Overclocking Macbook Air 11" - power throttling

[chnapo]

Clicky title in LMG fashion. Now that I have your attention... I am not strictly overclocking my macbook, but. My Macbook has i5 4260 (11" 2014) and I want to squeeze as much as possible out of it (I only care about performance in Windows - bootcamp).

What I did:

1. Set up custom fan curve
2. Replaced old thermal paste

3. Undervolted CPU, GPU and cache using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility

4. Some more tweaks to cooling incl. insulating a big hole between cooling fan and the heatsink

 

This got me from thermal throttling to basically being able to run my CPU at full 2.4 GHz all-core boost and GPU at full 1.0 GHz at roughly 95°C at full (combined) synthetic load (!) while package power was around 28W. So thermals are not my issue anymore. When playing games, I stay mostly within 85°C. My issue is with power, after several minutes, something will reduce my package power to 15W and I cannot do anything about it. CPU will go down to 1.4 GHz and my FPS will drop significantly. CPU will not boost again until I let it rest for a couple minutes.

 

My question is why? Does the CPU go back to its original 15W TDP automatically? And what can I do to keep my CPU boosting when the thermals are OK? My cooling currently CAN handle sustained 28W load. I am looking for ways to access BIOS/EFI but I don´t think I will find something there.

 

Disclaimer:
I know you are not supposed to overclock or tweak a laptop, especially macbook, thank you.

I know there are better gaming laptops.

I usually have a decent gaming rig, but I sold my old one and parts for the new one are still on the way. I don´t plan to punish that tiny laptop for a long time. I have it bcs it was the lightest core i5 laptop I could get atm and it is perfect for travelling.

[SenKa]

Sounds like Intel's turbo boost logarithm. It will not hold that indefinitely from stock. Install Intel XTU and crank up the turbo duration.

[chnapo]

23 hours ago, SenKa said:

Sounds like Intel's turbo boost logarithm. It will not hold that indefinitely from stock. Install Intel XTU and crank up the turbo duration.

That does not help much. Yes, definitely intel turbo boost logarithm. But it sucks because my thermals are perfectly OK and it still lowers the boost after a while. So there isn´t a way to keep it at turbo freq for longer time? Maybe if I access efi?

[SenKa]

2 hours ago, chnapo said:

That does not help much. Yes, definitely intel turbo boost logarithm. But it sucks because my thermals are perfectly OK and it still lowers the boost after a while. So there isn´t a way to keep it at turbo freq for longer time? Maybe if I access efi?

Thats what I just offered you the advice to do.

[chnapo]

On 5/6/2020 at 10:58 PM, SenKa said:

Thats what I just offered you the advice to do.

Mate, I did that before posting this thread (see my original post), I installed XTU and tweaked every possible thing in it. Then, as it did not help as much as I would have loved it to, I posted this thread.