Intel Power Balance?

[CPUWhisperer]

Hello,

Great job on Throttlestop, it really exposes all the gritty details and information that gives all new possibilities to se what is really going behind the scenes...!

I have unfortunately had some "stabililty" problems with the built in GPU and CPU in the Intel 10900T model, used on an ASRock H410TM-ITX motherboard. This happens especially when using transcoding of video or live viewing of many simultaneous video streams, the GPU and CPU almost seem to fight over the limited 35W power budget.

However, it seems that Throttlestops "Intel Power Balance" is able to sort this out, by setting the GPU to 31, and the CPU to anywhere between 0 and say 16.

But, I would like to get a permanent fix for this problem, and try to contact the motherboard manufacturer to get it fixed, but I cannot find any documentation what "Intel Power Balance" actually does?

Could you perhaps provide some information that I can pass on to ASRock on what they need to change in the BIOS to fix this problem?

 

[unclewebb]

the GPU and CPU almost seem to fight over the limited 35W power budget

That is exactly what is supposed to happen.

When your 10900T reaches its 35W TDP power limit, the CPU uses the Power Balance values to decide what it should throttle first. Should the CPU cores be slowed down to remain within the 35W power budget or should the Intel GPU be slowed down so the CPU package remains within the 35W limit.

There are two separate registers that need to be set to control this. Volume 3B of the Intel docs has more info about this.

Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual Volume...

Continues the coverage on system programming subjects begun in volume 3A. Volume 3B covers thermal and power management features, debugging, and performance monitoring.

software.intel.com

Do a search for power policy and you will find more info.

If it was my CPU, I would go into the ThrottleStop TPL window and I would jack that 35W power limit up to the moon. No more throttling.

There is nothing inherently special about the low power T series. They are just normal CPUs with the default turbo power limits set extremely low.
Here is an example of how I converted my 10850K into a fake 10850T with a 35W TDP limit.