Legion Lenovo 7i (i9-14900HX) Undervolting

[ChinpoMeister]

Hello all,

This is my first time undervolting CPU but i'm not really sure that i'm doing it right. After watching some tutorial and reading advice & configuration from other people in this forum, i finished configure it and test it but it feels like the undervolting is not working (or my conception of undervolting is wrong?...)

I set -140.6 mV for CPU Core and CPU P Cache, -50.8 mV for CPU E Cache. Tried to run Genshin Impact after finish setting, play about 5-10 minutes then i check the temps and everything. Saw that the "Core Thermal Throttling" is enabled and the temps can reach to 100ºC.

My Laptop spec is Lenovo Legion 7i, i9-14900HX, 2 TB SSD, 32 GB RAM, RTX 4090

Is there something that i'm missing or anything that should be changed? Any help would be really appreciated

Sorry for the bad english too...

 

[unclewebb]

The top middle of the FIVR window shows that your computer has enabled Intel Undervolt Protection. That means none of your undervolt requests in ThrottleStop are being used. Look at the FIVR monitoring table. All of the Offset voltages are listed as +0.0000

I am not sure what BIOS version you are using. Do some Google searching. There might be an earlier BIOS version you can use or maybe in the BIOS you have, there might be an option to disable Undervolt Protection. You have to do that before you can undervolt your CPU. Maximum performance cannot be achieved until you do that.

 

[ChinpoMeister]

Hello unclewebb, thank you for your advice.

I checked my BIOS once again and found that the Undervolt Protection suddenly "Enabled" again. I tried turn it off and somehow ThrottleStop is showing the undervolt value i changed. But after a while, the laptop is getting BSOD. Seems that there's something wrong with my configuration.

 

[iameatingjam]

Sounds like the undervolt is too much, try lowering it.

 

[unclewebb]

Seems that there's something wrong with my configuration.

Post an updated FIVR screenshot. A BSOD is a sign that undervolting is working and you are probably undervolting too much. I would set the mV Boost box in the FIVR window to 150. This provides additional light load voltage which can help avoid some BSOD issues.

Did you just copy someone else's voltage settings? What works for one CPU might not be stable for your CPU. If mV Boost does not fix your problem then you will need to reduce your undervolt until your computer is 100% stable.

 

[ChinpoMeister]

Nope. I use the exact config that i post in the images and getting BSOD twice in a row.

First, i set -140.6 mV for CPU Core and CPU P Cache, -50.8 mV for CPU E Cache. After getting BSOD, i tried to lower CPU Core and CPU P Core to -130.6 mV and still getting BSOD. Do i need to set it lower?

 

[unclewebb]

Do i need to set it lower?

Did you set mV Boost to 150 yet like I suggested? If you have done that then you need to keep lowering your Offset voltages until you are stable.

 

[iameatingjam]

Nope. I use the exact config that i post in the images and getting BSOD twice in a row.

First, i set -140.6 mV for CPU Core and CPU P Cache, -50.8 mV for CPU E Cache. After getting BSOD, i tried to lower CPU Core and CPU P Core to -130.6 mV and still getting BSOD. Do i need to set it lower?

What do you mean nope? If you are getting bsods its because your are undervolting too much. Reduce the undervolt until its stable. You might only end up getting -50mv, thats just how the silicon lottery works.

 

[ChinpoMeister]

What do you mean nope? If you are getting bsods its because your are undervolting too much. Reduce the undervolt until its stable. You might only end up getting -50mv, thats just how the silicon lottery works.

Oh sorry, the "Nope" i mean is from unclewebb's question about copying someone else's voltage settings.

Did you set mV Boost to 150 yet like I suggested? If you have done that then you need to keep lowering your Offset voltages until you are stable.

View attachment 361535

Okay thank you for your advice, i'll try to set it to 150 and hope that it's safe now. I'll let you know if it's working later.

 

[ChinpoMeister]

Did you set mV Boost to 150 yet like I suggested? If you have done that then you need to keep lowering your Offset voltages until you are stable.

View attachment 361535

Sorry for the late reply, after i set it to 150, it doesn't start BSOD anymore.

After tweaking a little bit more, this is the config i run. When i set CPU Core more than -130.0 mV it will start getting BSOD (again haha). I guess this is the best config i can do. Is there anything i can do to optimize better?

 

[unclewebb]

Is there anything i can do to optimize better?

You can try increasing the mV Boost value further. I think one user set mV Boost to 185. You can use 200 or more if it helps you to undervolt the core and the P cache some more.

The core and the P cache do not have to be set equal to each other. Some users get better results by setting the core to a bigger number compared to the P cache. You can also try undervolting the E cache. That might help in some full load stress tests that use the E cores. It might not help in games if your games are mostly running on the P cores like they should be.

 

[ChinpoMeister]

You can try increasing the mV Boost value further. I think one user set mV Boost to 185. You can use 200 or more if it helps you to undervolt the core and the P cache some more.

The core and the P cache do not have to be set equal to each other. Some users get better results by setting the core to a bigger number compared to the P cache. You can also try undervolting the E cache. That might help in some full load stress tests that use the E cores. It might not help in games if your games are mostly running on the P cores like they should be.

Thank you for your advice. I'm gonna tweak a bit more for sure. The problem is my laptop somehow is not consistent (i tried set mV boost to -140 and it works perfect 2 days ago. Then yesterday it suddenly not responding so i had to hard reset and turn it down to -130. Today i turn on my laptop and it happened again (gonna set it down to -125 and hope that's the sweet spot then)

 

[ChemicalDruid]

(i tried set mV boost to -140 and it works perfect 2 days ago. Then yesterday it suddenly not responding so i had to hard reset and turn it down to -130. Today i turn on my laptop and it happened again (gonna set it down to -125 and hope that's the sweet spot then)

We all hope you are not confusing voltage offset (a negative value) with mV boost (a positive value) - when problems arise, either decrease the voltage offset amount, (e.g. from -140 to -130, or increase the mV boost amount, e.g. from 130 to 140.

 

[ChinpoMeister]

Oh sorry, i misread mV Boost with Voltage offset . Sorry for stupid question but actually what does mV boost for?
From what i understand, the higher i set the mV Boost, the lower voltage offset i can set (but i confused how it works...)

 

[ChemicalDruid]

For CPUs that crash after waking up from sleep or sometimes during idle, setting mV boost to an amount equal or higher than your voltage offset (but positive) helps eliminate those crashes. It is only applied at the low frequency mentioned (800 MHz) where the undervolt wouldn't really do much anyway - any higher and it's cancelled, allowing the undervolt to do its job.

 

[Proday83]

Hi all, I have some issues here with a new Legion 7i 14700HX with 4060 laptop as you can see...I'm following some yt tutorials relate to ThrottleStop and undervolting, but whatever I do, my offset values are always +0.000. (picture below). Fivr is not protected, cpu overclock enabled in bios. Bios ver: NSCN32WW. Any ideas...thanks!

 

[unclewebb]

Exit ThrottleStop. Delete the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file. Turn off your computer. Start back up and try again.

If you still have problems, run msinfo and check if virtualization is enabled. Post a screenshot of the Windows Features window.

 

[Proday83]

@unclewebb first have to say thanks for helping!

I did all you tell and after lot of pain it finally works all. First although Hyper-V was turned off in windows on all places, from some reasson, virtualisation turned back to on in Bios, after disabling it again (all on pictures), ThrottleStop finally started to show propper offset values...but from some reasson, all cpu cores worked fixed on 399mhz all the time. After multiple resets and deliting ini for throttlestop, everything seems to work (except I'm getting low single sore values in R23). But after all, before the best multy for cinebench was 25k and with `160W on cpu power package, now I'm getting something below 29K and with 138W; great improvement. Now I just need to find some tutorial on How to start throttlestop with windows and to check what happens with that single core performance.

Edit: I'm seeing online that 14700HX should have `2100 pionts in Single Core R23?!...Help

 

[unclewebb]

Your Windows Features list shows that Virtual Machine Platform is checked. I am not sure if that is OK or not. It might be OK after disabling virtualization in the BIOS. I would still disable Virtual Machine Platform in the Windows Features list just to make sure.

The biggest problem I see is that IccMax is set to only 1.00 Amp. That can cause constant EDP throttling. I am not sure what the default value for your CPU is. Did you follow my previous directions exactly?

Exit ThrottleStop. Delete the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file. Turn off your computer. Start back up and try again.

Usually when you power off your computer, the BIOS will reset the IccMax value. When you start back up, if the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file has been previously deleted, ThrottleStop will read the default IccMax value from the CPU. I do not know why this is set to only 1.00 Amp. That could be a problem with your BIOS or for some unknown reason this did not get properly reset.

I would recommend trying to reset your computer one more time. Follow my advice exactly. No cheating. When you power down, pull the plug out of the wall socket and wait 10 seconds just to make sure that the CPU has been reset. When you run ThrottleStop after doing this, it should show the default value for IccMax in the FIVR window. The default value for both the core and the cache is usually around 240. I prefer setting IccMax to the max for both the core and the cache but that seems to scare some people. All I know is that setting IccMax to at least 240 is a lot better than IccMax being set to only 1.00.

Exit HWiNFO when testing. Show me a screenshot of ThrottleStop with Limit Reasons open while Cinebench is running in the background.

 

[Proday83]

Usually when you power off your computer, the BIOS will reset the IccMax value. When you start back up, if the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file has been previously deleted, ThrottleStop will read the default IccMax value from the CPU. I do not know why this is set to only 1.00 Amp. That could be a problem with your BIOS or for some unknown reason this did not get properly reset.

Man thanks a lot, you learned me a really valuable lession!

Yesterday I played a bit with system, I saw that there is some conflict between Lenovo Vantage and ThrottleStop. Basically from some reasson cpu core 4 (single core test use it), didn't go over 44x or 4.400mhz. After deleting .ini this time, resseting bios values as you said, all on default and in warm room (I have 4 months old baby) I got 2000+ witouth problem. Also I'm not loosing my nerves anymore seeing a 100 degrees in HW monitor, now is 97max again. I'm old scool and I miss old days when you got a lower temperatures with higher undervolt...now I have only more room for frequencies. I'll play more with all of this when I find time.

Thanks, thanks, thanks!

 

[unclewebb]

Glad to see that your Cinebench score is back to normal.

Most owners of HX processors like to check the mV Boost box in the ThrottleStop FIVR window. I would check that box and set mV Boost to 150. Adding some extra voltage when the CPU is lightly loaded can improve stability. This should allow you to undervolt the core and the P cache further. Those are usually the two most important voltages.

If you are not sure about something, turn on the ThrottleStop Log File option before you start playing a game. Try to play for at least 15 minutes. The more data you gather the better. When finished testing, exit your game and then exit ThrottleStop. The log file will be in the ThrottleStop / Logs folder. Attach a log file to your next post and some updated FIVR and TPL screenshots. The log file will show if there are any throttling problems. No hurries.

 

[Proday83]

@unclewebb Finally, after a lot of trying and software combining I suceeded to get clocks higher than 4.5ghz a min or two later after win starts (probably 56 -180 sec). It seems that short term power boost goes only one (when windows start cpu usage is high and probably that was used on it), and never trigered again with lenovo oc vantage or throttlestop. With Lenovo Legion Toolkit and Intel XTU, I'm getting 5+ ghz clocks always. Also VID never goes above 1.392V, (-0.140 undervolted) if I underestand correctly, 14 series CPUs (Desktop and Laptop) can degrade over time if it goes over 1.4v long period of times. Now I just need to find totaly stable undervolts for long intensive running, and probably limit cpu not to go over 5ghz (multi x50).

 

[Miguel66]

Late to the discussion, sorry. I have the same CPU with a 4080. When gaming at 5.0ghz I never go over 1.25v, average is around 1.2v. My undervolts are purely for controlling the sky high temps that these cpu's can produce. I'm a total newb to gaming laptops so I've been messing about and trying loads of cool stuff that I knew nothing about. Chances are I've got everything backwards.

 

[Valour549]

Late to the discussion, sorry. I have the same CPU with a 4080. When gaming at 5.0ghz I never go over 1.25v, average is around 1.2v. My undervolts are purely for controlling the sky high temps that these cpu's can produce. I'm a total newb to gaming laptops so I've been messing about and trying loads of cool stuff that I knew nothing about. Chances are I've got everything backwards.

With an i9-14900HX you can easily follow my guide here.

 

[Miguel66]

With an i9-14900HX you can easily follow my guide here.

Thank you, saved me searching the web. I always kept my mmv boost at the highest (499), but setting it close to my core undervolt gave me an extra 2000 on r23 multicore! Although it seems i'm unable to stress my cpu with prime95 now, so guess I need to adjust my undervolt or change a few other settings.