RTX2060 undervolting results

Hi I recently started undervolting my RTX2060 in a Clevo P970ED chassis.
Before all of this I used a profile created by the OC scanner from Afterburner.
The specs of my unit are:

i7 8750h (2.4-3.9ghz)
RTX2060 (960-1200mhz)
16GB dual channel (DDR4-2400)

Both the CPU and GPU have liquid metal and I've upgraded the thermal pads with Gelid Extreme pads.
The CPU is undervolted by -0.100v and I removed the power limit with throttlestop.
Temperatures on stock GPU settings are 75 degrees and 80-90 degrees for the unlocked CPU.

To undervolt the GPU manually I've used this video from Bob of all Trades as a starting point:



So I made a flat profile and tried to find the max stable clockspeed without hitting the power limit.
These are my results so far:

0.700v: 1455mhz
0.718v: 1500mhz
0.725v: 1515mhz

And this is how the profile looks like:



The amount of voltage the GPU needs is very low after 0.725v I 'already' run into the powerlimit of the GPU.
HwInfo64 reports this is happening @ 80W with a temperature of 67 degrees.
To be fair I already achieved +315mhz on the Nvidia specification and about +100mhz over the stock profile.

The GPU is rated at 80-90w in order to verify this I did a benchmark with the OC scanner profile and it will hit 90w.
It doesn't do for long though voltages and clockspeed are jumping around constantly.
I also did a few 3DMark Firestrike runs and compared the results with similar RTX2060 laptops.
The best graphics score I could get was around 16500 but I also noticed a lot of users get (much) better results.
Here is a link to see the results I'm comparing to:

https://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search2/cpugpu/fs/P/2321/1242/16920?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel Core i7-8750H Processor&gpuName=NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Notebook

So I have a few questions:

1 Is the 80w power limit normal while it's rated to do 90w?
2 Is it possible to unlock the gpu to 90w with a different bios?
3 How on earth do other users get such insane results in firestrike with similar hardware?

 

The #1 score in the comparison seems bogus, its done with 2080ti as the secondary graphics card.

Also, you're comparing an undervolted result to overclocked results. The 2060 you linked all run +2Ghz on the core.
You want to find a voltage/mhz sweetspot where you're not hitting the thermal/power limit and can get the most out of your gpu.

I'd use your core clock OC in afterburner, ie. +150mhz, as a baseline, locking the voltage to something like 0.950mV by pressing L on the node and testing FS score vs thermal vs power limits. And depending on what headroom is left, either allow for more voltage or lower the voltage.

 

This piece of data isn't a good guideline because it's the stock full power RTX2060 profile which FS extracts from systeminfo.
Laptops versions won't get near these performance levels due to tdp limit.

The sweetspot of mine is @ 0.725v as far is I know.

Tried this but the voltage can't be locked @ 0.950v.
It jumps around 0.718-0.8v constantly ticking the power limit.
FS score drops to around 16000 and GPU temps are 75-78 degrees.

 

If only we had a BIOS tweaker for RTX cards... all problems would be solved

 

Forgot to click on apply in Afterburner

Got a graphics score of around 17000 with this method.
0.950v (locked) is still to high though but I checked the voltage during the FS benchmark.
Under load it was between between 0.718-0.812v.
What I did next was loading the OC scanner profile and made the profile flat after 0.812v.
Re-run FS and got a graphicsscore of 16978 I will finetune the profile further to get the best out of it.
The cool thing is that I have several profiles for different usercases.

 

Let us know when you finish coding it

 

Thanks for the input so far I have few more questions related to CPU undervolting.

When you unlock the tdp in throttlestop you can also control ICCmax for the CPU core and CPU cache:





If understand correctly ICCmax controls the max amps the CPU can pull.
128 seems to be a common setting for this cpu in this scenario (unlocked tdp).
I've ran Prime95 and dropped this value to the point it will throttle the lowest I could get was 110 without throttling.
The ICCmax on the CPU cache I haven't touched this is set to 11 by default.

1 What is the maximum save value for ICCmax for the CPU core for my CPU (8750h)?
2 Does it make sense to lower the ICCmax on CPU core or is the max usage automatically controlled by the CPU anyways?
3 Lets say I want to increase my undervolt to -0.120 will it help to gain stability if I raise the ICCmax on CPU cache? Or shouldn't I mess with ICCmax CPU cache at all?

 

1. Technically stock, any extra current lowers life span.
2. It only draws what it needs, you are just setting a max speed limit.
3. Current limits dont impact stability directly, again like speed limits.

 

There are some users that have succesfully flashed their RTX2060 mobile bios to 90w:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...cussions-lounge.827160/page-112#post-10886687

 

That's just flashing another brand of file rather than editing however.

 

True, so if this works would it be harmfull to the GPU?

 

The GPU no, but it will put the power circuitry under more stress.

 

I succesfully flashed the bios to the Asus version and made my own curve in Afterburner.
The PL is raised to 90w in benchmarks there is no big difference FS is around 17600 graphics score which is 3,5% faster.
In-game though you get 5-10% more FPS compared to the 80w undervolt bios.
Clockspeeds are between 1590-1650mhz and the max. temperature is 79 degrees with the same fanspeed (45%).
Did a few hours of stresstesting and gaming and everything is stable.

 

Temperature on the gpu/vram looks good and a nice improvement on the FS score.

Keep an eye on vrm temps when doing such mods. Having all the mosfets and chokes cooled properly. And check that they have proper contact between thermalpads and heatsink.

 

The chips should leave an impression on the pad.

 

IIRC the chokes dont really need cooling. Most are rated for operating temps of up to 150C and only see a delta of about 40C at their rated current load.

The mosfets, especially in a laptop form factor should be cooled, however they really dont need much cooling. They typically dissipate only a few watts at their rated loads and that's usually within or close to their package specifications.

I would say it's more important to ensure you're not driving them beyond their rating when asking for more current. Typically they're way over specced, but it's good to double check. You'll probably run into stability issues with dirty power before you run into issues due to over driving a mosfet when you start asking for more current. Laptops have fewer phases than desktops typically.

 

Rated loads is one thing but if you are increasing TDPs you can rapidly go from 2.5w to 5w.

 

Small update:

Yesterday I optimized the profile and installed modded Nvidia drivers from this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/modded-nvidia-drivers-for-windows.826322/page-37

Now I have a graphics score of 18.024 and everything is stable in-game:

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/20500702

It's nuts when you compare it to the out-of-the-box performance:

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/19426224

With the tweaking mentioned in this thread I got these performance gains:

FS score: +20,8%
Graphics: +14,12%
Physics: +28,11%
Combined: +38,52%

 

It's a decent gain but still a lot less than it used to be, back in the 680M days you could get an extra 50% graphics performance lol.

 

50%?! Woah

There were a lot of fun ways to grab extra performance, hard mods, cross bios flash etc. I remember unlocking extra pipelines on my 6800nu agp card on my pentium 4 machine and rocking that 3dmark 03 score.

 

Yeah the 680m with added cooling and tweaking was a beast.

 

Hi, sorry to bring this back from the dead, but what did you do to install the modded drivers - I have a Zotac Zbox with a laptop 2060 and no matter what I do the drivers will not install.

Thanks

 

Did you disable driver signing enforcement with an advanced restart (hold shift when selecting restart)?

 

So currently there is no way to increase the TDP of 2060 to more than 90W am I correct? Feels bad when it keeps showing power limit flag even though there are still rooms for more in terms of thermal.

 

It fails on the system compatibility test. I have disabled driver enforcement via cmd. Does it have to be done via shift restart specifically?

 

I'd do a restart with it disabled to be sure.

 

Wow, so just finished benchmarking. Took quite a while with tinkering but here's the final result! OC settings at +220 on the core and +1200 on the memory clock. CPU running at stock clocks with -140mV undervolt. Now upgraded to 16GB kit running in dual channel.

Firestrike: 15632 Score, 17311 Graphics Score ( http://www.3dmark.com/fs/21519489)
Timespy: 6832 Score, 6789 Graphics Score ( http://www.3dmark.com/spy/10155722)

It's nice to see since these scores beat the 2070 Max Q, a laptop GTX 1070 and a desktop GTX 980! All in a thin and light laptop with 5 hours of battery life (with the smaller battery, will upgrade to the larger one which I'm expecting 6-7 hours) All for ~$1200USD total, I am very, very happy!

Also I noticed the Eluktronics laptop gets a 115w vBIOS for its 2060. I would kill for that vBIOS...

 

It’s not a vBIOS, it’s a hardware modification on the motherboard that acts similar to a shunt mod. Software like HWiNFO still read the GPU power as being within normal limits (80W) but the card can actually use 115W. The Wal-Mart EVOO 17 (same unit as the Eluktronics Mech-17) has the same 115W modification and scores higher than you even at stock as a result.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Walma...Name-Slapped-On.444810.0.html#toc-performance

 

That's s little frustrating to say the least. I wish Lenovo had such a modification somehow available...

 

And, Walmart's 17" 2060 Evoo model is on RollBack pricing right now, $600 off list price @ $1099:

EVOO Gaming Laptop 17" FHD 144Hz Display, THX Spatial Audio, Tuned by THX Display, 9th Gen Intel i7-9750H, Nvidia RTX 2060, 1TB SSD, 16GB Memory, Windows 10 Home, Black
EVOO GAMING
Model: EG-LP6-BK
Walmart # 577490747
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Laptop-F...SD-EVOO-Gen-Spatial-17-Audio-Gaming/163944363

Other even less expensive models have $600 discounts now too:
https://www.walmart.com/search/?page=1&query=EVOO+Gaming+Laptop+&sort=price_high

 

It was as low as $1000 recently and on Black Friday. Insane deal.

 

Big box stores do work that way. It's still a balance though on service.

 

Walmart must have heard you, the price is down to $999

EVOO Gaming Laptop 17" FHD 144Hz Display, THX Spatial Audio, Tuned by THX Display, 9th Gen Intel i7-9750H, Nvidia RTX 2060, 1TB SSD, 16GB Memory, Windows 10 Home, Black
EVOO GAMING
Model: EG-LP6-BK Walmart # 577490747
Average rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars, based on 18 reviews 18 reviews
$999.00 WAS $1699.00
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Laptop-F...SD-EVOO-Gen-Spatial-17-Audio-Gaming/163944363