2 same CPU laptop but different performance 50% slower / Crazy !

zpoison · September 20

Hello, please I really need help to understand why my 2 laptops that have the SAME CPUs are working at 50% different force. (the only difference would be also one has a SSD the other got HDD + Optane memory) The SSD is the one that is slow

Here:
I noticed this issue when I was using Handbrake to encode files
I started handbrake on both laptop at the same time, using intel quicksync decoding option and the PRESETI use is : very fast 1080p 30fps // CODEC is: x265 10 bits, on both laptops everything else is DEFAULT ( I use intel quicksync, on both)

One had a 3GB file to encode, the other had a 5GB file, both file to encode come from camtasia software, m4v files
while I am writing I have (doing batch endcode) Have finished 7 files with one laptop and the other one, I have just finished the first one, which is the 3GB file (the other laptop cumulates approx 13GB maybe more, that is done in comparison) everything else is pretty much as default

One goes 50%+ faster than the other

NOTE, the slow laptop got a SSD drive in it

I went in taskmanager and I saw something weird :

in taskmanager details

the fast laptop got around

430.00K of memory (active private working set)
CPU value is 50
also.... virtualization : Not allowed

The slow laptop
995,000K memory(active priv working set)
...CPU value of 90 ...NINETHY
Virtualization ...disabled (the other one is not allowed this one is disabled, why aren't they both the same?)

These are really weird comparison of identical CPU laptop (8250U 1.6 with 8GB Ram)

The only difference being the slow laptop got a SSD in it, the other has "optane memory" + HDD
Usually it is the SSD that is faster !! This time quite the contrary

I am typing this on my tower, I can take screenshots if someone need something, or
Please can you help me, why virtualization is disabled on one of the laptop, and why is it taking all these ressources?

Applefreak · September 20

Could be throttling due to heat on the slower unit. Could also be that the SSD you have in there does not have DRAM caching. Without it you would fill up the write cache pretty quickly and then drop to write speeds lower than a traditional HDD. Video encoding does not benefit from SSDs in general because the files are larger. If you were to compose a lot of images into a video, an SSD may be faster but that is a rare use case.

I'd check temps and maybe clean the unit if runs hotter than the other one. Could also be due to bad thermal paste application, which does happen from time to time. However that would require you to tear the thing down completely.

Also try switching out power bricks, sometimes a lesser quality brick can cause the cpu to drop clocks.

Then check bios and see if both are set to the same power profile (could be different out of the box).

Vishera · September 20

Just now, Applefreak said:

Could be throttling due to heat on the slower unit. Could also be that the SSD you have in there does not have DRAM caching. Without it you would fill up the write cache pretty quickly and then drop to write speeds lower than a traditional HDD. Video encoding does not benefit from SSDs in general because the files are larger. If you were to compose a lot of images into a video, an SSD may be faster but that is a rare use case.

I'd check temps and maybe clean the unit if runs hotter than the other one. Could also be due to bad thermal paste application, which does happen from time to time. However that would require you to tear the thing down completely.

Also try switching out power bricks, sometimes a lesser quality brick can cause the cpu to drop clocks.

Then check bios and see if both are set to the same power profile (could be different out of the box).

It can also happen due to background processes,there are many possible flaws in such testing environment.

SupaKomputa · September 20

8250U is notoriously have throttling problems in some laptop.

The base clock is so low, and most of the time it revert to that speed.

Are you talking about the same exact laptop model or different.

If different then it comes to the laptop cooling performance.

zpoison · October 17

I'm sorry for the late reply I had forgot that I had this question asked

@Applefreak , I will look to see if this SSD have ram caching, also I suspect that because the laptop is smaller than the otheone it could be a heat issue, maybe the system is slowing out because of the heat the smaller laptop cannot cope with, but I will also look out for all the other tricks you said, BIOS and alll that, thanks

@SupaKomputa , the one that is slow is a 14 inches screen and the other one is a 15.5, so the slower is a smaller laptop yes, I think it can be it.

@Vishera, there was no other app running in the background, both were at the most basic I could have them to be. Of course I would understand if there was something else running, but that was not the case, to my knowledge ( also had msconfig before running)

Mark Kaine · October 17

11 hours ago, zpoison said:

there was no other app running in the background,

If you didn't have task manager open on both machines to check running processes etc this is unlikely, it's also unlikely 2 different systems have the exact same background processes running at the same time, windows does a lot of stuff in the background, for example (most resources hungy) process called "update orchestrator".

Doesn't mean that was actually running just an example of a "background app" that can be extremely resource hungry.