what is undervolting?

what is undervolting, and how will it help my computer?

what are the pros and cons of undervolting, and will it damage hardware?

and how can i undervolt?

 

Undervolting is the process of lowering the voltage supplied to the processor in order to achieve lower temperatures and thus a quieter laptop (through slowed fan speeds).

Undervolting, if done improperly, may lower your system's stability.

I believe that there is a program called RMClock (or something along the lines of that) for undervolting purposes.

 

You shouldn't be able to damage your hardware, but apparently one can never be sure of how the logic handles noise. On the other hand, you might as well extend the life time of your hardware.

 

Undervolting is great. I think everyone should do it as standard. Cooler laptop, longer battery life, etc. I managed to reduce my max temps by 10c

No downsides, most youll get is a blue screen but this is if you lower the voltages to very low level. If you fine tune the voltages properly you should not get any at all.

It does NOT compromise performance at all. Underclocking will

Use RMClock and go here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=124420&page=16&highlight=undervolt+overclock

Scroll down to blackbirds post

 

I undervolted my old laptop and achieved about 10-15 degrees Celsius cooler temperatures. It is definitely worth it in laptops and I recommend it to everybody. If you search this forums, there are a couple programs that can be used to undervolt, and then test the undervolting. Since undervolting with laptops is achieved through software, if you do undervolt too much, it will be fixed the next time you reboot. Anyways, if you undervolt a little at a time you'll be fine.

 

Another strong vote for undervolting. My Turion now works at 0.7v for 4x, which brought down temp by some 8-10*C

 

I suggest lowering the max multiplier by .150v . I noticed the lower the multiplier, the more sensitive the stability is.

Usually processors can handle .200v less but not all processors are made equally. Some can handle less some cant. This is why you do the stability test which puts full cpu load for an hour to see if it crashes and see the max temps

 

I got my CPU voltage down to 1.050V for the 11x (max) multiplier. Didn't try the lower ones yet.

Plus there is a program called orthos, I ran that for an hour. Temps peaked at 60C, not bad. it idles though at around 50C. gonna try and lower that by lowering the 6x multiplier, I already got one BSOD. lol

 

You cant lower the idle multiplier, you idle temps will always be the same.

The lower multipliers are more sensitive than the higher. You really gotta watch out. Ive fine tuned my lower multipliers so they dont give me BSOD's at all.

The ORTHOS stress test will ONLY test the full load (11x stability). Theres no actual program to test the stability of other multipliers AFAIK. You need certain cpu load to reach these multipliers and test their stability

Youll notice that if your doing something with low cpu load like chatting and your computer bsod's its your lower multipliers

 

oh i see. thanks everyone.

so i shouldnt lower the voltage TOO much...... and lowering voltage doesnt effect the performance? so, why arent processors shipped with lower voltage to begin with?

 

Not all processor chips are made equal. Manufacturers like AMD and Intel would have to tune each processor individually to reach its optimum voltage. Instead they make all chips run on the same voltage which is 1.250v, a voltage high enough for all chips to be stable at any cpu even though they can tolerate much less.

Trust me it has 0 effect on performance, i would have stopped using it if it did Under/Overclocking is what affects performance. The voltage just supports the clock speeds, if its not getting enough power it will give you a bluescreen

 

Basically processor will run at lower voltage. Lower voltage, less heat.(you gonna get the same performance as before)


Your overall system temps will be lower too.
There is a great guide posted by Blackbird.
Hava a look.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2637648#post2637648

 

Btw what are your idle temps? 50C should be normal right?

The thing is, I used RMClock. Now the problem is that all the multipliers are the same voltage, 1.050V. The highest multiplier it's 1.050V, then the lower multipliers can obviously be lowered, how would I go about to measure that. The highest one is easy, just stress the cpu. but the lower ones.....???

Even if I were to lower it, how would I check it's stability?

 

exactly what im getting too...
my normal idle temps are 48-50C

highest ive seen it go is 100C but that was when i was i playing CoD4 on my bed and the fan was blocked.... with the stress test by Orthos i got it up to 72C for a couple secs but it was staying at 70C most of the time.

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my main objective is to increase battery life more than to lower temps because my temps stay pretty cool... most of the time. i leave my everest running all the time just to monitor temps, thats how i now, lol. ive been leaving it open since december.


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oh btw Yitzter, to check the stability, run the program Orthos for a long time... a really long time. the guide says 40mins. i ran it for 20mins without any modifications though, so see if i can reach 100C again. wouldnt budge more than 72C. anyway, Orthos is a stress program. it runs at max CPU and uses up alot of your RAM. it used about 1.2GB of my RAM and 1.5GB of my pagefile.

i had the same question as you, how in the world can i test the lower multipliers?

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something i noticed. when running everest, it says my CPU is at 800MHz at 8x (98.3MHz FSB) but CPU-Z and RMClock both say its 1600MHz at 8x (199.8MHz FSB).
who's right? lol

 

Im getting 39-45c idle temps, not sure why yours is so high. Im using a laptop cooler and its summer here at the moment in Australia. Its usually 45c or less for idle temps, check your cpu load.

Heres a photo of my RMclock settings and temps im getting atm. This is with a few programs on:
http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8176/desktopum6.jpg

As for the lower multiplier stability, there are no tests. When i was fine tuning mine and it the voltage was too low it would randomly crash just by clicking the Start button (not all the time) and doing low cpu load stuff.

Im still not finished fine tuning the lower multipliers as i lower the voltages once a day by day for individual multipliers and see if it eventually BSOD's. If it does then i will put the previous settings back and add extra voltage for more stability. Its taken me a week so far and no BSOD which means im doing the right thing. I play games (full load), chat, surf and listen to music everyday which makes the CPU go through all the multipliers

 

wow thats cool.

mine are always at 50C idle. my GPU is at 58-61C and my HDD is 50 also

 

Flipfire, are you running WinXP or Vista? The reason I ask is I am running Vista and I have to disable UAC and Vista blocking unsigned drivers to get RMClock to run at startup. I can get RMClock to start, but my settings are not saved. Perhaps we have to wait for an update to RMClock before all these issues are sorted out.

 

LOL, It only uses that much ram, because by default the program uses a blend test of ram and cpu. You can set it to only ram or only cpu, before you run the test.

 

I disabled UAC actually, it just annoys me but try instructins below

Remove RMClock form startup first and try this, it should bypass the UAC:

1. Please locate and run "Task Scheduler". "Task Scheduler" can be found in "System tools" folder within "Accessories" folder. Alternatively, type in "Task Scheduler" in start button's search bar.

2. Click on "Create Task" from the "Actions" panel (on right hand side). This will present to you five tabs i.e. General, Triggers, Actions, Conditions and Settings.

3. In "General" tab, tick the "Run with highest privileges" tick box. I assume your current user account belongs to Administrators group and you have one user account on your computer. This section relates to Windows NT security.

So lets move to the next tab.

4. In Triggers tab, select the "New..." button. This will present another window titled "New Trigger".

Next to "Begin the task:" text line, click on drop down menu and select "At log on". This will change the window. Click on "Any user" button.
Let's go to the next tab i.e. Actions.

5. In Actions tab, select "New..." button. This will present another window titled "New Action".

Next to "Action:" text line, click on drop down menu and select "Start a program" item.

Click on Browse button to locate RMClock program. Mine is located in
"C:\Program Files\RMClock\RMClock.exe"

Next to "Add arguments(optional)" line, type in "-profile 3" (minus quotes) in the text box. Refer to RMClock's documentation for other command line options.

Let's move to next tab.
6. In Conditions tab, make sure all tick boxes are cleared i.e. no ticks marks.

Let's move to next tab.

7. In Settings tab, tick the following tick boxes
"Allow task to be run on demand"

Now click on the "OK" button. Log out and log back in. RMClock should be automatically started during log-in.

 

You can use RMclock to limit the processor to the lowest (or any other multiplier). Just choose maximum performance and uncheck all the mulipliers you dont wont (check only the multiplier you want to test) and then run Orthos. This will force the processor to run at only the chosen speed. Do this one at a time to test all the multipliers...

 

Awesome, thanks for that popextra

There ya go guys, you can test all the multipliers now. Let Orthos run for at least 30mins on each multiplier. 30mins should be enough since the it wont always be running at that multiplier due various loads on the cpu

 

Awesome that sounds amazing. Gonna try it immediately.

Thanks a ton.

 

I have just tried every multiplier, got a few BSOD. The lower multipliers are very sensitive, i only got to change one voltage. Probably because ive already had the best settings from before.

Yitzer & anyone that does the multiplier test: Be aware that if you untick the multipliers on the Main profile tab, it will also untick it the Performance on Demand sub profile. This means your CPU will not reach the max multipliers and run very slow if you dont tick it again.

I panic'ed when noticed my multipliers were stuck at 8x even though ive ticked all the boxes on the main profile tab. What i didnt know was that you need to retick them again on the performance on demand sub-page. If you dont do this your cpu will be stuck at the last multiplier you tested and run slow

 

So the settings are saved after reboot then? If so this would just about fix it to work properly under Vista.
Thanks Flipfire and popextra. I'll give it a try. It will be great to reduce the temp of the CPU and therefore the laptop as a whole.

 

A little extra tip: Don't forget to restart RMClock once you've made a successful stress test. This will ensure that it saves the latest settings, which it might not if the comp blue screens.

 

Does this only work for certain CPUs? I have an AMD Turion and it already runs cool (one core runs a few degrees hotter than the other). Even when I was playing Warcraft III, which is a more graphic intense game (obviously nowhere near something like Doom 3), the temperatures never jumped above 42C. I used coretemp to check it out. Otherwise, the core temps range from 27C to 34C.

 

The voltage ID's are set under "Profiles"and saved, but the "Power Selection" for AC and Battery are resetting from "Power on Demand" to "No Management".

Is there anyway to save these settings permanently?

 

Wow your computer runs quite cool for an AMD processor, those temps are hard to believe. Use hwmonitor and play warcraft 3 again, see what your peak temps are while playing games

Yes this will work for most processors specially with dual cores. I recommend anyone with enough knowledge to undervolt.

It should stay permanent. Are you sure you followed the instructions correctly? Im quite sure u missed a setting, as Power on demand should remain as a permanent dynamic profile

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You dont have to restart RMclock, you just need to press APPLY everytime you change a setting. If you forget to this then the changes wont take effect and wont be saved

 

flipfire, just to double check...seeing as how I have Vista x64 and Santa Rosa chip, there is still no way to undervolt correct?

 

Supported platforms: OS

* 32-bit Windows NT class OS version 5.0 and higher: Windows 2000, XP, 2003 Server and Vista platforms. No support for Win9x OS family is ever planned.
* Support for Windows XP x64 platforms is available since version 1.7 (x64 driver included into the package).
* NOTE: Support for 64-bit Windows Vista is currently limited due to the kernel mode driver digital signature requirement of that OS (workarounds are necessary).
* NOTE: You must have Administrative rights to install and run this utility.

Thats from the RMclock website. Not too sure, ill figure it out later as im switching to 64bit aswell. It should be in the forums

 

OKAY - Now this is strange ... Remember those wonderfully LOW temps I told you about? Well, it appears that when my computer is using the hard drive excessively - AKA doing a virus scan or installing a really big program from the HD (that was downloaded from the internet), the temp jumps up to like 56C or 60C. If something runs from memory or the Optical Drive - temp stays where I mentioned (around 27C to 35C).

This is the first time I've run a virus scan and it's staying at 58C-60C.

 

27-35c is very cool for core temps. You must live in a freezer or something

55c to 65c are the temps an average pavilion user would get when doing a virus scan. These are core temps, they are seperate from HD temps. Run HwMonitor and keep track of the cpu gpu and hdd temps

 

thanks for the tips guys.
can everyone post their CPUs and their settings? after things seem to working.

maybe we can make a guide on what settings work best. lol

 

Mujjuman: If you are talking about the voltage settings, not all processors are made equally. Some will able to handle lower voltages, some cant

The lowest mine could go was [email protected] on a Intel C2D T7500. It really varies from different type/brand of processor and model

 

Thanks Flipfire and Popextra. Between the two of you I have been able to reduce my voltages and cpu temperature considerably. You are absolutely correct Flipfire that this does not impact performance negatively whatsoever.

This is a look at Orthos testing out the 6x FID at the lowest voltage setting.

 

Nice Desktop

You dont really need to test the idle (x6) multiplier since this voltage cant be lowered at all and it will always remain stable.

My idle multiplier was 0.937v if i remember correctly. Yours must be higher at default. I dont remember having x12 multiplier on mine either, u must have a better CPU then.

Make sure you re-tick the boxes on the Main profile page and the "Power On Demand" sub-profile page after your done testing for stability. Also you might wanna set your Startup to "Power on Demand" profile for both AC and Battery

 

Ok heres the lowdown for 64bit RMClock:

64bit vista will NOT accept any drivers that arent digitally signed by Microsoft. Certain software will need to get certification to work. Unfortunately, RMclock doesnt have this certification. The developers have been trying to fix this, but it their taking their sweet ass time, its nearly been over a year now.

There are ways to work around this by Disabling certain startup checks but Microsofts latest updates have completely sabotaged it. There is a program called Astiv that will bypass these checks but im sure this will be soon blown up by microsoft again when the latest service pack comes out

So we will pretty much have to wait till RMClock gets their drivers digitally signed because the work around alternatives seem to be getting blocked off

Heres more info about Vista UAC blocking RMclock and 64-bit workarounds:
http://forum.rightmark.org/topic.cgi?id=6:942

 

I used RMClock to undervolt my HP Pavilion. However I didn't notice a decrease in temp. I folllowed the instructions step by step and there wasn't a difference in temperature at all. Am I missing something or doing something wrong?

 

Seriously i hope RMClock digitally signed before Service pack 1 comes out on 64bit vista. I will actually pay $$ for a 64bit compatible version of RMClock

Probably both. Majority of the temp decrease is on your max temps, if you do a full load test and watch the test you will notice the drop

 

I usually don't tick the boxes on the Main profile page the Startup to "Power on Demand" profile for both AC and Battery until I have stress tested it to make sure I am satisfied I can reboot without an issue.

Thanks again for the tips. If I have an issue I'll be sure to ask you for help. Thanks for the info on RMClock for Vista64. I may upgrade down the road to Vista64, but I am limited to 3 GB Ram on my chipset and would like at least 4 GB. Perhaps on my new rig I'll have more Ram and a true 64-bit chipset, but that won't be until Windows 7.

 

so youre saying that two C2D T7300 are different even though they have same specs and just because 1 of them can handle lower voltages, the other might not? just making sure.

nice desktop! but at 6x multiplier, you are still at 2 GHz.... shouldnt it be lower? or am i reading this wrong and confusing myself more.

 

Yes, same concept also goes for overclocking. Once might burn out quicker than the other. I only managed to reduce my x11 voltage by .150v , another user managed to get -.200v and we have the same processor

If your reading it from the ORTHOS cpu speed, that only shows your maximum processor speed which is correct since he owns a T7200 2.0ghz

 

Has anyone been doing any undervolting with Penryn processors? The RM Clock beta lets me set my T8300 to a minimum of 1.1125v (I can't even try anything lower than that). Is this because its beta for Penryn or is this the lowest voltage I can go with the T8300? I can go all the way up to 2.4Ghz at 1.1125v.

 

Glad to be of help!
But i have a WEIRD and BIG problem with RMclock too. If you guys help me with this i will be EXTREMELY grateful!!

I've undervolted and stress test all the multipliers with Orthos for hours. everything is okay. No freezing or BSOD.

Now, the weird part, when i'm not stress testing or NOT doing anything on my computer, my computer will freeze after 15-30 mins....sometimes after 2 hours!
I think it may have something to do with the ACPI settings on the Advance settings or one of the timings thing on RMclock.

Anyone having similar problems?? HELP please.

I'm using an AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile 52TL processor..
It seems that as long as RMclock is running my pc will freeze....even if i put the Vids to the default voltage!

 

i love this thing.... i use it on my AMD desktop and it works well. i know its not relevent here but i have my voltage down to 1.100v and sometimes i underclock it too, about 1.0GHz and my processor runs at 17*C

i didnt see any cooler temps on my laptop though... i went from 50*C to 48*C so i left it as it is.

 

Hope you don't mind me coming in to this thread. I didn't want to have to start a new thread for a (hopefully) simple question about undervolting since this was the thread that got me started on my, ahem, journey.

I'm not sure I've been lowering the voltage and then running Orthos on the right thing. I've got 8 indexes on the Profiles section and they're all checked. The lowest is 0, called SuperLFM with an FID of 8.0x and a VID of .9250. The next one is 1, type is Normal, FID of 6.0X and a VID of 1.1375.

I've been lowering the voltage on index 8, the highest. Its type is IDA. Its FID is 13.0x and the VID is 1.2250. I've had this index down to 1.175 with no stability issues but watching the CPU info, I'm not sure if I am supposed to be lowering the voltage on index 7 instead, which is type normal like indexes 1-7 (FID is 12.0X and VID is 1.1375 on index 8).

Anyway, here's a screen of my rmclock Profiles page I'm talking about.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

SuperLFM stands for Super Low Frequency Mode. I just discovered this recently, its a very great technology. It makes your cores run at 600mhz on idle @ 0.850v instead of 1.2ghz on idle @ .937v (depending on your processor) which even saves you more battery life when idling

Put your SuperLFM on 6x and put it on the lowest or default voltage. Heres what mine looks like. Dont copy it since you have different processor but adjust it accordingly


IDA is Intel Dynamic Acceleration. It makes only one of the cores work on certain programs/actions and the other core resting. This will barely be in effect according to what ive read so i kept mine disabled.

 

Got a couple more questions...

- When I change my settings like the other thread says, my maximal VID on the CPU info tab doesn't change. It still says 1.1375. I've changed index 12 and the IDA index (13). But no change.

- That leads me to my next question. Which one should I be lowering to find out how low my voltage can go? Flipfire, you mentioned you disabled IDA on yours. Did you lower the voltage on this as a test or did you start with your index 6 that is your highest "Type Normal" value? If I understand IDA correctly, that wouldn't be the right index to lower to test for CPU load, right? It would be your highest "Normal" index. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I obviously have no idea what I'm doing!

Thanks again in advance.

 

wow... how did u find the SuperLFM and IDA again?

 

Mujjuman, please forgive my ignorance if I'm not understanding your question because I'm a complete n00b to undervolting...but the SuperLFM and IDA is showing up in my Profiles tab in RMClock. Is that what you were asking?