Issues when using MMIO Lock With I7-1165G7

[avimeron]

Hey,
I'm a long time user of the great Throttle stop app.
I have HP Zbook Firefly G8 with I7-1165G7 and nVIDIA T500 (which shares the heatsink with the CPU). Locking the MMIO boosted my laptop's performance and there's no issues at all while regular use or using Cinebench. I get around 4900 points when using the Lock feature. Normal temps. I also switched recently the thermal paste and cleaned the fan.
Without using the Lock, MMIO is constantly changing between 18 to 25 - thus the reduced performance without locking. I don't have any other power adjuster application on my Windows, so I presume it's something with the CPU or BIOS. I didn't know the MMIO could change on the fly like this.
The only issue is when playing games. While gaming, the CPU gets SUPER hot, since the GPU is starting to work. eventually, the laptop is getting crash every time because it's too hot, reaching almost 100 degrees. the Prochot offset doesn't seems to work (tried 10, 15..)
In the logs attached you can see the crash at 2022-09-03 15:06:59 40.53 23.7 100.0 .

I wonder what's the next steps here if there are any additional steps, at all. I believe that having better thermals or reducing the PL1 will help, but I wonder if there's anything else I can do.
Any idea how to optimize the settings?
Thanks!

 

[unclewebb]

having better thermals or reducing the PL1 will help

Both of those things will help.

When the Nvidia GPU is active, the cooling system for the CPU is only good for about 20W. Try lowering PL1 to 20W, lower the turbo time limit to about 8 seconds and reduce PL2 to about 30W. Leave MMIO Lock checked. The MMIO power limit constantly changing if left unlocked will cause inconsistent performance.

The next thing to try would be cleaning out your laptop and replacing the thermal paste. If your laptop is not very dirty inside, this might not make much of a difference. The G7 series are powerful CPUs. Unfortunately the heatsinks that are shipped with these laptops are usually inadequate for what these CPUs are capable of when they are power limit unlocked.

Prochot offset doesn't seems to work

If you see a lock icon near this setting then the manufacturer has locked this setting in the BIOS. You can only successfully change this value if it is not already locked. ThrottleStop shows PROCHOT 99°C on the main screen so this is likely already locked.

 

[avimeron]

thanks @unclewebb for answering. I tried what you suggested but this result in a serious drop (e.g. in Cinebench to 4200)
This might work well while gaming but still it is a significant drop in regular day to day tasks. the laptop is capable of 51w for time of 28, but then hits the PL1..

 

[unclewebb]

this result in a serious drop

What I suggested is for when the Nvidia GPU is active. There is no need to limit the power like I suggested when running Cinebench but there is a need to limit the CPU significantly when playing games. You either power limit the CPU when the GPU is active or your computer is going to inevitably crash because it starts running too hot.

When playing games, try to use a power limit so your CPU does not exceed 95°C. I think somewhere around 20W to 25W is about all your cooling system can manage when the Nvidia GPU is active.

the laptop is capable of 51w for time of 28

Is it capable of this when the Nvidia GPU is active without the CPU hitting 99°C? If it is then you can continue to use these settings when playing games. Most people play games for longer than 28 seconds. It is the long term PL1 that needs to be lowered to keep the CPU from running too hot and crashing.

Here is what your log file is showing.

   DATE       TIME    MULTI   C0%   CKMOD  BAT_mW  TEMP   NVIDIA GPU     VID   POWER
2022-09-03  16:23:21  43.32   22.2  100.0       0   95    1770    73   1.0699   24.6   TEMP
2022-09-03  16:23:22  42.21   21.8  100.0       0   97    1725    73   1.1525   24.7
2022-09-03  16:23:23  42.05   22.3  100.0       0   93    1725    73   1.0649   25.0
2022-09-03  16:23:24  43.55   21.6  100.0       0   93    1800    74   1.2250   24.3   TEMP

When the Nvidia GPU is active, the CPU is starting to thermal throttle (TEMP) at 25W of power consumption. If you try to set PL1 higher than that long term, your CPU will likely crash during games when the Nvidia GPU is active. Look into improving cooling if you want more CPU performance without overheating.

 

[avimeron]

You are correct that 20W would do the trick. It seems that for ultrabooks cooling upgrade is not that possible (I might consider buying a cooling pad, we will see).
Is it possible to automatically use those settings while gaming \ using full screen apps?
thanks again!

 

[unclewebb]

automatically use those settings

Different power limits for each profile is still in the future. A good feature would be for ThrottleStop to use a high CPU power profile for normal use and have it automatically switch to a lower power profile when it detects that the Nvidia GPU is active. Maybe someday ThrottleStop will have this feature.

 

[avimeron]

Updating here.
I re pasted the thermal paste which contributed to 2-3 lower C's. but it didn't solve the fact that the dGPU just cause very massive temperature increase. So I thought how to limit the dGPU. undervolting was not an option and underclocking didn't went well.
what did the trick to allow my Zbook to work with locked MMIO, is to lock the framerate to 60 through the nVIDIA driver (there's Quadro T500 on my laptop). On the games I play it didn't impact performance at all - but reduced the package average temp from 94 to .. 70 (!). the laptop is also much more quieter.