5500u change VRAM and undervolting + overclocking. How to?

I’m not sure if it’s suitable for manjaro forum, but maybe there is a way to do at least something through the system.
My 5500u laptop is my only gaming device at the time, so I would be more than happy to change amount of RAM that assigned to iGPU, undervolt my system and overclock it right after(or at least just undervolt).
The problem is - I have no idea how to. That’s all usually can be done with BIOS, but my laptop doesn’t have this option. I can’t enter BIOS debugg/advanced mode, if it’s exists(probably is), so the only resort is to try to change some of the stuff from inside the system, if possible.

Maybe you have the idea how something like that can be done, or even better - maybe you know how I can unlock BIOS(I tried some combinations that could suit my laptop, but didn’t help), so please help.

Laptop’s name: Acer Swift 3 SF314-43-R29N
Specs:

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.85-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
    root=UUID=b11151cf-968d-43ca-b20e-de830fdcd43d rw rootflags=subvol=@
    quiet udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.26.4 tk: Qt v: 5.15.7 info: latte-dock
    wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Swift SF314-43 v: V1.04
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LN model: Sake_CA v: V1.04 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde
    v: 1.04 date: 07/28/2021
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 38.7 Wh (79.6%) condition: 48.6/53.2 Wh (91.3%)
    volts: 12.3 min: 11.6 model: COSMX AP20CBL type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
    status: N/A
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 5 5500U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Zen 2 gen: 3 level: v3 note: check built: 2020-22
    process: TSMC n7 (7nm) family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x68 (104) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x8608102
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 6 tpc: 2 threads: 12 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 384 KiB desc: d-6x32 KiB; i-6x32 KiB L2: 3 MiB desc: 6x512 KiB L3: 8 MiB
    desc: 2x4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2691 high: 4038 min/max: 1400/4056 boost: enabled
    scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1751 2: 2174
    3: 2578 4: 3032 5: 2665 6: 2001 7: 3308 8: 2014 9: 3602 10: 4038 11: 1796
    12: 3343 bogomips: 50323
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT enabled with STIBP
    protection
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP:
    always-on, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Lucienne vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: amdgpu
    v: kernel arch: GCN-5.1 code: Vega-2 process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2018-21
    pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s
    ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 1002:164c class-ID: 0300 temp: 46.0 C
  Device-2: Quanta HD User Facing type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-3:2
    chip-ID: 0408:a094 class-ID: 0e02
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.6 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.7
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 mapped: eDP model: AU Optronics 0x683d built: 2019
    res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 158 gamma: 1.2 size: 309x174mm (12.17x6.85")
    diag: 355mm (14") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.1 renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (renoir LLVM
    14.0.6 DRM 3.42 5.15.85-1-MANJARO) direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Renoir Radeon High Definition Audio
    vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 03:00.1
    chip-ID: 1002:1637 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor
    vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_rn_pci_acp3x v: kernel
    alternate: snd_pci_acp3x,snd_pci_acp5x pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s
    lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 03:00.5
    chip-ID: 1022:15e2 class-ID: 0480
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    link-max: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s bus-ID: 03:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3
    class-ID: 0403
  Sound API: ALSA v: k5.15.85-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: no
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.63 running: no
Network:
  Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7921 802.11ax PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Lite-On driver: mt7921e v: kernel pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 14c3:7961 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: tap-easytether state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Lite-On Wireless_Device type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-4:3 chip-ID: 04ca:3802 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 381.91 GiB (80.1%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Kingston model: OM8PDP3512B-AA1
    size: 476.94 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
    lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: EDFK0S03 temp: 48.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 456.64 GiB size: 456.64 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 381.88 GiB (83.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 608 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 456.64 GiB size: 456.64 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 381.88 GiB (83.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
  ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 456.64 GiB size: 456.64 GiB (100.00%)
    used: 381.88 GiB (83.6%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 20 GiB used: 27.2 MiB (0.1%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 maj-min: 259:3
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 57.2 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 46.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 349 Uptime: 11m wakeups: 2929 Memory: 14.98 GiB
  used: 4.55 GiB (30.4%) Init: systemd v: 252 default: graphical
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 clang: 14.0.6 Packages: pm: pacman
  pkgs: 1682 libs: 480 tools: pamac,yay Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 default: Bash
  v: 5.1.16 running-in: yakuake inxi: 3.3.24

For most intents and purposes, overclocking is not worth it – especially notebooks and their heat dissipation are not constructed for more heat than the original form.

What do you think you gain or why do think you need to overclock?

I mostly want to undervolt, cause for what I know it’s usually allows you to have same performance with less heat(then I can just increase TDP higher/overclock) and change amount of RAM assigned to iGPU.
Overclocking itself isn’t most important, but if that’s possible I hoped to overclock iGPU a bit to gain extra ~10% performance or so.

Have you tried tapping F2 when the Acer boot logo appears?

Acer support is at: https://www.acer.com/gb-en/support/drivers-and-manuals/index.html

It’s a BIOS. I’m talking about entering BIOS in a debugg mode with hidden setting that many laptops often have.
Thanks for the try I guess, but do people really ask how to enter into regular BIOS on this forum?

Yes. You’d be “surprized” if you spent some time here to follow all the stuff. :sunglasses:
This was not meant to offend you I’m sure.

1 Like

have you try kernel linux60 or 6.1?
have you check for amd_pstate ?

have you added lm-sensors for sensors-detect ?

I tried latest kernel with amd_pstate to check if performance will be better(it’s not), but what is this about exactly?

see this ( about scheduler & cpu power )

lm-sensors said that I don’t have any sensors, when I ran sensors-detect.

Sorry, no sensors were detected.
This is relatively common on laptops, where thermal management is
handled by ACPI rather than the OS.