Laptop Intel CPU issue

[Loggstar]

Hey guys (and gals),

 

I just bought a laptop with last generation's GTX 970m and a Intel i7 6820HK, mainly for gaming while I am abroad for work. The laptop is a Clevo chassis in the 15 inch G-Sync IPS config.

Now, everything seems to be working fine, at least since I figured out the cause for some random blue screens and reboots out of the box (it was a faulty audio driver apparently).

 

One thing I noticed though is that the CPU while running at it's specified speed on A/C power clocks down quite dramatically to just 1600 mhz while on battery power.

There is no thermal throttling as the CPU barely reaches 35 degrees C while idling. Plus the speed will not come down over time, but it will hit 1600 mhz when booted and never exceed that speed.

 

I tried to find anything on that topic on the internet, but no luck. I got the Intel Tuning Utility installed (came with the laptop) but no extra, what I would call, bloatware.

My battery profile is set to Balanced with min CPU frequency at 5% and max CPU frequency at 100%. Those setting do not change when I unplug it. It just won't go beyond 1600 mhz.

 

Any chance you guys could help me in this matter, please? Or do I have a faulty CPU? 

 

If you need more information, please let me know. 

 

Thank you very much and have a nice day, wherever you are from!

Cheers, Mike

[LOL1234]

are you noticing performance differences compared to other laptops with the same CPU's? It could be faulty monitoring software, like how Unigene heaven has wrong gpu clocks

[Loggstar]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply I noticed all of my monitoring software (HWMonitor, CPU Z, Afterburner etc.) showing the same 1600 mhz clock speed.

Additionally I tried benching the system on Cinebench 15 and got just a little over 300 points, as opposed to over 700 points on A/C power.

 

So I figured the downclock must be real and not just a faulty read out mechanism...

[SteinerW]

It could also be the battery flat-out not being able to power the whole thing. What's the exact model?

 

I've never heard of Clevo. I'm guessing their not in the US.

[Loggstar]

Hi! I think it's Sager in the US. They are building the barebone chassis and then another company, in my case http://www.ceg-hardcorecustom.com/, adds the CPU and the dedicated GPU. It's even upgradeable. 

 

The exact model name is P650RE6-G.

[Naeaes]

Sounds like your run-of-the-mill power saving method. If it's windows doing it, you can change it in Advanced power settings: 

Navigate to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options

Pick the battery plan

Pick "Change advanced power settings"

Find "Processor power management"

Play with the minimum and maximum processor states.

 

Ramping up the processor will hit your battery life (both in terms of per drain cycle and overall) like a ton of bricks so be gentle. I'd just roll with the 1,6GHz on battery. You don't game on battery anyway, do you?

[Loggstar]

Hi Naeaes,

 

thanks for your reply. I already played around with the battery settings in windows but to no avail.

Well, I guess I will stick with this, but I thought there must be at least some information about this CPU ramping down on battery... 

 

And no, I don't game on battery, but my wife occasionally does

[exercutor5]

I remember reading somewhere it's a feature to either save power, or not to fry the battery. This also happens to my P650SG (4720HQ, 980M) btw.

[Pendragon]

@D2ultima

 

[D2ultima]

8 hours ago, Loggstar said:

Any chance you guys could help me in this matter, please? Or do I have a faulty CPU? 

No, it's somewhat normal. Theoretically, you could use throttlestop to make your CPU go above that 1600MHz mark, but then it'd simply lock at that frequency and draw more power (killing battery life somewhat). It's an EC-level feature and present in most laptops. I'd say you should be able to go below 1600MHz to 800MHz, but that's about the only thing that you've not mentioned that seems slightly off.