For our testing, we’re only going to set it to run for 10 minutes during these early stages.
It is time to test stability under load using the built-in CPU stress test. Your computer will have managed to override the new offset you tried to set and will be back to default voltage, but as a matter of caution make sure your starting point is within a realm of possibility. If your computer freezes at this stage and doesn’t restart automatically, then hold the power button to reset and boot back into Windows. If your system hasn’t frozen then it has passed the first step - it is stable at idle. Now change to your starting offset using the arrow buttons or the dropdown list and hit apply. Begin your testing several steps below those levels.
When it comes to quad-core processors, Skylake HQ/HK often achieves better undervolt levels than Kaby Lake HQ/HK. As a generalization, many Skylake Core U-series mobile processors seem to find their upper limit between -0.060 to -0.080 volts (-60 to -80 mV), while Kaby Lake U-series is more around -0.070 to -0.100 (-70 to -100 mV). Have a look online by googling your CPU model + ‘undervolt’ to see what levels others are achieving, then pick a starting point a few steps lower than theirs. Since we want to save time we are going to pick a start point based on our experience, and the experience of others online, where we know it should be safe to start with an offset of -0.050 (50 mV) on our Kaby Lake i5-7200u.
Proper procedure is to start making small increments of 5 – 10 mV and testing each setting. To improve readability, we suggest changing the displayed time period to something lower than 10 minutes using the drop down in the bottom right. Achieving the same benchmark score while reaching a maximum temperature that is 5 oC (~9 oF) lower than before any settings were changed shows that the goal of making the laptop run cooler has been achieved. So while this benchmark can help indicate a CPU that was severely throttling, we’re most interested in the highest CPU temperature that it reports.
IS TECH UTILITIES SAFE TO FIX TURBOTAX SOFTWARE
To be fair to Intel, this utility is their recommended software (i.e., non-BIOS) method of overclocking K-series processors, so this benchmark is designed to measure the performance gain from increasing clock speed. The most common result we achieve is for the 'before' and 'after' benchmark scores to be within a few points of each other when undervolting. It is our experience that if you see a noticeable difference in benchmark score within Intel XTU, then your system is throttling in a comparatively short period. However, we do need to point out that just like the stress tests, this benchmark isn’t very comprehensive compared to a third-party alternative like a Cinebench R15 loop to assess performance over time to see any temperature and power draw improvements from undervolting. It is worth running the benchmark prior to tweaking any settings since it can be used as a reference point to assess any gains we achieve. The two programs modify many of the same registers and it can get a bit messy. If you already use ThrottleStop and are wanting to give Intel XTU a go, then you need to reset any changes back to default, uninstall ThrottleStop, and then reboot your computer before installing Intel XTU. Intel XTU functions similarly to the third-party ThrottleStop utility, a fan favorite in the mobile computing community. So to add to Intel’s description regarding overclocking, we’d say that Intel XTU is a tool that lets us adjust settings that can lower the temperatures that our system hits under load, potentially cause the fans to run quieter, and maybe even extend battery life. Fortunately, some of the settings available to us - like the core voltage - aren’t just used for overclocking, they can also be used to reduce the thermal load on our systems. However, most of us own laptops that aren’t capable of overclocking, both because of the change Intel processors underwent when moving from a traditional FSB to a BCLK setup several years ago, and because our cooling systems aren’t able to handle that thermal output. Many enthusiasts prefer to handle this via BIOS, but Intel XTU provides options for modifying metrics such as core voltage, clock speed multiplier (on supported CPUs), and turbo boost power limits (if the manufacturer has enabled this option). Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) is a Windows-based program that Intel promotes as a way to overclock and performance-tune your system.