The performance boost in Hitman 3 is interesting. Probably results from being able to keep a more consistent clock speed during intensive scenes because of lowered temps
I was just about to ask how undervolting could possibly improve performance. Your explanation sounds pretty plausible.
Lower temps and less power draw, which means you reach the thermal and power limit later.
It lowers the temperature of the SOC allowing the CPU and GPU to run for longer periods without throttling. Meaning that you will have more consistent frames and low 1%.
This convinced me to play around with undervolting and I managed to do -50/-50/-40 (cpu/gpu/soc) while still passing furmark and all mprime tests, now I can play Stardew Valley for even longer!
Am I reading this right? The games performed better with less power? Why?
Undervolting aims to keep the same performance at a lower power draw. But because modern SOCs scale their frequency dynamically based on temperature, a lower voltage means slightly better performance
Oh interesting. Makes sense. Any idea why they don’t tune it like this from the factory? Stability?
Yes. Essentially, every chip coming out of the fab will be slightly different, so you need to find a voltage curve that works for all of them. Some will be able to work with - 50mv, some -15, some won’t work at all unless they’re right at that factory defined voltage.
Undervolting provides the chip with additional power and thermal headroom, and can improved situations where otherwise throttling sets in.
Think of amps and volts like a hose and water. If you put your thumb over the hose the water shoots out faster. Undervolting works in a similar way. So the goal is to lower the volts but maintain or even increase the amps to improve performance.