So i recently bought a brand new laptop (i5 9300h + GTX 1650) from Asus. It wasn’t super expensive or anything and I was alright with that. Upgraded the memory from a single 8gb stick to 2x8gb sticks of tighter timing ddr4 2666 memory.
Anyways I have a few intersting experiences to share.
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Undervolting support is being removed via Bios updates that Windows Updates FORCES through updates.
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If you update Windows (which forces a bios update), you’ll forever hit thermal limits which throttle once you hit 93c (fairly constant).
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Nvidia Turing has also blocked out undervolting through software and vbios edits are no longer possible.
So here is where things get interesting. You can still manage your temps even with updated Windows + Bios, but you can only do that disabling Turbo boost (restricts your cpu to Base clocks). The i5 9300h base clocks are 2.4ghz. AMD also has some of the same problems, but the base clock for the Ryzen 5 4600h is 3.0ghz and it packs an additional 2 cores + 4 threads (in comparison the i5 9300h). The Ryzen 5 4600h also supports ddr4 3200 memory while the i5 9300h is limited to ddr4 2666.
I don’t know if undervolting is possible on Renoir laptops, but from what I’ve read online it seems most people just disable Turbo boost and continue retain most of their gaming performance due to the much better thermals.
From my experience in regards to my i5 9300h and undervolting, I was able to reduce temps by 20c+ on average. How did i manage to do this? By blocking all Windows updates via Registry Edits. I was also fortunate because i was able to find an older bios file online (really lucky).
I can’t stand it when companies lock out options like that, especially when you’re talking about a platform that inherently is flawed.
Sorry man
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The other problem I noticed is the OEM’s themselves. It’s not in their best interest to fix this problem because they’d rather you upgrade sooner. Not entirely an Intel driven issue, just so happens that OEM’s were able to take advantage of the chaos.
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That’s mostly who I am referring to. For the most part, lockouts are made by the OEMs, and the OEMs are the one’s who are responsible for such poor thermal designs to begin with where the scenario you describe in turning OFF a performance feature nets better gains because of how horrible the implementation is.
After it was all said and done though, with the help of those older bios I was able to get 3.8ghz all core, boost tdp dropped down from 78 watts to 49 watts and 44 watts for Turbo Power Max up from 35 watts. Temps are great, even overclocked the gpu memory an additional 170mhz with a 50mhz overclock on the gpu core as well.
While my end result is a nice and cool running little powerhouse; I am still really worried about where gaming laptops are headed. This is the first time I’ve seen a bios update rolled out that absolutely crippled performance and efficency.
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It’s almost as bad as cell phone makers who delivery reduce performance/break old phones just so you have to buy new ones
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Unfortunately ability to tweak on laptops is a gamble and comes down to the whims of the manufacturer. I wish so much that a laptop counterpart to that ATX desktop standard had materialized so this wasn’t the case, but that never happened.
It makes me wonder how practical of a laptop one might be able to build around a mini-ITX board. Something comparable to one of those bulkier Alienware or ROG gaming laptops might be feasible, depending on what kind of compact cooling solution you’re able to figure out.