GPU hitting lower power limit after VBIOS Flash

[TacoBellYummy]

I recently flashed my laptop VBIOS which comes stock with an RTX 4050 65W

After flashing the VBIOS with a 95W, it only maxed out at 75W in both FurMark and 3DMark, and the clock speeds are low, only around low 1900s MHz, and the voltage only at 0.78 V

I'm sure cooling wasn't the issue, it stayed at a steady 76C average

 

In HWiNFO however I noticed this GPU Power Limit:

What does this mean? 

 

[-rascal-]

2 hours ago, TacoBellYummy said:

I recently flashed my laptop VBIOS which comes stock with an RTX 4050 65W

After flashing the VBIOS with a 95W, it only maxed out at 75W in both FurMark and 3DMark, and the clock speeds are low, only around low 1900s MHz, and the voltage only at 0.78 V

I'm sure cooling wasn't the issue, it stayed at a steady 76C average

 

In HWiNFO however I noticed this GPU Power Limit:

What does this mean? 

 

 

That make and model laptop do you have?

The VBIOS may be allowing the max power to be 95W on the GPU side, but the laptop's power delivery may be limited to 75W.

[Mark Kaine]

21 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

but the laptop's power delivery may be limited to 75W.

That would be a physical limitation or something in BIOS/other software?

 

That's one of the things I'm sceptical about going Linux on my Asus laptop....there doesn't seem to be any kind of artificial power limits, both GPU and CPU can easily use over 100w each... 

 

I mean if it's software side maybe the op could somehow modify that, if it's done through the physical power delivery that's not gonna be feasible I guess?

[-rascal-]

42 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

That would be a physical limitation or something in BIOS/other software?

 

That's one of the things I'm sceptical about going Linux on my Asus laptop....there doesn't seem to be any kind of artificial power limits, both GPU and CPU can easily use over 100w each... 

 

I mean if it's software side maybe the op could somehow modify that, if it's done through the physical power delivery that's not gonna be feasible I guess?

 

That's why I asked about the particular model of OP's laptop.

If it's exactly at 75W, then I'm assuming it's in the BIOS/firmware.
Could be a combination of both HW and SW/FW limitation, though.

Say they cut cost on the power delivery and/or cooling, so it's only rated for ~85W, so they limit it to 75W.

[TacoBellYummy]

7 hours ago, -rascal- said:

 

That make and model laptop do you have?

The VBIOS may be allowing the max power to be 95W on the GPU side, but the laptop's power delivery may be limited to 75W.

it's an Asus V16, unfortunately it is an underpowered budget gaming laptop

Although i'm aware of hardware limitations i'm still looking for other possible issues because it's got a 150W power brick and the CPU only draws 15W on benchmarks so there is still plenty of headroom

 

5 hours ago, -rascal- said:

If it's exactly at 75W

for a few seconds it actually reached 76W occasionally before going down again

also before the VBIOS flashed (stock 65W) FurMark only managed to pull 54.5W, if that helps

[Somerandomtechyboi]

I guess you could try testing in linux to see if its a simple software issue or not but if i had to guess probably firmware and only way you are getting around that is hooking up an evc2 and manually sending the power limit with it

[TacoBellYummy]

After further research it might actually be a HW/FW limit as @-rascal- mentioned, considering this is a budget gaming laptop, also the highest GPU spec on this particular model is the 5060, and it is capped at 75W

 

Although I might try it in Linux as @Somerandomtechyboi suggested in the future to actually validate this

 

Thanks for everyone replying and trying to help with my issue

[Mark Kaine]

6 hours ago, TacoBellYummy said:

After further research it might actually be a HW/FW limit as @-rascal- mentioned, considering this is a budget gaming laptop, also the highest GPU spec on this particular model is the 5060, and it is capped at 75W

 

Although I might try it in Linux as @Somerandomtechyboi suggested in the future to actually validate this

 

Thanks for everyone replying and trying to help with my issue

You could try ghelper to max the power limits... although tbh I have no idea if it works on your laptop.

also keep in mind I don't think this would result in much better performance, you're still on a 15w CPU...

Additionally fumark gets throttled on any modern amd/nvidia system, because it's literally a power virus... not ideal for your testing purposes at all...

 

I'd try Superposition benchmark 4k test (that always maxes out my GPUs power draw) or 3DMark firestrike (but that's less convenient)

[TacoBellYummy]

On 3/25/2026 at 8:17 PM, Mark Kaine said:

You could try ghelper to max the power limits... although tbh I have no idea if it works on your laptop.

also keep in mind I don't think this would result in much better performance, you're still on a 15w CPU...

Additionally fumark gets throttled on any modern amd/nvidia system, because it's literally a power virus... not ideal for your testing purposes at all...

 

I'd try Superposition benchmark 4k test (that always maxes out my GPUs power draw) or 3DMark firestrike (but that's less convenient)

Running Superposition at 1080P extreme managed to pull 76.4 W occasionally for a few seconds and after the benchmark my battery went down 1%, which does confirm this is in fact a hardware limited power issue