Should I undervolt my laptop?

[djdelarosa25]

I don't experience any throttling, but it gets a bit warm when under load (not that much). Should I undervolt it?

[myselfolli]

That's in the nature of laptops. As long as you don't experience any thermal throttling, I wouldn't touch it.

 

If you're comfortable with opening it up and cleaning the fan(s) & replacing the thermal paste, that's what I'd do first.

[Suika]

I mean, it doesn't hurt to do it as long as you validate the undervolt. It also improves battery life.

[Matu20]

Yes.

[m0k]

yes - it will help with temps and battery life overall

 

just note that certain older cpus are not supported for undervolting with Intel XTU like my i7-3740QM

i know theres other software available but Intel XTU seems to be the easiest to use

 

if your laptop's cpu is supported then do it! Dave2d has a good little tutorial on it

 

 

edit: another thing you can also do is to reduce the turboboost TDP draw - my cpu is rated for 45w but can boost up to use 55w for short periods of time

and by reducing the max boost power draw to 45W could potentially help with temps too - i did it with no issues (but im using very old thermal paste so idk if it actually helped)

[c4deszes]

Yes if you are using you laptop on battery a lot of times. I did it and with a few other power saving measures I can easily get 6 hours on my fairly power hungry laptop.

 

However if you aren't experiencing any thermal throttling in everyday use and fine with the current battery life I wouldn't touch those settings. Consumer CPUs operate below 100°C (that's where the semiconductor used in a processors will start conducting naturally) so as long as you are around 90°C with full load, you should be fine.

[Jurrunio]

Why not? At worst the laptop will crash, but a reboot and you are good to go again.

[D13H4RD]

Why not? You won’t really hurt your laptop (the worst you can do is crashing it but when it reboots, it’s back to normal) and if you get the most ideal undervolt, you’ll experience lower temperatures, quieter operation and better battery life. Combine it with a repaste for significantly better thermals.

 

I strongly recommend using ThrottleStop. Its UI may not be as pretty compared to XTU but it’s filled with much more options.

[Arika]

might as well. i'm only able to get -0.082mv on my yoga before it crashes, but it dropped the idle and low load temps by 5-7c. not bad for doing literally nothing other than moving a slider

[ramo55]

Yeah I'm not quite sure why people are saying don't do it? There's nothing that can really cause permanent damage with under volting. If the system isn't stable, a restart will fix it back to normal. Go for it op. Might not get much but a few degrees are always welcome.

[D13H4RD]

1 hour ago, ramo55 said:

Yeah I'm not quite sure why people are saying don't do it? There's nothing that can really cause permanent damage with under volting. If the system isn't stable, a restart will fix it back to normal. Go for it op. Might not get much but a few degrees are always welcome.

Undervolting shouldn’t cause any damage to components since you’re giving them less power, meaning less strain and heat. Overvolting, on the other hand, can do so.

[ramo55]

2 hours ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Undervolting shouldn’t cause any damage to components since you’re giving them less power, meaning less strain and heat. Overvolting, on the other hand, can do so.

Yep, I agree.

[djdelarosa25]

Thanks, guys! What stress test program should I use and how long should I run it?

[Murilo_A]

My laptop doesn't support adjusting the voltage on the BIOS, if I undervolt and it crashes, will it reset to the default voltage after rebooting?

[D13H4RD]

3 hours ago, djdelarosa25 said:

Thanks, guys! What stress test program should I use and how long should I run it?

Usually, folks recommend Prime95 because it’s free and it’s a good indicator of system stability.

 

AIDA64 also has a very demanding stress test utility (especially the FPU test)

[D13H4RD]

2 hours ago, Murilo_A said:

My laptop doesn't support adjusting the voltage on the BIOS, if I undervolt and it crashes, will it reset to the default voltage after rebooting?

Yes, it should. 

[djdelarosa25]

5 hours ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Usually, folks recommend Prime95 because it’s free and it’s a good indicator of system stability.

 

AIDA64 also has a very demanding stress test utility (especially the FPU test)

Yup, I used AIDA64 with CPU, FPU, cache, and RAM checked when I undervolted the CORE ONLY to -0.90mV. It passed an eight-hour run, but would crash a few hours into CS:GO.

 

Reduced the undervolt to -0.85mV (both core and cache this time) and ran AIDA64 again (same boxes ticked) for eight hours and it passed. Haven't tried to play CS:GO yet. I might disconnect from a competitive match again lol.

 

Is there any other stress tester that will help catch errors that AIDA64 cannot?

[D13H4RD]

9 hours ago, djdelarosa25 said:

Yup, I used AIDA64 with CPU, FPU, cache, and RAM checked when I undervolted the CORE ONLY to -0.90mV. It passed an eight-hour run, but would crash a few hours into CS:GO.

 

Reduced the undervolt to -0.85mV (both core and cache this time) and ran AIDA64 again (same boxes ticked) for eight hours and it passed. Haven't tried to play CS:GO yet. I might disconnect from a competitive match again lol.

 

Is there any other stress tester that will help catch errors that AIDA64 cannot?

The problem with stress testing is that while your UV may pass it, variable loads may cause it to crash due to instability. Games don't run at a constant high load. They vary.

 

My laptop has an undervolt of -0.85mV. Stress-tested and all. On everything I throw at it, it runs perfectly fine with temperatures no higher than 78.