Steam Deck Undervolting Tested: Boosting Battery Life And Performance (hothardware.com)

submitted 1 year ago by ylai@lemmy.ml to c/steamdeck@lemmy.ml

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[-] steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Am I reading this right? The games performed better with less power? Why?

[-] kadu@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

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

[-] steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Oh interesting. Makes sense. Any idea why they don’t tune it like this from the factory? Stability?

[-] kadu@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] ylai@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Undervolting provides the chip with additional power and thermal headroom, and can improved situations where otherwise throttling sets in.

[-] David_Eight@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

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.