Undervolting VS overclocking 101 anyone?

So ive searched the forums and i am one, confused a little about undervolting. It basically reduces the power to the cpu because it is fed more than it needs to operate at its full potential? And I cant find much on undervolting vs overclocking.

Is it possible to undervolt and overclock or only one? I'm still learning about both and the extended battery of undervolting appeals to me coupled with the power ill save switching over to solid state drives.

If you can do both it would be a great way to improve performance while maintainng battery life

 

It is largely CPU dependent, by this I don't mean the model of the CPU, I mean the actual CPU in your laptop. You *might* be able to overclock and undervolt, but for best results, doing only one at once is best. On battery you could undervolt to save power, and on AC you could overclock for more power. Doing them seperate means that:

1. You can save more power(undervolting).
2. You can have a bigger performance gain by overclocking.

Both at once kind of kills the ideas of both.

 

Where the CPU has a lot of extra headroom it's possible to overclock AND undervolt. Eg: I can undervolt my u7600-1.2 on the highest multiplier from 0.9V->0.85V and overclock from 1.2->1.42Ghz with full stability.

 

You could theoretically undervolt, then overclock to the original clockspeed, at risk of possible stabiliy loss. I've done it on desktops just for the hell of it, and it's entirely dependent on the individual chip. You might be better off just throttling the processor.

 

i just purchased a NP5125, do any of the programs used to change volatge, clock speeds have settings? so that i could say switch my i5 540m from undervolt(power saver) to overclock(high performance)?

 

ive also read that sometimes the cpu is simply given more power than it needs, by undervolting am i limiting its processing capabilities or simply giving it the minimum it needs to operate at full power?

 

Edit Button is your friend.

Unfamiliar with Sagers, but generally speaking the OS (whether Windows or Linux) is capable of doing that for you. Maybe not with the same granularity as a third-party program, but probably with more stability. Overclocking on a fly is a bad idea unless the hardware is designed for it or capable of it (e.g. TurboBoost).

A little from column A, a little from column B. At the typical "high performance" setting the processor will run at 100% all the time. This kills battery life and creates massive amounts of heat that often cause the hardware to throttle automatically as a means of self-protection. I haven't got a clue what the absolutely minimum required to run the Core i series of processors is. Your Sager looks more like a laptop than the bulk of Sagers I see, but it still probably has the same thermal issues that all laptops do.

 

Why not try overvolt + overclock on AC and undervolt + underclock on DC.

 

I have been using the AMD Clock Tool to overclock my GPU and it has had fantastic results.

Is there a good guide or freeware utility for safely overclocking my CPU (i7-820QM)?

 

Undervolting does NOT lower the performance of the CPU.
You are merely finding the lowest voltage at which the cpu can run on it's maximum native speed.
Undervolting under such circumstances reduces temperatures.

You could try to undervolt and then overclock the cpu.
I've done that on my gpu. Managed to reduce the overall temps by about 10 degrees and increasing the clocks by about 25%.
Of course, cpu's are a bit different, but it comes down to individual chips.