Controling CPU clock speed

I have a shiny new Y400 with the i7-3630QM, and I'm wondering what method you guys use to overclock, undervolt, and overall control the clock speed of the cpu? I'm used to working with AMD and ATI, so Intel's architecture is new to me. Not sure how the hyperthreading plays into undervolting and overclocking, etc. Mostly I'd like to just lock the clock speeds at the boost speed, and try undervolting the cpu to save power and lower the temperatures. Does this require a bios mod? Thanks for the help .

 

You could try Throttlestop to set the required multiplier and undervolt using a stable voltage, you could get more help from others who have achieved this from here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...arket-upgrades/531329-throttlestop-guide.html

 

Thanks! I downloaded a BIOS mod that unlocks the BIOS and vBIOS supposedly, and was able to play around with the clocks a bit. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to lower the voltage on the cpu, nor can I change the voltage of the gpu...

 

Neither are possible. You have no control over the CPU and GPU voltages. Why would you disable C-states and then think about undervolting? Having C-states enabled is the best way to save power since the processor will automatically downclock and undervolt itself in C3 or C6 when idling. Otherwise you can tick 'Power Saver' in ThrottleStop but it's no better than just using C-states. Per the ThrottleStop Guide:

Power Saver lets your CPU use its lowest possible multiplier and voltage when idle. On the newer 45nm Core 2 and Core i CPUs, this does not seem to be necessary and provides little to no power savings because at idle, the CPU will be in one of the low power sleep states like C3/C4/C6 which uses a lower VID voltage than ThrottleStop or RM Clock lets you select anyhow. This feature is mostly for the early 65nm Core 2 CPUs like the T7500.

Unclewebb explained it to me this way in the thread and I have been following his advice:

The Power Saver function was created to lower CPU speeds when lightly loaded to try and keep previous RM Clock users happy. Running a modern Core i CPU slow will reduce performance but it is not a great way to save power. If I was running on battery power, I would turn off ThrottleStop and let the CPU manage itself. The C3/C6 sleep states do a far better job to reduce power consumption without reducing performance. I recommend leaving the ThrottleStop - Power Saver box unchecked.

Seems like you're going through an awful lot of trouble and asking a lot of questions for things that, to my knowledge, no one else has yet achieved on this machine. Trust me on this, the below-average battery life on the Y400/Y500 is not due to the CPU but due to the lack of Optimus, so don't mess with the CPU 'cause it won't make a difference.

 

All very valid points, but that's not my aim. I mainly want to undervolt the cpu at it's maximum "allowable" clock speed, to reduce the thermal load on the cpu at that clock, especially if it's running constantly. Depending on the degree of undervolting the cpu can handle, it can decrease temperatures markedly, thus avoiding potential throttling/overheating issues. Even so, stressing my cpu at a constant 3.2Ghz doesn't push the temps past 90~92 (with a fan blowing next to the laptop in a cool room). As far as the gpu goes, the voltage could be increased to allow further increases in the clock speed, as others have done on non-Lenovo systems. Thus, it should be possible with ours. I guess it has to be done within the BIOS. Might ask svl7 for that...

All the questions are because I'm new to intel cpus, nvidia graphics, and lenovo systems in general. The principals of overclocking are the same on any system, just have to learn how it's implemented in each case . Push the most out of your machine, it wont blow up on you (unless you just ignore common sense precautions).

 

I understand what you are trying to do and I concur that the CPU on this machine runs too hot, about 20 C hotter than I would like. 90-92 C during testing actually isn't bad, but it sounds like you were in an ideal environment with low ambient temperatures and an external cooling solution. I can make my machine reach thermal shutdown running Prime95 torture test even on a cooling pad. I get nervous as soon as any core gets into the 90's as Lenovo programmed this machine to do an instant thermal shutdown when any core trips 105 C with no prior throttling to warn you.

But you can quote me on this: It is impossible to undervolt the Core i7 CPU as you are describing. Unclewebb and many others will tell you the same thing if you ask them.

As for GPU overvolting on this particular GPU, that I don't know. The vBIOS modders out there can probably poke around and tell you what's possible but I have a very strong hunch that the maximum 3D voltage is hardwired and impossible to exceed without a hardware mod. It may be possible to mod the vBIOS to get even lower clocks and voltages in the 2D states but the upper limit is hardware locked. So get those pencils out and get busy.

I was curious about what kind of PC background you're coming from because it sounds like you have experience doing these sorts of things on desktops where there are far fewer roadblocks and it is much more commonplace and easier. Laptops have never had that kind of flexibility and those that do are few and far in between.

 

Oh, I really don't have much experience doing it with desktops, though I know it's much more commonplace with them. I owned an Asus k53ta as my first laptop, and the Asus motherboard, AMD processor (a6-3400m), and ATI graphics (radeon 6720 dual graphics, 6650 dedicated) were such that you could do just about any tweak you wanted in regards to voltage and clock speed. I'd say the stock power management in that system was far from ideal, with lower battery times than the y400 (I'm getting over 5 hours of battery life on power saving, turbo turned off). I could overclock that system to 2.6Ghz (from a default 1.4Ghz base speed, and 2.3Ghz boost) before it started getting too hot under max load, and the performance gains started to diminish. Then I could change every p-state to whatever clock speed I wanted, at voltages much lower than the stock settings, which really helped cut power consumption and heat. Really though, the power management of the components in that system was much less efficient than this Intel system, which I am thoroughly impressed with. I'll concede that there probably isn't too much headroom for tweaking the cpu even if all options were available (I suspect the voltages might already be near a minimum for the turbo boost).

I'll probably focus more on tweaking the gpu, which does have a lot to gain from overclocking (and potentially overvolting) performance wise.