More performance and quieter fans with Intel XTU – Undervolting the ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2018 & ThinkPad T480s

[Redaktion]

Reduced Voltage. Intel's new ULV quad-core processors are very fast, but they also get very warm and compare more power, especially compared to the previous dual-core models.We took two current laptops from Lenovo and tried to reduce the core voltage of the processor via Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (undervolting).

https://www.notebookcheck.net/More-performance-and-quieter-fans-with-Intel-XTU-Undervolting-the-ThinkPad-X1-Carbon-2018-ThinkPad-T480s.296752.0.html

[Vladgf]

I use it on my 6700hq to drop 155 mv and the improvement is big

[NickL]

I've tried doing this on my Dell XPS 13 9370, but no matter how small my undervolt is (even 5mV), it causes often causes "Windows did not restore properly" errors after sleeping/turning off after undervolting.

[dondiato]

Thank you! I've been trying some settings as well and it kept on crashing randomly while undervolting to -0.130V (only during YouTube videos). With -0.120V it was stable enough for everything I do.

Unfortunately, the temperature didn't change as much in my case. I went from 45-50°C to 42-45°C.

There's another thing I'd like to add/ask: When it comes to XTU I keep on having troubles with "keeping it on". As soon as I shut down my T480s and start it again, the settings change completely to default again. I've tried to save the settings as a profile, changed everything like you guys did but it keeps on happening.

Do I have to keep it open all the time? Start it with Windows? The program itself is quite powerful (it seems) that's why I'd prefer to have it closed.

Any idea?

Thanks!

[crnkoj]

I've tried doing this on my Dell XPS 13 9370, but no matter how small my undervolt is (even 5mV), it causes often causes "Windows did not restore properly" errors after sleeping/turning off after undervolting.

I had the chance to try both an xps 9360 and 9370, both with the i7-8550u - basically identical specs. The old model, had almost 0.1v higher voltage than the new one, i was able to UV it -130mV and was stable, but crashed as soon as i did sleep (even -5 only), like you experienced. On the other hand the newer model had already the 100mV lower stock voltage and i could UV a max of -110mV, without it crashing and even after sleep no crash. Like this the new model used 5 to almost 10w less under furmark/cinebench at same frequency or was at least 400mhz faster at same power usage. In the end i decided to keep the 9370, eventhough it was 300e more with same specs.

[chadhsieh]

I've tried Iinstalling XTU on my Lenovo T480s , but some issue show up about Setup Failed , So I go to INTEL website of XTU dowload page,That Say Support CPU list does not include i7 8550u, can u help me?

[radek]

I have the same problem :( maybe older version of XTU? Do you have installation package? thank you.

[Francescop]

I just got my new laptop and was also disappointed by Cinebench results on the i7 t480s averaging an appalling 508. I was going to start the undervolt process but then I just updated firmware and bios and now the score is around 770. So maybe they fixed this issue recently with some update?

[Tryingtohelp1234]

You can go to TechSpot to get an older version of INTEL EXTREME TUNING UTILITY (XTU) that works with ULV processors like the Core i5-8250U. 

Since I can't put a link in here, Google "techspot intel xtu" and select the result with the title, "Intel Extreme Tuning Utility XTU 6.4.1.25 Driver - TechSpot".  Scroll down under "Previous Versions", select version 6.4.1.19.  (It checks clean at VirusTotal.)

Sorry that I wasn't allowed to put the link in here.

[avinicius]

My ASUS X510UR with i5-8250U went from ~670 to 730 points in Cinebench with -100 mV.

[Processio]

You might need to do this to get the current version of XTU installed:

Since I can't paste links:

Go to processio dot com

And find this article:

intel-xtu-error-0x80070643-attempted-to-install-on-an-unsupported-platform/

Worked for me. There's a link to another article that does it differently. YMMV.

[Oberoth]

You might need to do this to get the current version of XTU installed:

Since I can't paste links:

Go to processio dot com

And find this article:

intel-xtu-error-0x80070643-attempted-to-install-on-an-unsupported-platform/

Worked for me. There's a link to another article that does it differently. YMMV.

Thank you so much, worked like a charm even with the Sept 2021 version (7.5.2.3) BUT all my voltage options are greyed out on my i7 8550u. Does anyone know why that might be? Does it need some kind of permission in the BIOS to allow voltage tweaks?