Laptop CPU Throttle

[Resonance]

I own an HP Elitebook 820 G1 equipped with an i5-4350u.

 

This laptop is fairly efficient in trying to save as much power as possible.

I tested the laptop temperatures at 100% load with Prime95 and were getting around ~68C, which I thought was fine.

However, the processor would start to throttle at 50C, setting it to around 1.4 ghz.

Idle temperatures are essentially around ~43C, so when I play a game and it uses around 50% cpu it gets to around 50C and sets it from 2.9 ghz to 1.4 ghz and this is enough to see performance tank.

I've been trying to figure out if there are ways to get around Intel Speedstep but can't find any options or third party programs that can stop it from clocking the processor down.

Is this just how it's going to be with this laptop?

I was planning on replacing the thermal compound so I can just try to see if I can get the temperatures below 50C at 50% load but that seems pretty difficult and a long process of opening up this laptop.

 

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

[paddy-stone]

I take it you've looked into all the power options under control panel?  don't forget that you also have to choose different power options for when it's plugged/unplugged as well as perfomrance etc. Other than that yeah I can't think of anything unless there's settings in the BIOS or in some manufacturer software.

[Resonance]

Yeah, already set everything in power options to 100% on plugged in, maximum and minimum for processor management. I updated BIOS hoping that it would magically give me more settings in the BIOS but to no avail.

[kiririn]

Try using a better cooling solution? Cooling pad? Small electric fan? 

 

[The combination of these steps actually worked on my old Toshiba Satellite A305 that had bad capacitors that fail every single time EIST kicks in.]

Have you tried fiddling with the BIOS settings if there is an option for Enhanced Intel Speed Step (EIST)?

You can also try disabling the processor driver in the device manager.

In the Advanced Power Settings menu, you can also set the minimum processor state to 100%.

 

That's actually like disabling thermald (Thermal Daemon) in Linux but I don't know the exact equivalent in Windows.

[Resonance]

Yeah, I may end up having to try better cooling in the end and see how that goes, just seems really unlikely I'll get under 50C no matter how cool I can get the CPU when gaming. 

Not entirely sure what happens after I try disabling the processor driver. The main thing is I don't get a disable function when I right click in Device Manager for the list on Processors, so I can only uninstall.

[Resonance]

So additional information now that I've tested a few things out.

I retested with a stress test that essentially my processors speed is 1.4 ghz and turbos up to 2.9 ghz, not vise-versa. 

However, with this stress test the processor stays boosted at 2.9 ghz no matter what thermal output, which is still in safe parameters for 100% load.

The thing is, is that whenever I try to play any game, the turbo boost just turns off and goes back to 1.4 ghz, no matter what load the processor is, it's as if just turning the game on turns off turbo boost.

I don't expect to play high end games obviously with HD 5000 graphics but the games I tested was Minecraft and Runescape, both Java games. Maybe that has something to do with it?

[TrifectaIII]

It might be that your CPU isn't turboing not because of temps, but because it's being bottle-necked by the integrated graphics. What is your CPU usage like while gaming? If it's not all that high, I'd guess that it just doesn't need to turbo in the first place.

[Resonance]

Well, CPU usage is around 40% when gaming.

The main thing is, is that while plugged in from 0-100% CPU usage while both being idle and artificially creating 100% load with stress tests the turbo boost is active and stays at 2.9 ghz. The exact time I start the game, the processor jumps to 1.4 ghz. 

Though, I do agree that the integrated graphics aren't being tested enough in this type of test, it's odd to just see older HD graphics not have any issue with the games I'm playing when it comes down to GPU usage.

[TrifectaIII]

1 hour ago, Resonance said:

Well, CPU usage is around 40% when gaming.

The main thing is, is that while plugged in from 0-100% CPU usage while both being idle and artificially creating 100% load with stress tests the turbo boost is active and stays at 2.9 ghz. The exact time I start the game, the processor jumps to 1.4 ghz. 

Though, I do agree that the integrated graphics aren't being tested enough in this type of test, it's odd to just see older HD graphics not have any issue with the games I'm playing when it comes down to GPU usage.

The explanation for that is pretty simple: assuming you have all your power settings at max, The CPU will probably ONLY downclock when it's being bottlenecked by the GPU, whether or not the CPU is actually being hit. So at idle, since you aren't bottle-necked by the GPU, you would still be at turbo even though your CPU usage is also low. Get what I'm saying?

 

i know that doesn't make much sense in practice, but honestly, laptop/mobile device clock speed adjustments/power saving strategies rarely do for an always-plugged-in use case.

[Donnyf273]

Probably useless chiming in a year layer but I actually use my low lower laptop in much the same way. The odd thing is though I actually have almost the opposite problem (hardly a problem) my slightly newer gen 5 part doesnt clock to 2.9 like that 4th gen cpu you have, mine goes 2.6 full ramp on both cores so off the bat your thermals honestly shouldn't be much worse than my own based on relatively similar processors and Intel graphics. Yet you say you can't play a single game without downclocking? I'd like to know when you game if it utilizes 1 or both cores 28th all threads. Personally mine a majority of the time sticks to 1 core at its max speed for most games. I've played everything from starcraft, ghost recon future soldier, overwatch and new unreal tournie. Not killer games by any means on graphics, but for integrated those tend to create a God baseline for what kind of gaming you can accomplish. I've even attempted to push games I had no business trying to run on my low power system and have never had issues like you do with your cpu killing itself at the sight of a game. My cpu quite literally runs its max speed 24/7 full boost and full graphics boost with extreme utility. Now I saw a mention of "fixing" minimum cpu to a certain speed and seeing if it still drops below that threshold. I would try that. My min usage on cpu is fixed to run 100% for everything and I have yet over the last 2 years to see it ever disobey that limit or have any thermal issues from being forced into that limit constantly. Even monitoring temps I squash that 50 Celsius and still never have issues.

[Donnyf273]

2 minutes ago, Donnyf273 said:

Probably useless chiming in a year layer but I actually use my low lower laptop in much the same way. The odd thing is though I actually have almost the opposite problem (hardly a problem) my slightly newer gen 5 part doesnt clock to 2.9 like that 4th gen cpu you have, mine goes 2.6 full ramp on both cores so off the bat your thermals honestly shouldn't be much worse than my own based on relatively similar processors and Intel graphics. Yet you say you can't play a single game without downclocking? I'd like to know when you game if it utilizes 1 or both cores 28th all threads. Personally mine a majority of the time sticks to 1 core at its max speed for most games. I've played everything from starcraft, ghost recon future soldier, overwatch and new unreal tournie. Not killer games by any means on graphics, but for integrated those tend to create a God baseline for what kind of gaming you can accomplish. I've even attempted to push games I had no business trying to run on my low power system and have never had issues like you do with your cpu killing itself at the sight of a game. My cpu quite literally runs its max speed 24/7 full boost and full graphics boost with extreme utility. Now I saw a mention of "fixing" minimum cpu to a certain speed and seeing if it still drops below that threshold. I would try that. My min usage on cpu is fixed to run 100% for everything and I have yet over the last 2 years to see it ever disobey that limit or have any thermal issues from being forced into that limit constantly. Even monitoring temps I squash that 50 Celsius and still never have issues.

Specifically my temps even climb close to the true limit and never have stability issues. I've hit 170-180 Fahrenheit and no problems. I do use outsourced cooling to give it more air than the system can move but even with good cooling I'm staggered to see such a difference in throttling. 2 parts essentially following the same low lower sku shouldn't have such vast difference in behaviour. From the comparison drawn here your cpu makes my 5th gen relative cpu look and act like an unthrottled monster compared to that poor throttled pussy piece of silicon 

[Matacks]

Youknow I had a similar issue with my msi gx70.   The CPU is very weak and if you try to game on it cpu throttling can causer lags in games.   

 

Anyway, someone smart figured out how to use a program called bar edit that just locked the CPU at it's turbo core.   Perhaps there are similar instructions for your cpu.