MSI laptops, undervolting, and plundervolting

Cwell88 · September 24, 2020

Hi All,

Despite the Plundervolt fiasco and Intel's decision to take away undervolting as a security measure, MSI laptops continue to ship with BIOS's that allow for undervolting via (I'm not kidding) a special keystroke code while in BIOS (see video below). This apparently works for laptops sold just last month and it includes the GS66 and GL65 models, meaning you can tinker with the i7-10750H and get some respectable results with minor adjustments.

But as Jarrod points out in his video, there's absolutely no warning attached to this method and that made me wonder: what are the risks involved in relation to the Plundervolt exploits?

I'm assuming Intel locked up BIOS options for a good reason, but this workaround seems relatively popular among MSI users and there's almost no discussion of the risks in any of the forums I've visited (looks like some Dell and Lenovo users can do something similar with a BIOS hack that I don't completely understand; it's certainly much harder compared to the MSI keystroke trick).

So does anyone here have any thoughts about going around Intel's "solution?" With respect to plundervolt, are users better off using Throttlestop vs. XTU vs. the BIOS for undervolting if they decide to do it? I've had a hard time understanding exactly how Plundervolt works (seems there is a lot misinformation out there - some people claim you need to be at the computer physically to make it work, which seems plainly wrong), but I'd love to play around this feature just because it seems like fun. Is it a really bad idea where protecting your data is concerned?

pilot35 · September 26, 2020

Plundervolt is vastly overblown IMO. Almost nobody uses Intel SGX because there are very little real-world uses for it, that is why it is left disabled by default on the BIOS. One such use for it is DRM for 4k Blu-ray, but almost no laptop today has an optical drive.

Cwell88 · September 29, 2020

On 9/26/2020 at 4:40 PM, pilot35 said:

Plundervolt is vastly overblown IMO.

The more I read, the more I'm stupefied that Intel doesn't have a better solution than "nerf every Intel chip." I decided to try my hand at undervolting my old 4810mq and it's crazy how much it improves thermals without impacting clock speeds at all. Well at least MSI seems to have let their users work around it.

Thanks for the reply!