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CPU decreases within games

Nokkon07

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Jan 24, 2021
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Hello TECHPOWERUP!

I'm encountering this issue where the CPU speed decreases sometimes when I open a game (League of legends or csgo). When this happens the fps in-game drops by 30%.

I have also noticed that if I keep YouTube open on chrome the speed stays at 2.39 Ghz.

I have checked everything online (High performance power mode, no battery etc, updating drivers .. ) but unfortunately I still have the issue. I must also add that my laptop never had any problems of overheating.

Thank you for your help.

Screens of Task Manager with the two speeds:
 
It's a heat issue I take it this is a laptop PC so when the CPU gets hot so it thermal throttles your CPU ie: downclocks it until temps are under control
 
use HWiNFO64 leave it running while you game and look at the max temperature reading
 
It is not heat. The 4th Gen U series have a 15W TDP power limit. Long term, if the CPU tries to exceed this power limit, it throttles and slows down.

Give ThrottleStop a try. It has a few tricks that can help. Post some screenshots so I can see what registers have been left unlocked.


Turn on the Log File option while playing a game. Also turn on Nvidia GPU monitoring in the Options window. Post a log file so I can see how your CPU is running and if there are any reasons for throttling. This info will be included in the log file.
 
It is not heat. The 4th Gen U series have a 15W TDP power limit. Long term, if the CPU tries to exceed this power limit, it throttles and slows down.

Give ThrottleStop a try. It has a few tricks that can help. Post some screenshots so I can see what registers have been left unlocked.


Turn on the Log File option while playing a game. Also turn on Nvidia GPU monitoring in the Options window. Post a log file so I can see how your CPU is running and if there are any reasons for throttling. This info will be included in the log file.

Below is the logs file, I start the game around 12:20 PM.
Also, some screenshots from Throttle Stop, note that I took them before starting the game.


 

Attachments

some screenshots from Throttle Stop
The first thing I see is that your C0% is very high in your screenshot and it is high during the log you posted. The amount of time that a computer needs to spend in the C0 state when idle tells me how busy the CPU is processing the various tasks that are running in the background on your computer. Most modern laptops have lots of cores and lots of threads available so some poorly programmed background tasks sucking up some CPU cycles are barely noticed. You have a slow 2 core CPU. Your C0% is over 50% even when your computer is not doing anything. That means one core is available to perform useful stuff and one core is completely used up processing background tasks that probably do not need to be processed. Open the Task Manager, go to the Details tab, click on the CPU heading and organize your running tasks by CPU usage. You need to find out what has been installed on this computer that is running in the background. Uninstall any bloated apps that you really do not need.

To try to come up with some C State data for you to compare to, I used msconfig to limit my CPU to 2 cores and 4 threads just like you have. I also limited it to the 17 multiplier so it runs at 1700 MHz just like you have.



When a 2 core computer is idle, somewhere around 0.5% to 1.0% is normal for C0 activity, not 50%. The individual cores can spend almost 99% of their time in the low power core C7 state. Can you see that your computer has a problem with too much crap running in the background? What antivirus or anti malware programs are you running? Some of these are bloated pigs. You can also use the Windows Resource Monitor to track down what is running on your computer.

The next problem is your log file shows almost constant PP0 power limit throttling notices in the far right column even when power consumption is not high at all. I have no idea what is causing this. It should not be happening but it is. I do not know if this problem was happening day 1 or if it is a new problem. Sometimes a cheap sensor will fail over time and it will tell your CPU to continuously power limit throttle for no real reason at all.

Try checking the FIVR - Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box. This takes care of some types of power limit throttling but I am not sure if it will fix the problem you are having.

In the TPL window, try checking the PP0 Power Limit option and set that to 25. Open the Limit Reasons window so you can keep an eye on the reason for throttling, boxes lighting up red. If you make a change and the red box goes away, that is a good thing. Post a screenshot of Limit Reasons.

You can also try checking the TDP Level Control option. Change that from 0 to 2.

When using ThrottleStop on a 4th Gen CPU, on the main screen, check the High Performance box. This switches Windows to the High Performance power plan which is often times hidden on devices with low power U series CPUs. Check the Set Multiplier box and press the Turn On button at the bottom. The top title bar will not show -Monitoring after you do this.

Give all of the above a try and see if it makes any difference. It might be time to retire this laptop or only use it for light duty tasks.
 
Thanks for your reply,
When a 2 core computer is idle, somewhere around 0.5% to 1.0% is normal for C0 activity, not 50%. The individual cores can spend almost 99% of their time in the low power core C7 state. Can you see that your computer has a problem with too much crap running in the background?
No, I only had the game + Spotify running in the background.

What antivirus or anti malware programs are you running? Some of these are bloated pigs. You can also use the Windows Resource Monitor to track down what is running on your computer.
No, I only have windows defender, I also checked the device manager there is nothing on there that is running other than windows services.
The next problem is your log file shows almost constant PP0 power limit throttling notices in the far right column even when power consumption is not high at all. I have no idea what is causing this. It should not be happening but it is. I do not know if this problem was happening day 1 or if it is a new problem. Sometimes a cheap sensor will fail over time and it will tell your CPU to continuously power limit throttle for no real reason at all.
This probably explains the issue, I have this pc for almost 6 years now..
Try checking the FIVR - Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box. This takes care of some types of power limit throttling but I am not sure if it will fix the problem you are having.

In the TPL window, try checking the PP0 Power Limit option and set that to 25. Open the Limit Reasons window so you can keep an eye on the reason for throttling, boxes lighting up red. If you make a change and the red box goes away, that is a good thing. Post a screenshot of Limit Reasons.
I tried doing this earlier following your reply, I can't unlock the Turbo boost power limits even after I shut down the computer..
1611517425281.png



I might add also that when I connected the battery to the PC, the CPU speed went to 2.46 GHz (I have detached the battery long time ago as my pc is always plugged in, I had to reconnect it today so I can reset the bios). But as soon as I disconnect the battery the CPU speed decreases to 1.68 GHz (Below images that show the CPU speed at 2.46 GHz)
1611517635345.png
1611517688474.png
 
Boot up your computer, do not run any games, Spotify, etc. Only have ThrottleStop running on the desktop. Let Windows settle down for a minute or two or three. What does ThrottleStop show for C0%? If it shows way more than 0.5% to 1.0%, you have too much crap running on your computer. Your screenshot above shows 14.0%. That is still way too much.

I can't unlock the Turbo boost power limits
Your BIOS is locking the turbo boost power limits. As soon as your computer boots up, these limits are already locked so they cannot be adjusted. This was typical for 4th Gen laptops. They are both set to 25W so these two limits are not causing any problems. You need a modified BIOS to unlock these. The ThrottleStop unlock option only works if you originally used ThrottleStop to lock the power limit register.

when I connected the battery to the PC, the CPU speed went to 2.46 GHz
You have solved your problem. Your screenshot no longer shows POWER throttling lighting up in red on the main screen. You did not post a Limit Reasons screenshot but it will show the same thing. No more power limit throttling. Your computer appears to have a feature that sets off power limit throttling as soon as you disconnect the battery. It needs to be connected. Some laptops are shipped with power adapters that are not capable of fully powering a laptop. I am not surprised to see a manufacturer gimp the CPU when it cannot detect a battery.

I still recommend trying the Windows High Performance power profile and also checking the Set Multiplier function with that set to the maximum value, 27T.
 
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