# Power Limit Throttling On Asus Gaming Laptop



## Rono (Dec 8, 2020)

I have an Asus GL503ge with i5 8300h and gtx 1050 ti 16gigs of ram. Also all games are on an M.2 SSD
I was playing modern warfare for around an hour and then I switched to Need For Speed Payback. Before starting the games I checked for any Limits on throttlestop. there weren't any.
I also checked in between matches for any limits like PL1 PL2 BDPROCHOT and EDP Other but didn't find any were around 80s most of the time maxing at 86C. After getting bored of playing nfs when i quit the game and checked the limits section in throttlestop there was PL1 PL2 under CORE and EDP Other under RING. I closed throttlestop and checked the log files. PL1 was showing around 2hours after I started gaming. But I did play Modern Warfare for around 3hrs straight 3 days earlier and there was no PL1. I started getting this issue after a bios update which disabled undervolting. I downgraded my bios and undervolted using throttlestop. I also applied Grizzly kryonaut thermal paste to control the temperatures which used be 97C. undervolting seemed to fix the issue. But it seems to come back from time to time.

My laptop also behaves very weirdly. Sometimes its unstable at -150mv at others its fine at -160mv. sometimes suddenly after turning it on I see throttlestop is not working when it was completely fine the night before. The power limit throttling also comes and goes and I cannot seem to find a permanent fix.
Also, today when I started the laptop there was BDPROCHOT under limits when the threshold temperature is 95C and max was showing 56C immediately after boot up.
I have also seen PL1 PL2 sometimes just after boot up which seems weird since the first thing I do is turn on throttlestop after switching it on and its should not be throttling  as nothing demanding has been done.
I have tried changing the power limits but they seem to be locked. Disable and lock turbo power limits also does not seem to work.
I have attached the log files of 3 different days of gaming. And also pictures of my setup of throttlestop


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## unclewebb (Dec 9, 2020)

Rono said:


> My laptop also behaves very weirdly.


You are undervolting your cache too much. Very few CPUs are 100% stable when the cache offset is set beyond -125 mV. If you reduce your cache offset, you should be able to increase your core offset. Run Cinebench R20 when testing out different voltages. Many 8th Gen CPUs work well with the cache at -125 mV and the core at -200 mV. Do some testing including a variety of TS Bench tests to make sure you are stable. If the TS Bench reports errors, you have gone too far.









						MAXON Cinebench (R20.0) Download
					

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer's performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winn




					www.techpowerup.com
				




Some laptops change the turbo power limits on the fly. Make sure you are not using a cool and quiet or power saver profile. Some manufacturers will lower the turbo power limits when you use one of their magic power profiles. There are multiple power limits within Intel CPUs. You should always check the FIVR Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits option. In the TPL window, try checking the Lock option in the Turbo Boost Power Limits section.



Rono said:


> BD PROCHOT under limits when the threshold temperature is 95C


BD PROCHOT and PROCHOT (processor hot) are two different things. If a sensor sends a throttling signal down the BD PROCHOT line, your CPU will begin throttling immediately. This type of throttling can happen at any CPU temperature. It is not temperature related. I would clear the BD PROCHOT box in a heartbeat. When this is disabled, your CPU will still thermal throttle and slow down to protect itself if it ever gets too hot. Disabling BD PROCHOT simply prevents outside throttling signals. Computers can run fine without this type of throttling. It is not necessary.

After you get a few of these issues taken care of and your voltages sorted out, run another log file while gaming. What are your Cinebench scores?

Overall your CPU is running fast and the temperatures look great. Hopefully you can prevent the PL1 throttling issue at 24W.

Edit - It is not unusual for some of the power limit boxes to light up yellow when a computer first boots up or resumes from sleep. It is only important to check for throttling while you are using your computer.


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## Rono (Dec 10, 2020)

I used Cinebench R15 and got a score of 834. Reached 838 but just for once. I will use Cinebench R20 now and check with different values of core with cache at -125mv . Temp is an issue for me since it reaches 86C even in winter and I want it to stay below 85C. 
I have checked lock in TPL and FIVR disable and lock turbo power limits. 
I will post again after I do the testing and have the voltages sorted out. 
Thank you Sir !


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## unclewebb (Dec 10, 2020)

Rono said:


> Cinebench R15


Cinebench R15 is obsolete. It does not take advantage of the AVX instructions that modern CPUs use. It will not show any advantage when setting the voltages to different values. R20 will show an advantage which is why I recommend it.


Rono said:


> I want it to stay below 85C.


For virtually every Core i processor produced during the last 12 years, Intel has set the thermal throttling temperature to 100°C. They do this because they know that this technology can run reliably at these temperatures. Your laptop has lowered the default thermal throttling temperature from 100°C to 95°C. It is already extra safe. There is no need to limit your CPU temperature further.


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## Rono (Dec 23, 2020)

I tested my laptop for quite a while now. I have never experienced throttling(except for like a few seconds but that too only once) after reducing cache undervolt from -150mv to -120mv. Temperatures too stay below 86C. But one problem I have faced twice now is that suddenly one day when I try to start throttlestop it shows an error and says not installed. I faced this is issue on version 9.2. Even deleting and reinstalling doesnt resolve the issue. Last time it happened i installed v8.7 and then after a few days updated to 9.2. After using 9.2 for so long suddenly again I recieve the same error sayimg not installed.
Can you say why this occurs all of a sudden?
I have checked and all the files were same as before none were deleted.

And regarding the temperature issue - My laptop is not even 2 years old and already I have had to change the battery and hard disk once which I feel is due to the high temperatures (90°C - 97°C) these were subjected to earlier while gaming. This is why I fear high temperatures because I dont want anything else to go bad as I dont have extended warranty.
Do you think high temps can cause hardware malfunctions?


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## unclewebb (Dec 23, 2020)

@Rono - Something on your computer is blocking ThrottleStop. What antivirus program are you using? I have heard that Malwarebytes considers ThrottleStop to be malware. It is not. Use ThrottleStop 9.2 and show me a screenshot of the error message you get. I am in an account with Admin privileges and  I never have a problem starting ThrottleStop.



Rono said:


> Do you think high temps can cause hardware malfunctions?


Yes they can. Poorly engineered laptops can fail at any time. If you cannot use your laptop at its full rated speed without the hard drive and battery failing then something is seriously wrong with the design of your laptop or else you had some bad luck.


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## Rono (Dec 24, 2020)

I deleted the files of throttlestop v9.2 and installed v8.7 so currently I am not getting the error. I use McAfee but I dont think it is blocking throttlestop as I was using McAfee along with throttlestop all the days it was working properly. As I said, these errors pop out all of a sudden without any change I have made which is why its so confusing. 

Something I noticed was some dll files which are in folder of v8.7 of throttlestop were not in the folder of v9.2. But still v9.2 was working just fine before too and suddenly later it wasn't. Can it be that some important installation file got deleted automatically? Sometimes McAfee does get rid of files which are not harmful. But usually i get notified when it deletes a file it thinks is a malware. And if it did delete a throttlestop file why did it not do that the dozen times i ran throttlestop before? 


And regarding the failing hard drive , i feel it's both bad design and bad luck since I am never without bad luck. It's like a gum stuck under my shoe. Something or the other always goes wrong with my laptop.

Thank you for replying and helping it means a lot to me. All these times I had to tinker around to fix any issues I had. It was a big headache. Still is. But thank you man.


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## unclewebb (Dec 24, 2020)

Rono said:


> I noticed was some dll files which are in folder of v8.7 of throttlestop were not in the folder of v9.2.


ThrottleStop 9.2 is self contained. The separate WinRing0 related files are no longer used with this version and should be deleted. Having any WinRing0 files beside ThrottleStop.exe is probably going to set off some antivirus programs. Your ThrottleStop folder only needs to contain two files. ThrottleStop.exe and the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file. The INI file is automatically created the first time you run ThrottleStop so it has a place to save its settings.

The download also includes a ReadMe file, a couple of internet shortcuts to some guides and a logo.png file. These files are optional. ThrottleStop should start regardless.

While working on ThrottleStop, I had a problem with Avast wanting to quarantine ThrottleStop.exe every time I made some minor change. It would prevent me from running ThrottleStop for 20 minutes so their team could have a look at it. I deleted Avast immediately and I have not had a problem since.

Next time you have problems running ThrottleStop 9.2, uninstall McAfee. The first thing you will notice when you get rid of this bloatware is that your idle C0% will drop significantly.


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## Rono (May 21, 2021)

My laptop has recently started throttling again after you solved the PL1 issue last time. Last time undervolting had solved the problem, I had kept the cache at -125mv and core at -145mv. Didn't play games for a while in between. Now recently after I started playing again I noticed that it was power limit throttling even tough temperatures were not that high. I'm sure that temps are not the issue here. For some reason while playing csgo the power usage drops to 16W and sometimes to 22W,.The value varies but it drops for a few seconds and goes back up again. This keeps happening every few minutes. At full 3.9Ghz temps started reaching 90C suddenly from previous 86-88 with AC on and the room super cool so I thought to undervolt it even more but it showed errors and i thought maybe undervolting even more will not solve the PL1 issue. I tried reducing maximum processor power state from power settings but that did nothing. I would still get PL1 and EDP other with max temp at 88-90 and that too not all the time...most of the time temps would hover between 78-84C . Although it was throttling for few seconds but frequently it didn't affect my csgo gaming experience. fps wouldn't drop so I didn't mind much.

I tried running a cinebench R23 test to check my score. For the first few seconds power usage would be at 49W sometimes even 51W but then it would get stuck at 44.9 - 45W for the entire remaining test and PL1 and EDP other would show in red and clock speed would drop to 3.7Ghz. This really bothered me since temps were high but okay since 95C is the limit and they would reach max 90-91C. My cinebench R23 scores reached 5097 just for once but every time I tested after they never crossed 5000. They would hover between 4900- 4990. Since 45W is the rated power for 3.9Ghz I cant understand why it suddenly needs more when few months back it was working just fine.
When I run the tsbench test it doesn't power limit throttle. max power during tsbench was 38-39W and CPU would run at 3.9Ghz just fine. I just cannot seem to wrap my head around that why does it need more than 45W during cinebench r23 to run at 3.9Ghz . I know that it is a very demanding test but 45W should be enough as I remember running Cinebench R23 before and it would run fine without throttling. So during Cinebench R23 it constantly throttles at 45W and during gaming it would throttle at 16 - 18 -22 - 24Watts ( the value varies within this range I don't know why  ) . Its weird since I'm sure from cinebench tests that it can run at 45W. If it throttles frequently at 16-22W during gaming then why does it throttle at 45W and not 16W during cinebench. Its using different set of power limits and switching between them and I cannot seem to control it.

I increased power limit value from 45 to 52W but that did nothing. Tried increasing time limit for 60W boost power limit. that also did nothing instead throttlestop crashed during cinebench test.

Yesterday I decided to reduce the clock speed from 3.9Ghz to 3.7Ghz thinking that it would reduce overall temps and also consume less power so maybe it would not power limit throttle while playing csgo. but the same thing is happening even when it is running at 3.7Ghz. power usage drops every few minutes for a few seconds. It is weird since it didn't happen after it got fixed last time and I know that this is not something that is normal which is why it bothers me. I also tried testing with different values of core and cache offsets but it still throttles. reducing the undervolt doesn't seem to help. And I know the undervolt which I am using right now is stable since these were the values that fixed the problem for me last time . So some update must have changed something because of which the previous values are not working anymore. 

I have attached the way I have setup my throttlestop along with log files of the last 5 days. Yesterday I had tried running Days Gone on my laptop and it started thermal throttling as temps passed beyond 95C. I assume that was because the laptop had been running for a long time and also without the AC on. 

(Also one day the bdprochot temp has switched to 87C I dont know how but it soon switched back to 95C after I restarted my laptop.
As you had said last time I removed mcafee because it was causing unnecessary problems so there are not many background tasks running. 
After recent windows updates tsbench score have also worsened by around 1.5-2seconds.)

Please help.


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## Rono (May 21, 2021)

I just tested with cinebench R23 again.
At 3.7Ghz on all cores CPU does not power limit throttle and power usage is at 41.2W
At 3.8Ghz on all cores it doesn't throttle for most of the time and power usage is also 45-45.6W even after short term power boost is over (which was surprising since it was using little more than 45W after first 28seconds) but sometimes in between it throttles and power usage drops to 44.9W and gets back upto 45.3-45.6W soon. 
At 3.9Ghz it uses 48.8W and throttles down to 44.9W constantly throttling for most of the test.

I did all these tests with -100.6mv cache offset since assumed reducing the offset might stabilize the cpu clock frequency but -125mv to -100.6mv didnt change anything. 
At 3.9Ghz it throttles at -125mv and also at -100.6mv cache offset


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## unclewebb (May 22, 2021)

Your log file shows some PL1 power limit throttling at 17W which is way below the 45W TDP limit. This limit might be randomly enforced when the GPU is active.

This limit might be because of the Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework (DPTF) driver. Search Google for how to remove and block this driver from being installed on your computer. This driver is not necessary. You will never get consistent performance when this power limit is randomly dropping to 17W.



Rono said:


> BDPROCHOT under limits when the threshold temperature is 95C and max was showing 56C


BD PROCHOT and PROCHOT (processor hot) are two different things. You can have BD PROCHOT throttling at any temperature. This type of throttling has nothing to do with the CPU temperature. Best to use ThrottleStop to disable BD PROCHOT.


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## Rono (May 22, 2021)

I did what this link said.
https://bradshacks.com/disable-dptf... find all,for this device" whenever available. 

even raised the power limit from throttlestop from 45W to 50W but it is still throttling at 44.9W during cinebench. Its as if nothing changed.
i do have disable and lock power limits enabled and restarted after increasing power to 50watts but it is ignoring that. something is still limiting the cpu to 45W


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## Rono (May 22, 2021)

I do have another query. I remember when a microsoft update had upgraded my bios to a newer version and because of this i could not use xtu or throttlestop to undervolt my cpu and it was burning while playing games. i downgraded my bios to the prev version and everything went back to normal but in device manager the system firmware shows an exclamation mark and in the properties section it says this.

This device cannot start. (Code 10)

{File Not Found}
The file %hs does not exist.
i have never had issues other than this power limit throttling since the bios downgrade. is it okay to have this error ? is this just because i downgraded my bios and it is asking for an upgrade ?


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## AOne (May 23, 2021)

Yes, it's normal. I've disabled Firmware in Device manager for this exact reason.


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## unclewebb (May 23, 2021)

@Rono - The big problem I see in your log file is constant throttling episodes like this.


```
DATE       TIME    MULTI   C0%   CKMOD  BAT_mW  TEMP   NVIDIA GPU     VID   POWER
2021-05-19  00:04:16  39.00   40.6  100.0       0   78    1924    72   1.0144   29.0   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:17  32.00   39.9  100.0       0   74    1924    72   0.8303   18.8   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:18  29.45   46.6  100.0       0   72    1924    70   0.8064   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:19  29.94   41.4  100.0       0   73    1924    70   0.8069   16.8   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:20  29.84   41.9  100.0       0   72    1924    70   0.8336   16.7   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:21  29.90   41.1  100.0       0   73    1924    70   0.8525   16.5   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:22  30.51   41.2  100.0       0   73    1924    70   0.8585   16.8   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:23  30.37   40.4  100.0       0   74    1924    70   0.8521   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:24  30.57   39.7  100.0       0   72    1924    69   0.8301   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:25  30.33   40.7  100.0       0   72    1924    69   0.8207   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:26  30.36   40.3  100.0       0   71    1924    69   0.8444   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:27  30.48   40.1  100.0       0   71    1924    69   0.8270   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:28  30.35   40.9  100.0       0   72    1924    69   0.8479   16.8   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:29  30.51   40.5  100.0       0   72    1924    69   0.8352   17.0   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:30  30.39   40.7  100.0       0   71    1936    69   0.8674   16.8   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:31  30.40   41.2  100.0       0   73    1936    69   0.8223   17.0   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:32  30.45   39.5  100.0       0   72    1936    68   0.8535   16.7   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:33  30.79   39.6  100.0       0   71    1936    68   0.8665   17.0   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:34  30.83   38.6  100.0       0   71    1936    68   0.8506   17.0   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:35  30.46   40.4  100.0       0   70    1936    68   0.8633   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:36  30.56   39.6  100.0       0   71    1936    68   0.8490   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:37  30.70   39.1  100.0       0   72    1936    68   0.8475   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:38  30.18   40.5  100.0       0   71    1936    68   0.8534   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:39  30.64   39.0  100.0       0   71    1936    68   0.8451   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:40  30.51   40.3  100.0       0   70    1936    67   0.8584   16.9   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:41  30.64   39.8  100.0       0   71    1936    67   0.8597   17.0   PL1
2021-05-19  00:04:42  30.42   41.1  100.0       0   70    1936    67   0.8392   17.1   PL1
```

Long term PL1 power limit throttling right at 17.0W. This happens again and again and again. The temperatures are completely normal so there is no legit reason for your laptop to get throttled down like this. Maybe someone at Asus has an explanation but I doubt it. Most companies are very secretive about throttling schemes like this.

Did you completely remove the DPTF driver and block it from being reinstalled?

Other than that, I do not know what else to suggest. Your laptop is defective, likely by design. There is something terribly wrong when a laptop manufacturer includes and charges it's customers for a 45W CPU and then deliberately throttles it to 17.0W. This likely only happens when the GPU is active. When running Cinebench, it will throttle to the 45W TDP limit. Being limited to 45W is reasonable. Being limited to 17W is not. Maybe one of their engineers decided to reuse some BIOS code from one of the low power 15W U series CPUs.


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## Rono (May 23, 2021)

I checked task manager and device manager and could not find anything with DTPF. So i think it is completely removed. If it cant cross the 45W threshold it is still okay because it wasnt meant too cross that anyway i guess and also most games I play use around 30-35W of power as i have seen from the log files. What i want is it to not drop down to 17W which it is still doing sometimes as i checked while playing days gone it dropped to 17W for a few seconds and went back up again. temps were in 70s as i keep the AC on and the laptop raised with fans on max. Its not affecting my gaming experience as i have not noticed any frames drops but still kind of bothers to know that i am not being able to use its full potential.  I checked the pch temps with hwinfo and they were in 40s during tsbench test. I think it is some software that got updated after I got it fixed the first time and maybe it cannot be changed. Since it is the same version of bios maybe it is some microsoft software. I saw one ACPI Thermal Zone which i didnt see earlier. COuld this be responsible for the power limit throttling ?

One thing i noticed is a couple of new devices popped up in the device manager under system devices. And under 'other devices' PCI data acquisition and signal processing controller and an unknown device now show an exclamation mark saying no driver available and event shows it was deleted. but i only deleted drivers for DPTF . Are they related in anyway and should i be worried?


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## Rono (May 23, 2021)

It still throttles down to 17W from 28-30W while playing csgo and ive noticed it happens when both cpu and gpu are being used as it never power limit throttles during tsbench test.
Could it be happening due to some fault in the EC or VRM chipset ? I am thinking of letting it go as i could not find a solution anywhere. 
Thank you for your time.

@unclewebb I am a complete idiot. On that blog I followed every instruction. Literally every instruction. Even the reverse instructions. 
Which is why it wasn't working. Somehow Intel DPTF had reinstalled again but wasn't showing up in task manager or device manager and I thought I had done everything correctly . When i reread it i realised it said REVERSE instructions. I Installed the .reg file again and the registry folder i deleted was back. And then i uninstalled Intel DPTF from control panel where it had finally showed up. I played csgo for around 15-20 minutes without any throttling. I will test more vigorously tomorrow. Sorry for wasting your time .Thank for all your help as I couldnt have trusted messing with the registry without consulting you. Thank you !


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## Rono (May 24, 2021)

here is the log file of my gaming. I started playing csgo at around 10:30 at night on 24th and ended at 01:00 on 25th. It didn't throttle for most of the time except for 10seconds in between. At first i had it locked at 3.7Ghz to keep temps low . I paused the game to check the limits section in throttlestop and saw PL1. I checked the log file but it ran mostly fine. Usually it would throttle very frequently and as soon as 15 minutes into the game. Today it throttled for just 10seconds . So I ramped it up to 3.9Ghz to check if the throttling was more frequent but it did not throttle anymore.
But what i noticed was that it throttled at the same 17W it did before.
What do you think caused this @unclewebb  ? I checked  control panel , device manager ,task manager and also the services section in it but found no sign of intel dptf.

*Also , I forgot to mention that to keep temps low i had increased the core offset to -170mv and cache is still on -125mv. I tested on cinebench multiple times and also on tsbench and they ran without issues. Earlier i remember whenever i crossed -155mv on core ts bench would show multiple errors but surprisingly it is stable now or so it seems since it ran without freezing or errors.*


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## Abdelfattah Shoukry (May 25, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> You are undervolting your cache too much. Very few CPUs are 100% stable when the cache offset is set beyond -125 mV. If you reduce your cache offset, you should be able to increase your core offset. Run Cinebench R20 when testing out different voltages. Many 8th Gen CPUs work well with the cache at -125 mV and the core at -200 mV. Do some testing including a variety of TS Bench tests to make sure you are stable. If the TS Bench reports errors, you have gone too far.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hello, I have a question regarding the Power Limit Throttling, 
I've a Acer Nitro 5 (i7 9750h + rtx 2060), Every time I use Intel Utility, I keep getting a big Yes on Power Limit Throttling, with sometimes Current/EDP Limit Throttling. Each time they pass 45 w , it happens, I know this is because of something they forced the Laptop to do through hard coding it (as I understood).

My question is: Can this really affect heavy gaming? 
Because My Processor doesn't go over 3980 GHZ, not the max 4.5 (I heard that it happens only to be at 4.5 at single core). And I think I don't feel that my games are dropping fps, they just work "normally" but the Power Throttling keeps happening during gaming. 
Will this affect the gaming experience ? 

Another question, I saw that it "Thermal Throttling" at around 90-89, it didn't reach 100 C, so why did it thermal throttling?

And my final question is: Should I bring it back to the Shop and get an MSI GF65 THIN 9SEXR-250 Intel Core i7-9750H - GeForce RTX 2060, instead?

here is a log of ThrottleStop attached.  
I'd really appreciate your answers.

Thanks.


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## unclewebb (May 25, 2021)

@Abdelfattah Shoukry - There is no need to ask the exact same question in two different forum threads. I answered your question in the other forum thread you created.


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