# What exactly do these settings do?



## erengore (Jun 18, 2021)

How is the "Disable And Lock Turbo Power Limits" option different from the TPL screen? 

What do the two ticks under the Cache Ratio heading do? 

Thanks.


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## unclewebb (Jun 18, 2021)

Good questions. 

Intel CPUs are managed by multiple sets of turbo power limits that are duplicated. The main power limits can be accessed in the TPL window. There is also a secondary set of power limits that only some computers use. Checking the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box locks out the secondary set of power limits so Windows or any other software cannot make changes to these limits. 

If your computer does not use these secondary power limits then whether you check this box or leave it unchecked will make no difference. For users that do have this type of throttling problem, being able to lock out the secondary power limits has made a huge difference and has solved a lot of problems for users. If you are not sure if your computer uses this type of throttling, you can safely check the Disable and Lock option. That is what I recommend.

When overclocking my 4700MQ, I was able to overclock and lock the Cache Ratio to 36. This worked great and was 100% stable while using my computer but there was a problem with the computer locking up when resuming from sleep so I would have to reboot. Checking the Sleep Default - Cache Ratio box removes the cache ratio overclock as the computer is getting ready to go to sleep. After the computer safely resumes, the previous cache ratio overclock is immediately re-applied. This works great and solved the problem I was having with being able to resume reliably when overclocking the cache. If you do not have this problem, there is no reason to check this option but it will not hurt anything if you do decide to check this option. 

ThrottleStop has a wide variety of options. My advice has always been to only use an option if it helps you solve a problem.

The Sleep Defaults - Voltage option removes the undervolt just as a computer goes into sleep mode. Some users found that they could reliably run a very aggressive undervolt and everything worked great except during a sleep resume cycle. Their computers would freeze when trying to restart. Resetting the voltage to default values during the sleep resume cycle solved this problem. If a computer cannot resume from sleep reliably at default voltage then that is a problem with the computer. If you do not have this problem, no need to check this option.


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## erengore (Jun 18, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> Good questions.
> 
> Intel CPUs are managed by multiple sets of turbo power limits that are duplicated. The main power limits can be accessed in the TPL window. There is also a secondary set of power limits that only some computers use. Checking the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box locks out the secondary set of power limits so Windows or any other software cannot make changes to these limits.
> 
> ...


It was a very good answer. Thanks @unclewebb .

Actually, I had one more question. Since you are too knowledgeable, I want to ask with courage. Can you explain a little bit about the settings in this section?


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## unclewebb (Jun 18, 2021)

I check the Speed Shift option in that section and that is about it. The Speed Shit Min and Max variables give you control over the minimum and maximum CPU speed. The original Set Multiplier feature that Intel used since the beginning of time no longer does anything when Speed Shift is enabled within the processor. Speed Shift Min and Max took over from Set Multiplier.  

Setting Power Limit 4 to 0 seems like a good idea. Doing this disables this limit so it does not interfere with maximum performance. Intel's documentation is a little fuzzy. It was originally a current limit but on more recent CPUs, intel calls this a power limit. Some documentation shows watts and some of their documentation shows amps so not sure if it is power or current that it controls. All I know is that this limit is not necessary.

Intel had some great ideas in theory when they first released the low power 3rd Gen U series CPUs. The TDP Level allowed a U series CPU to behave like three unique CPUs. I will use the Core i7-3667U for an example. This had a default TDP of 17W. When forced into low TDP mode it would drop down to 14W and in high TDP mode it could go up to 25W. Each TDP Level usually has a unique base frequency associated with it. This gave manufacturers some flexibility so they could change the TDP Level and easily limit the CPU to less power and less MHz when running on battery power or go up to full speed and full power when plugged in. Nice idea but it never seemed to really catch on. 

TDP Level was not just for mobile CPUs. A 10 core 10850K continues to support TDP-down mode. I think the TDP is reduced from 125W down to 95W in this mode. The base frequency drops from 3600 MHz to 3300 MHz. This is kind of pointless. These CPUs use turbo boost and typically run at 5000 MHz or beyond. Most users should be setting the PL1 and PL2 power limits much, much higher to prevent any power limit throttling. 

Not sure what Intel engineers are still working on the TDP Level project. They probably smile every year when they are cashing their pay checks. I am sure no one at Intel knows what this design team is really working on besides their table tennis skills.   

Power Balance allows one to balance the power consumption of the CPU cores with the Intel GPU. Another great idea in theory. When you have a U series CPU with a limited power budget of 15W, there are some apps like games that can benefit if you allow the Intel GPU to use 10W and the Intel cores to 5W. There are probably some other apps where the opposite is true. In the real world, most users would just increase both the PL1 and PL2 power limits so there are plenty of watts available. This would allow both the CPU cores and the Intel GPU to run at full speed. 

The PP0 Power and Turbo Time Limit only applies to the individual cores whereas the PL1 and PL2 power limits apply to the entire CPU package. There is the PP0 limit for the cores and there is also a PP1 power limit that applies only to the Intel GPU. I am not sure what Intel chips use both of these limits. My 10850K ignores any changes made to the PP0 limits. I leave this limit set to 0 and 0.0010 seconds for the time limit and I do not bother checking this. A long time ago, some manufacturers were using the PP1 power limit to reduce the power consumption of the Intel GPU which limited its maximum speed. ThrottleStop has a hidden feature so you can increase and lock this power limit if you need to. The demand to control the Intel GPU was minimal so I decided not to add control of PP1 to the ThrottleStop user interface. 

Now you are ready for Jeopardy if the ThrottleStop subject ever comes up.


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## erengore (Jun 18, 2021)

It was a great answer. I understood a little hard with my bad English, but I still understood what you said with Google Translate. By the way, I think it is necessary on my device to check the Intel GPU. Intel GPU can cause bottleneck in this device. My EDP OTHER problem is still not gone. I opened a thread recently, if you remember. I've tried everything and it still doesn't work. When I put the Intel GPU to High Performance, the problem starts and it does EDP OTHER all the time. When I put it in Maximum Battery Life mode, it only does it when exiting the game. I think that feature would be of great use to me. 

Your explanation informed me quite well. Thanks again. I wish you a good day. 

Maybe one day, as a knowledgeable person like you, I will help people here. However, my current knowledge is not very suitable for this.


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## erengore (Jun 21, 2021)

@unclewebb 

I'm sorry to disturb you, my dear teacher, 
Can you explain this feature to me a little bit?


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## unclewebb (Jun 21, 2021)

On unlocked K series CPUs, when Ring Down Bin is checked, the cache will run 300 MHz slower than the core.

5000 MHz core and 4700 MHz cache

When Ring Down Bin is not checked, the core and cache can be run at the same speed.

5000 MHz core and 5000 MHz cache

is possible but it takes a huge amount of additional voltage so on a 10850K, clearing this box is not that practical.

Not sure what it does on the locked non K series. Maybe not that much. It does not make a huge difference to performance one way or the other.


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## erengore (Jun 21, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> On unlocked K series CPUs, when Ring Down Bin is checked, the cache will run 300 MHz slower than the core.
> 
> 5000 MHz core and 4700 MHz cache
> 
> ...


I saw this setting on my i7 7700HQ processor and when I removed the tick I saw a spike in voltage. It started hovering around 0.91v --> 1.02v. When I opened the Stress Test, I got a value that I had never seen in my life. System was 93 degrees. Normally it would use 36W at most. After removing the setting, it went up to 49W. I just turned this setting off. With this setting, my computer almost became an oven. 

Thanks @unclewebb .


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