Mobile Intel CPU Power Management Issues

[loganrp]

Laptop: Asus Q550LF

 

Upon playing games my CPU that runs at 2.80 GHz average on the High Performance power setting slows itself down periodicially when I play games. It does it when I am playing GTA V causing lag and Minecraft. I can't say for sure it would do this with other games because I don't play many games. I guess you could call this issue "lag spikes" however it's not a hardware issue it is a issue with the way Windows and/or Intel Drivers control the CPU. In order to get it to speed back up many times, I have to unplug and replug my laptop in different power modes therefore tampering with the power save settings. I restored the windows default power plans in hopes that I accidentaly changed something at one point that is now causing this, I was wrong. I am getting annoyed being that I have to use this laptop often as I am on the go and can't always be in front of my gaming rig that doesn't have/need power save modes. Please disregard the speeds listed in my task manager for my CPU. They are the preset ones that would be relevant if I installed the Asus Power4gear driver, which I have not because that caused this same issue except instead of slowing my cpu down to 1.70 ish, it would slow it to a wopping 0.77 GHz (woo-hoo). The first picture I have attached is my CPU speeds while the lag spike is occurring, the second picture I have attached without GTA V showing on the screen is my CPU speed at normal speeds. I do not think my PC is thermal throttling because it's temperatures are not anything extreme, low 70 degrees celcius which is pretty average for most laptops when gaming. Any help or suggestions are appreciated

[RainfallWithin]

I would run Prime95 on the 'Blend' setting for an hour while monitoring the frequency and temperature of your CPU. If your CPU drops its frequency after a little while, then it may be that the laptop is pulling more watts than it's supposed to and therefore underclocking itself. Many laptops will allow themselves to go over their power draw limit for a little bit, but then bring it back within its limits. It may also be thermal throttling, as some laptops will thermal throttle at lower temperatures than desktops.