# Unexplainable stutters in some games(i3-8130u)



## Goran571 (Feb 8, 2021)

Hello,

I've been having issues with this processor. The laptop's model is an Asus Vivobook S15. I've underclocked it from 3.4 to 3.0GHz because it tends to overheat, and on 3.0 it stays around 80C. The undervolts work fine from my testing so far, but maybe this is where the problem lies. CPUCore is at -190mV, Cache at -125mV, iGPU at -95mV, and so is the iGPU Unslice.

However, in certain games(mostly newer ones, most recently Yakuza 3 Remastered and GTA V) I get these stutters every so often. The milder stutters I don't mind but sometimes it's just straight up unplayable. I'm guessing it has something to do with the power usage or power limit, something along those lines? The stutters are unexplainable because my CPU usage doesn't go past 85% when it starts happening, and I'm pretty sure it isn't thermal throttling. It's annoying because even though I underclocked and everything, I still can't have stable performance.

So, my question is, how would I go about managing the power and maybe fixing this problem? Or does the problem lie somewhere else? Also, do you have any recommendations about my current settings?(changing the voltage perhaps) 

I'm attaching all the screenshots of ThrottleStop.

Thank you in advance.


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## dark2099 (Feb 8, 2021)

First off, I noticed in the Throttlestop options, you have NVidia GPU selected, which if you have a dedicated GPU, then I doubt any underclocking on the iGPU in throttlestop will do anything. Other than that, have you in anyway tried cleaning out the fans? If you are feeling confident enough, could open the laptop and re-apply thermal paste if you haven't done that. Other than that, I am not sure what more you can do, I have a Dell laptop with the same CPU, and granted it isn't during gaming, my temps are a touch cooler if I put the laptop underload using TS Bench. Your stutters could be due to either the temps, the underclock limiting things, or perhaps instability with your undervolt.


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## unclewebb (Feb 8, 2021)

@Goran571 - A low power 2 core CPU is not enough computing power to run games like GTA V smoothly.

Limit Reasons shows Voltage Regulator throttling issues as well as BD PROCHOT throttling issues. Have you tried clearing the BD PROCHOT box in ThrottleStop? Did you try increasing the IccMax sliders?

After you make those adjustments, turn on the Log File option in ThrottleStop and play a game for at least 15 minutes. When finished testing, exit the game and then exit ThrottleStop so it can finalize your log file. It will be located in your ThrottleStop / Logs folder. Attach one to your next post. It might show the reasons for throttling in there and whether your CPU or GPU is causing the problem.


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## Goran571 (Feb 8, 2021)

> First off, I noticed in the Throttlestop options, you have NVidia GPU selected, which if you have a dedicated GPU, then I doubt any underclocking on the iGPU in throttlestop will do anything. Other than that, have you in anyway tried cleaning out the fans? If you are feeling confident enough, could open the laptop and re-apply thermal paste if you haven't done that. Other than that, I am not sure what more you can do, I have a Dell laptop with the same CPU, and granted it isn't during gaming, my temps are a touch cooler if I put the laptop underload using TS Bench. Your stutters could be due to either the temps, the underclock limiting things, or perhaps instability with your undervolt.


I underclocked the iGPU because I tend to use it when I'm on battery more. Some games run on it instead of the dGPU as well. For clarification, the GPU is an MX150.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, I should take a peek inside the laptop when I am able to. However, this is not really the idea I'd like to jump to instantly because of the warranty. And I doubt they'd actually even listen to a relatively small problem like this.


> A low power 2 core CPU is not enough computing power to run games like GTA V smoothly.
> 
> Limit Reasons shows Voltage Regulator throttling issues as well as BD PROCHOT throttling issues. Have you tried clearing the BD PROCHOT box in ThrottleStop? Did you try increasing the IccMax sliders?
> 
> After you make those adjustments, turn on the Log File option in ThrottleStop and play a game for at least 15 minutes. When finished testing, exit the game and then exit ThrottleStop so it can finalize your log file. It will be located in your ThrottleStop / Logs folder. Attach one to your next post. It might show the reasons for throttling in there and whether your CPU or GPU is causing the problem.


I understand that a processor such as mine is far from capable, however I'd at least expect to see my CPU usage stay at 95-100%.

I cleared the BD PROCHOT box right now and will give it a try. However, a question about the IccMax sliders: can increasing this cause damage? By what increments should I go up? And which parts should I increase the Icc of?(I'm assuming Cache and Core)

Thank you in advance, and thanks to you both for even replying.


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## unclewebb (Feb 8, 2021)

Goran571 said:


> IccMax


I would set IccMax to the maximum, 255.75. It is a throttling method that is really not necessary on a low power CPU. The 8130U has a 15W TDP rating and you have your long term power limit set to 60W. You are already trying to operate your CPU way outside the Intel specs. Bumping IccMax up is not likely to cause anything bad to happen. If you do not feel comfortable doing this, leave it as is.

A log file will show more information about throttling and CPU / GPU speed and temperatures while gaming.


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## Mussels (Feb 8, 2021)

Goran571 said:


> I underclocked the iGPU because I tend to use it when I'm on battery more. Some games run on it instead of the dGPU as well. For clarification, the GPU is an MX150.
> 
> Yeah, you're absolutely right, I should take a peek inside the laptop when I am able to. However, this is not really the idea I'd like to jump to instantly because of the warranty. And I doubt they'd actually even listen to a relatively small problem like this.
> 
> ...


Thats not how CPU usage in games work - if it needs performance from a single thread only, your CPU could read only 25% on your CPU since it has 4 threads

Being a dual core CPU, 50% CPU usage means your two cores are already maxed out - hyperthreading cores share hardware with the main ones, so they only offer around 15% (this is an estimate) the performance of the real ones.

Definitely listen to unclewebbs advice, he's the expert on getting the most out of these low wattage mobile parts but just dont set your expectations too high as you have ultra low wattage hardware - which has inherent performance limits.


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## Goran571 (Feb 8, 2021)

Thank you both for the replies, it helps a lot. I changed the Icc on the Core and Cache to the max value. I played for a while before setting this however(and after disabling PROCHOT), so I'll upload the log file of that, and if necessary I'll upload another after the Icc change when I'm able to game again. The session was about an hour long and it definitely had a few hiccups, although I sadly didn't markup when they started happening. The rest of my settings I left unchanged.


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## Mussels (Feb 8, 2021)

Oh and you havent given any detailed specs for the system yet, a model number helps but complete specs would be best - especially if you've changed anything

For all we know you're gaming of a 4,200RPM hard drive on 4GB of ram, and things like that could totally cause stuttering in performance


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## unclewebb (Feb 9, 2021)

Goran571 said:


> it tends to overheat


What is your definition of overheat? The Intel specified thermal throttling temperature is 100°C. Any temperature under that is considered to be a safe operating temperature. Asus set the PROCHOT Offset variable to 5. This forces thermal throttling to start at 95°C instead of 100°C. If you want, you can lower the PROCHOT Offset variable in the Options window. The Intel default is 0. Most laptops use 2 or 3. You can use 0 as long as Asus did not set the thermal shut down temperature to 100°C. The Intel default for thermal shut down is usually not until 125°C but some laptop manufacturers have decided that shutting down at 100°C would be safer. Reducing the offset value will give you a little more temperature head and might allow you to run your CPU at its full rated 3.4 GHz. Your laptop needs all of the computing power help it can get. 

There was one incident in the log file where it showed your laptop switched to battery power for about 30 seconds. CPU and GPU performance seemed consistent so I am not sure if you would have noticed when this happened. There was another time when the CPU was completely maxed out at 100.0%. You are more likely to notice when this happens. The CPU simply has no more to give. Anything that needs to be processed gets put in the queue and has to wait until things settle down. You can end up with some noticeable stuttering when this happens. 

Running the CPU at its full rated speed might be enough to help avoid this problem. Other than that, there is not much else you can do. Both your CPU and GPU are running consistently and are working as hard as they can. When idle, go to the Task Manager Details tab. Try to find any eliminate any useless background tasks. You want to get the ThrottleStop reported C0% as low as possible. When you only have two cores, there are not many left over CPU cycles available for processing background tasks. 

There were no current limit throttling issues during your log.


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## Goran571 (Feb 9, 2021)

> Oh and you havent given any detailed specs for the system yet, a model number helps but complete specs would be best - especially if you've changed anything


My apologies, I forgot.

Asus Vivobook S15 S530UV
Intel Core i3-8130u
Nvidia MX150-0
8GB DDR4 2400MHz
256GB SanDisk SSD(no clue which model)
That's about it, if you need additional info I'd be happy to oblige.



> What is your definition of overheat? The Intel specified thermal throttling temperature is 100°C. Any temperature under that is considered to be a safe operating temperature. Asus set the PROCHOT Offset variable to 5. This forces thermal throttling to start at 95°C instead of 100°C. If you want, you can lower the PROCHOT Offset variable in the Options window. The Intel default is 0. Most laptops use 2 or 3. You can use 0 as long as Asus did not set the thermal shut down temperature to 100°C. The Intel default for thermal shut down is usually not until 125°C but some laptop manufacturers have decided that shutting down at 100°C would be safer. Reducing the offset value will give you a little more temperature head and might allow you to run your CPU at its full rated 3.4 GHz. Your laptop needs all of the computing power help it can get.


CPU at full load from the OCCT Linpack test and Unigine Heaven Benchmark for the GPU load, CPU at 3.4GHz hits 92C and growing. I personally don't feel very comfortable at anything over 90. Even at 85C I feel uneasy, considering I'm not even in a warm room and shudder to think what will happen during the summer(when the room temp easily reaches 30+).



> There was one incident in the log file where it showed your laptop switched to battery power for about 30 seconds. CPU and GPU performance seemed consistent so I am not sure if you would have noticed when this happened.


Yeah, laptop switches to battery when battery hits 100% and then it discharges to 95%. At least I think that's what it was.



> Running the CPU at its full rated speed might be enough to help avoid this problem. Other than that, there is not much else you can do. Both your CPU and GPU are running consistently and are working as hard as they can. When idle, go to the Task Manager Details tab. Try to find any eliminate any useless background tasks. You want to get the ThrottleStop reported C0% as low as possible. When you only have two cores, there are not many left over CPU cycles available for processing background tasks.


Thanks, I suppose there's not much else to do but get my laptop to run cooler or upgrade it seems.

Thank you all for the help.


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## Mussels (Feb 9, 2021)

Do you know if the 8GB is a single 8GB stick, or 2x4GB?

It can definitely help laptop performance to run dual channel, so thats a possibly cheap way to get some extra power.


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## Goran571 (Feb 9, 2021)

Mussels said:


> Do you know if the 8GB is a single 8GB stick, or 2x4GB?
> 
> It can definitely help laptop performance to run dual channel, so thats a possibly cheap way to get some extra power.


Pretty sure it's a single 8GB stick, but I thought dual channel only mostly influenced iGPU and Ryzen chip performance? I suppose if I really get desperate, I could give it a try.


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## Mussels (Feb 10, 2021)

Goran571 said:


> Pretty sure it's a single 8GB stick, but I thought dual channel only mostly influenced iGPU and Ryzen chip performance? I suppose if I really get desperate, I could give it a try.


It might only get you 5% more performance from dual channel, but that would still be a win

And of course, you might be lagging because you run out of RAM in the first place so its got two avenues to improve performance


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