# i9 8950HK PL2 and PL1 limiting to 25W and 13W.



## Louissy (Feb 12, 2021)

So my dell XPS15 i have for 3 years now and i always tought is was running slow for a 2500 euro laptop, but i'm not a tech genius so didn't look into it.
Now i started doing benchmarks and i'm seeing horrible results.
I did a factory reset, downloaded all the latest dell drivers for my pc, and downloaded trottlestop.
When doing benchmarks, PL2 starts instantly and limits the power to 26W, then after a couple of seconds PL1 jumps in and limits to 13W??
I have changed my TBP max values from 45 to 90W but nothing changes. 
Here is the log file: Throttlestop Log - Pastebin.com
In this file you can see i did 3 small benchmarks after eachother and always the same thing.
PL2:





PL1 after couple of seconds:




Thank you in advance for helping


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## Valantar (Feb 12, 2021)

What power profile is the laptop set to? When you click the battery icon in the system tray, where is the slider set? Sounds to me like the laptop is set to some sort of power saving mode.


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## Louissy (Feb 12, 2021)

Valantar said:


> What power profile is the laptop set to? When you click the battery icon in the system tray, where is the slider set? Sounds to me like the laptop is set to some sort of power saving mode.


It's set to best performance, so that prob not the problem. But there must be something holding back this cpu :/


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## Valantar (Feb 12, 2021)

Louissy said:


> It's set to best performance, so that prob not the problem. But there must be something holding back this cpu :/


Have you checked in the BIOS whether there are any power saving settings or similar that might be applied there? Or does Dell have any kind of power management software?


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## Louissy (Feb 12, 2021)

Valantar said:


> Have you checked in the BIOS whether there are any power saving settings or similar that might be applied there? Or does Dell have any kind of power management software?


So in my bios in the preformace tab there are some interesting checkboxes.
Intel speedstep, c-states control, intel turbo boost, hyperthread control, intel speed shift technology.
Maybe one of these could help?


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## Valantar (Feb 12, 2021)

Everything should be enabled. Beyond that I'm stumped, sadly. Notebookcheck's review of the XPS 15 with that CPU shows it should turbo quite freely under CPU only loads. Have you tried adjusting PL1 and PL2 in Intel XTU?


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## Louissy (Feb 12, 2021)

Valantar said:


> Everything should be enabled. Beyond that I'm stumped, sadly. Notebookcheck's review of the XPS 15 with that CPU shows it should turbo quite freely under CPU only loads. Have you tried adjusting PL1 and PL2 in Intel XTU?


Yes, it does not change anything. I was thinking maybe to install old bios so i can undervolt the cpu, but like i said, i know little of this stuff.


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## unclewebb (Feb 12, 2021)

Louissy said:


> Dell XPS15


You have discovered a throttling feature that is exclusive to some Dell laptops. Dell never mentions these features when you are buying a laptop so let me explain.

Intel CPUs have three unique sets of turbo power limits. The main set can be adjusted in the ThrottleStop TPL window. The secondary set can be disabled by checking the FIVR - Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box. Unfortunately there is a third set which Dell is using. These are controlled by the EC and can override the other two turbo power limits.

Normal Intel thermal throttling maintains as much performance as possible. Dell decided to redesign how thermal throttling works. When throttling is triggered, the EC forces your high performance CPU down to 13W or lower for an extended period of time. There is no easy fix for this problem. One user with this problem contacted Dell and was told that this is by design and that their laptop is working properly.

I originally wrote ThrottleStop because of the Dell XPS. Nothing has changed except the throttling methods that Dell are using now cannot be easily fixed. I hope going back to a previous BIOS can help but I doubt it will make a difference.


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## Louissy (Feb 12, 2021)

unclewebb said:


> You have discovered a throttling feature that is exclusive to some Dell laptops. Dell never mentions these features when you are buying a laptop so let me explain.
> 
> Intel CPUs have three unique sets of turbo power limits. The main set can be adjusted in the ThrottleStop TPL window. The secondary set can be disabled by checking the FIVR - Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box. Unfortunately there is a third set which Dell is using. These are controlled by the EC and can override the other two turbo power limits.
> 
> ...


Holy crap, so you're saying i payed 2500 euros for a laptop that preforms like a 1000 euro one? I did side by side comparison with my brothers 7 year old macbook air and the macbook was faster in every category. 
Is there really no way to overcome this power throtteling? Why did they do this?
I feel like there must have been something wrong with this batch of laptops and instead of doing a recall they did a software update si it works at 25% of it's power, bc thats what i'm getting. 
Geekbench score 1000 and 4000 for multicore.  So sad. Gonna buy the macbook pro m1x this year i guess.


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## unclewebb (Feb 12, 2021)

Louissy said:


> Why did they do this?


That is a good question to ask Dell. Many of their laptop models have had some severe throttling issues for over 12 years now. Most people that buy laptops use them to surf the net and check their email. No one seems to notice or care about throttling problems. They just buy a new laptop every couple of years when their laptop slows down.



Louissy said:


> no way to overcome this power throttling?


No one has come up with a method to disable the latest throttling methods used by Dell.


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