Can you help me with some Throttlestop settings please?

[synstark23]

Hello!

I have the Scar 18 with I9-13980HX RTX 4090.

I watched a lot of YouTube guides but everyone was saying different stuff, so I decided to ask here directly. Some people say leave Speed Shift EPP unchecked. Some people say check it and write 0/1. But in that case it will run at full power even at day to day light stuff. Some say Make CPU Core and Cache equal. Some say Core should be higher. Sooo idk.. I got really confused.
I would appreciate all the advices.

1. Should I check the Speed Shift EPP box? I understand that 0/1 will make it eat a lot of power and run at max power all the time and 150+ will use less power and make it run slow. Is there a way to pull the power in needs on its own? Let's say I want to browse YouTube or watch a movie or whatever, I don't want the CPU to be running at max power for these kinds of stuff. Is there a specific number that can make it draw as much as it wants/needs?
2. Speedstep on or off?
3. BD Prochot and C1E on or off?
4. Should CPU Core and CPU Cache have the same values?

 

[unclewebb]

I seem to recall answering this exact same question on Reddit or some other forum yesterday. I will answer it again here just because I like answering the same questions over and over again.

1) I prefer to let Windows manage the Speed Shift EPP value so I never check this box on the main screen of ThrottleStop. I use the Windows High Performance power plan and run my CPU at full speed all of the time. If you want your CPU to slow down when lightly loaded, use the Windows Balanced power plan. If you check the Speed Shift EPP box, you will end up with a constant fight between ThrottleStop and Windows 11 as they both write different values to the same Speed Shift EPP register. Fights are never good.

2) SpeedStep is old school. If you see SST in green on the main screen of ThrottleStop, that means your computer is using the newer Speed Shift Technology. When Speed Shift is enabled, having SpeedStep enabled or not makes no difference.

3) You cannot disable BD PROCHOT on most recent CPUs so no need to ask about that one. Disable it if it is not locked.

Modern CPUs use other C states besides C1E to save power. An idle core can spend 99% of its time in the core C7 state. Having C1E checked or not makes very little difference to anything.

4) On some CPUs, setting the core offset to a bigger number compared to the cache can improve performance or reduce temperatures. If you see no difference when using different voltage values then leave them equal to each other.

For all of your questions, do some hands on testing. If checking a box or changing a setting in ThrottleStop does not improve performance or temperatures then there is no reason to adjust anything.

I just asked Perplexity your first question. That damn AI robot is going to put me out of business.

https://www.perplexity.ai/

Should Speed Shift EPP be used in ThrottleStop?​

Based on the search results, here are the key points about using Speed Shift EPP in ThrottleStop: Speed Shift EPP (Energy Performance Preference) is a modern method for governing CPU behavior that replaced the older SpeedStep technology. It's generally recommended to enable Speed Shift EPP if you have an Intel Skylake CPU or later.The main benefits of using Speed Shift EPP include:

1. More efficient and effective CPU performance management compared to SpeedStep.
2. Ability to fine-tune CPU performance and power consumption

When using Speed Shift EPP in ThrottleStop:

1. You can enable it by checking the "Speed Shift EPP" box on the main screen.
2. The EPP value can be set between 0-255, where 0 means the CPU will prefer its maximum frequency.
3. For gaming and high performance, lower EPP values (closer to 0) are generally better.
4. You may need to experiment to find the optimal EPP value for your specific system and usage

It's important to note that Windows 10 and 11 can manage Speed Shift EPP on their own, so you may not need to set it manually in ThrottleStop. However, using ThrottleStop allows for more precise control. When using Speed Shift EPP, it's generally recommended to disable SpeedStep, as Speed Shift is the newer and more efficient technology. Overall, using Speed Shift EPP in ThrottleStop can be beneficial for optimizing CPU performance and power consumption, especially for gaming and high-performance tasks. However, the exact settings will depend on your specific CPU model and performance goals.

 

[Weissrolf]

From what I can tell "Autonomous mode" is enabled by default in *all* Windows power plans nowadays.

 

[synstark23]

I seem to recall answering this exact same question on Reddit or some other forum yesterday. I will answer it again here just because I like answering the same questions over and over again.

1) I prefer to let Windows manage the Speed Shift EPP value so I never check this box on the main screen of ThrottleStop. I use the Windows High Performance power plan and run my CPU at full speed all of the time. If you want your CPU to slow down when lightly loaded, use the Windows Balanced power plan. If you check the Speed Shift EPP box, you will end up with a constant fight between ThrottleStop and Windows 11 as they both write different values to the same Speed Shift EPP register. Fights are never good.

2) SpeedStep is old school. If you see SST in green on the main screen of ThrottleStop, that means your computer is using the newer Speed Shift Technology. When Speed Shift is enabled, having SpeedStep enabled or not makes no difference.

3) You cannot disable BD PROCHOT on most recent CPUs so no need to ask about that one. Disable it if it is not locked.

Modern CPUs use other C states besides C1E to save power. An idle core can spend 99% of its time in the core C7 state. Having C1E checked or not makes very little difference to anything.

4) On some CPUs, setting the core offset to a bigger number compared to the cache can improve performance or reduce temperatures. If you see no difference when using different voltage values then leave them equal to each other.

For all of your questions, do some hands on testing. If checking a box or changing a setting in ThrottleStop does not improve performance or temperatures then there is no reason to adjust anything.

I just asked Perplexity your first question. That damn AI robot is going to put me out of business.

https://www.perplexity.ai/

Should Speed Shift EPP be used in ThrottleStop?​

Based on the search results, here are the key points about using Speed Shift EPP in ThrottleStop: Speed Shift EPP (Energy Performance Preference) is a modern method for governing CPU behavior that replaced the older SpeedStep technology. It's generally recommended to enable Speed Shift EPP if you have an Intel Skylake CPU or later.The main benefits of using Speed Shift EPP include:

1. More efficient and effective CPU performance management compared to SpeedStep.
2. Ability to fine-tune CPU performance and power consumption

When using Speed Shift EPP in ThrottleStop:

1. You can enable it by checking the "Speed Shift EPP" box on the main screen.
2. The EPP value can be set between 0-255, where 0 means the CPU will prefer its maximum frequency.
3. For gaming and high performance, lower EPP values (closer to 0) are generally better.
4. You may need to experiment to find the optimal EPP value for your specific system and usage

It's important to note that Windows 10 and 11 can manage Speed Shift EPP on their own, so you may not need to set it manually in ThrottleStop. However, using ThrottleStop allows for more precise control. When using Speed Shift EPP, it's generally recommended to disable SpeedStep, as Speed Shift is the newer and more efficient technology. Overall, using Speed Shift EPP in ThrottleStop can be beneficial for optimizing CPU performance and power consumption, especially for gaming and high-performance tasks. However, the exact settings will depend on your specific CPU model and performance goals.

Thank you very much for the response!
A follow up question if I may.

1. So just leave everything as is in the first window and not change anything?
2. Should I change anything in the TPL window or not touch it at all?
3. In the FIRV window should I play only with the CPU Core/Cache settings or change something else as well?

 

[unclewebb]

Should I change anything

I have no idea. I do not own anything remotely similar to a laptop with a 13980HX processor. I have done zero hands on testing of the latest ovens from Intel. It is a bit of a miracle that ThrottleStop works as well as it does on Intel HX processors.

What are you trying to accomplish? What problem are you trying to solve? I prefer to check the MMIO Lock box near the top right corner of the TPL window. That allows me to adjust the MSR power limits to fully control the CPU. If your CPU runs too hot, reduce the PL1 and PL2 power limits. If you want maximum performance, increase these power limits. I cannot decide what is important to you. Your power limit settings might vary depending on what you are doing on your laptop.

Adjusting the core and cache offset voltages is a good place to start testing. After that, some users like to adjust what ThrottleStop calls the E Cache Voltage. Not too many people adjust the System Agent. A few people adjust the Intel GPU and iGPU Unslice voltages. If you have a Nvidia GPU, tweaking the two Intel GPU voltages is probably not going to accomplish much.

Using ThrottleStop is all about tweaking and testing. You need a sense of adventure to get the most out of ThrottleStop and your CPU. Are you game? No pun intended.