Core M5 woes ...

[WaseemAlkurdi]

Hello all!

I have an HP Elite x2 1012 G1 tablet with the Core m5-6Y54 processor. It is a weak processor, I know, but the only reason I'm still sticking with it is the dearth of 3:2 tablets out there. However, even for a weak processor, it is performing abysmally and abnormally slow. It has become really sluggish doing the simplest web browsing over the past few months, so I became fed up with it and decided to check ThrottleStop to see if there is any throttling. And as it turns out, the lag perfectly coincides with ThrottleStop's red POWER limit indicator glowing a solid red - it throttles pretty hard whenever it reaches 100% of CPU usage.

I tried enabling and disabling Clock Mod, SpeedStep, and PL1, PL2, to no avail. Tried raising PL1 and 2 to 60 as per online suggestions, but that didn't fix it either, and for some reason the PL1 checkbox is stuck in the "checked" state.

I have also noticed that when idle with nothing open, C0% never hits 1% - it's always around somewhere between 5-15% despite this being a fresh install of Windows with literally no programs installed.

Any pointers as to what it could be?

 

[unclewebb]

The MMIO PL1 power limit is set to only 3W. That is causing severe throttling. Check the MMIO Lock box near the top right. Also check the Speed Shift box in the TPL window.

Check the Task Manager Details tab to see if there is anything running in the background.

 

[WaseemAlkurdi]

Thanks a lot! That helped massively - the CPU now gets up to 14.3 watts, and it's noticeably faster!

However, I still do feel some jitter, and while not nearly as often as it did before, it still reaches hits the PL1 limit occasionally (and nearly constantly hits the EDP OTHER one)

Checking Task Manager's Details tab sorted by CPU usage was the first thing I'd done (and I checked it again) - biggest CPU consumers were DWM (at ~ 20% and ~ 130 MB of RAM usage), MsMpEng.exe (Windows Defender) coming in second at about 5% or so and 120 MB of RAM - but other than that, nothing untoward.

(Also, perhaps it's to be expected, but now it has an appetite for battery power ...)

 

[unclewebb]

Your original screenshot had the MSR PL1 and PL2 at 60. Why did you reduce those to 10? If you want less throttling, set these higher than 10. I prefer to check the Long Power PL2 box and set this limit appropriately. Checking the box ensures that this information is sent to the CPU. It is not a bad idea to check the Clamp options for both the long term PL1 and long term PL2 settings.

I prefer setting Speed Shift EPP on the main screen to 84. Setting EPP to 128 can reduce maximum performance. If you do not mind a little less performance and a little less heat, leave it at 128.

ThrottleStop has a secret INI option to boost the Intel GPU power limit. Add this line to the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file.

IGPU=30

The first character is the letter I which stands for Intel GPU. Maybe that will keep PL1 from lighting up red under the GPU column of Limit Reasons. I have never had my hands on a similar CPU so I am not sure if this trick works or not.

I will send you a message with some possible help for MsMpEng.exe

 

[WaseemAlkurdi]

Once more, thank you!
Truly indebted to you - was driven so mad by this machine that I was losing my nerves!

Now it feels like a whole new machine - and I'm not even remotely exaggerating!
With a SpeedStep EPP setting of 84, and Long Power Limit PL1 and Short Power Limit PL2 both set to 90 and clamped, as well as the IGPU=1 tweak in ThrottleStop.ini, it hasn't hit EDP OTHER or any PL1 power limit, not once, even while running the built-in TS Bench. And for some reason it even fixed the problem with the CPU gobbling up more watts
That value of 10 was temporary - wanted to test how both extremes (a big value and a small value) affect performance, in order to know which is better. Now I've set and clamped it to 90 and I couldn't be happier with the result!

Would these current settings affect any undervolting I do henceforth? (I have been using a value of -70.3 mV for CPU and Core, but I disabled that to as not to affect these current settings)

Also, if you don't mind: other than a stupidly-programmed factory EC, what causes this kind of throttling? Could it be a hardware issue? How do I tell?

 

[unclewebb]

what causes this kind of throttling?

Manufacturers do lots of funny things. They dream up power limits so their devices do not get too hot. This seems to keep the majority of consumers happy. A cool running device has become more important than a fast running device. I prefer fast. It is not a hardware issue. Just different priorities.

Now it feels like a whole new machine

I completely understand. The proper ThrottleStop settings can make a huge difference, especially to these low power devices. As long as the cooling is OK, it is not a problem to go for more performance.

IGPU=1

Hopefully you set this to 30 Watts like I suggested. Setting the Intel GPU to 1 Watt would probably not be good.

it even fixed the problem with the CPU gobbling up more watts

The new TS version I sent you seems to improve power consumption and performance. Some of these big companies have lost their way. Maybe they need to send their new devices to me for some proper testing before shipping them.

I have been using a value of -0.703 mV

Hopefully you mean -70.3 mV. The current limits and your ability to undervolt are two different things. It sounds like you and your m5-6Y54 are doing just fine.

 

[WaseemAlkurdi]

Manufacturers do lots of funny things. They dream up power limits so their devices do not get too hot. This seems to keep the majority of consumers happy. A cool running device has become more important than a fast running device. I prefer fast. It is not a hardware issue. Just different priorities.

While I see what they've been going for here, it wouldn't be too hard for them to just add a function-key combo that toggles between "insane throttling for power-heat saving" and "good performance but with a bit more heat and a bit less battery", like on some gaming laptops ...
On the other hand, well, modes confuse people and all that :-(

I completely understand. The proper ThrottleStop settings can make a huge difference, especially to these low power devices. As long as the cooling is OK, it is not a problem to go for more performance.

I'm still learning a lot about TS, and I'm aiming for the best balance between no throttling / good performance and battery life that this chip can do.
The cooling is very decent ... even though the machine is connected to an external monitor via USB-C, it hardly heats up. So, I think there's a good margin to play with!

Hopefully you set this to 30 Watts like I suggested. Setting the Intel GPU to 1 Watt would probably not be good.

You're right xD
I did set it to 30, it's just me fat-fingering it here in the thread ...

The new TS version I sent you seems to improve power consumption and performance. Some of these big companies have lost their way. Maybe they need to send their new devices to me for some proper testing before shipping them.

I for one support that proposition!

Hopefully you mean -70.3 mV.

Exactly, that was supposed to read -70.3 mV, not -0.703 (facepalm ...)

The current limits and your ability to undervolt are two different things. It sounds like you and your m5-6Y54 are doing just fine.

Thankfully, doing pretty well!

From being mid-tier-to-bad on Geekbench v5, now it's among the highest-scoring of Elite x2 1012 G1 laptops with this chip, and the only one that does beat it by any significant margin is one with the base clocks raised to 2.7 GHz (the max frequency) - and not by much.

This is my Geekbench v5 score before ThrottleStop - the multicore score is especially pathetic:

This is my score after applying the tweaks you suggested:

And this is my score after tweaks plus an undervolt to -70.3 mV - actually got a performance *boost* instead of a loss:

This is someone else's score with the CPU pinned to its maximum frequency - Geekbench marked that score as "invalid" as a result:

And it looks like it's beating out the average for the Mid-2017 MacBook with the i5-7Y54 (though that chip is clocked at 1.3 GHz)
Overall, a win!

Only thing that is suffering pretty bad so far is the battery life - but I haven't fully tested that just yet - so hoping that it'll be fixed with the new ThrottleStop version, and if not, that will be one for me to figure out!

 

[upsangel]

I just registered this account only to say thank you for all the sharing, as I just take my Elite X2 G1 from the dust and find this very useful tweak to max it performance!

 

[upsangel]

After one happy day, I found that BIOS update grey-out the undervolting settings, seems that's restricted by the bios. I will need to revert the bios to enable undervolting again. Stupid and funny.

update: rolled back to 2019 version BIOS will have the undervolting back. 2021, 2022 versions are restricted.

 

[upsangel]

After one happy day, I found that BIOS update grey-out the undervolting settings, seems that's restricted by the bios. I will need to revert the bios to enable undervolting again. Stupid and funny.

update: rolled back to 2019 version BIOS will have the undervolting back. 2021, 2022 versions are restricted.

I have summarized my experience and write up a blog post on the undervolting and overclocking journey on my Elite X2, getting multi-core score at 1900pts! : https://upsangel.com/mobile-portable/free-upgrade-by-overclock-undervolt-throttlestop-guide/ (please let google translate or other AI tool to help it into your language if necessary).