Need assistance with ThrottleStop.

[xande]

Hey, I have been reading a lot of posts on this forum and have greatly improved temps on my hp spectre x360. However, I have still not figured out how to keep my system from throttling. After reading posts by @unclewebb I have been able to fix a good deal of thermal throttling but my laptop is still being throttled. I know all ultrabooks have thermal problems but this seems to be power throttling or ?. Config settings are attached below, any help is greatly appreciated I ran a benchmark to get to the throttling levels btw

 

[unclewebb]

I have still not figured out how to keep my system from throttling.

Some HP laptops set the turbo power limits internally to values lower than what you can set in ThrottleStop. There is nothing you can do about this. The lower values always win.

You can pull your laptop apart and replace the thermal paste but it is probably not worth the trouble. You might damage your laptop or void the warranty.

Your CPU is a locked CPU. The turbo ratios should be set to their default values of 40, 40, 37, 37. Setting these all to 40 will probably not hurt anything but it probably will not accomplish anything either.

How about set the turbo power limits to 60 and 60. The CPU might ignore these values if it sees a sky high number like 1023. You should also check the turbo boost short power max box if you want this information to be sent to the CPU.

If PL1 and PL2 continue to light up in red in Limit Reasons and power consumption reported by ThrottleStop is below 60, then you know that HP is using the power limit register that ThrottleStop does not have access to. In other words, it is game over. HP is in control of your power limits and ThrottleStop is not.

Have you tried setting TDP Level Control to 0 which is the default value? Maybe this combined with the other tricks will help get you over the TDP limit.

Other than that, I think you are getting about all you can get out of your HP laptop. Some users like myself have gotten lucky. Here is a Lenovo C930 with the same CPU. It happily runs way beyond its 15W TDP rating without a hint of throttling until it overheats and starts thermal throttling.

http://imgur.com/eo0J744

 

[xande]

I will take a screenshot later as I have been able to get TDP above 35ish. Will do some tests with the settings you recommended but my guess is that HP locked TDP around 40 or so? With undervolt I’m not having thermal problems, just the power limit.

@unclewebb Yep. Seems to be that it is locked by BIOS. Looked around and saw that a BIOS flash could possibly fix but I honestly don't think my 13 inch laptop's cooling would be up to a sustained 30-40 watt load. Still frustrated that HP won't let us control our own fan speed but I get why they lock TDP

 

[unclewebb]

but my guess is that HP locked TDP around 40 or so?

Your screenshot shows that you are getting power limit throttling at 30W. It is unusual to see PL2 lighting up in red only under the GPU column. It is possible that HP is using a lower power limit for the Intel GPU and that is what is holding you back.

Run GPU-Z. Watch to see if the Intel GPU is throttling while you are testing.

ThrottleStop has a hidden feature that allows you to control one of the Intel GPU power limits. You will need to open up the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file and add this line.

IGPU=32

This will set and lock the GPU power limit to 32 Watts. That should be more than enough. Because this setting locks the power limit register, if you need to make a change, you will have to delete this setting from the INI file and shutdown your laptop so the CPU can reset itself.

For EDP OTHER throttling across all 3 domains, try increasing the PP0 Current Limit in the TPL window. If that does not work, try increasing the FIVR IccMax values. You can make power or current limit changes in ThrottleStop while your benchmark program is running. That is the quickest way to tweak a CPU.

 

[xande]

How would I figure out if the GPU is throttling? I assume I would be looking at clock speeds? Maxed the GPU with Valorant and it seems that something is throttling under load

Will post results in a minute, I accidentally was using a low power plan while benchmarking

Ok, the results are in. I haven't been able to fix the EDP OTHER throttling, it seems HP has locked those values. Pretty sure the GPU is power throttling though as it reduces clock speeds even though temps are in the mid 80s. Should be around 1250 but is throttling down to 1000 or even 300 in some cases. Will try doing the GPU fix but I'm pretty sure HP might have locked that too

 

[unclewebb]

How would I figure out if the GPU is throttling?

I have an older Intel GPU that runs constantly at 1150 MHz. I consider anything less than that to be be throttling. Your Intel GPU can also run at 1150 MHz but it is not. In the Intel GPU Control Panel is there a Performance option? You could try running both a ThrottleStop log file as well as a GPU-Z log file while gaming so you have an accurate record of your CPU and GPU performance.

http://imgur.com/At2q2E8

Have you tried any of the fixes that I recommended?

 

[xande]

Also, as a side note, the EDP OTHER throttling occurs first, then the PL2 during the GPU test, and finally the thermal throttling after a couple minutes of 100% cpu load

Have tried the EDP other fix and am trying the GPU fix now

One setting that I'm a little confused on is the intel power balance setting, I have mine balanced at 16 for cpu and 15 for intel gpu, what would you reccomend for that to be at?

 

[unclewebb]

the intel power balance setting

I have not done any testing of this on an 8th Gen CPU/GPU. Not sure if it works or if it would make any difference. You can try setting the GPU to 31 and the CPU to 0. This directs all of the power budget to the Intel GPU so in theory, the CPU will start throttling before the Intel GPU does.

Did you max out the IccMax current limits?

 

[xande]

Am trying the gpu-31 now, but basically there is no reason for the gpu to throttle, it isn't taking that much power and it isn't overheating.

 

[unclewebb]

basically there is no reason for the gpu to throttle

As long as the Intel GPU has something to do, it should not be throttling. It is normal for it to throttle down when it is idle or mostly idle.

 

[xande]

It's at 300 idle which I assume is normal, but at high load it jumps around the 900-1150 range. After monitoring the voltages, I have concluded that the HP voltage limit is 10W, as the GPU will throttle as soon as it reaches 10.5 ish.

I also tried your fix in the throttlestop config file, didn't seem to make a difference

 

[unclewebb]

Try running a consistent load on the Intel GPU. The GPU-Z Render Test is perfect for that.

Did you add the IGPU option to your INI file? There are multiple power limits so HP might be using a 10W iGPU limit set somewhere else within the CPU.

Try running the Dump program so I can have a look at your CPU registers.

Dump.zip

drive.google.com

It will create a file called Dump.txt
You can attach that to your next post so I can have a look.

 

[xande]

???? sort of confused at this point ngl

 

[unclewebb]

sort of confused at this point

When your Intel GPU has something to do, it happily runs at 1100 MHz. Perhaps some of the throttling you are seeing while running Novabench is because it is not working the GPU hard enough.

 

[xande]

From what I can see, the GPU needs around 13W for full power.

And it's not at full clocks even when under 100% load.