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Overclocking the 9400m Macbook Air

H

hybster

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 25, 2009
39
0
After seeing the post on hardmac on overclocking the unibody macbook, I have been experimenting on my mba :D
http://www.hardmac.com/news/2009-01-26/#9497

Stable overclock:
CPU: 1.6ghz -> 1.86ghz at 0.925vcore, 1240mhz FSB (using RMClock to undervolt)
GPU: 300/600mhz -> 450/900mhz

So far it has proven pretty stable through 3dmark06 and some gaming, netting a 3dmark06 score of 2100 - putting it right on par with the stock macbook (see gizmodo). The fan is naturally at max rev.

On a side note, rmclock shows one core throttling down while testing with prime95 at the stock voltage of 1.0v for 1.86ghz, while very rarely for 0.925v. This is a strong indication that the macbook air has a very limited cooling capacity (and that stock 1.86ghz machines without undervolting are crippled). :(

And please don't reply with comments on the sanity of overclocking the mba.. ;)
 
Experimenting leads to revolutionary ideas and new technologies. I congratulate you on your find and thank you for sharing. These MBAs are the most amazing Macs ever. I love reading about how people use their Macs, alter their Macs, and abuse their Macs. Keep up the good work and continue to share with us. Go MBA!
 
hybster said:
After seeing the post on hardmac on overclocking the unibody macbook, I have been experimenting on my mba :D
http://www.hardmac.com/news/2009-01-26/#9497

Stable overclock:
CPU: 1.6ghz -> 1.86ghz at 0.925vcore, 1240mhz FSB (using RMClock to undervolt)
GPU: 300/600mhz -> 450/900mhz

So far it has proven pretty stable through 3dmark06 and some gaming, netting a 3dmark06 score of 2100 - putting it right on par with the stock macbook (see gizmodo). The fan is naturally at max rev.

On a side note, rmclock shows one core throttling down while testing with prime95 at the stock voltage of 1.0v for 1.86ghz, while very rarely for 0.925v. This is a strong indication that the macbook air has a very limited cooling capacity (and that stock 1.86ghz machines without undervolting are crippled). :(

And please don't reply with comments on the sanity of overclocking the mba.. ;)
Click to expand...

Well, I have the opposite problem. I need to find a way to under clock the 9400m or FSB. nTunes and rivatuner are worthless on the Air. RMclock does not work under Windows 7 64.

Install Windows 7 64. Games will fly like crazy, but it will overheat in about 10 minutes. I do not have a fan/cooling pad. This may do the trick to help with the heat.
 
This is one machine I don't think you really want to "overclock" heh. Believe me I am all for getting the most out of your machine, however, this is an ultra portable. :0
 
Wow, you sir, are very brave.

Anyways, I guess for MB Air, It'd actually be really useful to underclock things..
 
You guys call this 'brave' ??

No it's stupid ! Overcoocking portable machine ???? For what !

Less battery life, overheat and noisy fans, possibly decrease lifespan.

And spellings, don't bother don't feel like fix g it
 
SummerBoy said:
You guys call this 'brave' ??

No it's stupid ! Overcoocking portable machine ???? For what !

Less battery life, overheat and noisy fans, possibly decrease lifespan.

And spellings, don't bother don't feel like fix g it
Click to expand...

i think overclocking my MBA for short periods of time would be an excellent tool in my toolbelt...there are a handful of times (not many) where i need a little bit more power for my baby :D

keep up the good work, and let me know when / how i can do this WITHOUT installing windows on my precious ;)
 
AIRniloc said:
i think overclocking my MBA for short periods of time would be an excellent tool in my toolbelt...there are a handful of times (not many) where i need a little bit more power for my baby :D

keep up the good work, and let me know when / how i can do this WITHOUT installing windows on my precious ;)
Click to expand...

You can force the MBA to run @ 1.86 full time with cookbook
 
pellets007 said:
This would also affect the battery life though, right?:(
Click to expand...

This is meant only for gaming while using the charger :) The overclock itself probably does not hurt battery time much, as the cpu and gpu are still allowed to switch powerstates on demand.

As for summerboy's outrage at my blatant recklessness: :p Read the OP :rolleyes:

Going for a higher cpu overclock later today, max so far is 2014mhz at 1.0vcore (though one core is throttling down when they are both loaded by prime95) using a 1360 mhz FSB... screamer!
 
Maven1975 said:
You can force the MBA to run @ 1.86 full time with cookbook
Click to expand...

You can force the mba to a single allowed powerstate (1.86ghz for an example), but the cpu will ignore this software-set state when it reaches a preset temperature. So if you load the cpu up, it will throttle to a lower frequency to maintain its set operation parameters. See also:
http://www.macworld.com/article/138365/2009/01/macbook_air_1_6ghz.html

From my (admittedly small) dataset, this suggests that anyone who bought a 1.86ghz ssd would in fact be better off with the 1.6ghz ssd.

And don't get me started about coolbook, the author (magnus something) continues to piss people off.
 
Maven1975 said:
Well, I have the opposite problem. I need to find a way to under clock the 9400m or FSB. nTunes and rivatuner are worthless on the Air. RMclock does not work under Windows 7 64.

Install Windows 7 64. Games will fly like crazy, but it will overheat in about 10 minutes. I do not have a fan/cooling pad. This may do the trick to help with the heat.
Click to expand...
Why are you installing 64 bit? With 2GB of RAM there is very little benefit in doing so.
 
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