Is undervolting good for laptop?

Gaming laptops have become really powerful in the last few years, stuffing desktop-grade performance into a small portable package. However, these improvements in GPU and CPU performance come at the cost of increased heat output. If youve ever monitored the temperature of a gaming laptop while playing games, you may have noticed that the numbers are unreasonably high.

The good news is that there is a quick workaround that involves undervolting your laptops processor. Here, well explain how you can easily undervolt your gaming laptop using a free tool called Intel XTU.

What Is Undervolting?

Before we go ahead with the how-tos, its important to understand what undervolting is. Simply put, its the process of lowering the voltage supplied to the CPU. If you arent aware, the higher the voltage supplied, the higher the heat output. Therefore, by lowering the voltage supplied to the CPU, you can lower its temperature.

Most laptops coming out of the factory dont have the best stock voltage values possible. Manufacturers often play safe and use higher stock voltages than necessary to avoid crashes and blue screens. This is why undervolting is usually considered a quick and easy fix, especially if you dont want to pry it open and replace the thermal paste.

How to Undervolt Your Laptop With Intel XTU

Normally you need to enter your BIOS to undervolt your CPU. This would mean that youd need to reboot your laptop every time you wanted to adjust the voltage values.

Fortunately, thanks to this free software called Intel XTU, you can change the values without restarting. This means you can spend more time tweaking the values and less time staring at your PCs BIOS screen.

To get started with Intel XTU:

1. Download and install Intel Extreme Tuning Utility on your Windows computer.
2. Launch the program and locate the Core Voltage Offset slider. Now, drag the slider a little to the left. Youll notice that the voltage value is lowered. Start with a -0.050V core voltage offset, and then click on Apply to save your changes.

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