# New Dell XPS 15 9560 i5-7300HQ Kaby Lake + GTX 1050 Laptop



## Cakewalk_S

Hey guys! It's me! So I decided I'm going to finally part ways with the desktop once and for all. With my current lifestyle, rarely gaming and being in school, I really need something mobile for my schoolwork.

I debated for awhile between the Dell XPS 13 and 15 and 15 won out. I still do enjoy games just every once and awhile. More so now single player games where I can hop on for a good 10-30 minutes and then be done....lol

Anywho

The new XPS 15 comes with the new Pascal 14nm GTX1050 which is pretty freaking awesome! Super excited about that!

So I'm planning, as always, to repaste the CPU and GPU. I have some CLP lying around never used and plan on considering liquid metal for at least the CPU. depending on how many caps are around the GPU I may use normal paste on the GPU and CLP on the CPU since it's a flat substrate without caps. Question is, has anyone seen overclocking of the new laptop GTX1050??? I'm very interested to see what kinda numbers this chip can put out when overclocked...says it'll boost to 1493MHz and memory is clocked low at 7GHz...

I'm off and running!!




+200 on the memory thus far! Using Nvidia Inspector for the first time. MSI Afterburner seems bugged with optimous so I'm sticking to that...


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## Imglidinhere

It's about 50% faster than the 750 Ti on average... I'd personally grab the 1050 Ti if anything. That's closer to what your main rig has, even if it's nowhere near a 970 in its own right.


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Imglidinhere*
> 
> It's about 50% faster than the 750 Ti on average... I'd personally grab the 1050 Ti if anything. That's closer to what your main rig has, even if it's nowhere near a 970 in its own right.


Yea I get the 1050 won't exactly be up to the same speed of a gtx970 but it's actually not that far off. And after some good overclocking it may be like 10% slower or so? Either way it's a heck of a leap for a laptop and even the Kaby lake cpu should be a good chip. With sufficient cooling it should be a heck of a laptop.


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Yea I get the 1050 won't exactly be up to the same speed of a gtx970 but it's actually not that far off. And after some good overclocking it may be like 10% slower or so? Either way it's a heck of a leap for a laptop and even the Kaby lake cpu should be a good chip. With sufficient cooling it should be a heck of a laptop.


A 1050 Ti is equal to a GTX 680. A 970 is about ~50% faster than the 680. The 1050 ti is about 25% faster than the 1050.... so no there's no way in HELL that an overclocked 1050 is going to draw even remotely close to a 970 in any case, and that's being optimistic about things.









Even as a laptop user, I feel compelled to remind others that even though laptops are growing more powerful... they aren't suddenly tripling firepower with each generation. They weren't garbage two generations ago and now are suddenly better than last gen tech with the current one. Yeah you have a whole plethora of machines that have 1060s and 1070s but... that doesn't mean that the 970 is garbage now suddenly.


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## Cakewalk_S

Right right. My last laptop which I believe I ordered in 2010 had a gpu with ddr3 that was clocked at 500mb. Lol quite comical. Now with laptops mainstream gddr5 I feel that 14nm too is good enough to jump into again. I'm sure 2-3 years down the road well have laptops with hbm2 which will totally be rocking but I think it's a good time right now.


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Right right. My last laptop which I believe I ordered in 2010 had a gpu with ddr3 that was clocked at 500mb. Lol quite comical. Now with laptops mainstream gddr5 I feel that 14nm too is good enough to jump into again. I'm sure 2-3 years down the road well have laptops with hbm2 which will totally be rocking but I think it's a good time right now.


In any case, if you're okay with an FPS drop, you can enjoy the same settings you play now, you'll just halve the overall framerate usually. So you won't really lose graphical quality in any case.







I still plan on sticking to my 960M for a while yet. It's a great GPU and still very capable for the games I play.


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Imglidinhere*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Right right. My last laptop which I believe I ordered in 2010 had a gpu with ddr3 that was clocked at 500mb. Lol quite comical. Now with laptops mainstream gddr5 I feel that 14nm too is good enough to jump into again. I'm sure 2-3 years down the road well have laptops with hbm2 which will totally be rocking but I think it's a good time right now.
> 
> 
> 
> In any case, if you're okay with an FPS drop, you can enjoy the same settings you play now, you'll just halve the overall framerate usually. So you won't really lose graphical quality in any case.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I still plan on sticking to my 960M for a while yet. It's a great GPU and still very capable for the games I play.
Click to expand...

Right! So I'm thinking the 960m on steroids for the 1050.... probably slightly lower power consumption and possibly higher overclock opportunity...


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Right! So I'm thinking the 960m on steroids for the 1050.... probably slightly lower power consumption and possibly higher overclock opportunity...


It's actually about the same for power consumption. Unknown on the overclocking, but it's a good chip in any case.









Just be aware laptops are more limited in overclocking and the XPS 15 isn't known for having the greatest cooling. The Inspiron 7000 Gamer series is probably what you want if you want the performance side of things. The XPS is a more all-rounder thing if you want more of a multimedia with gaming on the side.


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Imglidinhere*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Right! So I'm thinking the 960m on steroids for the 1050.... probably slightly lower power consumption and possibly higher overclock opportunity...
> 
> 
> 
> It's actually about the same for power consumption. Unknown on the overclocking, but it's a good chip in any case.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Just be aware laptops are more limited in overclocking and the XPS 15 isn't known for having the greatest cooling. The Inspiron 7000 Gamer series is probably what you want if you want the performance side of things. The XPS is a more all-rounder thing if you want more of a multimedia with gaming on the side.
Click to expand...

Right! I'm debating repasting the cpu and gpu with a liquid metal tim. I'll obviously have to make some cautious protective measures to components around the cpu and gpu but I think it would definitely be possible. That may provide incredible cooling qualities. I'll probably also need to get the absolute best thermal pads for the vram. I'm planning on getting it in about 2-3 months so that should be enough time for initial reviews to come out with the new 2017 model


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## Imglidinhere

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Right! I'm debating repasting the cpu and gpu with a liquid metal tim. I'll obviously have to make some cautious protective measures to components around the cpu and gpu but I think it would definitely be possible. That may provide incredible cooling qualities. I'll probably also need to get the absolute best thermal pads for the vram. I'm planning on getting it in about 2-3 months so that should be enough time for initial reviews to come out with the new 2017 model


Sounds good!


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## Cakewalk_S

Well! Orderd my new XPS 15 9560. Should be a great laptop! I've been reading alot of VRM overheating and cooling issues with the laptop. I'm confident I can fix these issues! Should have some great pics once I get this thing! Hello Coollaboratory Liquid Pro on the CPU/GPU... just need to make sure I protect everything around it...


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## czin125

http://i.imgur.com/91f2Qb8.png
They seem to suggest balanced mode for their laptops but you should be able to OC it to some degree.


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *czin125*
> 
> http://i.imgur.com/91f2Qb8.png
> They seem to suggest balanced mode for their laptops but you should be able to OC it to some degree.


Over at the notebook review forum alot of people are still having VRM overheating issues with it. I guess this was a big problem on the 9550 model and continues over to the 9560 model. People are using 4-5mm thermal pads to connect the VRM from the CPU and GPU to the bottom of the frame which is helping dissipate the heat. I plan to follow suit. I should have the laptop next week and I'm planning on swapping the drive right away for my m.2 that has windows on it and everything else from my desktop. When I do that I'll repaste the CPU/GPU and check out temps...


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## Cakewalk_S

Should have my new XPS 15 here on Wednesday. Pics should be up on Thursday. I'll swap the drive out Thursday morning...


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## Glerox

I am also waiting for a dell xps 15 9560 this week with the I5 and UHD display.
I have a alienware 15 R3 with a gtx 1060, but this thing is so heavy I don't carry it to work or study so it's not really useful...

The dell xps 15 was the only laptop I found with a decent GPU for light gaming but also light enough for daily tasks.
I hope I'll like it!


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## faction87

Has anyone with this laptop done any 4k editing? I will be getting my new GH5 soon and want to know if this is a good option.

thanks.


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Glerox*
> 
> I am also waiting for a dell xps 15 9560 this week with the I5 and UHD display.
> I have a alienware 15 R3 with a gtx 1060, but this thing is so heavy I don't carry it to work or study so it's not really useful...
> 
> The dell xps 15 was the only laptop I found with a decent GPU for light gaming but also light enough for daily tasks.
> I hope I'll like it!


Agreed! I had a dell XPS 14 and that worked for me quite nicely back in my college days...not too long ago... So basically I was used to that as a laptop...and that was 5.5lbs previous to this.

I'm going to need to swap out the drives first thing when I get it to my m.2 drive. Once I'm up and running I'll probably get some good shots of the internals and running temps. I've gotta log every temperature reading on the motherboard to find places that need a thermal pad to conduct to the frame...

I'll actually be keeping my 25" 1440p monitor as my desktop docking station monitor and I'll be gaming on that at 1080p 85hz. Should be a nice little setup. Rigging up this 80mm fan I have now as my cooling source for it when I'm gaming...


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## Cakewalk_S

Uploaded benchmark pictures. Will update later. Repasted the laptop and have everything installed. Working great but definitely is going to need CLP thermal paste!


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## Imglidinhere

Yup... just as I suspected. The 1050 is literally a 750 Ti with higher clocks and double the ROPs. xD That's one way to do it.


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## Cakewalk_S

Check out my flickr account for pics of my cooling

https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/72157680615207736

I put CLP on the GPU and CPU!!!!


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## smex

You may also throttle yo CPU (Max Proc. state) to 80%.. this should reduce heat,
and still not bneck the GPU.So did i with my i7 5700HQ and 970m.
Dropped by 8°C on the hottest core and i still get 35fps in Valley.

http://isboxer.com/w/images/6/63/Processor_Power_Management_Windows_7.png


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *smex*
> 
> You may also throttle yo CPU (Max Proc. state) to 80%.. this should reduce heat,
> and still not bneck the GPU.So did i with my i7 5700HQ and 970m.
> Dropped by 8°C on the hottest core and i still get 35fps in Valley.
> 
> http://isboxer.com/w/images/6/63/Processor_Power_Management_Windows_7.png


After changing the paste out to CLP and adding a TON of thermal pads...as you can see in my flickr album... I have 0 throttling... 5 loops of Valley benchmark Extreme HD preset doesn't even get my GPU over 71C... Cooling performance is awesome now! Even now browsing chrome and doing other stuff my CPU is sitting at 35C with the fans completely off...

I've even overclocked the GPU a little in Firestrike and I have yet to hit the 56 Watt wall for the GPU.... 1790Mhz so far on the core, +260 on the memory.


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## iRUSH

Very nice! I see you used electrical tape around the dies. 33+ thickness?

What about scuffing the copper? Looks like you did a great job. CLP better than CLU?


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iRUSH*
> 
> Very nice! I see you used electrical tape around the dies. 33+ thickness?
> 
> What about scuffing the copper? Looks like you did a great job. CLP better than CLU?


I think its +33 but not entirely sure when I got it..lol fail

I didn't scuff the copper. It was already scuffed pretty good but obviously the CLP had problems sticking. I did CLP because I had a new tube of it... my CLU dried up in the tube. I have about 0.5g left and nothing will come out of the CLU syringe.

I can get about a 9.5% increase in GPU performance with my overclocking. Temps stay under 70C which I'm not sure I want to try any higher. I can overclock the GPU to around 1866MHz and its stable till it gets into the 60's then it clocks down to like 1820MHz...


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## Cakewalk_S

Here's some pics of my cooling progress...

Fans never spin on battery fyi. Temps are pretty good. I can game and my GPU will stay in the mid 60's. Played BF1 for a bit last night and I did see 70C on the GPU but just for a few seconds.

So one of the major issues with the heatsink is dell didn't really measure the exact thickness for thermal pads for the VRAM...so I used dough to measure the thickness...no joke...



So I padded the VRM for the CPU and GPU. This is a major area that causes thermal throttling when the VRM get hot... these stay under 80C when benchmarking or stress testing which is awesome! You can also see my work to the VRAM. I mostly used thermal paste for them and not a thermal pad because even a 0.5mm pad was too thick.

Test fit for the cooler and used some paste this go around


Thermal pads on:


Ended up switching to CLP...




The result:

Believe it or not I added additional thermal pads to the top of the heatpipes to create additional pressure on the die's since the mounting pressure is so little. They're very flat so I'm not worried it'll crack the die or anything... The results speak for themselves. That helped by about 1-2C so I'm near 70C in realbench which is quite a feat running full tilt with 0 throttling for this machine...

Once again my entire album can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/72157680615207736
I'm also upto 6699 in my firestrike graphics score, which is about 9% better over a stock GTX 1050. Still not even close to a GTX 1050ti which is disappointing but what can I say...
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/11851190


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## smex

Well done. The little advice i was writing about is one of the most underrated methods
reduce almost directly the VCore of a CPU while the GPU keeps unthrottled.

Nice OC.. ill have to edit my 970m bios again. It also took also almost 300mhz without
touching the voltage. That´s crazy.


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *smex*
> 
> Well done. The little advice i was writing about is one of the most underrated methods
> reduce almost directly the VCore of a CPU while the GPU keeps unthrottled.
> 
> Nice OC.. ill have to edit my 970m bios again. It also took also almost 300mhz without
> touching the voltage. That´s crazy.


My main concern during stress tests is the VRM... Since I have crappy thermal pads... I end up getting the VRM upto 98C during Heaven 4.0 basic stress test... That's pretty hot! I may end up taking the case off again and adding some thermal paste between the layers of thermal pads... I also have 4mm thick thermal pads instead of 2mm thick...so that might help efficiency...

Overall I'm pretty happy. I think I can still get some of my internal temps down but that'll have to wait till the weekend when I actually get some time to work on it...

I'm probably going to add a few more thermal pads to the VRM area... use a bit of thermal paste this time around and hope that helps....

I'm also planning on getting a cooling pad in the future but not at this time...that should help reduce temps for sure! Maybe after all that I can consistently hit 1900MHz on the GPU consistently...who knows


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## nizmoz

Can you post details on the parts and where you got them from? I'm about to order the i7 of this laptop and would like to do it as well. Thanks.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *nizmoz*
> 
> Can you post details on the parts and where you got them from? I'm about to order the i7 of this laptop and would like to do it as well. Thanks.
> 
> Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk


I just got them off some chinese supplier of thermal pads on ebay..lol I didn't really care about getting a real high thermal conductivity pad since the lower conductivity ones the squishier they are....I wanted maximum squish factor since I needed constant pressure on the components...if I were to get a stiff pad it might conduct heat better but in overall, it might reduce the ability to connect with the base of the laptop...

RIght now my VRM get darn hot. 90C during BF1 but I'm going to hopefully fix that this weekend with some new thermal pads and paste...


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## Glerox

Hey guys, nice work on your laptops! I'm a desktop overclocker, first time owning a laptop! Few questions for you:

i received my xps 15 this week. I played BF1 and temperatures of CPU/GPU stay below 75 celcius.

The gpu clock speed was stable around 1600mhz, no throttling. However the framerate dropped a lot after 5 minutes of play, so I suppose it's the CPU throttling? Cpu clockspeed doesn't appear in msi AB, what program do you use to monitor?

Also, I've seen people on this thread saying the gpu VRMs get really hot and cause throttling. How can I know my VRM temp? I guess mine are ok since i don't see any gpu throttling?

Thanks!


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Glerox*
> 
> Hey guys, nice work on your laptops! I'm a desktop overclocker, first time owning a laptop! Few questions for you:
> 
> i received my xps 15 this week. I played BF1 and temperatures of CPU/GPU stay below 75 celcius.
> 
> The gpu clock speed was stable around 1600mhz, no throttling. However the framerate dropped a lot after 5 minutes of play, so I suppose it's the CPU throttling? Cpu clockspeed doesn't appear in msi AB, what program do you use to monitor?
> 
> Also, I've seen people on this thread saying the gpu VRMs get really hot and cause throttling. How can I know my VRM temp? I guess mine are ok since i don't see any gpu throttling?
> 
> Thanks!


Yes, the TDP of the CPU is dropping down to like 15w from 45w. Download Intel XTU and undervolt the CPU. If you do alot of VRM mods it won't hit a thermal limit but I've seen alot of people having this issue. Some have dropped the TDP to 35w and that actually fixes it... the only real fix is cooling the VRM correctly... with my cooling mods... I hit 70C on the GPU and 71C on the CPU in BF1 and my GPU clock is 1820MHz stable with no throttling on the CPU or GPU... it's awesome! Still need a cooling pad though.

So the best part... I've got a brand new laptop that can actually run 2016-2017 games... I mean it should be that way. I also get about 7-8 hours of battery life with reduced TDP down to 15w on the CPU... My 56wh battery says 6% worn which sucks but I'm hoping I can upgrade that 1 day... It's a super light laptop. It's almost as light as my wife's 13" macbook air...
So right now as I'm going through grad school, I can easily spend all day on it writing papers and doing research on battery... and it's super easy to carry around and doesn't look like some big shot gaming laptop.


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## Glerox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Yes, the TDP of the CPU is dropping down to like 15w from 45w. Download Intel XTU and undervolt the CPU. If you do alot of VRM mods it won't hit a thermal limit but I've seen alot of people having this issue. Some have dropped the TDP to 35w and that actually fixes it... the only real fix is cooling the VRM correctly... with my cooling mods... I hit 70C on the GPU and 71C on the CPU in BF1 and my GPU clock is 1820MHz stable with no throttling on the CPU or GPU... it's awesome! Still need a cooling pad though.


When you say VRMS, you speak of GPU's or CPU's VRMS?
How do you monitor their temperatures?
My gpu clockspeed is stable so I guess I don't get any GPU VRM throttling

I didn't know about CPU dropping its TDP... that's a shame. Is it because of VRM overheating?
That's why my framerate drops so much...


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Glerox*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Yes, the TDP of the CPU is dropping down to like 15w from 45w. Download Intel XTU and undervolt the CPU. If you do alot of VRM mods it won't hit a thermal limit but I've seen alot of people having this issue. Some have dropped the TDP to 35w and that actually fixes it... the only real fix is cooling the VRM correctly... with my cooling mods... I hit 70C on the GPU and 71C on the CPU in BF1 and my GPU clock is 1820MHz stable with no throttling on the CPU or GPU... it's awesome! Still need a cooling pad though.
> 
> 
> 
> When you say VRMS, you speak of GPU's or CPU's VRMS?
> How do you monitor their temperatures?
> My gpu clockspeed is stable so I guess I don't get any GPU VRM throttling
> 
> I didn't know about CPU dropping its TDP... that's a shame. Is it because of VRM overheating?
> That's why my framerate drops so much...
Click to expand...


Under the temp sensors I believe HWINFO labels it as "Ambient" but its actually the VRM for the CPU and GPU. The first ambient is the VRM, the 2nd is the AUX which I believe is the power input VRM but I could be wrong... I'm not sure how its calculated since its only 1 sensor but there's 6 VRM. 3 for the GPU and 3 for the CPU...which is kinda funny since the CPU uses less power than the GPU...but anyway...


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## NYU87

Excellent choice!

I was choosing between the new 2016 15" MBP and the new XPS but ultimately decided to go with the Mac for OS X.


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## TheReciever

Sweet deal!

I still think we should have a mini bench off just to get some of the laptop guys together for some fun


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *TheReciever*
> 
> Sweet deal!
> 
> I still think we should have a mini bench off just to get some of the laptop guys together for some fun


Agreed! I love benching this laptop. Yea, it's not even close to a desktop at this point in GPU terms... it's getting close to a GTX670 speed... but in terms of the GTX970 desktop, its about half the speed..but hey, we're talking a low-end GTX 1050 notebook here...

I'm thinking I'm going to custom build a cooling pad over the weekend or next week. I've got a 5 channel fan controller I kept from my desktop and a power brick to power it. I've already tested it and the fans work great...little loud but I think I can add a LNA adapter for it also... Using just 1 80mm fan dropped my VRM temps 15C down to a 80C max... that's pretty awesome if you ask me...definitely opens up headroom for more overclocking!!!


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## Glerox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> 
> Under the temp sensors I believe HWINFO labels it as "Ambient" but its actually the VRM for the CPU and GPU. The first ambient is the VRM, the 2nd is the AUX which I believe is the power input VRM but I could be wrong... I'm not sure how its calculated since its only 1 sensor but there's 6 VRM. 3 for the GPU and 3 for the CPU...which is kinda funny since the CPU uses less power than the GPU...but anyway...


Nice thanks!

I`ll look what kind of throttling and temps I get more in details. I think I have some thermal pads left, Maybe I`ll try some modding.
Damn, we don`t get these kind of problems on Desktops with watercooling


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## TheReciever

I just use the Cooler Master U3 for my Y510p but otherwise I just lift the m4600 from the table via erasers and a book lol

I might be able to upgrade the m4600 with a 965m in the coming months just depends on if the laptop accepts the newer card :3


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## Cakewalk_S

Fixed my VRM temperatures. It's actually pretty awesome now..


Prime95 is actually a very easy test for the Kaby Lake i5-7300HQ to run... it doesn't use much power and the temperatures are pretty amazing. 51C in prime95 on the VRM... now it heats up more when the GPU is stressed but still the temps are very manageable for a laptop. 69C max on the VRM during BF1 gaming... and I can even overclock the GPU to a wopping 1866MHz during BF1 which is like +140 on the GPU.. who knew after really working hard to cool everything with this laptop that I could get temps that good!

I'd say I'm around a 10% increase in 3d performance in some instances... I still haven't hit the max for GPU core overclocking...


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## NYU87

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *TheReciever*
> 
> Sweet deal!
> 
> I still think we should have a mini bench off just to get some of the laptop guys together for some fun


I installed Windows 10 using Bootcamp, definitely down for some benchmarks!


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## TheReciever

Hmm might have to make a new thread, dont want to hijack Cakewalks thread lol

I wont be able to do it for a bit though


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## Glerox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> I'm probably going to add a few more thermal pads to the VRM area... use a bit of thermal paste this time around and hope that helps....


I managed to remove cpu throttling with undervolting to -0.125v and disabling "turbo boost short power max" in Intel XTU
However, I still have GPU throttling... it starts when the GPU stays at 77 celcius for a while, then the clockspeed drops from 1650 to 1000-1300...

So I'm going to have to repaste.

What have you used to cool your VRAM modules?
What is the thickness of your thermal pads on VRM modules?

Thanks!

It's a work in progress


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## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Glerox*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> I'm probably going to add a few more thermal pads to the VRM area... use a bit of thermal paste this time around and hope that helps....
> 
> 
> 
> I managed to remove cpu throttling with undervolting to -0.125v and disabling "turbo boost short power max" in Intel XTU
> However, I still have GPU throttling... it starts when the GPU stays at 77 celcius for a while, then the clockspeed drops from 1650 to 1000-1300...
> 
> So I'm going to have to repaste.
> 
> What have you used to cool your VRAM modules?
> What is the thickness of your thermal pads on VRM modules?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> It's a work in progress
Click to expand...

Check out my flickr album...

The cooler seats on the Vram so poorly that I had to use thermal paste instead of pads on 3/4 chips...and the 4th I used paste and a pad...Actually 1 chip I used a hybrid of half pad and half paste... it's bad!

I may give memory overclocking a 2nd go tonight... surprised how low it clocks but I also have no idea what stock vram voltage is and the current voltage for the memory... I don't want to damage the GDDR5 because I damaged my old XPS 14 DDR4 GPU memory and overclocking went bye bye...lol


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## Cakewalk_S

So the amount of undervolting potential in Kaby lake is quite remarkable... I'm testing out -0.150 right now on the CPU and I think -0.120 on the iGPU... I'll stress test and also leave the undervolt a few days under normal use and see if any bugs arise...so far nothing bad on -0.140 undervolt so I think there may be more room... One person on their i7-7700HQ got to -0.160 undervolt on the CPU... I'll check out the games tonight but I'm sitting at like 0.950vcore for 3.1GHz...now I should be around 0.940 with the new undervolt...
I'm guessing I might be able to get some crazy undervolt on the iGPU though.... -0.140 is already hefty but from what I've seen... I might be able to squeeze out like -0.160 or greater with the iGPU...


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## iRUSH

I'm at .150 so far on the 7700hq. How are you able to undervolt the GPU?


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## Glerox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iRUSH*
> 
> I'm at .150 so far on the 7700hq. How are you able to undervolt the GPU?


He is undervolting the integrated GPU, not the dedicated NVIDIA GPU.
I'm wondering if undervolting the iGPU changes anything in temperatures while gaming because the dGPU is used instead of it.


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## Horcher

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> I'm also up to 6699 in my firestrike graphics score, which is about 9% better over a stock GTX 1050. Still not even close to a GTX 1050ti which is disappointing but what can I say...


To be honest, I find that fire strike *graphics score* of 6700 points impressive. And while it does not reach the 1050Ti, it comes close to some 970m having ~7200 points. A performance close to the 970m is great for a 1050-non-Ti. Even if only by overclocking.

In comparison to the laptop 1050Ti, it should be mentioned that the laptop 1050Ti is _superclocked_ by default (aside from 128 additional shader cores), even compared to the desktop 1050Ti:
1050-non-Ti: 1354mhz
1050Ti desktop: 1290mhz
1050Ti laptop: 1493mhz

If you look at 1290Mhz as the "base clock" for every 1050 gtx, then the 1050-nonTi is already overclocked, and the laptop 1050Ti is over-overclocked. This also explains why it is stronger than the desktop Ti. It's a bit of an eyewash though...
Since I also needed a new laptop, I came to the conclusion that a Ti isn't much better than a non-Ti. Especially not so much, that its worth to pay 200$ more, like some other laptop brands demand. If it were for a 1060gtx (which has physically double amount of shader cores) - then yes - but otherwise not.


----------



## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Glerox*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *iRUSH*
> 
> I'm at .150 so far on the 7700hq. How are you able to undervolt the GPU?
> 
> 
> 
> He is undervolting the integrated GPU, not the dedicated NVIDIA GPU.
> I'm wondering if undervolting the iGPU changes anything in temperatures while gaming because the dGPU is used instead of it.
Click to expand...

iGPU = integrated graphics. Only really helps when your on battery or not gaming... basically just makes your computing more efficient and use less power.

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Horcher*
> 
> Quote:
> 
> 
> 
> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> I'm also up to 6699 in my firestrike graphics score, which is about 9% better over a stock GTX 1050. Still not even close to a GTX 1050ti which is disappointing but what can I say...
> 
> 
> 
> To be honest, I find that fire strike *graphics score* of 6700 points impressive. And while it does not reach the 1050Ti, it comes close to some 970m having ~7200 points. A performance close to the 970m is great for a 1050-non-Ti. Even if only by overclocking.
> 
> In comparison to the laptop 1050Ti, it should be mentioned that the laptop 1050Ti is _superclocked_ by default (aside from 128 additional shader cores), even compared to the desktop 1050Ti:
> 1050-non-Ti: 1354mhz
> 1050Ti desktop: 1290mhz
> 1050Ti laptop: 1493mhz
> 
> If you look at 1290Mhz as the "base clock" for every 1050 gtx, then the 1050-nonTi is already overclocked, and the laptop 1050Ti is over-overclocked. This also explains why it is stronger than the desktop Ti. It's a bit of an eyewash though...
> Since I also needed a new laptop, I came to the conclusion that a Ti isn't much better than a non-Ti. Especially not so much, that its worth to pay 200$ more, like some other laptop brands demand. If it were for a 1060gtx (which has physically double amount of shader cores) - then yes - but otherwise not.
Click to expand...

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/11907972

I found my max OC, 1911MHz on the gpu core will crash firestrike... I could probably kick it down 10MHz but I prefer to stay well under the limit...I need this laptop to last me a good 5 years...
1860-1880MHz seems to be stable in all my benchmarks. +270 on the memory also. That gets me a 6856 graphics score in firestroke...

I'm pretty happy with the temperatures of the laptop. For the most part I don't ever get anything above 72C on either the CPU or GPU. World of Tanks is super easy to run and will average my GPU usage around 55-60% with a medium graphics spec and 60fps vsync. I can do about 55-60fps on medium in BF1 multiplayer which is also awesome. I definitely don't miss my desktop at this point...
I also found out that Dell does not have Intel's new Speed Shift enabled in Bios. There's no option for it. Only thing to do is hack the bios to enable it. Not sure there's any performance improvement when the machine is on full tilt but it looks like it's more enhancing performance between clock states... going from the low idle clock to full clock etc...


----------



## Cakewalk_S

Here's a shot after doing some gaming this AM.... as you see my temps are pretty awesome for no cooling pad...and an overclocked GPU...


Those VRM temps used to be around the 90C mark...now they're nice and cool!


----------



## fudun

I just got my 9560 yesterday. It's the top specced version with 7700hq, 32 GB ram, 1 TB SSD, GTX 1050 and 4k touch.

Got it from my employer, so physical modifications is probably frowned upon, but a mild OC sounds interesting.

I am thinking undervolting the CPU and overclocking the GPU should be the way to go to get a few more fps for gaming.

So how do I do this - I thought voltage would be possible to set in BIOS, but I couldn't find it. I guess Throttlestop is the thing?

GPU OC I guess would be MSI afterburner og maybe EVGA Precision that I use for my desktop?

Any other simple tweaks I should do to squeeze more fps out of the XPS?


----------



## iRUSH

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fudun*
> 
> I just got my 9560 yesterday. It's the top specced version with 7700hq, 32 GB ram, 1 TB SSD, GTX 1050 and 4k touch.
> 
> Got it from my employer, so physical modifications is probably frowned upon, but a mild OC sounds interesting.
> 
> I am thinking undervolting the CPU and overclocking the GPU should be the way to go to get a few more fps for gaming.
> 
> So how do I do this - I thought voltage would be possible to set in BIOS, but I couldn't find it.
> 
> GPU OC I guess would be MSI afterburner og maybe EVGA Precision that I use for my desktop?
> 
> Any other simple tweaks I should do to squeeze more fps out of the XPS?


I use XTU to undervolt my CPU and MSI AB for the GPU.


----------



## fudun

Thanks! What about Throttlestop - is XTU a better choice for undervolting?


----------



## iRUSH

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fudun*
> 
> Thanks! What about Throttlestop - is XTU a better choice for undervolting?


I have used both and I find XTU easier to use and it tens to stick without me needing to reload the app when I power on my laptop.


----------



## fudun

Any recommendations for Afterburner settings except from boosting master gpu and mem clocks?


----------



## iRUSH

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fudun*
> 
> Any recommendations for Afterburner settings except from boosting master gpu and mem clocks?


You're limited using a laptop. Too bad their fan profile doesn't work for the GPU!


----------



## fudun

Yeah, seems like there's not much to do.

Anyway - undervolted 0.130 on cpu and cache and diabled Turbo boost short power max. Seemed to help a bit with throttling - but CPU still gets close to 100 centigrades!

5170 Firestrike score with undervolting and stock GPU - seems a bit low?


----------



## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fudun*
> 
> I just got my 9560 yesterday. It's the top specced version with 7700hq, 32 GB ram, 1 TB SSD, GTX 1050 and 4k touch.
> 
> Got it from my employer, so physical modifications is probably frowned upon, but a mild OC sounds interesting.
> 
> I am thinking undervolting the CPU and overclocking the GPU should be the way to go to get a few more fps for gaming.
> 
> So how do I do this - I thought voltage would be possible to set in BIOS, but I couldn't find it. I guess Throttlestop is the thing?
> 
> GPU OC I guess would be MSI afterburner og maybe EVGA Precision that I use for my desktop?
> 
> Any other simple tweaks I should do to squeeze more fps out of the XPS?


I use Nvidia Inspector for my GPU overclocking. I noticed MSI Afterburner has some optimous bug where I go to enter the clock and the GPU turns off and I get some insane clock boost like +34213421234. I had someone warn me that they fried their GPU from using MSI Afterburner so I stay away from it...
I use Intel XTU for undervolting. Works flawless. I like it much better than throttlestop.

Edit: I've tried some refresh rate hacks to overclock my monitor on my laptop with no luck... since I use both the Intel and Nvidia graphics via the switching I have to change the resolution via Intel HD drivers... it won't allow me to "exceed the maximum bandwidth" in the Intel drivers..and when I go search the windows registry for refresh rate...which I believe I found under "DefaultSettings.VRefresh" I will set it to something higher than the "60" value which is "3c" to say "3e" which would be 62Hz and no luck...


----------



## Glerox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *fudun*
> 
> I just got my 9560 yesterday. It's the top specced version with 7700hq, 32 GB ram, 1 TB SSD, GTX 1050 and 4k touch.
> 
> Got it from my employer, so physical modifications is probably frowned upon, but a mild OC sounds interesting.
> 
> I am thinking undervolting the CPU and overclocking the GPU should be the way to go to get a few more fps for gaming.
> 
> So how do I do this - I thought voltage would be possible to set in BIOS, but I couldn't find it. I guess Throttlestop is the thing?
> 
> GPU OC I guess would be MSI afterburner og maybe EVGA Precision that I use for my desktop?
> 
> Any other simple tweaks I should do to squeeze more fps out of the XPS?


Unfortunately without other tweaks, you'll have throttling...

The gpu invariably throttles at 78 degrees and it seems that it always reaches that temperature even with stock clock... so this is bad cooling from Dell.

At least, you can solve that problem with this awesome guide I just found from ultrabook reviews :

http://www.ultrabookreview.com/14875-fix-throttling-xps-15/

I received my kryonaut this week, looking forward to do the tweaks this weekend


----------



## fudun

Thanks for the info. I was hoping to be able to do a mild oc without opening the chassis. So far I have done a bit of cpu undervolting and gpu mem oc.

- 0.130 V cpu
+ 100 Mhz GPU mem
.
works, but not really changing the game. The best Firestrike score is below 5400. I will try some more on the gpu core, but the temps seems way too high.


----------



## Glerox

Yeah I'm pretty sure you got thermal throttling.

Try gaming or put a synthetic benchmark in loop (i use firestrike 1st test in loop) and lool you gpu clockspeed. Mine goes down after 5 to 10 minutes when it reaches 78 degrees...


----------



## fudun

By the way, how do I confirm the battery capacity? Battery report shows no numbers:

Installed batteries
Information about each currently installed battery
BATTERY 1
NAME DELL 5XJ2872
MANUFACTURER LGC-LGC8.33
SERIAL NUMBER 664
CHEMISTRY LION
DESIGN CAPACITY mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY mWh
CYCLE COUNT -


----------



## Glerox

I repasted the laptop with two types of thermal paste, I applied thermal pads on the VRMs, but I'm not able to remove thermal throttling from the GPU.
It still reaches 78 degrees and then the clockspeed drops.

It's better then it was, but I would have like to achieve better temps.

How did you manage do reach better temps?


----------



## iRUSH

How'd the laptop running? You love it?


----------



## fudun

Here's a quick update on my 9560. I complained to Dell about high temps on one core, and they sent me a new motherboard and cooling. Temperatures dropped like 20 centigrades under load. Now running with - 145 mV on CPU and i - 180 mV on iGPU. Probably got a better pasting job.

No longer any throttling issues from the CPU. Temps around 69 under heavy load.

Using Afterburner for OC on the GPU for now, even though Cakewalk tried to talk me out of it., I have seen freaky numbers on the GPU bus, like 12362472724 and such, but that must be just a software/measuring bug?

Anyway, I seemed to reach some kind of wall with voltages and power limit with core at +150 and mem at + 200. Weirdly no high GPU temps, but Afterburner monitor shows power and voltage limits all over the place. Running at core +205 and mem +407 now. Stable for for benchmarking and gaming, but the firestrike score is only like 50 more than with the previous mentioned. Could it be that the power limitations makes this overclock not working? Strange that it doesn't crash or get hot at all. Never reached 78 C on the GPU and I can't see any throttling as I did when the prevoius CPU heated everything to 90 C.

Here's the latest Firestrike score:

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/12429763


----------



## iRUSH

How can you adjust the Nvidia display settings on these? It says they're not available. Everything is up to date 100%. It's just running on the iGPU


----------



## iRUSH

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iRUSH*
> 
> How can you adjust the Nvidia display settings on these? It says they're not available. Everything is up to date 100%. It's just running on the iGPU


What a finicky little device! Got it sorted out lol.

Then there's the temps, woah. Quite a hottie ? The repaste seems to have cured it substantially.


----------



## Cakewalk_S

Laptop is holding up good so far. Updated xtu to the new version and a few driver updates. Temps are OK. Not the absolutely best but that's because of the limits I'm putting on the chips with 0 throttling and really pushing the gpu overclock.
Laptop performs great in bf1 and I have 0 complaints.

Vrm temps usually stay under 70c in this summer which is great. I may see after this most recent nvidia driver update if I can overclock anymore. I haven't really pushed the gpu core to the absolute limit yet...


----------



## Cakewalk_S

Just a quick update...

For those of you that use msi afterburner. There's a new function that is a voltage and clock chart. It's ctrl + F to get to it. This amazing chart somehow allows me to undervolt the gtx 1050 gpu!!!! Right now I'm stable at 0.981v at 1798mhz. Stock voltage is around 1.050-1.075v. I'm not sure this will work on other gpus but I found this to be amazing for temps. I now hang around 65-70c while gaming which is great!!!


----------



## Glerox

Nice thanks I'll try that!


----------



## iRUSH

DBL post


----------



## iRUSH

Good work buddy!

It's for Pascal. I cover this on my channel. My GTX in this laptop runs 1886 mhz at .9v like a boss.


----------



## Cakewalk_S

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *iRUSH*
> 
> Good work buddy!
> 
> It's for Pascal. I cover this on my channel. My GTX in this laptop runs 1886 mhz at .9v like a boss.


Show me your curve! (Not curves) lol

Ill keep dropping the max voltage on it till it gets to a solid undervolt. I saw 0.925v on the stock 1798mhz. Is there any way to remove some of the dots you change each voltage/mhz at?


----------



## iRUSH

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Show me your curve! (Not curves) lol
> 
> Ill keep dropping the max voltage on it till it gets to a solid undervolt. I saw 0.925v on the stock 1798mhz. Is there any way to remove some of the dots you change each voltage/mhz at?


I ended up having to move the curve up to .925 last night. After 3 hours of BF1 MP I would get an odd artifact in the options menu. Going from .9 to .95 solved this.


----------



## Glerox

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Cakewalk_S*
> 
> Just a quick update...
> 
> For those of you that use msi afterburner. There's a new function that is a voltage and clock chart. It's ctrl + F to get to it. This amazing chart somehow allows me to undervolt the gtx 1050 gpu!!!! Right now I'm stable at 0.981v at 1798mhz. Stock voltage is around 1.050-1.075v. I'm not sure this will work on other gpus but I found this to be amazing for temps. I now hang around 65-70c while gaming which is great!!!


How do you monitor the voltage in MSI afterburner?
I selected "unlock voltage monitoring" but can't see a voltage value anywhere.

Thanks


----------



## iRUSH

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Glerox*
> 
> How do you monitor the voltage in MSI afterburner?
> I selected "unlock voltage monitoring" but can't see a voltage value anywhere.
> 
> Thanks


I just run GPU-Z, tab over to sensors and on the VDDC sections click in it till it says "MAX". Then you'll see the max value the GPU hit.

Might not be the normal way but it works here.

Have you had much luck undervolting the GPU with this option yet?


----------



## Glerox

no matter how much I undervolt cpu and gpu, despite having repaste, I always hit 77 celcius and the gpu starts to downclock... quite disappointing


----------



## iRUSH

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *Glerox*
> 
> no matter how much I undervolt cpu and gpu, despite having repaste, I always hit 77 celcius and the gpu starts to downclock... quite disappointing


From my experience that's pretty normal. I have only been able to stabilize the gpu core frequentcy at load on one laptop. It had plenty of power and in my opinion was the only reason coupled with the voltage curve editor I was able to pull it off.

Right now I'm on a gtx 1070 laptop with only a 230 watt brick and undervoltjng hasn't helped stabilize the core whatsoever. Plus the gpu z reading is showing power limit issues.


----------



## Glerox

That's why I don't understand how the OP is achieving stable 70 temperature and avoid gpu throttling


----------



## wanamees

Hi guys,

Thanks for the tips in this topic.
I gave my 9560 a quick test today (still stock paste and no mods).

cpu -125mv
igpu -100mv

ngpu -35mv
1911mhz core (goes 1923mhz and then down to 1911 under heavy load, for some reason doesnt want to stick - although temps didnt hit over 68C)
1866mhx ram

I tried to put ~1950mhz on core, but it crashed heaven bench in few secs with same voltage (that's still under stock). Mem I didnt bother to test out, possibly a bit more in it.
Now I have to find out an optimal. It worked fine with -100mv and ~1820mhz.

Firestrike from 5500 > 6000









*https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/22816891*


----

I have conductonaut, heat sinks for vram (custom made, had to saw them smaller from 11mm height) and copper tape (that way I don't have to cut the copper under cover) waiting for iunlock mod.
Just forgot thermal tape for sinks...


----------



## geel

Just a quick headsup about the dangers of CPU Cache undervolting, in case this is news.

I just got a 9560, and did a Kyronaut repaste, VRM pads and undervolted the CPU core and cache -125mv.

I then noticed strange CPU multiplier behaviour when running my DAW close to 100% CPU on AC and then pulling the plug:

- the multiplier was stuck at 28x on battery (34x is normal for multi-core load)
- straight after the AC was pulled, the multiplier dropped to something like 8x, and then VERY SLOWLY climbed up to 28x - like 1 step a second or so.

Turns out this behaviour was caused by the CPU cache undervolting! Removing that (CPU Core undervolt can stay) fixed it, the initial crash and climb up is much faster, and it runs at the full 34x again.

Something to watch out for, especialyl as XTU at least seems to set the cache the same as the core when you mod the core.

Anyway, I hit around 80-85deg on full prolonged CPU load (audio DAW) with clear vents. Kinda jealous of reports of 70deg even after the Kyronaut repaste & core undervolting. Maybe I need to repaste (of course it depends on ambient temps too - and maybe CPU quality / base voltage?). My cores seem to be within 2 degs of each other though so I assume the paste/heatsink interface is OK.


----------



## iRUSH

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *geel*
> 
> Just a quick headsup about the dangers of CPU Cache undervolting, in case this is news.
> 
> I just got a 9560, and did a Kyronaut repaste, VRM pads and undervolted the CPU core and cache -125mv.
> 
> I then noticed strange CPU multiplier behaviour when running my DAW close to 100% CPU on AC and then pulling the plug:
> 
> - the multiplier was stuck at 28x on battery (34x is normal for multi-core load)
> - straight after the AC was pulled, the multiplier dropped to something like 8x, and then VERY SLOWLY climbed up to 28x - like 1 step a second or so.
> 
> Turns out this behaviour was caused by the CPU cache undervolting! Removing that (CPU Core undervolt can stay) fixed it, the initial crash and climb up is much faster, and it runs at the full 34x again.
> 
> Something to watch out for, especialyl as XTU at least seems to set the cache the same as the core when you mod the core.
> 
> Anyway, I hit around 80-85deg on full prolonged CPU load (audio DAW) with clear vents. Kinda jealous of reports of 70deg even after the Kyronaut repaste & core undervolting. Maybe I need to repaste (of course it depends on ambient temps too - and maybe CPU quality / base voltage?). My cores seem to be within 2 degs of each other though so I assume the paste/heatsink interface is OK.


Thanks for posing this geel! For my piece of mind can you try this again assuming you're using the 7700hq and undervolt via XTU but with am undervolt of -.115 instead? (generic testing is preferred including cache. That seems to be the actual maximum limit of the 7700hq and in fact it's possible that some might be less. I've tested too many. Your testing further helps so thank you so far and welcome to OCN


----------



## geel

OK so I did more Core/Cache undervolt testing with ThrottleStop and found some interesting things:

1. Watching the VID readout while doing my voltage offsets, there's a reason why XTU sets the cache to the core voltage:

- in the range 0 - -90mv, the CPU Core offset cannot be lower than -30mv from the Cache - setting it lower has no further effect on VID. Below -90mv range, it seems both actually have to match exactly or VID is not affected by the lower setting (not tested conclusively but seems that way).

2. A good way to test undervolt stability seems to be running Prime torture (tested mixed blend) on AC, and pulling the AC once the cores are hot. The sudden crash in multiplier seems to have a severe effect on voltage stability - with unstable undervolts, some worker threads instantly halt with errors, often followed immediately by a bluescreen. If it _doesn't_ bluescreen and you restart the torture test on battery, plugging AC back in can have the same effect.

Doing this test (only a few minutes Pime runs so far) with all other CPU settings stock, my stable core/cache undervolt is only -110mv. But i have to test longer to see if that's _really_ stable (also still have to try -115mv as I was testing in steps of 10mv).

With the rest at stock settings, pulling the AC during the torture test results in the 8x multiplier crash, and the very slow climb up back to 34x (guess around 10 secs or more). With SpeedShift enabled however (EPP=112) the climb up happens way quicker even with the undervolt.

I tested up to -170mv (bluescreens and torture workers failing), but never saw the 28x limited multiplier on battery again. But I saw that with my DAW, not Prime, so I will check later if I can repro that. But back then I was running -120mv which doesn't seem to be stable here ...


----------



## geel

(note I didn't delete my last post, it seems to have gone into moderation, maybe because I edited it too much? hopefully will be back soon ...)

... ah, there we go ^ .


----------



## geel

TL;dr: always set the CPU cache and core together. And watch VID to see if you actually get the expected changes. Don't kid yourself into thinking that you can undervolt the core alone to <-200mv (as I briefly did







).


----------



## Cakewalk_S

@geel, those fluctuation in core clock seems very strange indeed. I've noticed some crashing when undervolting around the -0.150 mark....it seems my machine is stable undervolting at -0.140.

I haven't played BF4 in quite awhile but I decided to play a little bit with the time I had...wow, the laptop just runs so good. Obviously 3-4 years from now it's really gong to show its age but even BF1, a 2016-2017 game runs very smooth on it overclocked, memory overclocked, and CPU maxxed out. With proper cooling the laptop basically performs like it was intended to.

It's funny though with Intel releasing the quad core U series chips right after I purchased mine. Obviously technology is always moving forward but heck now the U series processors are just as fast as a 35-45w 4 core i5... By the time I'll be purchasing a new laptop down the road, assuming this thing doesn't randomly die on me...4k screens should be mainstream and 6 core processors are standard...gosh, mobile graphics chips are going to be so powerful in 3 years...probably as powerful as today's desktop GPU's...time will tell...


----------

