Scored a free T460

[tp4tissue]

Hrrm.. it has sata xpress, 2xpcie lanes so you gotta buy the adapter for $26, worth it ?

only 1 stick of ram, gotta get a second stick, can't tell if it actually supports 1866. prolly not ?

[tp4tissue]

blech,, this screen is terrible, 840:1 contrast calibrated to d65, ~200 nits. 62% srgb

[tp4tissue]

ordered ram, $47, ffffffff, 2x8gb sticks. sigh...  compulsion to have matched sticks.  maybe someone will by my single..

watching orville now, intel hd520, it's alright, no sdr problems.

The cool thing about this monitor is it has 48hz output, so if you watch movies, you can turn that on for better frame cadence.  that's really nice.

This does mean you have to run 2 different calibrations. but not a huge deal..

[Leslieann]

A lot of screens work in these, some good, a LOT bad. I have a garbvage1080 and an OEM 1600x900, that 1600 is quite, too bad it was damaged.

Sata Express was dead on arrival, I wouldn't bother.
There's pretty much nothing you will do on this where that drive speed is going to matter much. Spend that $25 on a bigger ssd rather than faster.


Good little bargain laptop.

[fohat.digs]

Good little bargain laptop.

I have been very pleased with my T440p although I seldom use it any more.

[tp4tissue]

do you have the quadcore on the 440p?

Tp4 only has the basic dual core on this one, not enuff cpu power to software decode youtube 4k, buhhhh it's not like tp4 ever watches that.

15watt cpu runs pretty silent/kewl.

[tp4tissue]

A lot of screens work in these, some good, a LOT bad. I have a garbvage1080 and an OEM 1600x900, that 1600 is quite, too bad it was damaged.

This screen has no rigidity, LOL, it's crazy thin too, just bends in the middle.

[Leslieann]

This screen has no rigidity, LOL, it's crazy thin too, just bends in the middle.

They aren't the stiffest, especially compared to older X series or Apple, but it shouldn't be that bad.

Chances are someone replaced the lcd, probably with a cheaper aftermarket one (may explain the quality)  and re-used the trim tape. The tape on these screens is structural so re-using it causes the lid to lose some rigidity. The worse the tape, the more they flex. As you flex it (like you are closing it) look about mid way down the screen where the trim meets up with the LCD and where the trim meets the lid, if the tape is bad, you will see it create gaps.

[tp4tissue]

the edid seems to read it as stock screen, there's no gap when it bends, so i guess the tape's ok, flimsyyyyy... i'd be more comfortable if they made a hard cover buhhh doubt it.

[tp4tissue]

this system is limited to 15watts split between gpu and cpu, which means if you roll the gpu hard, the cpu will throttle to less than half speed. 

they make you buy the 460 (S) version which can run 25watt total..   what a asshat move.

[tp4tissue]

Throttttttle staaaaap.... Yeeaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!! 25watt w000000000tttttt............... Coookn'''

This thing can now prolly run Dat CSGO or Star(raft  prolly gonna need some n00 paste and custom fan curb

Super important move, NEVER UPDATE THE BIOS, otherwise, the security mitigations will stop throttlestap from wurkn'

[Coreda]

Rare pic of default styled geekhack on a tp machine

[tp4tissue]

Tp4 doesn't understand this,  why is pl1 higher than pl2 ?   is this reversed ?

[tp4tissue]

Ok, this is super silly luck,   if  Tp4 restarts the pc, the bios changes the cpu pl-values to 15watt.

It will lock to 15watt every time.

If you run Throttlestop, then you don't restart, use Shutdown, which isn't full shutdown (it's resume) basically.   It will load the PL2 value of 25watt as set by throttlestop

So....... really really dumb..  but i mean, it works. So it's almost like getting a t460 upgraded to t460s.

This is an important trick, because 10 watts make a HUGE difference to a U series CPU.

CPU full load is ~15 watts (non_AVX) , 21 watt (AVX)

GPU can load up to 13-14 watts

If there was no limit, you'd need ~30 watts to get full performance. 

So when the system clamps to 15watts,  you get 9 watts for gpu, 6 watts for cpu,

The cpu goes from 2.6ghz to 1.0ghz and you basically can't run anything, it just crawls.

[tp4tissue]

Dang, without 2 stix, the GPU is not drawing max power in real game situations outside of furmark.  it must be bandwidth starved.

this makes sense, if you make furmark really small the gpu can draw 13 watts,  but if you make it slightly larger the drawed power goes down,  Kinked somewhere else.

[tp4tissue]

Been playing with it all day,  it's just bitten off some of tp4's leg hairs.  fan's in a bad spot..

[tp4tissue]

So it does seem hd520 has h265 decoding.

it's on the edge of being able to downscale 4k SDR to a 1080p screen. hopefully the ram will help when it gets here.

Doesn't seeem to work with HDR.

[tp4tissue]

Pushing this  chip so hard, running into walls everywhere, but overall, really fun, remembering that it's a 7 year old integrated GPU.

Running 4K sdr, downscaling to 1080p, the chip pushes between 17 and 19watts,  smack in the middle of absolutely requiring the throttle stop trick.

[tp4tissue]

Watching these online "uber budget" gamers play using the hd520, so many are hitting this power wall.

You notice their frame dips and stutter is really bad, because their cpu section is dropping to 1- 1.7ghz.  This is hugely problematic because of worse i/o rate which then stutters the gpu.

[tp4tissue]

Once the ram gets here, suspect this will go at least 3-4 watts above now,  starcraft can push between 13 - 17watts here even without the ram.  but notice  the Locked turbo, 2.9-3ghz, this is huge vs throttling  to 1-1.5ghz

[Leslieann]

That poor laptop.

Funny to watch though, I spend my time squeaking out battery life and running cool, TP here trying to melt his to the ground.

[tp4tissue]

That poor laptop.

Funny to watch though, I spend my time squeaking out battery life and running cool, TP here trying to melt his to the ground.

Doin' a bit of both just now.

-85 mv on cpu -90 mv on igpu,

Previously, the combined is OVER 25watt, and so the GPU fights for power with CPU,

Right now, it's slightly under, 23.6 watts.   MAJOR benefits in Test Scenarios.

Prior at 100% CPU+GPU load, it had to throttle back to 2.4, 2.6ghz, Despite opening up the 25watt limit from 15watt.

Now CPU can turbo to 2.9ghz, EVEN WHILE the gpu runs full bore.

[suicidal_orange]

TP here trying to melt his to the ground.

He's not going to melt a locked chip, I should send him my unlocked "integrated" CPU and mobo - I bet it would come back faster and cooler than I can be bothered to work out how to make it run.

[tp4tissue]

- 95mv on CPU and GPU, -70mv SystemAgent (pch).

there's ~5-10mv left of stability, but that's a good margin.

~22-23 watts.  this basically saves what "would be" 5-7 watts. So peak you'd need theoretically ~28-30 watts to fully load this system.

So now, there's absolutely no throttling except for the turbo ratio limiter of 29x  2.9ghz with both cores loaded.   and it's "slightly" easier to cool, about 1 Celcius drop from 25watt, 2 Celcius drop from fresh thermal paste.

[Leslieann]

TP here trying to melt his to the ground.

He's not going to melt a locked chip, I should send him my unlocked "integrated" CPU and mobo - I bet it would come back faster and cooler than I can be bothered to work out how to make it run.

It was a joke, and no he shouldn't, but I've seen stranger things happen when people do this stuff.

Locked or not, if you play around with this stuff long enough you will eventually kill something.

[tp4tissue]

oh god, talk Tp4 out of buying this stupid carbon fiber vinyl decal for $21

already spent $47 on ram.. buhh that's actually useful.  this whole thing is only worth, what, $100-150,

[tp4tissue]

Super weird,  installed older drivers because of some compatibility issues with starcraft on the latest dch drivers.

Remeasured contrast ratio, post calibration it is now 1090:1 vs 840:1 on the old (new) drivers.

Have never seen drivers change screen contrast like this.


Just goes to show,  mature drivers are often better than NEW drivers. 

[Leslieann]

Just goes to show,  mature drivers are often better than NEW drivers. 

Older devices and particularly games are often better supported by older drivers than newer ones.
As the games and devices move out of popularity they start becoming ignored and at times can even be downgraded in order to make room or remove special tweaks that caused problems elsewhere.

[tp4tissue]

Tested battery life,  it's degraded, but with the undervolt , still getting pretty decent use,  on the 3 cell flat pack + the internal,  watched 7 episodes of Enterprise at 103nits. ~3.5 hours

rendering using the dxva engine, chip runs 1-2 watts during playback, 500mhz-1.5ghz, very steady.

[tp4tissue]

Here we go... Ballistix 1600mhz cas999.

old stick, samsung 1600 11-11-11

[tp4tissue]

Wow..

Cinebench r15 (gpu test opengl)    + 34%

Starcraft 1 remastered  + 100% _ 60fps -> 109
Dirt 3,  + 50%, _____________  45fps -> 68
CSgo, + 53%, ______________  52fps -> 80
Doom 3, + 40% ____________   70fps ->100




When lenovo tells people single channel is enuff,  they is Lying.

[tp4tissue]

man this is like the perfect quick starcraft pc.

1 extra stick of ram increased cpu draw by 1.5 watts.

[tp4tissue]

starcraft 2,  + 30% , shader bound

[suicidal_orange]

When lenovo tells people single channel is enuff,  they is Lying.

Dual channel is a no brainer of an upgrade, dropping 2 CAS surely helped with the scores too.  60 -> 109 is  "only" +81% though.

I am disappointed by those "Ballistix" - no LEDs or golden heatsink, not even a colour sticker let alone a pretty metallic one?

[tp4tissue]

there's a range, it's 109-150,  so conservatively , call it +100%

the fancy sticker black and silver is on the other side of the ram unfortunately.

[suicidal_orange]

Very nice, on both counts.  Shame about the poor design of the laptop putting the sockets upside-down though.  Probably under a solid cover anyway.

[Leslieann]

Cinebench r15 (gpu test opengl)    + 34%

Starcraft 1 remastered  + 100% _ 60fps -> 109
Dirt 3,  + 50%, _____________  45fps -> 68
CSgo, + 53%, ______________  52fps -> 80
Doom 3, + 40% ____________   70fps ->100

When lenovo tells people single channel is enuff,  they is Lying.

Most Lenovo buyers are corporate and educational, single is fine for that purpose.

If Lenovo was really after the common public they'd fix the absolutely atrocious speakers they keep using, I've heard better sounding cell phones than many Lenovo laptops.

[tp4tissue]

If Lenovo was really after the common public they'd fix the absolutely atrocious speakers they keep using, I've heard better sounding cell phones than many Lenovo laptops.

it actually looks they took at least a little time on the t460 ones, it's a pretty big speaker box.

it looks like they've got a little reflex port as well.   they have a "dolby audio" option in their driver,  it changes the freq response curve, it sounds "not awful" , point is, I think someone tried "something"

Blue line  off

Green line "dolby audio" button

[Leslieann]

Hmmm... Looks like they changed it after the 450, may need to try a retrofit, or maybe print something to put Apple speakers in it.
I mean it's not as bad as some older Thinkpads but it's a long way from my Apple Air and it was even smaller (11in version).

No Dolby buttons in Linux.

[tp4tissue]

Dang, unfortunately overwatch is too cpu bound for this machine.  GPU can actually crank out around 60+ fps @ 75% render scale of 1280x720.  But the CPU is taxed to 100% in game with all the busy stuff happening. can't quite hold it together.   hovers around 35-45 fps with all the stuff on screen, gpu drops utilization from 95% to 73%, so you know it's the Cpu. 

[tp4tissue]

Tp4 swears he's not addicted.. only installed to TEST Gpu...  seems like this pc is hearthstone capable. incidentally, hearthstone is pretty gpu intensive considering.. look at that utilization,  this igpu benches 1050-points on passmark, a tuned 1060-6gb benches only 12500

[tp4tissue]

Can play Typing of the Dead at 1920x1080 4xAA 16x AF perfectly through DGvoodoo.

Can run 8x AA, but will have some frame dips on a busy scene.

Overall, probably impossible to see the different of 8x vs 4x aa at this screen size.