i7 6700 Power limited

[Fly14]

I have an old Fujitsu office pc with an Intel i7 6700. I noticed a long time ago that when playing games heavy on the cpu, the core clock dropped from the 3.7ghz turbo to the base 3.4ghz and sometimes even lower to 3.3-3.2 GHz. I recently discovered throttlestop and I was amazed when I found out I could simply change the power limits on my old locked CPU. I raised pl1 and pl2 and saw that to avoid power throttling, the CPU uses about 90w, but now holds 3.7ghz. The CPU had a default PL1=65w (TDP) and PL2=81w.
To me it seems strange that it uses that much power. Do you think my cpu has a normal behaviour? Will I do harm if I raise the power limits?
Thank you in advance

 

[eidairaman1]

Turbo is an upto speed which it will vary, the tdp average is 65 w but that is typically for the heatsink solution used, so with that it is common and normal for thermals to go up as clocks go up.

Example my FX 8350 is 4.2 Stock and gets up to 4.7 Turbo and its tdp is a 125W chip, well I have it at 5.0 with no variable clock ramping enabled so its TDP would be akin to what a FX 9370 or FX 9550 would be.

Bear in mind that fujitsu probably uses the stock retail boxed intel cooler which is going to produce more noise due to reving higher to keep temperatures in check than a 120mm fan based heatsink.

The question you should be asking is can that oem motherboard support 81W tdp or more?

 

[Lew Zealand]

Another thing to consider is: can you undervolt your CPU as the Mobo may be feeding it too much voltage? Very likely it's working at a safe voltage for long term use but still more than it needs.

I have a Dell Precision 3620 (I think) with an i7-6700K I added afterwards but I can't undervolt it as it's BIOS was updated to prevent that (Plundervolt vulnerability) before I got it, but I wish I could. As a better binned part than yours, it uses only a max of 70W during all but the most demanding workoads, which is why IMO your CPU could use a bit less voltage. But that undervolt option may very well be limited by your motherboard like mine.

 

[unclewebb]

Will I do harm if I raise the power limits?

Not likely.

You are using a 9 year old processor. It could die tomorrow or it could last another 9 years whether you increase the power limits or leave them as is. The 6700 and 6700K both came down the same assembly line. Intel unlocked the multiplier and increased the power limits and put the good CPUs into 6700K boxes while the not so good CPUs were sold as regular 6700 CPUs. Your processor is not self aware. It does not know what power limits it should be set to. I would increase both turbo power limits to a minimum of 90W and likely a lot higher. Let your CPU enjoy its golden years as it tries to run like a 6700K.

I was amazed when I found out I could simply change the power limits on my old locked CPU.

Locked only refers to the maximum multiplier. You cannot increase the multiplier and overclock a 6700. Intel and most manufacturers left the turbo power limits unlocked so you can set these however you like. If Intel thought this was going to be a problem, they would have locked both the multiplier and the power limits but they didn't.

Post a picture of the FIVR window. There might be a few more adjustments available that are not locked.