# Optimal settings for the intel Core-i7 8550U CPU?



## Michael19264 (Apr 3, 2020)

I have an Acer E5-576G-81GD with An intel core i7 and an nvidia mx150. My thottlestop settings look screwed up and I cannot find any info online for this laptop model. I have the latest BIOS installed on my system (1.49) and my cpu likes to stay at 2.2GHz. Is there a way to undervolt my cpu with throttlestop or get good settings to have this run at 3ghz when in utilization? I would also like it to save power when needed or not doing intense work so it stays at a cool temp. Like low watts and stuff when I'm doing things like watching YouTube and its not locked at 4Ghz but when the TDP is reached it locks the clocks when I know its not using as much. Any solution or better settings for this?

When it says Power limit 1 or 2, the watts the package is using is only around 12.


----------



## tabascosauz (Apr 3, 2020)

I have my 8550U at -0.1V core and -0.08V cache. However, mine is an XPS 9370 and doesn't have a discrete GPU. It works well enough for productivity and media. No stability issues, but i also don't play games on my ultrabook so ymmv.

Most people recommend up to -0.1V for stability, with -0.08V being assuredly achievable with just about every chip.

I experimented for a little while with slightly reduced turbo bins across the board, but that just made it slower when on battery. On battery, it never goes to 4GHz anyways, and never really gets that hot. Stock turbo is 40x 40x 38x 36x I think.

I really don't know if capping it to 3GHz is desirable on this CPU. Is your battery life or stock cooling solution really so bad that it's necessary to shave off 1GHz? I only started undervolting to address the horrendous temepratures whenever mine is on AC; reduced turbo bins and -0.1V reduces my plugged in temps 15-20c.

Keep an eye out for the Plundervolt updates, not sure when or how Acer's will be applied.

Wait are you trying to up base clock to 3GHz and all turbo bins to 4GHz??


----------



## Michael19264 (Apr 3, 2020)

tabascosauz said:


> I have my 8550U at -0.1V core and -0.08V cache. However, mine is an XPS 9370 and doesn't have a discrete GPU. It works well enough for productivity and media. No stability issues, but i also don't play games on my ultrabook so ymmv.
> 
> Most people recommend up to -0.1V for stability, with -0.08V being assuredly achievable with just about every chip.
> 
> ...



I have arctic silver 5 thermal paste on my cpu and gpu and normal throttles keeps temp at a 75c

The cooling looks something like this:

Also I have Notebookfan control and have the ability to max the fan speed when needed.

End of the day, When my laptop is plugged in, I want up to 4ghz when needed. On battery, no turbo boost at all


----------



## Michael19264 (Apr 3, 2020)

My desired speeds
AC: Turbo 4GHZ

Battery: No turbo 1.8GHZ

THIS is the desired performance I want! It just goes away quickly. Notice how its using 44 watts though. Its plugged in. How do I keep it that way so only thermal limits are the bottleneck?

Left image: Throttling issue, Middle image: My expectations, Right image: Default OEM settings

I tried undervolting by 0.1 and it seems stable. What does this exactly achieve again? Less heat or power consumption?


----------



## tabascosauz (Apr 3, 2020)

Undervolting is to reduce temperatures. Perhaps you might get a slight reduction in power, but it's secondary to temperatures. A lot of laptops like mine are overheating out of the factory because 1) 14nm++++ 2) terrible cooling solutions.

Is it still throttling at 0.1v?

I don't think 40x all core turbo is stock. Did you change the turbo bins in Throttlestop to be 40x 40x 40x 40x? That's quite a bit of heat to demand of a laptop. Like I said, I believe the stock turbo bins on the 8550U is 40x 40x 38x 36x for 1-4 cores respectively.

No idea what's going on off battery. Mine boosts to about 3.5GHz for short duration on battery, and up to 4GHz on AC. What Windows power plan are you on when you're unplugged? It honestly sounds like the Power Saving plan to me.


----------



## Michael19264 (Apr 3, 2020)

I'm on balanced. Thats what I want. And its not a heat issue, its power limits. This happens with high performance also enabled

my temps are at 75C with arctic silver 5 thermal paste. So its fine. It stays like that when its throttling also so the temps never really go any higher.

This is the issue, see the temps? They are stable. The power consumption is being throttled and at 2.5Ghz

Also my stock is x40 x40 x37 x37

On the 2nd image does this look good?

UPDATE: on the 3rd image this was the temps and clocks for a short time. Any idea on how to make that sustained as long as its cool enough? So when it cools down it bumps back to 47watts and so on so forth but not throttling to 18watts and 2.2ghz when it throttles once

The 4th image is the throttling I'm talking about. The thermals are stable and I want it to go back to the higher speeds and not stay at the lower speeds.


----------



## unclewebb (Apr 4, 2020)

You have your power limits set backwards.  Setting Long to 17 and short to 44 makes sense.  The way you have these set makes no sense.

For a short period of time it is OK for the CPU to use more power.  After 28 seconds (the turbo time limit), it is OK for the CPU to go to a lower power number.  The Long power limit should always be less than or equal to the Short power limit.

Typical values for your CPU are Long = 25W and Short = 44W.

Setting all of the turbo ratio limits to 40 will not accomplish anything if this CPU does not support that request.  Set these back to their default values.  You cannot overclock a locked CPU.  TS 8.74 will show you what the default turbo ratio values are.

I would clear the BD PROCHOT box in ThrottleStop.  Your CPU will thermal throttle to protect itself whether this box is checked or not.  Thermal throttling is controlled by the PROCHOT (processor hot) signal.  It is not controlled by BD PROCHOT.

Make sure you are using the FIVR - Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits feature.  You will need to install the RwDrv.sys file into your ThrottleStop folder.  The Install button beside this feature explains this.  You can download the necessary file from Mega.









						MEGA
					

MEGA provides free cloud storage with convenient and powerful always-on privacy. Claim your free 20GB now




					mega.nz


----------



## Michael19264 (Apr 6, 2020)

It helped! I installed the beta and things look more stable the problem Is that it now is going back to 18watt and not 47watt after a short amount of time. Any way to make it last longer?

Its not thermal throttling. The 47watt boost does last slightly longer though (around 3 seconds)

Its constantly EDP Other on everything right now and it actually lasted 5 seconds on my 2nd run. Mostly halted because of power limit 1 and 2. Will undervolting more help this?


----------



## Michael19264 (May 2, 2021)

UPDATE: I got access to advanced BIOS settings and have access to 100's of more options, including C states, and power limits along with TDP limits, turbo limits, and much more. The only thing I have changed so far is set Energy Efficient Turbo to disabled. Any other suggestions on what I should change here? @unclewebb 

I'm looking to unlock unlimited power limits while not completely maxing everything out. (Like 4Ghz always) This is because my CPU sometimes throttles to 18 Watts/2.5Ghz as an EDP limit. The temp also stays at around 68C while the CPU makes no attempts to turbo higher


----------



## Michael19264 (May 4, 2021)

Some of these settings seem to be placeholders for different laptop designs like IR support



Michael19264 said:


> My desired speeds
> AC: Turbo 4GHZ
> 
> Battery: No turbo 1.8GHZ
> ...


Still desiring to be able to achieve this constantly but now I have access to more BIOS settings @unclewebb
Of course I would probably lower it slightly to give my CPU room to breathe.


			https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachments/annotation-2020-04-03-191413-png.150332/


----------



## unclewebb (May 4, 2021)

@Michael19264 - You have to be careful when playing with an unlocked BIOS. It might be trouble if you enable a feature that is not supported.

Are you seeing EDP OTHER throttling or PL power limit throttling under the CORE column of Limit Reasons? 

Did you max out the IccMax values in the FIVR window? Use ThrottleStop 9.3









						ThrottleStop (9.5) Download
					

ThrottleStop is a small application designed to monitor for and correct the three main types of CPU throttling that are being used on many lapto




					www.techpowerup.com


----------



## Michael19264 (May 4, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> @Michael19264 - You have to be careful when playing with an unlocked BIOS. It might be trouble if you enable a feature that is not supported.
> 
> Are you seeing EDP OTHER throttling or PL power limit throttling under the CORE column of Limit Reasons?
> 
> ...



I Maxed out IccMax on CPU core and cache. Do I need to do any others?

Also it went from PL 2 on core along with EDP OTHER on RING to the limits below


----------



## unclewebb (May 4, 2021)

@Michael19264  Your screenshot shows PL1 power limit throttling at 15W. Your CPU has a 15W TDP limit. If this limit is being enforced, there might not be any way to get around this limit.

In the FIVR window do you have Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits checked? Is PL1 set higher than 15W in the TPL window? Usually if those two things are taken care of then there is no way beyond 15W.

Can you adjust Power Limit 1 and Package TDP Limit higher than 15 in the BIOS? If you make any changes in the BIOS, you will need to delete the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file so ThrottleStop does not try to use your previous settings when you start it.


----------



## Michael19264 (May 4, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> @Michael19264  Your screenshot shows PL1 power limit throttling at 15W. Your CPU has a 15W TDP limit. If this limit is being enforced, there might not be any way to get around this limit.
> 
> In the FIVR window do you have Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits checked? Is PL1 set higher than 15W in the TPL window? Usually if those two things are taken care of then there is no way beyond 15W.
> 
> Can you adjust Power Limit 1 and Package TDP Limit higher than 15 in the BIOS? If you make any changes in the BIOS, you will need to delete the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file so ThrottleStop does not try to use your previous settings when you start it.


Yes ^


These seem to be the settings here. Wouldn't this fry my CPU or would it be fine? Also how would I be able to do this? If you want I could provide the BIOS explanation.




Bios Explanation:

1st image is an interesting voltage setting. The rest are attached


----------



## unclewebb (May 4, 2021)

At the top of that screenshot it shows Power Limit 1-----15.0W

That is the one that needs to be changed but it is in black so it does not look like it can be changed there. Keep looking.

I think all of those other ConfigTDP power limits can be left as is.

I have zero experience with this. Some users have made one change and have bricked their laptops. You really need to think twice if making a change is worth it. Hitting the Save button could end up changing some items that you did not intend to change.


----------



## Michael19264 (May 4, 2021)

I'll think about it for awhile but I might consider switching "Configurable TDP boot mode" to "up" which sets the TDP limit to 25W


----------



## unclewebb (May 4, 2021)

ThrottleStop already gives you access to the Configurable TDP settings. I think long term that the 15W power limit overrides any of the configurable TDP settings.


----------



## Michael19264 (May 4, 2021)

Here is what the limits look like right now

Setting TDP level control to 2 seemed to do nothing btw


----------



## unclewebb (May 4, 2021)

PL1 is set to 30W but this does not matter if internally it is being overridden by a 15W limit. That is the problem. The turbo power limits are duplicated. You can still have an embedded controller (EC) feeding power limit info to the CPU. When this is happening, the changes made in ThrottleStop are ignored. 

The screenshot shows TDP Level is at level 0. On the right hand side you can change the 0 to a 2 and you can check the TDP Level Control box. When you press the Apply button, you should see ThrottleStop change from TDP Level 0 to TDP Level 2. 

Looks nice but once again, this setting can be overridden internally by the EC. Give that a try but don't be surprised if it does not fix the problem. 

Same with all of the settings that are in the unlocked BIOS. They might not solve this problem if the EC has been programmed to enforce a 15W limit.


----------



## Michael19264 (May 4, 2021)

These forums help explain what I am planning on doing better









						How to edit TDP limit in BIOS ?
					

Hey guys! I own a Helios 500 with 8750H  cpu.




					community.acer.com
				












						Configurable TDP-up Frequency
					

I would love to tweak my somewhat neutered i7 "U" Model!  Which means Ultra Low Power!  It runs good but a little sluggish by 2021 standards.  I know it's not necessary but if possible with no involved hacks I would love to see this thing a little snappier.  I really need to put an SSD in it but...




					h30434.www3.hp.com
				




If I were to set the TDP Boot mode to "up" wouldn't that set my Power limit 1 to 25W?



Since that it is on Nomial, the settings below match. Now if I set it to "up" then those should match and I would get 25W of Power Limit 1 and the 2nd limit should be unchanged




@unclewebb


----------



## unclewebb (May 4, 2021)

Michael19264 said:


> If I were to set the TDP Boot mode to "up" wouldn't that set my Power limit 1 to 25W?


When you use ThrottleStop to enter TDP Level 2 does your power limit increase to 25W? It probably does but for how long?

It would be great if you could run your CPU endlessly in TDP Level 2 but I think the EC can limit you to 15W at any time.

In your screenshot where it says (MSR: 15.0) that is the 15W turbo power limit that you can adjust in the ThrottleStop TPL window. Increasing the MSR power limit does not solve your throttling problem so there must be another 15W limit being enforced.


----------



## Michael19264 (May 4, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> When you use ThrottleStop to enter TDP Level 2 does your power limit increase to 25W? It probably does but for how long?


It does not seem to change anything.

in any chance, anyone have issues with TDP Boot Mode bricking machines? I wanted to set it to "up" in case the BIOS is preventing throttlestop from changing those limits.

Ok so I tried to Set the limit to 1 which should set the TDP to 10 at 800Mhz, but the computer seems to be ignoring it. Does that mean that the BIOS option might work then if I set "TDP Boot Mode" to up? I was thinking that it would work like it did for this person @unclewebb



			https://techtablets.com/forum/topic/power-limit-throttling/#post-38070
		


Or setting Power limit 1 here to 200000




I feel like taking a break from this for now until someone can confirm that it won't brick anything (Or very unlikely/shouldn't)


----------



## Michael19264 (May 5, 2021)

What if I did this? (Set Power limit 1 to 16W) @unclewebb (Also the throttlestop TDP level values get completely ignored)

I also got back from my laptop once again freezing when I left it idle for a while. (Keyboard backlight will light up once but never again when I press a key until I hard reset) (Also fans run at a static speed). I looked in the event logs and nothing. I have tried everything at this point. Just asking in case if you knew of what that issue was and if there is a fix.


----------



## Michael19264 (Jul 2, 2021)

*I am not responsible if you damage your machine if you do any of these actions below*

UPDATE: I have tweaked the TDP settings and setting it to TDP UP has risen the Base speed to 2Ghz stock (Instead of 1.8Ghz) and I feel like after adjusting the power limits, it seems more lenient but it does occasionally lock to 15W but it usually stays at around 18.7W most of the time. It has been stable for 2 months now so it should be fine.

I also found that removing the CMOS battery from the motherboard (Along with holding the reset CMOS button) resets the BIOS to defaults (Did not clear any backups or the TPM info by the looks of it), but it did clear all of my settings by the looks of it so it _should _be safe to recover the computer if anything goes wrong.


----------



## Michael19264 (Jul 4, 2021)

After adjusting:

Power Limit 1: 28000
Power Limit 2: 44000
Power Limit 1 Time Window: 5

It sustains 3Ghz at around 16W or so depending on the load. I definitely makes a difference and I am very happy with how fast my CPU is performing now. It used to go down to 2.6Ghz but not it maintains 3Ghz and above! Going any higher will give me thermal throttling while gaming (Because the CPU and GPU are on the same heatpipe). Temps on the CPU are at around 85c. It really is pushing that 15TDP limit to it's limits now! It is no longer locking the clock rate of the processor as much as it used to.

Setting the power limit 1 to 27000 helps it sustain 2.8Ghz at around 80c


----------



## pjl321 (Nov 23, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> You have your power limits set backwards.  Setting Long to 17 and short to 44 makes sense.  The way you have these set makes no sense.
> 
> For a short period of time it is OK for the CPU to use more power.  After 28 seconds (the turbo time limit), it is OK for the CPU to go to a lower power number.  The Long power limit should always be less than or equal to the Short power limit.
> 
> ...




sorry to bother you, I have the same CPU but don't seem to be able to gain any control, everything is greyed out. Is that something I am not doing right or have HP locked it or is that this plundervolt update???Thanks for your help.


----------



## unclewebb (Nov 23, 2021)

pjl321 said:


> have HP locked it or is that this plundervolt update?


Yes and yes. Many laptops have had a Plundervolt update which locks out CPU voltage control and it also locks out the turbo ratio limit adjusters.





You need to modify the BIOS to unlock these features. I am not sure what is possible on your HP laptop. Here is the method that works on many Dell laptops. Check out the Notebook Review forum. Someone with your laptop model might have come up with a similar solution. 









						Undervolting 2020 Dell Laptops like the Vostro 7500 and More Tips to Improve Thermals, Battery Life, and Speed - Brendan Greenley
					

2021 Update: Based on post and Reddit comments, the approach to unlock undervolting works for a number of models, including the XPS, Inspiron, G5, 11th Generation Intel processors, and 2021 Dell models and other lines. If it works for you, please leave a comment below so others may know...




					brendangreenley.com


----------



## pjl321 (Nov 23, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> Yes and yes. Many laptops have had a Plundervolt update which locks out CPU voltage control and it also locks out the turbo ratio limit adjusters.
> 
> View attachment 226340
> 
> ...


Great, thanks. I have asked HP for an older BIOS so I can flashback to pre-Plundervolt 'fix'.

Out of interest, and I assume the answer is no but then I also know there are a lot of very clever people out there but, is there any way to increase the 'turbo boost power time window' to basically forever? I can see it can be changed anything up to 128 seconds but why not 200 seconds or a million seconds...? As long your cooling is up to it and you're on mains power then why could this not be a thing?


----------



## unclewebb (Nov 23, 2021)

You  an use ThrottleStop to request a turbo time limit of up to 45 days. Most CPUs will ignore this request. Intel shows 448 seconds is the maximum for some of their CPUs but even this is overly optimistic.

Most desktop motherboards let you set the PL1 and PL2 power limits sky high to 4095W so they never cause any power limit throttling. This is possible with some laptops. Other laptops have a fixed limit equal to the TDP. This is 45W for many Intel H series mobile CPUs and the time limit might be hard locked to 28 seconds or less.

Manufacturers like fixed power limits. This allows them to ship laptops with small, barely adequate power adapters.


----------



## pjl321 (Nov 24, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> You  an use ThrottleStop to request a turbo time limit of up to 45 days. Most CPUs will ignore this request. Intel shows 448 seconds is the maximum for some of their CPUs but even this is overly optimistic.
> 
> Most desktop motherboards let you set the PL1 and PL2 power limits sky high to 4095W so they never cause any power limit throttling. This is possible with some laptops. Other laptops have a fixed limit equal to the TDP. This is 45W for many Intel H series mobile CPUs and the time limit might be hard locked to 28 seconds or less.
> 
> Manufacturers like fixed power limits. This allows them to ship laptops with small, barely adequate power adapters.


I think I will just build an Alder Lake desktop system, it would be so much faster and I hardly ever work away from my desk anyway.
Thanks for all your help, have a great day.


----------



## Michael19264 (Dec 29, 2022)

*I am not responsible for any damage done to your machine if you attempt this*

It's been a while but I wanted to update that I set the imon slope to like half to trick the Laptop into thinking that it was only outputting half the wattage and now it fully works properly albeit the AC adapter gets more hot so I have a fan pointed at it and it doesn't do a good job in keeping the laptop fully charged at all times. When doing intensive workloads for long times, the battery will drain despite being plugged in all the time, so you can take a break. If I remember properly, it really struggles to do anything under high load when charging while under 40% it's power throttled. I had no problems though for like a year (while I had changed thermal paste that was like 20c better than stock), so I was taking full advantage of the machine and it's CPU. I still had to hold it back a little because of the temperatures but I probably would have gotten a little more out of it if I switched my AS5 for something like SYY-157. My AS5 lasted for 4 years so far so I didn't want to switch it. And also for a reason below.

Having now moved on to a newer ASUS gaming laptop, it really is a shame that there is no S3 standby support (tried forcing it on in the OS and it worked until I woke it up and then it just hard reboot (or hard reset) for no reason after like 10 seconds of it being fully awake and functional) and it having extremely limited BIOS options with no special combo that I know of to unlock it, forcing me to deal with Armory crate which I hate. Much bigger pain in my ass to use rather than just having to use NotebookFan Control. Relies on MS store and it's own update system rather than just downloading whatever version you like. Runs tons of BS in the background and I had to really do some experimentation with neutering the blasted software. No open source solutions really can replace it yet as I can't figure out how to get the MUX switch working without it. It also had the Intel 12th gen problem where I can't even undervolt the damn thing. Thanks, Intel. I can't even remove the fans on the computer without removing the entire heatsink assembly. The metal top lid feels like a flimsy POS where EVERY SINGLE plastic lidded laptop I ever had bent less than this when opening the display. I need two hands to open this without bending it. The housing where the keyboard is is made of plastic, so that would be a better place for that metal to go. The surface of it it not level so they display is bent when the laptop is closed so that's really comforting. The charging port is also soldered to the board instead of being replaceable like on my Acer and it has one less USB port, but makes up for it with better onboard sound.

I will miss using my Acer laptop. Much slower nowadays but much more freedom. Also it had S3 standby. Much better than just hibernating my newer machine, which always dumps the RAM contents to the SSD, further wearing it out. that's the price I will pay I guess.


----------

