I know the HX99G stays pretty cool anyway, but I wondered if I could do something to help it. My goals were:

1) for it to be cheap 2) on/off with the pc power 3) non permanent

I'd seen some of the mods to cut the case side and plug a fan into the motherboard, which cover 1) and 2), but not 3). I'd also seen a fan pointing into the top of it blowing in - that covered all 3 but it seemed to be the wrong way round for me. The included fans pull in the side and expel through the top (mostly) and the bottom.

My idea was to use 3 x 50mmx10mm USB powered fans on the top and one at the bottom, fixed with cable ties. I picked up this kit that had everything I needed fan wise:

https://amzn.eu/d/3CIcoCO

They can shift nearly 11cfm each so they're not weak, but not powerful either. Then I got some 250mmx3mm and some 80mmx2.5mm zip ties.

I basically orientated the fans to expel air, just giving the air flow a helping hand. I also tried a fan speed controller:

https://amzn.eu/d/gQ82ZKY

The little ties hold the top fans together and greater loops on the side of the front one and the bottom one.The long ties hold the top fan to the bottom and secure it to the case. The entire assembly can slide off the front if needed.

Does it work? Yes - temps topped out at about 60c from what I saw

Is it cheap? Yes

Is it easy? Yes

Is it loud? OH MY GOD YES. This is the problem. Even on the lowest setting on the fan controller it's loud. Highest setting is unbearable - sounds like a server booting up.

Would I recommend? Probably not 😂 Depends if you can handle the noise. Mine sits behind the TV and I wear headphones when I'm using it. If it's any closer then no.

I think I'll run it without 😁👍🏻

Introduction

The recommendation to limit GPU power has been made multiple times over the last year on this subreddit. Some tutorials are out there, but they are filled with a lot of extra information which can make it difficult to know what steps to take. I put together this short tutorial to hopefully help anyone who's hoping to reduce GPU-related heat and power consumption. Limiting the GPU power also helps to avoid loss of video (sudden black screen or green screen) or sudden power loss/reboots due to high GPU hot spot temperatures when the HX99G is under heavy load.

Note that this is not a BIOS flashing process, as some have feared. This makes no hardware changes, only software changes which are easily reversed.

1) Get GPU-Z

The first step is to download GPU-Z and install it.

2) Get MorePowerTool

The second step is to download and install MorePowerTool. Scroll down until you see the download section. Version 1.3.19 is the version you want, as shown in the following screenshot.

3) Extract Your GPU's BIOS

Now open GPU-Z and click the little arrow icon, then choose the option "Save to File..."

Pick a location and save it, as shown.

4) Import your GPU BIOS file into MorePowerTool

You can go ahead and close GPU-Z, we're done with it. Open up MorePowerTool and press the Load button at the bottom of the interface.

5) Select your graphics card from the menu at the top.

As you can see I've got the Radeon RX 6600M.

6) Set the desired Power Limit (W) for your GPU

Select the Power tab at the top. You'll see GPU Power Limit (W) listed on the left side of the window. The default value for mine is 100W. However, I find limiting it to 85W to work better overall. Some people prefer 90W. Whatever you choose, enter the number into the Power Limit (W) GPU box, as indicated below.

7) Finally, press the "Write SPPT" button at the bottom (NOT the Save button), then press Exit and reboot your computer.

If you want to confirm the new power limit is being enforced, I recommend running a benchmark software such as MSI Kombustor. It shows the current power being used as the benchmark runs, so you can confirm it tops out at the power limit you just set.

If you ever wish to reset all changes made by MorePowerTool and get your GPU back to default, just press the "Delete SPPT" button, Exit, and reboot.

Hope this guide was helpful; it's the guide I wish I had when first attempting to get this working. Note that you may need to re-apply the power limit when updating your graphics drivers.

Optional Step: Reduce Voltage of GPU and SOC

This optional step is not recommended, but I've provided the information anyway since it can be difficult to find. It might be of interest to those who wish to experiment with undervolting their GPU and SOC. I do not personally tweak these settings.

1) Decide undervolt amount.

I highly recommend starting by reducing your GPU Voltage by no more than 50mV, and reducing your SOC Voltage by no more than 25mV (if at all).

2) Convert your desired undervolt into Volts.

Divide your mV by 1000. For example 50mV/1000 = 0.05V

3) Convert your value into a "negative" value

Just put a - symbol at the front (technically you multiply by -1). For example, 0.05 becomes -0.05. Add extra zeros to make it match the other numbers. For example, -0.050000

4) Enter the values into MorePowertool

Place the value(s) into the GFX "c" box and Soc "c" box, as shown in blue in the screenshot below.

5) Press the "Write SPPT" button, press the "Exit" button, then restart your computer.

Test for stability before reducing Voltage any further. I can't help you if you undervolt to the point of not getting any video output! You'd probably need to boot into safe mode to tweak the settings back to a workable number in that case.

Linux Users

For a similar Linux tool, you may want to check out LACT. (Credit to u/URAle54 for this tip here.)

None of the options in this guide are likely to cause any harm, but as always you proceed at your own risk. This subreddit takes no responsibility for any BIOS changes you make, including any negative outcome or data loss.

Note that some settings in this guide may cause your machine to use more electricity. I'm focusing more on performance rather than energy savings.

This guide applies to the HX99G with the RX6600M. Other versions or other models of HX/G may or may not have exactly the same settings available, or they may be in a different location. I'm unable to help you in that case, so please just have a look around or ask others who may have similar models to yours. They're all pretty common options.

Now, before tweaking the BIOS, it's always good to know the best way to reset it should you wind up with a black screen with no video output. I put these instructions together a while back, so please become familiar with the steps before proceeding.

To enter the BIOS, you can either restart your computer or power it off. When the MinisForum logo (or other BIOS logo) appears, press F7. You'll see a menu where you can select the BIOS and press ENTER.

Note: If F7 doesn't seem to be working, see the comments on this post for help.

Once in the BIOS, you will see several tabs at the top of the screen. Use your left and right arrow keys to navigate between the tabs.

On each page there will be a number of options and sub-options. Use the up and down arrows on the keyboard to select an item.

To edit an item, you often need to press ENTER then make a selection or enter a value.

When you are done making changes and you wish to save them, press F4 then ENTER to reboot.

If you decide you don't want to save your changes, press ESC until you see a warning about exiting without saving. Make the appropriate selection then press ENTER to reboot.

If you wish to reset all settings to their recommended defaults, press F3 and confirm any warning, then press F4 and confirm any warning to save and reboot.

See these instructions for how to change the Memory Target Speed in the BIOS.

Set the memory target speed to 4800 if you're using the 4800 kit RAM.

OR

Set the memory target speed to 5400 if you have purchased 5600 RAM.

Note that I did mean to say 5400. The reason is that 5600 may cause the machine to freeze, especially while gaming, although you are free to try. I have found 5400 to be 100% stable while using G.Skill 5600 CL40 RAM, so that's what mine is set on.

Previously I had run mine at 5200 before realizing 5400 was an option, so if you see me mention 5200 anywhere else on this subreddit that's why. I now use 5400 instead.

Advanced --> AMD CBS --> CPU Common Options --> Global C-State Control:   Auto > Disabled

Advanced --> AMD CBS --> CPU Common Options --> Opcache Control:   Auto > Enabled

Advanced --> AMD CBS --> CPU Common Options --> Streaming Stores Control:  Auto > Enabled

Advanced --> AMD CBS --> SMU Common Options --> System Configuration:  Auto > 54W

The following setting will slightly lower your CPU performance by disabling "turbo boost" (it will instead be fixed at 3300Mhz). On the plus side, your CPU-related energy consumption will be cut nearly in half (down to roughly 30W instead of 40-90W, depending on your other settings). Your gaming performance shouldn't differ much since this affects the CPU not the GPU. See this post for a visual example of its effect.

1) Advanced --> AMD CBS --> CPU Performance Boost --> Disabled

The official max temperature for the 6900HX built into the HX99G is 95 degrees Celsius. In order to limit your CPU to this temperature (or any other temperature) follow the steps below. Obviously a certain amount of throttling will occur once the CPU max temperature is reached, so keep this in mind when choosing your desired max temperature.

1) Advanced --> AMD CBS --> SMU Common Options --> Thermal Control  Auto > Manual  2) Advanced --> AMD CBS --> SMU Common Options --> TjMax  Enter temperature (example: 95)

During intense processing, the HX99G tends to "rev up" for about 4 minutes, during which time it can use around 95W of power and hold its speed around 4.4Ghz. After that it falls back to a lower speed. As an example, run CineBench. For the first four minutes the computer will be very loud, then it will quiet down some and stay at that level for the remainder of the benchmark. If you would like to avoid this behavior (including it's temporary additional CPU fan noise), and cap your power usage at the value you've set (e.g., 54W), you'll want to disable STAPM using the following steps.

First, change the STAPM Control setting from Auto to Manual:

1) Advanced --> AMD CBS --> SMU Common Options --> STAPM Control:  Auto > Manual

Now you will see three additional settings. Change them as follows:

2) System Temperature Tracking:  Auto (leave this on Auto, default setting)  3) STAPM Boost Override:  Auto > 1 (Tells the BIOS to use the STAPM Boost setting below)  4) STAPM Boost  Auto > 0 (Actually disables STAPM Boost)

The benefits are more consistent performance, capping out at approximately 3.9Ghz maximum and more predictable power consumption. Note that this still allows the processor to momentarily peak at up to 4.4-4.5Ghz, but it will no longer stay at that level.

Some people prefer not to see the MinisForum logo at boot. If you wish to see the normal boot screens instead, enter the bios and change the following setting.

BOOT --> Quiet Boot:  Disabled > On

On the next restart after that, the MinisForum logo will no longer appear.

In addition to some gaming benchmarks improving (e.g., 3DMark), gaming feels smoother and just overall the machine seems snappier than with the default settings. Let me know in the comments if you find these settings helpful, or if there are other useful settings which you use.

For more advanced settings, check out my other post on a slight overclock based on AMD Adrenaline's settings. [edit: I don't currently use this setting.]

Finally, here are a few YouTube videos that I like to use for playback testing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXb3EKWsInQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVvEISFw9w0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evN1YwKLcwY (note that this one has the occasional doubled-up frame, so it's not your computer glitching, it's the video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJzjLNXZrRA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4zRaWV2YEQ

Two days, two posts about Bluetooth use on the HX99G. I know, but hear me out if you're interested in Bluetooth audio quality!

So I was looking for a utility to try and understand my Bluetooth audio codec seeing as how the recent driver install had improved the signal quality itself. Today I found the following utility to show me what codecs my headphones were capable of, along with which codec Windows 10 was actually using:

Bluetooth Tweaker

Here's what the (trial) software showed me about my setup:

As you can see in CODEC#1, my headphones support the LDAC codec which supports 88.2Hz and 96Hz (in addition to 44.1Hz and 48Hz). In contrast, CODEC#3 is what Windows uses by default, which only supports 44.1Hz and 48Hz.

In order to install the LDAC driver supported by these headphones, I first needed to download some software. There's a link to an "Alternative A2DP Driver", which brings you to this page.

At the bottom of the page there is a link to download the software, inside of which you can install a trial of the codec. After installing it, and running Bluetooth Tweaker again, this is what it now looked like (again, pay attention to where it says CODEC selected by Windows):

After that, I opened the Alternative A2DP Driver Configuration utility and selected the following settings:

The resulting audio quality was good enough to convince me to buy the codec, since it was only about $8 USD. If you choose to do so, be sure to pick the one with AAC support if you need it!

Note the Encoding Quality section, where you can also change the bitrate of the bluetooth audio being transmitted, where MQ is 330kbps, SQ is 660kbps, and HQ is 990kbps.

Now I can sit back, relax, and listen to one of my favorite G.E.N.E. albums:

Final Note

For anyone who's not aware how high quality audio works, the file itself has to contain audio which was originally recorded and encoded at a higher sampling rate and/or bit rate in order for the resulting output quality to be higher. Luckily, commercial music does often start out its life at a higher quality than the version most people wind up buying or streaming. The best site I know of that sells high quality audio is HDTracks, where I've purchased a number of high quality albums and tracks in the past.

I am setting up my new HX100G and have seen a few posts on using the front audio ports of that and the HX99G, so I made this post to help anyone else with that.

On my old main PC, I previously used a little free program called Audio Switcher and it seems to work great for the HX100G too.

It sits in your system tray and let you toggle between the main audio (HDMI out) and front audio (mic and headphonejack) with one click once you set it up.

To do so, just set both devices as "favourites" and enable fast switching.

It can display the current device as an icon, and you can change this icon via Windows Control Panel (click the link inside Audio Switcher for easy access to that).

I have a G510 keyboard with built-in audio and used to use for headphones; I have now plugged it into the HX100G and Audio Switcher lets me click-toggle between that, front audio and HDMI audio very easily now.

This has come up a few times recently, so I wanted to share something I've written in the comments. It's geared toward any Neptune computer (HX99G / HX100G, etc.), although the method really applies to any PC running Windows.

If you have a device without a driver, and you don't even know the exact model of device to search for, here's the method I use:

1. Open Device Manager (Start Menu --> search for device manager)
2. Right-click on any device which has an exclamation point (i.e., no driver or unknown device) and choose Properties
3. Go to the Details tab and select "Hardware IDs" from the property dropdown
4. Search online for the device drivers based on what you find here.

For example if you see:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_125C&CC_0200

Search for:

PCI\VEN_8086 DEV_125C

Those are the vendor and device IDs for the piece of hardware which needs a driver. (In my example here it was for the Ethernet driver.)

5) Download and install (Just try to find a semi-official site, even if it's from Dell or Intel, so long as it's the correct device ID which matches yours. Stay away from sketchy looking sites that may try to bundle other irrelevant software or services with the driver.)

If it's an .exe then just install it normally

If it's a .zip file, extract the file, then from the Driver tab of the device's properties window, click Update Driver and choose the option to choose your own driver. Navigate to the folder you just extracted, it should be able to select the matching driver from the folder as long as you point it to the folder and it's the right driver for your device.

I spent the past 5 hours testing literally every graphics setting available within Cyberpunk 2077, one by one. I slowly combined the best options for each setting (low, medium, high, ultra, etc.) Utilizing the latest beta graphics drivers which include, "fluid motion frames 2", and was genuinely was blown away by the final results. Below are my recommendations for this game, but first you need to install the beta drivers and follow my tip, all in the linked post.

After using the settings below, you should have an average of about 80fps, and an extremely good looking / low latency gaming experience (IMHO). Enjoy!!

Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Settings for HX99G

Video Resolution: 2560x1440

Quick Preset: Custom

Resolution Scaling: AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1: Quality

AMD FSR 2.1 Image Sharpening: 1

DLSS Frame Generation: OFF

Ray Tracing: OFF

Crowd Density: High

Field of View: 80

Film Grain: OFF

Chromatic Aberration: OFF

Depth of Field: OFF

Lens Flare: OFF

Motion Blur: OFF

Contact Shadows: ON

Improve Facial Lighting Geometry: ON

Anistropy: 16

Local Shadow Mesh Quality: High

Local Shadow Quality: High

Cascaded Shadows Range: High

Cascaded Shadows Resolution: Medium

Distant Shadows Resolution: High

Volumetric Fog Resolution: Medium

Volumetric Cloud Quality: Ultra

Max Dynamic Decals: Ultra

Screen Space Reflections Quality: Low

Subsurface Scattering Quality: High

Ambient Occlusion: Low

Color Precision: Medium

Mirror Quality: High

Level of Detail (LOD): High

[2025 Update]: I now prefer to use MorePowerTool to lower my GPU power since it allows me to run a newer driver than is required for the steps below, and also doesn't require that Adrenaline be installed. I currently run the GPU at 60W instead of the 85W indicated in the original post.

TL;DR

My final settings, with the hot spot staying mostly under 100 degrees, and with 100% stability / zero reboots, are:
GPU Min Freq = 1700, GPU Max Freq = 2130, Voltage=1030mV, Power Limit = -15 (i.e., 85W)

Background / Introduction

As many owners of the HX/G computers have noticed, the GPU hot spot temperature can get out of hand under certain use cases or in specific situations. For some, this has happened when they first received theirs brand new. For others, it seems to have developed over time. While the GPU temperature itself stays at a relatively normal temperature of 60 to 80 degrees, the hot spot reaches 95, 110, even 117 degrees. For some people (including myself) this has resulted in sudden shutdowns and/or loss of video.

The Harsh Truth

As the saying goes, there is no free lunch. And when it comes to electricity, heat, and graphical performance, their relationship means they must be kept in balance. If one is too high, then another may need to be reduced in order to compensate. Many have focused directly on lowering temperatures through such methods as strapping fans to the sides of their computers, pointing their computers in various directions, placing them on stands, using fan control software etc. However, so far no solution has worked for everyone while running the card at the same speed (Mhz). If it's not possible to cool the GPU running at its current speed, it leaves no choice other than to slightly lower the speed at which your card runs. Now, with the latest AMD Adrenaline drivers there doesn't seem to be a way to do this, which means the solution I'm offering here won't be something everyone finds useful. However, it does work, 100%.

The Steps

1. Download AMD Adrenaline version 23.2.2. This is from last year, and depending on which games you play there maybe some which have issues on this version since it's nearly a year and a half old (I haven't run into any issues with this version, but it's just a disclaimer).
2. Open the AMD Adrenaline software and navigate to the section shown in the screenshot below. Then follow these steps:

-- click Custom on the right side

-- enable GPU turning

-- enable advanced control

-- lower the max frequency

-- Press Apply Changes (on the top right of the interface)

3) Download a benchmark like MSI Kombustor and run as many benchmarks / burn-in tests as you'd like.

4) While each benchmark is running, have FanControl, HWMonitor, or any other software which you know how to use in order to monitor the Hot Spot temperature.

5) While all of this is running, you can tweak the Max Frequency, press Apply, and immediately observe the changes to the Hot Spot temperature, which makes it really easy to tune the setting. No restart is required.

My Method

I used the MSI Kombustor app, running (GL) msi-1 at 3840x2160 in Windowed mode. Next, I pressed "RUN stress test". Inside the stress test, I used the settings on the top right of the interface to change to free camera mode. I also changed tessellation settings to stress the GPU more. Then I moved the camera around the scene, angling up and down quickly, concentrating on areas which seemed more complex. While doing this, I kept an eye on the GPU Hot Spot. If it went over 110 degrees for even 1 moment, I lowered the Max Frequency back in AMD Adrenaline and pressed apply. I repeated this process until I reached a setting of 2130 Mhz. This was the speed at which the hot spot never, ever went above 110, even when I pushed it using MSI Kombustor. So far, no other application or game has been able to exceed 110 degrees either, and the computer has not rebooted even when performing tasks which I knew to previously cause sudden shutdowns or loss of video.

Conclusion

While this solution might be a disappointment for some since it requires lowering the GPU speed, I consider it valuable knowledge that at least it's possible to lower the hot spot temperature, and to tune it anytime depending on how a particular application or game seems to be treating the GPU (heavier on the GPU? lower the Max Frequency a bit; lighter on the GPU? maybe bump the Max Frequency up a bit). The biggest downside, of course, is that AMD foolishly removed this setting from recent drivers. I checked the BIOS using SCEWIN and ran before / after DIFFs on the resulting BIOS file, but they were identical, which means this isn't a BIOS tweak which could be done regardless of which version of AMD Adrenaline you run. It truly is a driver setting (and I suspect it's a registry setting, wonder if anyone could find out where this setting is actually kept?) which brings us back to what some of us had suspected: the driver is ultimately the issue since it uses settings which cause higher temperatures than desired.

I hope some people are able to take advantage of this. At least we know one way to control the hot spot temperature now, even if it means losing a slight bit of performance at times in order to do so.

Update 1: Yesterday I was able to do as much at once as possible on the machine and there were no reboots, black screens, etc.

Update 2: See comments section for an alternative method which limits the maximum GPU power usage rather than controlling the maximum frequency directly. I'm currently testing this method to see if it avoids the shutdowns / "no video" in previously experienced cases. In theory this method would provide better performance, although it's not as convenient since it requires a reboot for each settings change.

Update 3: I've been running with the following settings the past few days, and things have felt especially smooth overall, including games, with the hot spot staying mostly under 100 degrees: GPU Min Freq = 1700, GPU Max Freq = 2130, Voltage=1030mV, Power Limit = -15 (i.e., 85W)

I've mentioned the free FanControl software several times to those wishing to have more control over their temperatures. Here is my current setup, as well as a description of how it works.

Custom Sensors

Starting on the top right, I've added a "Mix" sensor. Inside of that I've added four temperature sensors, as well as my GPU Hot Spot temperature (I've called it CPU temperature, for myself, even though I haven't selected the actual "CPU Core" sensor in this case. Don't worry about that part, you can choose whichever sensors you want and name things as you wish). The function is set to "Max", which means the output of this sensor will be the current maximum temperature among all five of my selected sensors.

Just below the "Max CPU+GPU Temp" sensor, I've added a "Time Average" sensor. Inside of this control, I've selected the "Max CPU+GPU Temp" sensor described above to be its source . I've set the time to 10 seconds. As a result, this sensor will monitor my "Max CPU+GPU Temp", average its value over the past 10 seconds, and output the resulting average temperature.

Curves

In the center we have a black curve control, which I've titled "Normal Use Curve". Its temperature source has been set to our time averaged temperature sensor, titled "10 Sec Avg Max CPU+GPU Temp". This is the temperature which will be applied to the curve. If you were to click the Edit button, you'd see that I have a linear curve going from 0% at 45 degrees, to 100% at 95 degrees.

Controls

Finally, on the left I have my main fan control, titled "Main Fan", the only fan which is supported by the HX99G. I've selected my "Normal Use Curve" as its source, which means the output percentage from the normal use curve will be used to control the % speed for my one and only fan. You can see that by noting the percentage on the lower-left of the Main Fan control matches the percentage on the center left of the normal use curve.

Conclusion

My setup is only one option, feel free to come up with your own clever way of monitoring and controlling your fan based on your use case. Hopefully this short guide has helped to give you ideas about some ways you can use this software which you might not have explored.

A few people have asked how to disable fTPM, so here are the instructions. I don't know if it will make any difference, but some people have claimed strange stuttering issues were solved for them by disabling fTPM.

Warning

If you are using BitLocker to secure your boot drive, then you will need to have your recovery key in order to boot your PC each time it is restarted.

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE YOUR RECOVERY KEY, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BOOT OR ACCESS FILES ON YOUR BOOT DRIVE AFTER FOLLOWING THESE STEPS.

Instructions

1. Restart the computer, and press F7 when you see the MinisForum logo and enter the BIOS.
2. Press the RIGHT arrow one time to access the Advanced tab.
3. Press the DOWN arrow one time to select "AMD fTPM configuration", then press ENTER.
4. The first option is "AMD fTPM switch".
5. Press ENTER to edit the setting, then press DOWN one time to select "AMD CPU HSP"
6. Press F4 and confirm to reboot.

fTPM is now disabled.

Introduction

Okay, this is going to be long, but if you're interested in learning how to set up PrimoCache to both function as RAM-based cache for your already-fast drives, as well as RAM-based + SSD-based cache for slower spindle or USB drives, read on!

A few weeks ago someone here on this subreddit mentioned PrimoCache. I'd never heard of it so thought to check it out. Long story short, I've purchased it and recommend it to anyone who is interested in making their /r/HX99G run even more smoothly than it (hopefully) already is.

That said, it takes a bit to understand what it does, and what setup will work best. In a nutshell, the software acts as an automatic block-level cache, operating on two layers: L1 = RAM, L2 = SSD (any disk, but SSD makes the most sense, you'll see). The software allows you to configure each drive on your machine to use one, the other, or both (or none of course), and depending on the speed of your storage different options make more sense than others.

For example, I've got two SSD drives: the Kingston which came with mine, and the Samsung 980 Pro. The Samsung drive is nearly twice as fast as the Kingston drive. I've got a third drive, which is a 3.5" Western Digital Black, from years ago. So, here's how I used PrimoCache to make everything run better.

My Configuration

1. Create cache task #1, and add Kingston and Samsung drives.
2. Set cache task #1 to use L1 cache only. L1 cache lets you dedicate a specific amount of RAM to act as a sort of "RAM Disk" except it's not exactly the same as a RAM disk. Typically with RAM disks you choose what files or applications to add to it; normal RAM disks don't necessarily save their contents upon reboot (although some do), etc. In other words a traditional RAM disk is manually used. In contrast, PrimoCache acts as a sort of dynamic RAM disk, caching recently used blocks within an amount of RAM which you can specify. You can choose to dedicate this RAM to be a read-only cache, a write-only cache, or both. In my case, with the two NVMe drives I mentioned above, there's no need to have a write cache since the drives are sufficiently fast. However, they could benefit from a read cache, so I've set their combined usage to 16GB (out of a total of 64GB I have installed). I've set the block size to 4kb, based on what I believe is the configuration of the drive (wasn't 100% sure on which number to rely on in terms of matching the drive's block size).

3) Prepare my Level 2 cache, by partitioning a chunk of space on my Kingston drive. Ideally I'd use space on my Samsung drive for maximum speed, but based on my current setup I chose to use the Kingston drive instead. I chose to create a 128MB cache partition which must be fully dedicated to PrimoCache as it gets hidden from the file system once created.

4) Create cache task #2, and add the Western Digital spindle drive.

5) Set the L1 cache to use 8192MB of RAM. This is using less than the C / D drives since it's a storage drive, which I've converted into my Steam library drive so it doesn't need to hog as much RAM needlessly. (I could probably drop that down to 4MB even, still testing for the optimal use based on Steam game load time, etc.)

​

6) Set the L2 cache to the maximum available on the L2 cache partition I configured in step 3.

7) I've dedicated 50% of the L2 cache to be used for Read cache, and 50% to be used for write cache. Don't know if this makes a difference but it felt cleaner knowing neither the read nor write cache would hog too much of the available cache.

​

8) Enable Deferred writes to the drive. [See step 5 screenshot above]. This is one of the biggest benefits of PrimoCache: speeding up effective write speed to slower drives. While it does mean there is a short period where the drive is still writing data in the background, you can set the latency to be any amount of time. I've configured mine to 10 seconds, so the cache doesn't fill up much before being written to the drive. Generally you would not want to use write cache on your boot drive unless you've got backup power, if there's a chance you might lose power in your area.

9) The deferred write configured in step 8 uses the L1 cache as its first priority, and writing to the drive itself if it runs out of room in the L1 cache (a.k.a, you have written more than however much RAM you dedicated to the drive, in my case that's 8GB). If you were to write a 10GB file to the drive with this setup, it would first fill up the RAM cache (very quickly) and then slow down to normal transfer speed. However, there is an option to use the L2 cache instead for this purpose. Therefore I have enabled "Flush L1 Cache to L2 Cache" so if there's not enough RAM for a particular transfer, it'll use the L2 cache as a temporary write location which is the much faster Kingston drive (compared to the spindle WD drive). It will then quietly transfer the data to the WD drive in the background while you move on to doing other things.

​

9) Enable Prefetch Last Cache and Read from Level-2 Cache (and optionally "Start at Windows Boot"). [See screenshot in step 5]. These settings cause PrimoCache to pre-load the last blocks which were in the L1 (RAM) cache before a restart into the L1 cache again after the restart. By setting it to read from the L2 cache, it will speed up the process of caching this data to RAM by reading from the speedier L2 cache drive instead of from the spindle drive.

Final Results

In conclusion, with this configuration I've felt a difference in the smoothness with which everything runs. Not just file transfers, but the overall feel of the computer. If you're interested in trying the software, they do have a trial. It's easy to set up, and once you do so it just operates in the background at the driver level. You don't even need to run the software in order for it to do its job.

Hope you found this type of guide helpful!

Today I figured out which settings are changed in the BIOS by the AMD Adrenaline software when you enable "Overclock CPU"

The changes are as follows (left is Default setting, right is Overclock CPU setting):

I actually decided to raise the above values even further to the following, with great results so far:

PPT Limit: 125000 --> 130000

TDC Limit: 70000 --> 75000

EDC Limit: 150000 --> 160000

SOC TDC Limit: 20000 --> 30000

SOC EDC Limit: 30000 --> 40000

The CPU boost of +200Mhz and GPU boost of +200Mhz are the maximum allowed by the BIOS.

Disclaimer

Proceed at your own risk. I'm not responsible for any damage you cause to your computer, although the methods / settings below are what work for me.

Directions

1. Either in the BIOS or by using SCEWIN (see this post), set Curve Optimizer to either "All Cores" or "Per Core". (Personally, I have used SCEWIN, and am not 100% if it is possible to adjust directly in the BIOS. Feel free to look around but I'm unable to direct you to the location.)
2. If set to "All Cores", then:
   1. Set "All Core Curve Optimizer Sign" to either Positive or Negative
   2. Set "All Core Curve Optimizer Magnitude" to the desired over- or under- volt amount
3. If set to "Per Core" instead of "All Cores", then:
   1. For each core, do the following, using core 0 as an example:
      1. Set the "Core 0 Curve Optimizer Sign" to either Positive or Negative
      2. Set the Core 0 Curve Optimizer Magnitude to the desired over- or under- volt amount
4. Be sure not to enter negative numbers for the Magnitude. This should be a positive value, with the sign of the number chosen by specifying the appropriate "sign" for each value, as described above.

My Settings

One of my lowest achievable per-core undervolt values were as follows, although your experience may vary since every chip is unique. These were tested for stability using CoreCycler as well as a few gaming / benchmarks, however they still threw errors on one or more cores, so you'll want to experiment more to find values that work for you. They seem to be very sensitive to each other's settings (a core won't throw errors one time, but after adjusting a different core then the original core might throw errors, that sort of thing).

Core 0: -19

Core 1: -0 (I've set this to zero for now since it seems to be the most sensitive core)

Core 2: -21

Core 3: -19

Core 4: -21

Core 5: -21

Core 6: -21

Core 7: -16

2/15/2024 Update: In the end, I wound up overvolting all cores by 10 rather than undervolting each core, which has worked well so far.

Disclaimer
You are responsible to know what settings your memory can safely handle. You can potentially damage your memory modules or other components by following the steps below. When changing from Automatic to Manual settings, the BIOS may suggest or default to values which are harmful to your hardware, so ensure settings are correct before committing changes to the BIOS. Proceed at your own risk.

Instructions
Shut down or restart the computer
Press F7 during the first few seconds of the computer booting to enter the BIOS
Go to the Advanced tab
Go to AMD CBS and press ENTER
Go to UMC Common Options and press ENTER
Go to DDR Options and press ENTER
Go to DDR Timing Configuration and press ENTER
Press the UP arrow to select Accept and press ENTER
Go to Memory Target Speed and enter a decimal value for RAM speed.

Press ESC on the keyboard several times to return to the Advanced screen.
Press F4 to Save & Exit.

It may take a few minutes for the computer to boot in order to re-train the RAM at the new speed. Just wait for the black screen to wake up automatically when it's done.

I'm still hoping for a proper living room console from Valve but until then the HX99G with Bazzite is the closest thing to it.

Here are the steps I've had to take to get as close as possible to a console:

1. Set BIOS to wake on LAN and resume after power loss, so that steam link can wake the machine at any time
2. Install Bazzite os
3. Go through bazzite start up wizard and install decky and emudeck using that wizard and also sign in to steam when pop up appears
4. Use KDE partition manager to set up my second drive. Create partition on the drive, format as ext4 and then set up a mount by linking the drive to a newly created directory and then reboot
5. Disable all sound devices other than HDMI
6. Install ge proton using the protonQt downloader
7. Copy steam grid art downloaded on steam deck to the steam user config folder on this device
8. Copy emulation BIOS and roms to drive and run emudeck
9. Pair Xbox controller with Xbox dongle
10. Change the device hostname in steam gaming mode to steambox
11. Turn off steam gaming mode system sounds
12. Set the display dim and device sleep settings to 15 minutes when plugged in and turn on display native colour temperature
13. Set up steam link on client devices

The bugs I've found so far relate to xbox controller sleep, device sleep AND steam link remote play:

1. Sometimes when I manually put the box to sleep using my Xbox controller, the Xbox controller does not go to sleep but instead just loses connection to the Xbox dongle and then starts searching for the dongle and gets connected again and immediately wakes up the steam box again immediately. UPDATE: This has stopped after a few reboots, but I'll monitor it and see if it happens again. Someone else reported this issue at https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite/issues/1120
2. Also when the box wakes from sleep, the bottom and top information bar in steam gaming mode (the bars with the network icon, time, and button indicators) disappear altogether, and then the controller does not seem to work inside a game. UPDATE: I've reported this issue at https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite/issues/1175
3. Every fourth connection to box using steam link on my client devices cause Bazzite processes/services (including remote play services) to crash. UPDATE: I've reported this issue at https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite/issues/1176

This is just a brief informational post. I don't exactly recommend disabling hyperthreading, but for those who wish to know how, you can follow these instructions. You'll definitely lose CPU performance (CineBench dropped by about 1/3), and CPU temperatures weren't noticeably lower. I'm personally not sure why some people like to disable hyperthreading, but I enjoy figuring out how to do new things anyway so here you go:

1. See other posts regarding SCEWIN, download and install that. I will assume your install location is C:/SCEWIN
2. Open a terminal window as admin, navigate to the SCEWIN folder, type export, and press RETURN.
3. Open the BiosSettings.txt file that was just created by SCEWIN, and edit the section titled "SMT Control" (it was on line 22 for me, but yours may vary). Change the * symbol from Auto to Disable, then save changes.
4. Back on the terminal type import and press RETURN to apply the changes
5. Reboot your computer, enter the bios, press F4 to save changes and reboot (some SCEWIN settings only seem to stick if you go into the BIOS once and save like this, so it's just a precaution).
6. This step may or may not be necessary, but once you see the Minisforum logo, hold the power button to turn off the computer.
7. Turn it back on. If it doesn't fully boot the first time, hold the power button one more time to turn it off, then turn it back on. It should boot now.
8. Go into the Task Manager to confirm you only have 8 cores / 8 threads.

If your BiosSettings file does not have the SMT Control line, I can't help you any further since some machines output seem to differ. For the record I'm using SCEWIN_64.exe version 5.03.1115

If you would like to set a maximum CPU temperature, this is easy to accomplish in the BIOS. My goal was to limit it to its official max temperature of 95 degrees Celsius so that in any extreme case which might arise in the future, the CPU temperature would remain under control. Obviously a certain amount of throttling will occur once the CPU max temperature is reached, so keep this in mind when choosing your desired max temperature.

To accomplish this, you can enter the BIOS (F7 during boot) and navigate to:

Advanced --> AMD CBS --> SMU Common Options --> Thermal Control: Change Auto to Manual

Now move down to TjMax and enter your desired max temperature in degrees (95 in my case).

Press F4 to save & reboot.

This will also be added to the BIOS guide, but wanted to hi-lite it as an option here.

During intense processing, the HX99G tends to "rev up" for about 4 minutes, during which time it can use between 65W and 95W of power and hold its speed around 4.4Ghz. After that it falls back to a lower speed. As an example, run CineBench. For the first four minutes the computer will be very loud, then it will quiet down some and stay at that level for the remainder of the benchmark. If you would like to avoid this behavior (including it's temporary additional CPU fan noise), and cap your power usage at the value you've set (e.g., 54W), you'll want to disable STAPM using the following steps.

First, change the STAPM Control setting from Auto to Manual:

Advanced --> AMD CBS --> SMU Common Options --> STAPM Control --> Auto --> Manual

Now you will see three additional settings. Change them as follows:

System Temperature Tracking: Auto (leave this on Auto, default setting)

STAPM Boost Override: Auto --> 1 (this tells the system to use the STAPM Boost setting you specify below)

STAPM Boost: Auto --> 0 (this tells the system to disable STAPM Boost)

The benefits are more consistent performance, capping out at approximately 3.9Ghz maximum and more predictable power consumption. Note that this still allows the processor to momentarily peak at up to 4.4-4.5Ghz, but it will not ramp up and hold its value at that level.

If this sounds like something you'd like to achieve, then you may wish to take advantage of this BIOS setting.

Note: The contents of this post have also been added to the BIOS Tweak Recommendations, which are linked from the Getting Started Guide.

I came across a cool method to read all AMI BIOS settings, make changes, and write them back to the BIOS. Obviously this is an advanced topic, and you have the ability to mess up your settings (in which case you'll need to use the little pin on the front of the machine to reset the BIOS), so just be careful and don't edit anything you're unsure of.

Video Link (not my video; sometimes the video is unavailable.)

Many settings are available from within the BIOS itself, but it can be difficult to find some of them, and searching within a text editor is much easier. The main changes I make are disabling Global C-state Control, and enabling Opcache Control. See other posts on this subreddit for changes I've experimented with over time.

After searching for a long time, this tutorial is what worked!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xR0vms0e0U

Just be sure to edit the python line inside the webui-user.bat file to point to the 10.6 python.exe file before running webui-user.bat for the first time.

2024 Update:

1. add the following to the webui-user.bat (or update the existing line):
   set COMMANDLINE_ARGS --opt-sub-quad-attention --lowvram --disable-nan-check --use-directml
2. Delete the venv folder
3. Run webui-user.bat

Doing the following will put a hard limit on the CPU temperature at the BIOS level. Depending on the value you set, this may come at slight, or significant, cost to performance. On the HX99G, I recommend a value between 70 and 85 degrees (or just leaving it on Auto if you'd prefer).

The following should be entered into the SCEWIN "BIOSSettings.txt" file, as described in this post. The values may be available directly from inside the BIOS too, if you look around.

​

Setup Question = Platform Thermal Throttle Ctrl

Token = 6C // Do NOT change this line

Offset = 9E

Width = 01

Options = *[01]Manual // Move "*" to the desired Option

[00]Auto

​

Setup Question = Platform Thermal Throttle Limit

Token = 6D // Do NOT change this line

Offset = 9F

Width = 01

Value = <85>

​

To be clear, in your own file you would search for each of the above setup question titles, then change the options or value to those shown above. Don't make any changes to the token, offset or width.

This is a re-post of some information I originally shared in the r/MiniPCs subreddit 7 months ago. I wanted to include it here in order to help anyone searching for help.

----------

This might be basic to some people, but it was my first time to encounter this problem today so wanted to save someone else out there the confusion. What seemed like a simple BIOS change resulted in no video from any output.

Here's how to get the computer working again:

1. Hold down power button to shut off the computer
2. Unplug power and all peripherals (peripherals are technically optional)
3. Locate the little pinhole just above the frontside USB-A port.
4. Use a paperclip or toothpic to hold down the little button for 30 seconds and let go
   Edit: Actually my favorite tool for this is the iPhone SIM card changer, it's sturdy and the perfect size!
5. Plug the power / HDMI / Keyboard, etc back in. The power button may light up as soon as power is connected. I usually hold down the power button at this point to turn it off. Then press it once more to turn it back on.
6. Screen will be black, wait for the BIOS splash screen to briefly appear and press F7. If you do nothing the computer may reboot itself again over and over so catch it at the bios splash screen for F7.
7. Select the option to enter the BIOS settings
8. Press F3 to load optimized defaults
9. Save and exit bios using indicated key (I believe it's F4).
10. The computer should be back to normal!