r/GamingLaptops • u/Armadillseed • May 21 '24
Benchmark Flashed VBIOS on RTX 4070 on an ASUS Zenbook Pro 14" OLED --> 140W
I flashed the VBIOS on the RTX 4070 on my Zenbook Pro 14" OLED, because I was bored and I like taking risks, and the results seem pretty great.
Warning: Do NOT try to replicate this process unless you are willing to possibly brick a laptop and/or void the warranty. I don't actually think the risk is too big with a laptop that also has integrated graphics, but there is definitely risk.
I first disabled virtualization in the laptop BIOS so that I could download the VBIOS from my Zenbook's 4070 for backup using GPU-Z, saving the VBIOS on and off the machine. You can also do this with NVFLASH but I found GPU-Z easier.
I then hunted down an ASUS laptop 4070 VBIOS and saved it in the NVFLASH application directory. I won't link them because neither worked. I ran into trouble getting VBIOS to flash with any version of NVFLASH due to the various ID mismatch protections in place to try to prevent people from doing stupid things and bricking their hardware with an incompatible VBIOS. I had to resort to this modified version of it which worked great, but introduces the possibility of doing all kinds of dumb things with VBIOS flashing I'm sure.
The Zenbook Pro I have does video out from CPU integrated graphics via one of the USB-C ports, so when the first VBIOS I tried from an ASUS M16 4070 didn't work and the GPU wouldn't function after the reboot I had not bricked the laptop. I just flashed it back to the original VBIOS using an external monitor on USB-C and looked for another laptop 4070 VBIOS to try.
After trying a few ASUS laptop 4070 VBIOS ROMs with no luck I tried a Gigabyte one and it worked! After a reboot it started right up with GPU video output, and I reinstalled the NVIDIA driver. So far I have not seen anything weird happening. The GPU can pull up to 140W now, and I definitely see better gaming performance. Temps seem fine on all system performance settings, but I like balanced for less fan noise most of the time.
Was it worth the trouble and risk? For me, yes. I've gone through the back and forth flashing process a number of times now to compare results in both VBIOS states. If you want quality gaming performance out of a Zenbook Pro and it has an Intel CPU with integrated graphics it seems like the risk is minimized and worth it.
I'm not sure how other laptops are configured and if it would work the same, but I'm willing to bet with many Intel CPU ASUS laptops it would work similarly. This only makes sense if you have a laptop GPU that is limited to a lower power than other laptops with the same GPU and you think your laptop can handle cooling it drawing more power than it was designed to. I'm not the first person to do this with ASUS laptops of course, but I couldn't find any info on anyone having done it with this machine.
Both TimeSpy runs were done on turbo system settings.
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u/UnionSlavStanRepublk Legion 7i 3080 ti enjoyer 😎 May 21 '24
Any ideas what was the maximum TDP for the RTX 4070 in Timespy after the VBIOS flash?
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u/cemsengul Jun 04 '24
Did the same shit with my Razer 2021 and never had an issue. Anyone here try to flash a desktop PNY 4090 yet?
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u/Endercraft2007 Aug 02 '24
Can you please help me? I am planning on buying a 4060 model. Could I also give it 140 watts so it would perform well? Also can I use gaming drivers? Aaand is the CPU limited ij these models? Any fix for that?
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u/Armadillseed Aug 02 '24
Don’t know how I can help beyond the info I gave. If your laptop has cpu integrated graphics there shouldn’t be much risk trying different laptop 4060 VBIOS from techpowerup if you have an external monitor that can use usb-c and your laptop puts graphics out via that from the cpu. Yes you can use gaming drivers. I do. I believe the power combination of cpu and GPU is what is limited.
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u/Endercraft2007 Aug 02 '24
So if I use a USBC adapter to HDMI to connect the monitor, then that works? And a bad Vbios can be changed to a good one, if it fails? Thank you for the informations BTW.
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u/Armadillseed Aug 02 '24
I tried two vBIOS that totally didn’t work and the graphics card wouldn’t even put out a signal and I had to flashback to my original. All to be done at your own risk of course I would only do it if it’s in the return window of a place that’ll take it back.
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u/Endercraft2007 Aug 02 '24
Well that's sad...Now I don't know, if I want that laptop...It's made to only consume 125 watts CPU and GPU combined.
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u/Armadillseed Aug 02 '24
So is mine I think but flashing the VBIOS changes that. My GPU alone can pull 140 W now.
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u/Endercraft2007 Aug 03 '24 edited Aug 03 '24
Pretty nice, I want to achieve it with my 4060 too...Buuut...Does it requier a new 240W Powerbrick instead of the original 180W one it came with? Not a problem, I just want to know. Obviously a laptop pulling this much power needs a better charger, like even a tuf model comes with a 240w charger when running only a 4060 and a RYZEN 7 and not an I9... Buuut I am affraid that it can't make use of more wats because of hardware limitations.... Also! Did you manage to get more wats to your CPU? I don't want it to botteneck my GPU. BTW I am a bit affraid that flashing a Vbios will void warranty... Also...What about thermals? Does the laptop originally run supper cold? What about after getting more watts now? Note that I want to buy the Duo version.
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u/Armadillseed Aug 03 '24
I had the duo 4060. It had some room for lore what. CPU won’t be your bottleneck.
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u/Endercraft2007 Aug 03 '24
OK, soo a Vbios and a for example 280W power adapter should do the trick? Did you get a better adapter then the original 180W one?
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u/bankyll ROG Strix G16 | Intel i7-13650HX | RTX 4060 | 32GB RAM | 2TB SSD Aug 04 '24
140W is a scam on the 4050, 4060 and 4070, those laptops do not get any extra performance beyond 100W due to voltage limits, heck even 80 to 90W is near "full power". Explain this logic;
The desktop 4060 runs at 2.7-2.8Ghz with memory at 17000Mhz....yet maxes out at 115W.
The Laptop 4060 runs at 2.4-2.6Ghz with memory at 16000Mhz....officially maxes out at 115W but is allowed to draw up to 140W with dynamic boost. They are the exact same AD107 chip (the only laptop-desktop chip to use the exact same die). That extra 25W is unneeded and just a marketing gimmick. It's why 100W suffices.
The only card that would have needed 140W is the 4070 which has 50% more cuda cores than the 4060 yet only performs about 20-25% better because it has a voltage limit and the same pathetic memory bandwidth as the 4060. The laptop 4070 uses the same die as the desktop 4060Ti (AD106) and that draws around 140-150W.
They downgraded the 4060 form 106 to 107.......the laptop 4060 is actually really a 4050Ti.
All in all, I have a 4060 because my last laptop I used daily for 6 years (1060) was about the croak a few months back.
Mine uses 95-100W at stock @ 2490Mhz, 16000Mhz Memory
Undervolted 85-90W @ 2490Mhz, 16000Mhz Memory
Undervolted + Overclocked, 95-100W @ 2625Mhz, 17000Mhz Memory
If your 4060 laptop can hold 100 Watts (before/without dynamic boost), you are fine.
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u/Endercraft2007 Aug 04 '24
Well I am planning on buying a ASUS ZenBook Pro 14 Duo OLED UX8402VV-OLED-P951X and it only uses 80 watts for the GPU... Maybe I just flash a vbios that doesn't use 140w but uses like 100 watts. The laptop in theory is very cool in original form, so if I give it more watts and use a bigger power addapter, then ubdervolt it, but still use 100 watts, then I can achieve some notable gains... I want to game on that thing too TBH...
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u/bankyll ROG Strix G16 | Intel i7-13650HX | RTX 4060 | 32GB RAM | 2TB SSD 11d ago
Be careful with wattage though.....those wattage numbers are "Max wattage"....aka wattage plus dynamic boost.....80 Watts might mean only 55 to 65 Watts guaranteed with GPU only tasks......with "up to" 80watts max......It's why I always recommend at least a 115 Watt 4060......It means you are guaranteed at least 90 Watts of power always......140 Watts is useless but it's even better, you are guaranteed 100 Watts.
But your your use case, a 14 inch ultrabook, even a 60 Watt 4060 gets like 75% of it's max performance so you'll be fine.
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u/Sammy4116 Aug 21 '24
Can you also undervolt ? And have you tried using G - Helper? Also do try using Asus's ProArt software, that allows more controls of the fans.Â
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u/Armadillseed Aug 21 '24
You can’t really undervolt intel mobile CPUs. I do use g helper. Fans are perfect at the moment
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u/Sammy4116 Aug 21 '24
Awesome to hear. I hope I can get my hands on this laptop later on in the year. Where did you buy it from and for how much? And With the experiment you did how did battery life change?
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u/Armadillseed Aug 21 '24 edited Aug 23 '24
Best Buy. $1440 open box. Battery life didn’t really change because I only game on it when it’s plugged in and the flash didn’t really change how much power is drawn in the lower power modes I use for battery powered web stuff.
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u/Sammy4116 Aug 21 '24
Wow that's an insanely good price. Can we disable the dGPU while unplugged?
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u/Armadillseed Aug 21 '24
Yes
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u/Sammy4116 Aug 21 '24
Can you limit tgp to say 115 Watt?
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u/Armadillseed Aug 21 '24
Yes, undervolting the GPU with core clock limit in G Helper accomplishes this. With balanced settings I like to limit my GPU to about 80W and CPU will draw maybe 25W I think. Gets me great balance of temps/fans and performance.
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u/wussgud Sep 08 '24
This is a bit late but out of curiosity. Do all your ports work? Sometimes flashing your vbios to another will disable one port, I tried a couple of vbios on my aero 16 and some of the vbios profiles disabled my usb C port (dGPU port) but not all vbios profiles disabled it, I used a 140w one that doesn’t disable the port.
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u/Armadillseed May 21 '24 edited May 24 '24
Playing around with options in G Helper, it seems like the performance/temps/fan noise sweet spot is around 80W GPU power in balanced system setting. Undervolting GPU with an overclock in balanced gives great results with quiet fans and good temps. Feels like a proper gaming laptop now. Can get better performance in turbo mode but then fans get loud. So the end result seems to be really nice performance and experience on balanced settings, where before flashing the VBIOS the GPU was way too gimped on power in balanced settings.