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W230ST Undervolting


lonesyndal

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Any owners of the W230ST tried undervolting the CPU?

Mines has an i7-4700MQ and currently undervolted to -80mV and decreased each multiplier by x2 for stability (without crashing while mutltasking between 2-3 games).

Just wanted to know what everyone else has tried and the success they made when doing this.

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Hi, yes. Did it with 120mV and got big differences in temperatures - CPU was around 8-10C cooler, even closer to 10C. That includes both CPU only tests (wPrime 1024MB) and CPU + GPU (wPrime + Kombustor) and also in games.

I didn't record any significant performance hit and since the high temps of the CPU make it throttle a bit (and in rare cases throttle considerably, but it's quite hot here currently), I think the undervolting will benefit you in some cases.

You can see the results in my W230ST review

I didn't change the multiplier. Windows 7 Ultimate, 326.19 beta drivers and 311.51 WHQL drivers tested.

I'm also really waiting for a new bios or something. The battery performance is obviously far from being optimal at around 3-3.5 hours. I also didn't see significant difference between lower screen brightness and 40%, indicating that some other major factor is taking place here

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I work in a test environment where we run voltage margining tests. These tests simulate over and under voltage to determine how the CPU's will behave under the different voltage conditions. We typically test at + 5% anf -5% of the specified nominal voltage. They typicall run well at these settings but when they are exceeded system hangs BSODs and failure to boot will occour.

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I posted a review here: http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo-sager-reviews-owners-lounges/4268-clevo-w230st-first-look.html#post59982 if you look at post #2 I undervolted the CPU by 80mv, this gave me +300Mhz under heavy load (8 threads, 100% utilisation) and was stable for lighter loads. I also undervolted the GPU part, so when this ramps up it doesn't take too much power away from the CPU.

Obviously, while playing games, you would use the GTX765M, but for other tasks in Windows, you would be using the Intel graphics.

If you undervolt furher, you may want to look at reducing the single and two core turbo frequencies to bring them in line with the quad core if you find the CPU crashes while under light or peaky tasks.

I was using a 4900MQ here, the 4700MQ has lower clocks so you may see less problems with single core turbo speeds...

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I'm running -100mV on GPU and -100mV Cache on my 4700, it works fine for all what I've been doing on my laptop, gaming, benchmarks etc.. But when I run the CPU Zlib benchmark in AIDA64 it will shutdown the laptop, even when I'm down to -40mV CPU. It seems to be a "good" indicator how far one can push the UV of the CPU and still being rocksolid.

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Wait wait - 0MHZ for GPU? What about the GTX 765M?

How much battery do you get with it?

its 0MHz for the GTX 765M when not in use (left GPU-z on). 4.5 Hrs of battery life. Also, the 0MHz only worked until I updated to Windows 8 (GPU now idles at 135MHz).

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I'd very like to know what you did to make it happen - OS, drivers, anything

I get 3-3.5 hours TOPS with everything turned off and the GTX 765M is almost always on 800MHZ. When I turn on the nvidia inspector, it sometimes downclock, but that's all

I know more people have the same problem

I'm using Windows 7, maybe that's the problem?

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I'd very like to know what you did to make it happen - OS, drivers, anything

I get 3-3.5 hours TOPS with everything turned off and the GTX 765M is almost always on 800MHZ. When I turn on the nvidia inspector, it sometimes downclock, but that's all

I know more people have the same problem

I'm using Windows 7, maybe that's the problem?

It may vary depending on the tool used to view.

NvidiaInspector, mine jumps to 901MHz. On MSI Afterburner, its 245 or 135MHz. May have to wait until we can reflash the card... might work properly then.

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@junky77: So I did some stuff and made my windows almost unusable. Did a refresh and it basically replaced all my registries and etc with a near brand-new windows 8 install. However, I'm no longer able to update my Nvidia drivers. Got any modded INF's that you can throw to see if it can work with my GPU? My only issue is that whenever I try to update, it starts the install and shortly ends saying it could not find my hardware (my GPU goes from 765M to Unknown Device in Device Manager). Not sure how to exactly fix this...

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I'd very like to know what you did to make it happen - OS, drivers, anything

I get 3-3.5 hours TOPS with everything turned off and the GTX 765M is almost always on 800MHZ. When I turn on the nvidia inspector, it sometimes downclock, but that's all

I know more people have the same problem

I'm using Windows 7, maybe that's the problem?

I'm surprised he even got 4.5h for leaving gpu-z on. Something I see done wrong in battery life analysis over and over is that people will leave on programs like gpu-z when on battery. This absolutely kills your battery life because gpu monitoring programs will prevent the dGPU from turning off. On my P150EM this makes the difference between 3.5h of battery life and 5h of battery life. You won't get quite as large of a difference since since the 680m gpu is substantially larger and draws more power, but I do still expect at least an hour improvement.

If you insist on running on battery with gpu-z on, the nvidia control panel option makes a large difference. If set to "high performance" or w/e your GPU will idle at full 3d clocks much more than low power clocks than if you are set to "adaptive".

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Looks like I may have to return my laptop soon... I'm unable to fix the GPU Driver issue. I can ONLY install the stock drivers from Clevo (I was able to manually update before).

Attached are images of what's going on. Notice the GTX 765M vanishes and becomes "Display" in Other Devices.

post-7519-14494995892384_thumb.png

Anyone able to help without me sending this laptop in may get a nice donation for your help.

post-7519-14494995891433_thumb.png

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Looks like I may have to return my laptop soon... I'm unable to fix the GPU Driver issue. I can ONLY install the stock drivers from Clevo (I was able to manually update before).

Attached are images of what's going on. Notice the GTX 765M vanishes and becomes "Display" in Other Devices.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8616[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]8617[/ATTACH]

Anyone able to help without me sending this laptop in may get a nice donation for your help.

You must disable the Windows 8 Driver Signature Enforcement.

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You must disable the Windows 8 Driver Signature Enforcement.

Nice, this fixed it exactly... thank you!

PM me your paypal or something so I can send ya the donation!

EDIT: This be my first time using Windows 8, so this info would be very helpful for those who will be switching over later...

EDIT2: Back on topic! So my current undervolt setting: -100mV Processor Dynamic Voltage Offset, +10mV Integrated Graphics Voltage Offset. This has been very stable and keeps the temps very nice at 47-52C.

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I'm surprised he even got 4.5h for leaving gpu-z on. Something I see done wrong in battery life analysis over and over is that people will leave on programs like gpu-z when on battery. This absolutely kills your battery life because gpu monitoring programs will prevent the dGPU from turning off. On my P150EM this makes the difference between 3.5h of battery life and 5h of battery life. You won't get quite as large of a difference since since the 680m gpu is substantially larger and draws more power, but I do still expect at least an hour improvement.

If you insist on running on battery with gpu-z on, the nvidia control panel option makes a large difference. If set to "high performance" or w/e your GPU will idle at full 3d clocks much more than low power clocks than if you are set to "adaptive".

I installed the 326.19 and I don't have these performance options in the nvidia control center. I don't remember how it was with the 311.51 drivers. What drivers are you using?

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Nice, this fixed it exactly... thank you!

PM me your paypal or something so I can send ya the donation!

EDIT: This be my first time using Windows 8, so this info would be very helpful for those who will be switching over later...

EDIT2: Back on topic! So my current undervolt setting: -100mV Processor Dynamic Voltage Offset, +10mV Integrated Graphics Voltage Offset. This has been very stable and keeps the temps very nice at 47-52C.

No need for that.. :)

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No need for that.. :)

Thanks a lot!

I installed the 326.19 and I don't have these performance options in the nvidia control center. I don't remember how it was with the 311.51 drivers. What drivers are you using?

Performance option is basically power management in Nvidia Advanced Settings in the Nvidia Control Panel. On the Global Settings tab, you can change the power option to Adaptive instead of Maximum Performance and etc.

EDIT:

So I fiddled with some settings on Power Options... here's my current test so far:

Balanced Mod w/ Turbo Boost (No Power Savings for any selection while keeping 5%-100% processor power management)

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6976700

Test 1 Settings:

-100mV Processor Offset

+10mV Integrated Graphics

+125MHz GPU Core Clock

+500MHz GPU Memory Clock

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6976732

Test 2 Settings:

-80mV Processor Offset

+10mV Integrated Graphics Offset

+135MHz GPU Core Clock

+600MHz GPU Memory Clock

Increased all CPU Multipliers by 2x

Note: Test 2 had 6-7 artifacts (I blinked on possibly one)

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6976760

Test 3 Settings

-70mV Processor Offset

+10mV Integrated Graphics Offset

+135MHz GPU Core Clock

+620MHz GPU Memory Clock

Increased all CPU multipliers by 2x

Note: Memory above 600MHz is highly unstable. The gain is almost 20 points more... but a lot more artifacting in the heavy duty tests.

Other Notes: Max CPU Temp: 87C, Max GPU Temp: 70C (According to NvidiaInspector)

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Hey guys, one question about undervolting....

How do you test this for stability?

Let's say i undervolt a CPU and cache by too much. Laptop crashes. Will i be able to get back into windows to undo the voltage changes? Or will it just crash when trying to get back into windows? How do you reset voltage if this happens?I t

I tried setting cache and multipliers to 24x, and CPU/Cache voltage to -50. However i did not notice any temperature improvements at all...with just web browsing, the core temps eventually hit 50 degrees celsius, which caused the fans to kick in.

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