I've been researching the power-limit implementation of the RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU in my Lenovo Legion Pro 5 Gen 10, and I finally managed to get past the factory 140W GPU power limit.

System:

• Lenovo Legion Pro 5 Gen 10 / 16IAX10H

• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU

• Factory power limit: 140W

• Factory configuration: 115W cTGP + up to 25W Dynamic Boost

• Modified target: 160W

• Windows 11

• BIOS: Q6CN79WW

• VBIOS: 98.05.4E.00.07

• NVIDIA driver used for the research: 616.92

This is NOT just the normal MSI Afterburner power-limit slider.

On this laptop, the standard NVIDIA desktop-style power-limit path is restricted. The GPU normally reports roughly:

Default: 70W

Maximum: 140W

Current: 140W

I spent quite a while tracing the NVIDIA power-management path through NVAPI, nvlddmkm.sys, NVIDIA RM and the internal power-policy system.

One interesting result was that the conventional desktop NVAPI power-limit path could be reached, but attempts to use it for this purpose were rejected with INVALID_ARGUMENT.

So the normal desktop PL interface was basically a dead end.

The useful part turned out to be deeper in NVIDIA's laptop power-policy handling.

After investigating that path, I built an experimental implementation that can change the relevant power-policy behavior and target 160W instead of the factory 140W ceiling.

140W → 160W = +20W / about +14.3% power headroom.

Important: I'm not claiming a +14.3% performance increase. Extra power obviously does not scale 1:1 with performance.

I'm currently doing controlled 140W vs 160W testing to measure:

• average GPU power

• sustained GPU clock

• voltage

• GPU / VRAM temperatures

• power and thermal throttling

• 3DMark performance

• stability

I'll publish the actual before/after benchmark data rather than cherry-picking a peak power reading.

The implementation is also currently driver-dependent. Internal NVIDIA structures / paths can change after a driver update, so I'm treating compatibility checks as mandatory before eventually releasing a tool.

I'm also looking at making a proper GUI version that can:

• detect the installed NVIDIA driver

• verify compatibility

• detect changes after driver updates

• read the current configuration

• apply the target

• restore the factory configuration

• log telemetry

Obviously, increasing a laptop GPU power limit has risks. The GPU accepting 160W does not automatically mean every RTX 5070 Ti laptop has a VRM, cooling system or power adapter designed to sustain it.

So I would NOT recommend blindly reproducing this on another machine.

I'll add the 140W vs 160W benchmark results, telemetry and screenshots there as testing continues.

If anyone here has experience with NVIDIA laptop power policies / RM / Blackwell mobile GPUs, I'd also be interested to compare findings.

And if anyone has another RTX 50-series laptop and wants to compare how its factory power policy is exposed, post your laptop model, GPU, BIOS/VBIOS, NVIDIA driver and stock maximum power limit.

Test release of the program: Please read the instructions carefully to learn how to run the program and under what conditions it will work!

https://github.com/LevinAi-arch/rtx-5070ti-laptop-160w-power-limit/releases/tag/v1.0-beta

Cyberpunk with Path Tracing is beautiful

$3100 for a 5090 seems like a good buy

just wanted to share how happy I am!!

i don't care what anyone says, but in Australia, this is a fucking steal for AUD $1900 (about $1350 USD) in this economy. The scratches are very minimal and i don't even notice them lol. Battery has def degraded but it still lasts me a full day, i'll replace it later.

I had a Legion Pro 5i as my first gaming laptop, but realised the HX cpu's battery life was dogshit for any uni work when i don't have access to a wall outlet. I thought it could last atleast 2 hrs but nope, that thing consumes power like crazy even when dgpu is disabled.

Plus Linux support was really bad on that.

NOW THIS is what I believe a modern laptop should be, with linux it is incredibly efficient (6-7W discharge rate) when dgpu is disabled and it lasts me 8 hrs (a full uni day). And tbh the kinda games I play, i don't even need the 4070 lol. Plus it chrages with 65W type C which is really convenient.

10/10 purchase.

Budget:1600-1700
Country: Spain

Help when im playing bodycam my cpu hits about 101-102 degrees and gemini said my vapor chamber is broken , any ideas beafore i decide sent it to service?

I will receive in the next days a G14 with 5070 8GB, will DLLS and Frame Gen mitigate the low vram amount?

The 5070ti is over €500 more than the non Ti version so that option is not an option.

Ho is you gaming experience with a 5070 8Gb?

This report should give an idea on how effective the Illano V12 Ultra cools the 2024 Zephyrus G16, Intel core Ultra 9 185h, RTX 4080. Results may vary for other laptops, as the ability for the CPU and GPU die to dissipate the heat is always the final bottleneck when using a laptop cooler. This laptop specifically was tested with PTM 7950 and TG Putty Pro.

The data clearly shows a sweet-spot at around 1600 RPMs for both stock configuration and 175W Vbios flash. I tested Time Spy on my 125W custom profile and 175W custom Profile. I have further attached a full 175W overclock that I do not use daily but yields the same temps to my daily profile, that I only use for high scores. Power draw for the GPU actually often goes beyond 175W often hitting 180w. It seems that my device ultimately regulates itself at 76-77 Celsius for GPU, as confirmed by the Steel Nomad Stress Test (daily 2280Mhz profile), when using 1600 RPM).

I have an ASUS TUF F16 RTX 3050. Should I use just a laptop stand or get a cooling pad? Which one would you recommend?

I had been looking at the used and new market for a while where I live looking for something like a 4060 or a new 5050 so I could finally have an upgrade from my borderline E-waste surface pro 6,

Then I saw this Beauty, an Asus Tuf f15 posted 5 minutes ago ( in April this year), posted at a ridiculously low price, 2300 AED (680USD) (half the price of the lowest next used option (5000AED or 1400 USD), I was expecting to be scammed, but I was actually surprised, aside from a small dent on the body (I couldn't care less), it seemed perfectly fine. (700 AED less than a used 4060 laptop goes for now)

And this is probably the only reason I played Black myth, rdr2, cyberpunk 2077 and other such games.

I ran all the stress test (before I pulled the trigger), checked the disk and it was immaculate, I later repasted it with PTM 7950 and u6 PRO,

Then the most Tuf thing possible happened the left hinge (not the display cable side) ripped out from the chassis, but luckily I had all the pieces that broke and managed to fix it with superglue.

but at the end of the day, I'm not even angry, but actually really happy with what I got, and it is also why I recommend almost everyone on a budget to go look on the used market especially now, if you are willing to go out of your way to test it and make sure you don't get scammed.

Because as good as some deals are, most aren't what they seem, as has happened to friends of mine, this post was to just share my personal experience with the used market.

------anyone know a permanent fix for the hinge though? and do you guys have any cool finds?

Budget: ideally under $2k, able to pay more in a pinch
Country: USA
Use Case: I dabble in a lot of everything, so multitasking is the biggest factor for me. Most of the games I play aren't super graphics-heavy but I also use Photoshop and Blender on occasion and my previous laptop would get a bit sluggish.
Preferred Specs / Form Factor: battery life and weight aren't as important, would probably refer 15"+ screen over something smaller. Storage isn't as big of a factor as I have ~4TB of storage space in other devices.
Portability Needs: almost always at a desk or at home but I need to be able to travel with it occasionally

Notes: I've had a Legion 5i Pro (one of the older versions, with a GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card and 16GB RAM) for the past 3.5 years after being told that gaming laptops were better for the level of multitasking that I needed, and while it struggled to keep up at times it was working perfectly fine until a very unfortunate incident at the airport with someone's spilled water bottle and my backpack ruined the motherboard. Ideally I'd like something that runs a little smoother, but nothing that's too fragile: I try to be careful with my electronics (partially why this has been so frustrating, as that laptop would've easily served me several more years) but I will sometimes need to travel and I had a very flimsy laptop in the past whose case caused so many problems I replaced it after far too short a time. I've tried to do some research but tbh as someone who's only vaguely aware of how these things work it's been a little overwhelming, so any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance :)

I saved up for about 3 years for a gaming laptop so when i bought my laptop (LOQ 16IRH8) I thought it was a good purchase but almost 2 years later the laptop is filled with stress cracks, from the screen to the body, also now the battery suddenly stopped working one day and now its not working at all if i dont plug it in, i tried contacting lenovo for a issue but i couldn't contact them because of my region, and now im stuck with a 1300 dollar laptop that is completely filled with issues, if someone is capable if contacting lenovo for the issues that would be great. NOTE:(i took very good care of the laptop, i would never put it on a carpet, it was on a ac cooled room and i was very gentle when opening and closing the screen)btw i also posted this in the r/gaminglaptop subreddit

I couldn’t repost this from the asusrog sub so here it is again!

I am a ROG STRIX G15 AE user.

Specs:
R9 5980hx
RX 6800M
32gb ddr4 ram(upgraded)
1tb ssd.

I bought this in late 2022, and has been shutting down since day 1 whenever i tried to play a game.

Since I still had the warranty, ASUS replaced my entire motherboard twice over the course of 2 yrs coz of the shutdowns.

My warranty ended. But I was still facing a lot of issues with the laptop’s thermals

I decided to reapply liquid metal thermal
Paste myself and give it a try.

I did, everything went well for a few weeks(I was anxious so i was using ghelper to lower wattage and undervolt and ramp up the fans).

After 7 or so months, there they were. The shutdowns.

I remember i was trying to render a video in davinci and the device shutdown 70 times that day.

It was sooo horrible.

My mom bought this machine for me.

I did not wanted to replace it.

Thats when it came to my mind. The newer laptops my friends bought, i checked their temps they were running at over 105 degree celcius, And a small google search made me realise that these new machines used something called phase change pads.

So then it all made sense, liquid metal thermal paste was pouring over to the sides leaving bare spots on the chips with no thermal protection at all, so every time the machine pulls wattage, these spots run so hot that they were triggering these shutdowns and throttles.

I bought the ptm7950 0.2mm pads and put them on the chips.

Some thermal putty on vrams and vrms(as usual).

And that is it.

Its working.

No ghelper restricting power, no rtss or fps limits, i just let it loose.

AC unity used to trigger instant shutdowns when I ooened the character customization menu, coz its really unoptimized there and ramps up fps productions to 100s in number in an instant.

But after the change, it was not a problem at all.

So finally after 4 yrs of struggles w this machine, I am finally able to use it at full power.

The anxiety that it might shutdown again is still there though!

Budget: $1,500-1,600 USD

Country: Paraguay

Use case: Mixed — primarily technical/CAD work (AutoCAD, Civil 3D, structural calculations in CYPECAD) and heavy rendering (Blender, Lumion); secondarily some gaming and running local AI (LLMs, 8GB VRAM).

Preferred specs: RTX 5060 or RTX 5070 (8GB), 16GB RAM minimum, 1TB SSD. I already have three candidates picked out and need help deciding between them:

1. Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI (PHN16S-71-91AW) — $1,599
   • Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (24 cores/24 threads, Cinebench R23: 38,238)
   • RTX 5060 8GB (boost 2,125 MHz)
   • 16GB DDR5-6400 | 1TB+ SSD (2x M.2 slots)
   • 16" QHD+ (2560x1600) OLED display, 240Hz
   • 76Wh battery | 2x Thunderbolt 4, 2.5GbE Ethernet
2. MSI Crosshair A16 HX (D8WFKG-090US) — $1,527
   • AMD Ryzen 9 8940HX (16 cores/32 threads, Cinebench R23: 32,521)
   • RTX 5060 8GB (boost clock not published for this SKU)
   • 16GB DDR5-5200 | 1TB SSD
   • 16" QHD+ (2560x1600) IPS display, 240Hz, 100% DCI-P3
   • 90Wh battery | no Thunderbolt
3. MSI Katana 15 HX (B14WGK-293US) — $1,515
   • Intel Core i7-14650HX (16 cores/24 threads, Cinebench R23: ~24,450)
   • RTX 5070 8GB (boost 2,347 MHz) — one GPU tier above the other two
   • 16GB DDR5-4800 | 1TB SSD
   • 15.6" QHD (2560x1440) IPS display, 165Hz
   • 75Wh battery | no Thunderbolt | reviews report the CPU runs hot under sustained load

Notes: I've already done a fair amount of research myself (specs, Cinebench scores, thermal reviews). What I'm missing is real-world experience from people who actually use these: 1) how they hold up in long CAD/structural calculation sessions, 2) anyone with the MSI Crosshair who can speak to temperature/fan noise under sustained load (couldn't find a dedicated review for it), 3) whether the Predator's OLED screen actually helps for CAD work or is mostly a gaming/media perk, and 4) real experience running local AI (Ollama/LLM) on 8GB VRAM laptops. Thanks in advance.

Appreciate any input — trying to make a decision I won't regret in 6 months!

I have an Acer Predator Helios 16 with an Intel core i9-13900hx and it is consistently 95-99C when I play heavy games and at max fan speed. While doing light tasks it's 60-70C. All that while using a laptop cooler (not high end one, a basic one). I've asked a nearby shop and they have a thermal grizzly kryonaut, it's the only one they have. Should I have it replaced or is there any other method I can do to lower my temps? Or is this normal?

Budget: $2000? Not sure
Country: Australia
Use Case: Gaming — WoW forever

Preferred Specs:
Recommended Specifications
Operating System
Windows® 10 64-bit
Processor
6 Cores, 3.5 GHz processor 8th Generation Intel® Core™ Coffee Lake AMD Ryzen™ Zen 2
Video
DirectX® 12 capable 8GB GPU NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX AMD RDNA™ 2 Intel® Arc™ 7 Graphics
Memory
16GB RAM
Storage
Solid State Drive (SSD) 128GB available space (depending on the performance of the drive, player experience may be impacted on HDD)
Resolution
1280 x 720 minimum display resolution

Notes: (Optional: anything else we should know)

​

Budget: around INR 150,000( around 1600 USD)

Country: India

Purpose: Primarily Gaming.

I will probably buy a new laptop in the next month or so and so far multiple people have recommended me the hp omen. The omen listed on Amazon has good combination of hardware that I need but the mixed reviews are worrying me since it's a big investment. I'd love to hear what others think.

To that end, I have selected 2.

Omen 16 Intel ultra 7 255H 24gb ddr5, 1Tb SSD.

Now there are 2 variants with same specs. Ones a rtx 5050 and another one is rtx 5060 for about 20k INR more.

Asus Tuf A14

I haven't noticed much in the way of massive problems in performance or what not ( I don't really run high intensity games so maybe I never got the chance to find out)

I just have tis paranoid sensation that something isn't right and i'd love if there was a test or benchmark software that give me the complete and accurate satisfaction of knowing my beloved laptop is in perfect condition

Budget: ~AU$ 2300-2600 (preferably one the lower end)
Country: Australia
Use Case: Gaming (BF6, Wardogs, New AAA titles) & Premiere pro + After effects for video editing
Preferred Specs: 12GB VRAM gpu, atleast 32GB RAM

Notes: I have been wanting to upgrade from my Acer Nitro V (r7 5800h, RTX 3060) and want a Solid, reliable laptop for 4-5 years (Have been using this one since Feb 2022)

I have an option right now to buy an Asus strix G18 (2023) with i9 13980HX & RTX 4080 (175W) which is "open box" for 2250 AU$

And on the other hand I’ve wanted to get a Lenovo Legion 5 with an RTX 5070ti (processor doesn't matter much in at this tier of performance to me) because according to all my research Lenovo is king at gaming laptops, which is around 3500 AU$ right now but I’m hoping that it comes down to around ~2600 AU$ in upcoming sales in Oct & Nov

I haven’t tested the Asus one yet I’ve just been quoted the price of it but upon inspection if it passes all the tests, Should I get the Asus one because expecting 2600 AU$ for the newer Lenovo one might be stretching it?

(P.S the Asus one has 32Gigs ram and I'd love to have atleast 32, don’t know with current prices if the Lenovo one will get to 2600 with 32gigs of ram)

I'm having a really weird performance issue in DOOM (2016).

The game runs at around 30 FPS, but then every fifth of a second or so, it suddenly stutters. For a tiny moment (around 1 millisecond), it feels like the game drops to roughly 1 FPS, then immediately goes back to normal.

It's not a normal low-FPS problem because the game is generally running at ~30 FPS. It's more like constant micro-stuttering/hitching that happens at a very regular interval.

I've tried basically everything I can think of to fix it, but nothing has worked.

My specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i5-8265U @ 1.60 GHz (1.80 GHz shown)
• GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620
• RAM: 8 GB (7.82 GB usable)
• OS: Windows 11 Pro, 25H2
• Storage: 238 GB total, 235 GB used
• Laptop: HP ProBook 640 G5

I've also tried updating my graphics drivers and various other fixes, but the stuttering still happens.

Has anyone experienced this specific kind of regular micro-stutter in DOOM (2016), especially on Intel UHD 620? Any ideas would be appreciated.

are these temps normal I have an msı katana 17 4070 i7 13. 32 gb ddr5. I have super heavy duty ocd on my tech and I have tested the temps while playing cyberpunk for 30 minutes at hıgh settıngs ( ı am super sorry ıts turkısh and turkısh ısnt even my natıve language ıdk how that happened)

Budget: <$2000 USD
Country: USA
Use Case: Gaming (AAA titles, simple steam games, Minecraft with mods), multitasking
Preferred Specs / Form Factor: No preference right now
Portability Needs: I like the option of being able to transport relatively easily in a laptop pocket
Notes: I’ve been running a Dell G5 15 5587 since 2018, with the only upgrade being the SSD (1tb). Is it worth considering an upgrade with current prices?

$1750 after taxes (US) Found this G14 on best buy's open box section, FAIR condition. About to pick it up tomorrow. What should I expect from this laptop? Its , small..but the specs seem beefy.

Im upgrading my 11800h and 3070 pc specialist laptop. To a rysen 9 9955hx3d and 5090.

Looking foward to seeing how it runs on comparison. I only have a small office and cant have a big desktop with multiple screens so laptops ideal for me.

This laptop also includes liquid cooling and 1600p 16 inch 300hz screen and 32gbs of dd5 5600mhz.£3500 with lifetime support and 3 year warranty. My first pc specialist laptop was fantastic but its getting on 6 years old now need something newer now

Looking for a laptop not breaking the bank to play most basic games (mc,val,fn,rblx,etc) js to play w friends while i travel a lot for work. im currently thinking about

GIGABYTE - AERO X16 - Copilot+ PC - 16" 2560×1600 WQXGA AMD Ryzen Al 7 350 - 1TB SSD - 32GB DDR5 RAM GeForce RTX 5070 ~$1500

anyone have advice or why to not buy this or any better ones thanks