Overclock Intel Core i5-8250U 1.6GHz

Lyungg on 25/10/2018 - 01:27

Hello!

I understand that the i5-8250u have an 'autoclock' feature that ramps up the cpu frequency to 3.6GHz however experiences throttling after approx. 1/4 minute. But, i'm trying to figure out how I can increase the base frequency of 1.6Ghz and more importantly to what? How can i tell what the optimal frequency is? I ran usserbenchmark and the results were terrible…

UserBenchmarks: Game 12%, Desk 30%, Work 23%
CPU: Intel Core i5-8250U - 25%
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Mobile Kaby Lake R) - 3.9% (I HAVE AMD R 550X SO NOT SURE????)
SSD: Samsung PM981 NVMe PCIe M.2 512GB - 85.2%
RAM: Ramaxel RMSA3260ME78HAF-2666 1x8GB - 34.7%
MBD: Lenovo 20KNCTO1WW

Realsitically, what can i expect? I'm kind of noob tho…Help!

Computing Computer Component CPU Intel

Comments

  • AdosHouse on 25/10/2018 - 02:43

    This is what you have, right? https://www.notebookcheck.net/ThinkPad-E480-i5-8250U-RX-550-…

    I doubt you will get anything better from the CPU. Reading that article, they ran Cinebench and the CPU never even hit full Turbo boost, before throttling back due to heat and possibly CPU power consumption.

    Also can you even overclock it or is that a locked CPU?

    • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 08:48

      I think if you can unlock TDP limit from 15 to x you can. My main question is what is a safe increase? can I keep it running at 2.4GHz as a base frequencey? what are the likely tradeoffs AND am i able to swap out that CPU?

      • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 11:14

        My main question is what is a safe increase?

        Depends on your particular chip. On a laptop? I wouldn't even try though, because you're stuck with the existing (poor) thermals.

        • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 11:43
          +1

          that's unfortunate. seen some people OC it but didn't talk about cons. I guess this doesn't qualify as a reason for return as i just got it recently or what could i say?

          • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 11:47
            -1

            @yungg: Not really - laptops run slower and hotter than desktops, that's basically as constant as water being wet. Depends where you bought it from and if you've used the laptop, you could ask nicely if they'll allow you to return for store credit towards something else, but they can say no.

            • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 11:53

              @HighAndDry: Yeah i know they do but 1.6GHz base clock seems uncessarily low. I know it was designed this way but most laptops run 2.2Ghz just fine right?

              • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 11:55

                @yungg: Not a chip designer, I'd have no way of saying. But if it's thermal throttling, it's doing that likely for a reason. You can try OC'ing - if you get a stable OC, then great. But just beware that it'll probably shorten the lifespan of the chip and/or void the warranty.

                • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 11:57

                  @HighAndDry: yeah i plan on running some experiment however i'm just not sure on what are safe incriments to try you know. Is there a trustworthy OC guide somewhere? have you personally OC?

                  • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 12:02
                    +1

                    @yungg: Lots of overclocking guides….. for desktops with unlocked chips and cooperative BIOSs. Unlikely for a laptop. I used to OC everything before - these days, the stuff I use my computer for doesn't need OC'ing and I'm older and lazier. But I've never tried to OC a laptop because again, the cooling limitations are what it is.

                    • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 12:04

                      @HighAndDry: really appreciate the help bro

                      • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 12:06

                        @yungg: No worries. If you haven't gotten rid of the packaging, I'd definitely ask them if you can return and buy a better/more expensive laptop. If they can still sell yours as new, they might agree just because they'd make more money that way. Worth a shot, nothing really to lose anyway.

  • Smashed Avo on 25/10/2018 - 03:22

    1.6 Ghz? That… that can't be right..

    • AdosHouse on 25/10/2018 - 03:50

      Yeah thats the base clock for that CPU. It's a mobility chip, designed to keep heat low.

      • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 10:09

        so can I safely OC or remove the CPU?

        • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 11:15

          No…..

          • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 11:40

            @HighAndDry: No to OC or removable CPU?

            • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 11:47

              @yungg: You could try to OC (I wouldn't advise it), you almost certainly can't replace the CPU. I mean… you can technically remove it, you'll just be left with a brick.

              • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 11:55

                @HighAndDry: i'm definitely at fault and haven't got a laptop in 7 years. It was advertised as 1.6GHz (3.40GHz) so i thought it implied you can do a bit of OC but seems it's this nonsense tubro technology that only last like 15s. I'm 80% happy with the laptop and everything but the CPU is a massive let down

                • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 11:58

                  @yungg:

                  it's this nonsense tubro technology that only last like 15s.

                  Kind of yes, kind of no. The CPU can turbo to 3.4Ghz - that's literally in the specs of the chip. But the laptop chassis, cooling solution, airflow, ambient temp, all of that will determine how long and how hard the CPU can turbo for.

                  That's basically the primary compromise of buying a laptop, any laptop: smaller, thinner, lighter - at the cost of worse thermals and performance (and/or price). You put the same CPU into a giant chassis with good cooling like, say, a Gigabyte Aero, add liquid metal thermal paste, etc - and it'll probably turbo for years.

                  • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 12:00
                    +1

                    @HighAndDry: mhmm you're right. I'm not expecting it to run at a constant 3.40GHz. I just a respectable 2.0-2.2Ghz you know.

                    • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 12:03
                      +1

                      @yungg: It's at least running at the advertised base clock. There were news stories of the new Macbooks with i7 chips throttling to basically i5 speeds and performance levels when they released.

                    • AdosHouse on 25/10/2018 - 14:08

                      @yungg: The reason that the CPU has a poor base clock is that it runs cool. Just browsing the internet, watching videos, etc.

                      When you do something that requires more power it will jump up to its turbo clock. In this case it will thermal throttle pretty quickly, it will go down to the highest clock it can and stay safely within it's safety parameters. So technically it will automatically achieve it's highest possible clock without you needing to do anything.

                      So what I'm saying is just leave the laptop as in, don't go changing the BIOS, the computer will give you the highest possible SAFE clock automatically.

                      If you want to see what the CPU is doing, download Prime95 https://www.mersenne.org/download/ , and CPUID HWMonitor https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

                      Then you can see what the temperature and clock speeds are doing.

                      • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 18:43

                        @AdosHouse: yeah i don't have much choice anyway. it's simply not built to maintain higher clock speeds even if i were to change the CPU settings or CPU itself. (although i thought i saw 1.8GHz mentioned somwhere).

                        This purchase was kind of a flop. I should have to it for 1k but forgot cashback.
                        i5 8250
                        AMD RX 550
                        512GB SSD
                        8GB RAM
                        Backlit KB
                        FHD IPS
                        Overall though i really like the laptop and not sure why i am complaining when i have a pretty good gaming desktop. I guses the idea of not being able to do it got to me…

                        thanks for the resources it will definitely help me learn and make better decisions in future.

                      • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 19:41

                        @AdosHouse: here it is - why does it show 2 clock speeds? is some hardware/drive issue holding it back from that 1.8GHz base clock?

                        https://imgur.com/a/bY4vB69

                        • AdosHouse on 25/10/2018 - 23:20

                          @yungg: I don't know, but your core has a base clock of 1.6Ghz, so not sure where the 1.8 came from.

                    • N1NJ4W4RR10R on 11/11/2018 - 10:03

                      @yungg: Shoulda gotten the Ryzen model :/

                      Mind that, the GPU performance'd make up for it…or are you only really caring about CPU performance?

        • dcep on 25/10/2018 - 16:49

          you can remove if it's pga socketed but not for bga soldered cpu

          but then you need to check compatibility on replacement cpu, bios support, etc.

  • HighAndDry on 25/10/2018 - 18:53
    +1

    Came across this while looking at something else:

    https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-Yoga-Series-Notebooks/CP…

    That's for Lenovo Yoga 520s BUT the user has one also with a i5-8250U CPU, and the post references a software apparently called ThrottleStop that stops/decreases the throttling behaviour so that it runs at a moderate turbo-boost even in sustained loads (of approx 2.2GHz).

    Try that, but again, beware that running CPUs at higher clocks in a non-ideal thermal environment can lead to the CPU dying (marginally) earlier.

    • yungg on 25/10/2018 - 19:06

      I could kiss you right now.

      no homo.

      I actually saw undervolting earlier and was like this seems hard and gave up turns out it's via the same application as throttlestop. I'm gonna do a bit more research on how it works and whether or not it affects warranty etc and see how i got. Will let you know as well if you're keen. This is a bit of a niche issue i believe but may become a bit more common. Anyway thank you again bro.

      • AdosHouse on 25/10/2018 - 23:22

        The reason the CPU throttles is to stop it overheating, if you override that you risk killing the CPU. Then you throw the laptop in the bin.

        • yungg on 26/10/2018 - 00:20

          Yes it is to prevent overheating and damage to CPU but that's not a huge risk running it at a slightly faster clock speed than 1.6Ghz which is uncessarily low (designed this way to maximise battery life). You're talking about an extreme I don't plan to run it at 3.4GHz daily just a modest increase while watching temps. I looked into it more and it seems to be a wide issue with the updated BIOS. Apparently flashing the old BIOS and then testing +/- updating from there helped fixed the throttling issue without any major issues. I'm gonna take it slow. I can feel this latency opening programs and can't handle it lol

          • AdosHouse on 26/10/2018 - 12:42

            @yungg: It's possible that the latest BIOS has made the thermal throttling more conservative. But what the computer should be doing is still raising the clock to the highest turbo boost number it can, while still remaining inside its safety parameters.

            Did you try running Prime95 and CPUID like I mentioned previously?

            • yungg on 26/10/2018 - 16:56

              @AdosHouse: yes i did run them both but to be honset with you i had no idea what was happening and it didn't seem to do anything??

              all i could understand was the respective cpu core tempts + gpu temp, the 1.6GHz threshold and the power i assume is feeding the cpu at around 8W. here's a screen https://imgur.com/a/KaPvlJh

              • yungg on 26/10/2018 - 17:02

                @yungg: oh i think i get it now. it'sa continued test.well year capped at 1.6GHz as soon as i stopped prime clocks drope to 0.8GHz wtf then temps maxed at about 50 with about 5 minutes run time. Core 2 is on trial for some reason. please excuse my noobness i'm learning bro

            • yungg on 26/10/2018 - 17:23

              @AdosHouse: okay so seems it would be most beneficial to run CPUID alongside Prime95 after changes to voltage/clock speed adjustment to test stability. problem is idk where to go from here… do i flsah an old BIOS or do I use throttlestop to remove the cap on base clock speed?

              • yungg on 26/10/2018 - 18:13

                @yungg: sorry for all the replies but i even opened 99 tabs and maxed out the cpu cores and reached max temp of 52 deg.. surely i can incrase clock speed to withstand temps around 70-80.

                weird thing i ran thecpuid on my desktop and found temps of 90-99 degrees C - should i be concerned?? 4.2GH (it's an i7 4790K) man i do apologise for bombarding you with all this but feel free to only reply to the laptop issue

                • AdosHouse on 26/10/2018 - 18:29

                  @yungg: The reason you got TRIAL in some things is that you downloaded the PRO trial version and not the free version, doesn't matter, the data in the picture is good enough.

                  To me 57 degrees is not that hot. Keep in mind that I am used to PCs and not laptops. Sounds like the manufactorer have put an excessive safety margin there.

                  0.8Ghz is what your CPU should drop to when its just sitting and doing nothing, so that's normal. I don't understand why it didn't go over 1.6Ghz at all. Go through your BIOS and make sure Turbo Boost is enabled.

                  You should be able to roll the BIOS back, if you can find the old BIOS file to download. But maybe try Throttlestop first.

                  I believe that you should be able to go higher safely, but like I said, I'm not a laptop expert.

                  Yeah 90-100 degrees is way too hot for a CPU. You will kill seriously reduce it's life. You definately need a better cooling solution. Check that the case and CPU cooler has airflow, and is clean.

                  • yungg on 26/10/2018 - 18:59

                    @AdosHouse: yeah exactly it's abit excessive and uncessarily but i get it's advertised for its long battery life which in reality isn't that great i mean i'm getting about 6hrs max with brightness just under halfway… man this laptop (althought seems to be lastin longer with each full charge - full drain)

                    sounds like a plan… i just need to figure out what all those settings are and what are safe increments for toggle.

                    Yeah definitely it's been hella loud lately with the fans i think something is up. love this desktop been doing me good for 4 years now still strong.

                    btw appreciate your correspondence. feels soo alone with this issue and considering i know very little about all this software related stuff so thakn you

                  • yungg on 26/10/2018 - 19:12

                    @AdosHouse: btw you were difinitely right about my desktop. the new position i put it in collected soo much dust cpu fan is filthy. i took it out and cleaned it and realised thermal paste is dry. and replacement suggestions?

                    • AdosHouse on 26/10/2018 - 19:55
                      +1

                      @yungg: I've used arctic silver thermal paste before and am quite happy with it. Just be careful putting it on, a little paste goes a long way. And you definitely don't want any on the motherboard.

                      When fans start getting loud, it means a problem. With my rig, I can't even hear my computer less than 1m away, but I built it to be quiet, but still have nice cooling.

                      As for how to play with Throttlestop, I can't help you since I have never used it, but this can, https://www.notebookcheck.net/How-to-Lower-Temperatures-Stop…

                      And no probs about the help mate. We all start somewhere.

                      • yungg on 26/10/2018 - 21:45

                        @AdosHouse: so seems the guide is focused on reducing temp via undervolting but i think my issue is a little different. i need to take the cap of the TDP limit but not sure how much to increase it and whether or not that directly translates to higher clock speed and if i need to play around with cache too… for this reason i think if flashing the relevant bios doesn't work i'll use throttle stop more so as a last resort and let the already developed parameters on stated bios does the trick

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