Acer Predator Triton 500 - Troubleshooting & Help

[Soraka is SO HOT]

Hi all!

Long time listener, first time caller.

As the title states, I have an Acer Predator Triton 500 which has an i7-9750h with an RTX 2070 Max-Q.

The machine runs decently hot, so I decided to undervolt a bit.

If you couldn't tell by my username, I am an avid League of Legends player! So far, my settings have definitely cooled the laptop while in-match to a comfortable level.

However, when I run TS Bench, I keep running into the following Limit Reasons: Core PL2 & Ring EDP Other

The red Power warning does not flash while testing, but the above mentioned Limit Reasons briefly flash red from being yellow - what does this even mean?

I have attached my snips of my settings so you can all have a look. I feel way out of my League here and would appreciate your help!

http://imgur.com/4MEOVx5

 

[jboydgolfer]

So far, my settings have definitely cooled the laptop while in-match to a comfortable level.

However, when I run TS Bench, I keep running into the following Limit Reasons: Core PL2 & Ring EDP Other

so its fine , except when you run a synthetic stress test program?

 

[Soraka is SO HOT]

so its fine , except when you run a synthetic stress test program?

Wow, so sorry. I should have been more clear in my post lol.

Yes, all seems well and stable otherwise. Running several demanding programs is smooth sailing with low temps.

And actually, I just ran TS Bench with slightly modified settings: Speed Shift EPP = 13; FLVR Turbo Ratio Limits at 36-41

All other settings remained the same, and I now get no errors.

I suppose that is good news, but I'm still confused as to why I would get Limit pop-ups with the processor set to higher turbo limits?

Will these new settings impose on performance at a significant level? At max with 6 cores active, we are now seeing FID at a consistent 36.0.

Sorry for my lack of understanding with this - I read the famous ThrottleStop guide in its entirety, but this stuff still confuses me.

 

[Caring1]

You seem to have undervolted all the things.
iGPU unslice should be the same value as Intel GPU, and system agent can be left default unless @unclewebb thinks otherwise.

 

[unclewebb]

Some Acer laptops have their own built in power limits that you cannot override by using ThrottleStop. You should check the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box in the FIVR window.

Try increasing the turbo ratios back to their default values and run another TS Bench test or a Cinebench test. When you see PL1 or PL2 power limit throttling, have a look at ThrottleStop to see what power consumption is. That is the number to the right of PKG Power. You might see that Acer has set their own turbo power limits internally which are much lower than your settings in ThrottleStop.

When Limit Reasons shows a red box, that means throttling is in progress. Any boxes in yellow are just records of previous throttling. Some throttling is fairly normal for laptops with the 9750H, especially if a manufacturer decides to set their own turbo power limits.

iGPU unslice should be the same value as Intel GPU

I agree. You are more likely to lose some stability by undervolting the System Agent than accomplish anything so I usually leave that at +0.0000. Most 9750H owners have some success by undervolting the CPU core offset up to -100 mV more than the cache offset. That means when you set the cache offset to -100 mV, you might be able to set the core offset to somewhere between -150 mV and -200 mV and still be stable. When testing different voltages, I recommend using Cinebench R20. After you change your voltages, it is easy to see if your scores are improving or not. For a baseline test, set the core and cache to an offset of -100 mV. After that, keep the cache at -100 mV and start increasing only the core in steps of -25 mV. Run this test again and see if there are any improvements.

MAXON Cinebench R20.0 Download

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer's performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winn

www.techpowerup.com

The red Power warning does not flash while testing

The boxes in Limit Reasons are the important ones. Open Limit Reasons and watch for any boxes under the CORE column turning red while testing.

 

[Soraka is SO HOT]

Some Acer laptops have their own built in power limits that you cannot override by using ThrottleStop. You should check the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box in the FIVR window.

Try increasing the turbo ratios back to their default values and run another TS Bench test or a Cinebench test. When you see PL1 or PL2 power limit throttling, have a look at ThrottleStop to see what power consumption is. That is the number to the right of PKG Power. You might see that Acer has set their own turbo power limits internally which are much lower than your settings in ThrottleStop.

When Limit Reasons shows a red box, that means throttling is in progress. Any boxes in yellow are just records of previous throttling. Some throttling is fairly normal for laptops with the 9750H, especially if a manufacturer decides to set their own turbo power limits.


I agree. You are more likely to lose some stability by undervolting the System Agent than accomplish anything so I usually leave that at +0.0000. Most 9750H owners have some success by undervolting the CPU core offset up to -100 mV more than the cache offset. That means when you set the cache offset to -100 mV, you might be able to set the core offset to somewhere between -150 mV and -200 mV and still be stable. When testing different voltages, I recommend using Cinebench R20. After you change your voltages, it is easy to see if your scores are improving or not. For a baseline test, set the core and cache to an offset of -100 mV. After that, keep the cache at -100 mV and start increasing only the core in steps of -25 mV. Run this test again and see if there are any improvements.

MAXON Cinebench R20.0 Download

CINEBENCH is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer's performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON's award-winn

www.techpowerup.com

The boxes in Limit Reasons are the important ones. Open Limit Reasons and watch for any boxes under the CORE column turning red while testing.

OMG I got a reply from the legendary @unclewebb !! Thanks for taking time to help me out.

Increasing the Turbo Limits to their default values caused throttling no matter what other setting I altered at those limits.

I also attempted setting CPU Cache at -100mV of the CPU Core: Crashes occur above -140mV for Core, and any value for Core under that with Cache at -100mV the value produced throttling.

Oddly enough, I get no throttling with stable and quick performance using the following settings:

• CPU Core & Cache: -100.6mV
• IccMax: -255.75 (Core & Cache)
• Turbo Ratio Limits: 38 w/ 6 cores up to 43 w/ 1 core
• PL1: 70
• PL2: 90
• Turbo Time Limit: 28

At these settings, PKG Power averages about 65.5W whereas CP{U-Z tells me the Max TDP is 45.0W.

I'm going to attempt the Cinebench test and will post results.

OMG I got a reply from the legendary @unclewebb !! Thanks for taking time to help me out.

Increasing the Turbo Limits to their default values caused throttling no matter what other setting I altered at those limits.

I also attempted setting CPU Cache at -100mV of the CPU Core: Crashes occur above -140mV for Core, and any value for Core under that with Cache at -100mV the value produced throttling.

Oddly enough, I get no throttling with stable and quick performance using the following settings:

• CPU Core & Cache: -100.6mV
• IccMax: -255.75 (Core & Cache)
• Turbo Ratio Limits: 38 w/ 6 cores up to 43 w/ 1 core
• PL1: 70
• PL2: 90
• Turbo Time Limit: 28

At these settings, PKG Power averages about 65.5W whereas CP{U-Z tells me the Max TDP is 45.0W.

I'm going to attempt the Cinebench test and will post results.

Cinebench Score: 2198

I have no idea what this means.

 

[unclewebb]

Max TDP is 45.0W

The Intel TDP rating is measured with turbo boost disabled. It is a good thing when actual power consumption is higher than this. More power equals more performance.

Cinebench Score: 2198

That would be a really good score if you had a 4 core CPU but that is a terrible score for a 6 core 9750H. When your computer is idle at the desktop, what does ThrottleStop report for C0%? A computer without a lot of stuff running in the background should only need to spend 0.5% of the time processing background tasks. If you are way beyond that then open the Task Manager, go to the Details tab, click on the CPU heading to organize the running tasks by CPU usage and find out what is running on your computer. If you need something running all the time in the background that is OK. It is always good to find out what is running on your computer. Some stuff that runs all the time is really not necessary and it will interfere with smooth game play.

With 4 tabs open in Chrome, this is what I get.

If you want a faster computer, get your idle C0% number down as low as possible

When running Cinebench or playing a game, turn on the ThrottleStop Log File option. When finished testing, exit ThrottleStop so it can finalize your log file. It will be in the ThrottleStop / Logs folder. Attach a log file to your next post if you would like me to have a look at it. The log file will show if there are any problems.

Edit - You might want to look into using ShutUp10 to disable some useless Windows 10 features.

O&O ShutUp10++ – Free antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11

With the freeware O&O ShutUp10++, unwanted Windows 10 and 11 features can be disabled and the transfer of sensitive personal data onto Microsoft prevented.

www.oo-software.com

 

[Soraka is SO HOT]

The Intel TDP rating is measured with turbo boost disabled. It is a good thing when actual power consumption is higher than this. More power equals more performance.


That would be a really good score if you had a 4 core CPU but that is a terrible score for a 6 core 9750H. When your computer is idle at the desktop, what does ThrottleStop report for C0%? A computer without a lot of stuff running in the background should only need to spend 0.5% of the time processing background tasks. If you are way beyond that then open the Task Manager, go to the Details tab, click on the CPU heading to organize the running tasks by CPU usage and find out what is running on your computer. If you need something running all the time in the background that is OK. It is always good to find out what is running on your computer. Some stuff that runs all the time is really not necessary and it will interfere with smooth game play.

With 4 tabs open in Chrome, this is what I get.

View attachment 195679

If you want a faster computer, get your idle C0% number down as low as possible

When running Cinebench or playing a game, turn on the ThrottleStop Log File option. When finished testing, exit ThrottleStop so it can finalize your log file. It will be in the ThrottleStop / Logs folder. Attach a log file to your next post if you would like me to have a look at it. The log file will show if there are any problems.

Edit - You might want to look into using ShutUp10 to disable some useless Windows 10 features.

O&O ShutUp10++ – Free antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11

With the freeware O&O ShutUp10++, unwanted Windows 10 and 11 features can be disabled and the transfer of sensitive personal data onto Microsoft prevented.

www.oo-software.com

Wow, this is all way over my head, but I will give it my utmost and best effort!

I'm re-reading the main TS guide from ultrabookreview - I will test soon and produce the log in my next post.

Do you think I should configure ShutUp10 prior to the next test?