dGPU Undervolt + Underclock: A Guide for better thermals on Laptops

[Brandi93]

So a couple days ago I undervolted and underclocked a desktop 3050, results were very good, reducing maximum
temperatures by over 20C. 

 

I started looking at undervolting on laptop GPUs and this is what I have found out. 

 

A laptop GPU, will increase it's clocks by a large margin over the stock boost clock, even if it's over stock boost clock,
if it has temperature headroom it will do so still. This causes the laptop GPU to reach it's high temperature and throttle 
down it's core clock to keep it at stable temperature.

 

For example let's take my RTX 3060 Gigabyte G5 KC laptop. On notebookcheck, the laptop 3060 is designed to run Core Speed 
817 - 1702 (Boost) MHz. Despite this, I have seen my G5 go beyond 2,050 MHz! Then when it reaches it's highest temperature 
at 87C it throttles down the core clock to around 1,200 MHz, thus reducing the gaming performance. This is done by the
manufacturer to safeguard laptop components, so it remains at a stable 87C and not go over. 

 

So this is my take and attempt at fixing this problem. Undervolt + Underclock. What I want to do here is undervolt by a 
substantial amount, but keeping the core clock at 1702 MHz or close. Definitely not 1,200 MHz and defintely not 2,050 + MHz!

To ensure I get accurate results, I had to choose a recent and fairly demanding game with a built-in benchmark tool. That's 
why I chose Metro: Exodus. We are going to do it using MSI Afterburner. So this is my benchmark results at stock settings,
as well as a screenshot of the stock curve in MSI AB. 

 

 

G5 Stock Curve

G5 Stock Benchmark

 

Now for a little tweaking. Open up MSI Afterburner, find the curve editor in main window and find the 0.900v mark on the x-axis.

Press ALT + Left click on the mark and drag down like this. 

 

Next, release ALT key, left click on the same mark and drag it up to 1700MHz on the y-axis. Like this.

 

Final step, is to press apply on the main MSI window (the very good sign at the bottom), and the curve will stabilize likewise.

 

DONE! You've undervolted to 0.900v while slightly underclocking by a few MHz. 

 

G5 0.900v 1700mhz Benchmark

 

You should start seeing slightly better temps and laptop takes more time to start throttling, if at all. 

 

Now I also tested it with 0.800v while keeping the core clock at 1700MHz, results were surprising. Not only I did not lose performance, I even gain a tiny bit! 

 

G5 0.800v 1700mhz Benchmark

 

TO BE CONTINUED...

[Levent]

I dont like giving shit to people writing guides but this is hardly a guide let alone a universal one.

• MSI Afterburner so far only works with Nvidia and AMD graphics (I am not even sure if it works with iGPUs either).
• Laptops with powerful CPUs but no dGPUs are straight up not applicable to your "universal" guide (as of its initial state).
• Giving values like "0.9v" will never be applicable universally as voltage curves are different for each GPU (even if the model is same), also what is so special about this 0.9v that you chose that?

This guide so far can only be called introduction to undervolting RTX30xx series cards.

[Brandi93]

8 minutes ago, Levent said:

I dont like giving shit on people writing guides but this is hardly a guide let alone a universal one.

• MSI Afterburner so far only works with Nvidia and AMD graphics (I am not even sure if it works with iGPUs either).
• Laptops with powerful CPUs but no dGPUs are straight up not applicable to your "universal" guide (as of its initial state).
• Giving values like "0.9v" will never be applicable universally as voltage curves are different for each GPU (even if the model is same), also what is so special about this 0.9v that you chose that?

This guide so far can only be called introduction to undervolting RTX30xx series cards.

It's alright, let me explain.

 

1) I'm sorry, by universal I meant for dGPUs not iCPUs like for example Intel or Ryzen. 

2) Exactly, I'll modify the title to include dGPUs ONLY.

3) It's special as it's close to my max operation voltage reading, which was 1,081v. So I undervolted to 0,900v and gradually went to 0,800v. Now testing 0,750v as well while retaining 1,660Mhz. 

 

It can be applied to any dGPU actually. You just have to google your gaming laptop model and see specs, or better yet go to notebookcheck.net and find your laptop dGPU core boost clock speeds.