# Question about Power Limit Throtlling (Acer Nitro 5 - i7 9750h)



## Abdelfattah Shoukry (May 25, 2021)

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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## Caring1 (May 25, 2021)

Normally I would say steer clear of "thin" gaming laptops, but reviews seem favourable for the MSI.
The Asus TUF mentioned in the review sounds better. Acer Nitro have had a few bad reports about temps and power.








						MSI GF65 THIN 9SEXR gaming laptop review
					

An RTX gaming laptop under £999, but does the MSI GF65 live up to expectation?




					www.pcgamer.com


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## Abdelfattah Shoukry (May 25, 2021)

Caring1 said:


> Normally I would say steer clear of "thin" gaming laptops, but reviews seem favourable for the MSI.
> The Asus TUF mentioned in the review sounds better. Acer Nitro have had a few bad reports about temps and power.
> 
> 
> ...


Could you please answer me about the Power Throttling affecting gaming experience ? Will it? I mean the max Watt for 9750h is 45w, and the laptop limits the power to 45w (the max), so (in my opinon) that won't affect gaming so much. Do you think?
Also why would it Thermal Throttling at 90-95? shouldn't this happen at 100+?


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## Caring1 (May 25, 2021)

Throttling will lose some performance, 45W power limit is set by the laptop manufacturer and should boost over that, the TDP of 100C is an Intel guide, which can also be varied by the laptop manufacturer.
Using ThrottleStop you might be able to improve performance slightly and gain more power.
Hopefully @unclewebb can guide you in it's use if your laptop does not have the FIVR option locked.


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## unclewebb (May 25, 2021)

Abdelfattah Shoukry said:


> Throttling. Each time they pass 45 w


I believe that Acer enforces the 45W TDP limit so some power limit throttling at 45W is normal for your laptop.



Abdelfattah Shoukry said:


> Can this really affect heavy gaming?


It depends on the game. For many games, if the CPU needs to throttle a little because of a 45W power limit, the difference in performance will barely be noticed.



Abdelfattah Shoukry said:


> My Processor doesn't go over 3980 GHZ, not the max 4.5


The 45 multiplier is only for single core. The 9750H can use the 40 multiplier when all cores are active. 3990 MHz is the normal maximum speed when playing some games. When your CPU power limit throttles to 45W, the CPU is forced to slow down to between 3200 MHz and 3300 MHz. Many games will still run OK with a slower CPU so many users do not notice this throttling.



Abdelfattah Shoukry said:


> why would it Thermal Throttling at 90-95?


The Intel recommended thermal throttling temperature is 100°C. Many laptop manufacturers have decided to lower this value. Some set this to 95°C or even lower. If Acer has lowered this temperature, ask them why?

You did not post any pictures of ThrottleStop so I cannot see what temperature PROCHOT is set to for your laptop. The main ThrottleStop window shows this info. The ThrottleStop Options window lets you adjust the thermal throttling temperature as long as the manufacturer has no locked this setting.



Abdelfattah Shoukry said:


> MSI GF65 THIN


It is impossible to say which laptop will be better. A MSI thin laptop might not run any better compared to your Acer laptop.

Does ThrottleStop allow you to adjust your CPU core and cache voltage in the FIVR window or are these settings locked by your BIOS? Many recent MSI laptops have an option in the BIOS that allows you to unlock voltage control and they also allow setting the turbo power limit higher than 45W. You need to do some hands on testing of each laptop to know what is possible.


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## Abdelfattah Shoukry (May 26, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> I believe that Acer enforces the 45W TDP limit so some power limit throttling at 45W is normal for your laptop.
> 
> 
> It depends on the game. For many games, if the CPU needs to throttle a little because of a 45W power limit, the difference in performance will barely be noticed.
> ...


Thanks for your answer

Here is the screen shots taken from Intel Utility and Throttle Stop, another one after testing it using Cinebench R23, the recorded benchmark there is 6912, mine got 6906 in multi core, on the site in the single core test it scored 1113, mine got around 1115, so what do you think? 

And from ThrottleStop pic, can I mange and increase the Maximum degree to reach the Thermal Throttling? Looking for your answer, thanks.


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## unclewebb (May 26, 2021)

Abdelfattah Shoukry said:


> can I mange and increase the Maximum degree to reach the Thermal Throttling?


You need to post a screenshot of the ThrottleStop Options window so I can answer that question. I also need to see the ThrottleStop TPL window and the FIVR window.

Avoid using Intel XTU and ThrottleStop at the same time. They are both writing information to the same CPU registers so there can be conflicts.

Your second log file shows PL2 throttling at 56W while your earlier log files showed PL2 throttling at 45W and sometimes at only 30W. Are you using some Acer software that has a cool and quiet mode? This type of software will reduce your power limits and should be avoided.


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## Abdelfattah Shoukry (May 27, 2021)

Here is the screenshots:
I also want to mention the undervolt'd cpu using ThrottleStop, because XTU can't, the option is grey'd. I think the laptop feels better now, Idk why, but it's a just a feeling.


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## unclewebb (May 27, 2021)

Abdelfattah Shoukry said:


> I think the laptop feels better now


Now that your undervolt is being applied, your CPU can either run cooler or faster for the same load.

Most 9750H are not 100% stable with an undervolt of -153 mV. If you have any BSOD crashes, start reducing your undervolt. A setting of -125 mV or -130 mV is typical for the 9750H.

The Options window shows that PROCHOT Offset is already locked to 8. The BIOS must have locked that setting so you cannot use ThrottleStop to change the thermal throttling temperature. The manufacturer has set that to 92°C instead of the full Intel recommended 100°C.

Try using the latest version of ThrottleStop. It has a few more features.









						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


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## Abdelfattah Shoukry (May 31, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> Now that your undervolt is being applied, your CPU can either run cooler or faster for the same load.
> 
> Most 9750H are not 100% stable with an undervolt of -153 mV. If you have any BSOD crashes, start reducing your undervolt. A setting of -125 mV or -130 mV is typical for the 9750H.
> 
> ...


Hello, 

So I tried and undervolted the cpu to -125, and it changed everything, before, when it was -153, the cpu used to reach all of it's power, and get the exact numbers in the benchmark programs, i put the undervolt back to -153, but when I use CPUZ Bench, or Cinebench, CPU goes to around 3988 with 55 W power, then it goes down to 3.3 at max, with 45 Power Limit. 

Is there any solution for this? because I can't get it to be like it used.


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## unclewebb (May 31, 2021)

The 9750H has a 45W TDP rating.









						Product Specifications
					

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.




					ark.intel.com
				




Acer likely locks your laptop to a long term maximum of 45W. There is no way to fix this limitation.

If you undervolt more, your CPU can run faster but it will not be 100% stable.


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## Abdelfattah Shoukry (Jun 1, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> The 9750H has a 45W TDP rating.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hello again, 

So, I just bought the MSI GF65 THIN 9SEXR-250, and from what I saw, I think it's kinda better than the Acer at the Power Limit Throttling thing, it does power throttle but not immediately, I think I wait for about 1 or 2 minutes, then it starts power throttling, is there a reason for this? 

I will show you some screens, hopefully you can tell me that I can edit the limits and stop the Power Throttling, if that'd be possible. 

Here are the Screenshots.

Thanks for your help.


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## unclewebb (Jun 1, 2021)

Abdelfattah Shoukry said:


> is there a reason for this?


It is a thin and light laptop. Power throttling is part of the design.

The good news is that it looks like MSI is using a long term power limit of 55W. That is better than the 45W long term limit that your Acer laptop was using. You cannot make this long term limit go away. When you are not full load stress testing, a 55W long term limit will rarely limit maximum performance.  

I would suggest checking the Speed Shift box in the ThrottleStop TPL window. Most modern laptops enable Speed Shift Technology automatically. There might be an option in the BIOS so you can enable Speed Shift. After Speed Shift is enabled, you will see SST in green on the main screen of ThrottleStop. This is how modern Intel CPUs control their speed. Intel invented this technology specifically for laptops.

An undervolt of -150 mV will likely cause errors and the occasional BSOD. Most 9750H are not 100% stable at this setting. If you see any errors like this, you will need to reduce your undervolt settings.


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