Looking for Help Underclocking

[beyondthesky]

I've got a Thinkpad Yoga 460 I use for school, and the heat output is higher than comfortable.

 

Looking to underclock/volt to reduce heat. Or some other solution, if there are other better ones.

 

Generally I'm using it to take notes in PDF Annotator, though I'll also play the odd game of Hearthstone. Other than that, I'm using it for intro level bioinformatic stuff that I don't necessarily need a more powerful machine for. Tool wise, I think PyMol is the most demanding thing I run, anything more demanding on the bioinformatics side is either done server side or on my desktop.

 

Because of the tablet vs laptop orientation, I don't think external cooling devices are a reasonable solution.

 

Included a screencap of Speedfan (idle) and dxdiag (for basic idea of specs), other than that, the display is 2560x1440.

 

Suggestions?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Have you checked power settings? Having it set to High Performance mode 24/7 would do that.

[Daniel644]

download Intel XTU then lower the Core Voltage Offset and Cache Voltage Offset till you are no longer stable then increase back up 1 tick, I did this to my 4700HQ and managed a 100mV undervolt stable (crashed at 110mV and hung after a few hours at 105mV), every chip is different so you have to find your sweet spot, I dropped 6-8*C peak temp under load, remember to drop those 2 the same amount. the fans are running quieter now at idle or near idle conditions, I didn't bother with Idle baseline numbers.

 

also like @BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said make sure you aren't in "High Performance" mode in the Power Options menu, that keeps the CPU at full tilt on the core frequency and will result in more heat then needed, also you could consider re-pasting the CPU, seems to be a popular thing on ultra books.

 

worst case you could lower the Core Multipliers in Intel XTU to force an underclock.

[Guest]

If you can't use XTU then just use Windows and force the maximum CPU utilisation to like 10% or whatever. Not undervolting but will get the job done with battery life and temps.

[Daniel644]

4 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

If you can't use XTU then just use Windows and force the maximum CPU utilisation to like 10% or whatever. Not undervolting but will get the job done with battery life and temps.

and it will be slow as shit.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Daniel644 said:

and it will be slow as shit.

I had my MBA at likw 5% and worked fine for taking notes like OP. Well lets leave this as a last resort

[Daniel644]

Just now, RorzNZ said:

I had my MBA at likw 5% and worked fine for taking notes like OP. Well lets leave this as a last resort

I guess you could open the note taking app then lower it down, but really just dropping to the Power Saver power plan will keep it pretty low unless needed, also in my testing, I don't see much of a power draw difference between severely limited like that and full clockspeed (I have a Kill-a-watt P3 and tested my laptop to see what actually reduces power draw so I could potentially extend battery life and clockspeed had very little effect on it. Screen brightness had a bigger effect on power draw.

[beyondthesky]

On 12/5/2017 at 6:08 PM, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Have you checked power settings? Having it set to High Performance mode 24/7 would do that.

I've tried this, I'll give it another look the next time I'm working with it.

[beyondthesky]

18 hours ago, Daniel644 said:

download Intel XTU then lower the Core Voltage Offset and Cache Voltage Offset till you are no longer stable then increase back up 1 tick, I did this to my 4700HQ and managed a 100mV undervolt stable (crashed at 110mV and hung after a few hours at 105mV), every chip is different so you have to find your sweet spot, I dropped 6-8*C peak temp under load, remember to drop those 2 the same amount. the fans are running quieter now at idle or near idle conditions, I didn't bother with Idle baseline numbers.

 

also like @BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said make sure you aren't in "High Performance" mode in the Power Options menu, that keeps the CPU at full tilt on the core frequency and will result in more heat then needed, also you could consider re-pasting the CPU, seems to be a popular thing on ultra books.

 

worst case you could lower the Core Multipliers in Intel XTU to force an underclock.

Thanks, sounds like what I'm looking for. Not sure how it will compare to what I got out of the same general idea when I was working with my desktop's old 1100T, only so much you can do with a laptop.

 

Someone mentioned repasting? I'm assuming by this they mean redoing the thermal paste with something better quality? Thoughts?

[Daniel644]

9 minutes ago, beyondthesky said:

Thanks, sounds like what I'm looking for. Not sure how it will compare to what I got out of the same general idea when I was working with my desktop's old 1100T, only so much you can do with a laptop.

 

Someone mentioned repasting? I'm assuming by this they mean redoing the thermal paste with something better quality? Thoughts?

YES, repasting is replacing the thermal paste on the CPU, they are usually pretty easy to access on ultrabooks, generally simply removing the bottom will expose the entire CPU cooler.