6.0x and it was already set at the lowest setting and the second one was the 7.0x which I set at 1.0250. HWMonitor showed before 73 and 79, now it shows a 63 and 69 (averaged 62 and 68 though). But right now the RM Clock Utility is showing a guage which indicates a constant usage of processor usage set a 1.71 GHZ. I turned off the gadget thing.

 

I have an asus g50vt a1
it gets really hot

I want to undervolt it but i have a question because I have the windows 7 rc and Pretty soon I'm going to be installing the real windows 7 when it comes out

When restoring your pc to factory settings, installing new os ect. will that mess with the voltage after you changed it? will it change the undervolt back to the stock voltage?