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We need: lower consumption, better thermals and more performance - option to undervolt again
03-18-2021 06:17 PM - edited 03-18-2021 06:32 PM

I believe almost anyone, who has ever cared about performance of their laptop in the last 10 years has heard about undervolting. But if you have not, undervolting means to decrease the operating voltage of a component (in this case, CPU), which results in:
-Lower power consumption
-Lower operating temperature
-Better battery life
-and most importantly, higher performance.
As you see, it is a very nice feature to have, but unfortunately the option to undervolt has been completely removed without notice, in BIOS updates. For some it was possible to downgrade to the earlier BIOS, but people, who purchased their computer much later, or had their computer board replaced recently were not allowed to do so.
I have no idea why the option for undervolting would not be reintroduced as an option! I do not even see the reasoning behind completely removing it.
Was it for security? There is an option to disable all kinds of built in security: SGX, TXT, TPM, you name it. Does that make the user vulnerable to exploits? Perhaps. But they are choices. I'd prefer to have the performance I could set up earlier with an undervolt, stable, with no issues. I'd prefer to have a choice, and decide myself.
For example with a toggle, in BIOS. Like how there is an option to turn Intel Management Engine off, even though that causes loss of core functionality: it literally deactivates the complete onboard audio and rotation sensors on the HP Zbook Studio x360 G5.
What is the point of having the top of the line Intel CPU-s, whether it's 6 or 8 cores, if they thermal throttle to the point where they perform under specification? I would like to see my CPU perform better than it does now, while being 5-10 degrees Celsius cooler. I want it to perform how it already performed before. And I am not alone with that.
Within the mobile computing world it has been common knowledge for years, that with some minor voltage adjustments the performance and thermals of a computer can be improved, while decreasing the power consumption. We need the option in BIOS, a toggle, to allow adjustment to FIVR and voltage control again.
That is the option we are asking for - we want the better performing version of our laptop back.
Technology should move forward!
03-19-2021 07:30 PM

I agree, that HP should re-enable undervolting on the next bios update or at least give the option for the people that need it?
Last Bios update doesn't let us go back to a version where we can do that, and on the current Bios version the fan profile is very lazy and let's the CPU run warmer (Fan starts spinning above 50C), so the problems compound, and I'm getting horrible Thermal Throttling and the laptop lost 1/2 the designed performance.
03-22-2021 03:59 AM - edited 03-22-2021 04:12 AM

I have seen how other Intel OEMs reverted the change, and I especially believe that ultrabooks with such restricted thermal headroom should have the option to be tuned by the user. Especially because how most of us had already had a stable setup that performed much better than the factory tune.
Is there anybody from HP reading this, who could make a change, or someone who could escalate the issue?
Technology should move forward!
03-26-2021 06:51 AM

Other relevant topics on the issue, requesting the feature to be reimplemented on the business line:
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/Is-a-BIOS-CPU-undervolt-possible/m-p/7548184
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/Throttlstop-on-Elitebook-not-working/m-p/7355624
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/ZBook-G5-17-Bios-PROBLEM/m-p/7958093
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/High-CPU-temperature-at-idle/m-p/7560648
https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Undervolting/m-p/7489397
These are just instances of the countless posts mentioning the problem, not even accounting for the Spectre/Envy/Pavilion/Omen product lines.
Technology should move forward!

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