Cpu throttles to 0.8GHz due to "GPU POWER"

[Ivendete]

As the title says, everytime I try to play games for about 25~30 minutes, my cpu starts throttling to about 0.8GHz. I've tried using throttlestop thinking it was a thermal issue, but from what I was seeing the maximum temp I was getting was 85C and BDPROCHOT was disabled. Checking the limit reasons stated that GPU POWER was to blame, since it's in red while throttling. My question is what causes GPU POWER to go red? I couldn't try to disable the intel HD and check if that was the problem, since my dGPU is a switchable card and needs intel to work as a display adapter. I've also tried to further undervolt my iGPU to about -0.70mV but that did nothing. I did play using only the iGPU, and that worked fine without any cpu throttling, which makes me assume that it throttles due to the dGPU taking more power maybe?
Specs:
i7-4610M 3GHz 3.6GHz turbo boost
Radeon HD 8790m 2GB
8GB RAM
1TB HDD

 

[Aquinus]

I've tried using throttlestop thinking it was a thermal issue, but from what I was seeing the maximum temp I was getting was 85C and BDPROCHOT was disabled.

The i7 8550u in my laptop will be at or below base clock (2.0Ghz) at 85*C, but below 75*C I'll see 3.4-4.0Ghz. It's probably a combination of the dGPU running hard and the CPU running hot, particularly if cooling is shared between the CPU and dGPU. I'm assuming the laptop will shift power to either the GPU or the CPU based on demand as well. So this is probably a decent assumption:

which makes me assume that it throttles due to the dGPU taking more power maybe?

 

[unclewebb]

@Ivendete - Post some pics of how you have ThrottleStop setup. Include the main window, the FIVR window and the TPL window.

The iGPU has a power limit that is separate from the CPU power limit and both of these limits are duplicated in multiple spots. It is possible that the manufacturer set one of these limits too low which could cause premature throttling. What laptop model do you have?

Some manufacturers decided to reduce the thermal throttling temperature from the Intel recommended value of 100°C to a timid value of 85°C. If this is what happened, there is no easy fix. Screenshots will tell all.

 

[Voluman]

When your gpupower goes red, what is your typical load, cpu, gpu demanding?

 

[Ivendete]

The i7 8550u in my laptop will be at or below base clock (2.0Ghz) at 85*C, but below 75*C I'll see 3.4-4.0Ghz. It's probably a combination of the dGPU running hard and the CPU running hot, particularly if cooling is shared between the CPU and dGPU. I'm assuming the laptop will shift power to either the GPU or the CPU based on demand as well. So this is probably a decent assumption:

Thanks for replying. Going by what you said, I tried to downclock my cpu to 2.5GHz and my gpu to 750MHz instead of 900MHz to see if that'll make a difference, and it did pretty much nothing, where it throttles around 20~30 minutes ingame, and the temps were 80C max for cpu and 82C for gpu. I also tried just letting it run on the main menu which had about 75~80% usage for gpu and 30% for cpu, and the same thing happened even though the gpu wasn't really maxed out with temps not going over 70C even.

@unclewebb here are the screenshots:

https://imgur.com/M3dTKbC

Main window+limit reasons

https://imgur.com/vDDiHvE

FIVR window

https://imgur.com/HPLqODj

TPL window

Well, if the iGPU has a power limit would underclocking it fix this? And I have a Dell E6540 if that helps.

@Voluman It goes red the second I throttle. For example i'll have 3.6GHz and gpu power wouldn't be there or yellow, then when I hit 2.7GHz it goes red while gpu clocks are still the same which means that the gpu isn't affected by this at all.

 

[unclewebb]

Your first screenshot shows EDP CURRENT as the reason for throttling. If you look in the Turbo Power Limits window the PP0 Current Limit is set to 55 which should be OK. The current limit has also been Locked by the bios so you cannot change it. This limit is usually duplicated but I am not sure what the duplicate register is set to. It might be set way lower than this. When your laptop is idle at the desktop, is anything in Limit Reasons in red? The PP1 Current Limit refers to the iGPU. ThrottleStop does not show this one or allow you to adjust it since it has rarely been reported as a reason for throttling.

Are you running the latest bios version? Not surprised that this is a Dell laptop with these problems. This should have been fixed before the first one was shipped.

You can try checking the Intel Power Balance option but I do not think it will solve this. Try setting the CPU to 31 and the GPU to 0 and also try the opposite; CPU 0 GPU 31.

During this era, it was common for the power and current limits to be locked. Without a modified bios, you are limited in what you can do.

The only good news is this CPU supports limited overclocking. If you check the Overclock box, you can increase the turbo multipliers by +4 bins so it can use the 41 multiplier when a single core is active and it is not power or current limit throttling.

 

[Ivendete]

Your first screenshot shows EDP CURRENT as the reason for throttling. If you look in the Turbo Power Limits window the PP0 Current Limit is set to 55 which should be OK. The current limit has also been Locked by the bios so you cannot change it. This limit is usually duplicated but I am not sure what the duplicate register is set to. It might be set way lower than this. When your laptop is idle at the desktop, is anything in Limit Reasons in red? The PP1 Current Limit refers to the iGPU. ThrottleStop does not show this one or allow you to adjust it since it has rarely been reported as a reason for throttling.

Are you running the latest bios version? Not surprised that this is a Dell laptop with these problems. This should have been fixed before the first one was shipped.

You can try checking the Intel Power Balance option but I do not think it will solve this. Try setting the CPU to 31 and the GPU to 0 and also try the opposite; CPU 0 GPU 31.

During this era, it was common for the power and current limits to be locked. Without a modified bios, you are limited in what you can do.

The only good news is this CPU supports limited overclocking. If you check the Overclock box, you can increase the turbo multipliers by +4 bins so it can use the 41 multiplier when a single core is active and it is not power or current limit throttling.

Thank you for your time. Is there a way to check the duplicate register? and that screenshot was when I was idle. So does that mean that the culpirt isnt actually GPU POWER but rather the EDP CURRENT?

I might sound stupid with this question but, I should get the latest BIOS update from Dell's website that is specific to the E6540, right?

I'll be trying that before i try to update the BIOS and update if it works or not.

But to be honest I'm kind of puzzled since this started happening a week ago and it was pretty fine before.

 

[unclewebb]

This is a major design problem so I am hoping that this has already been fixed with a bios update. Go to Dell's website to look for the latest bios version.

If your computer is a Dell Latitude E6540, the latest bios is listed as version A26 and it says Urgent beside it.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/ca/en/cappp1/product-support/product/latitude-e6540-laptop/drivers

Your computer was not idle during that screenshot. The C0% is showing 24.4%. That is the equivalent to one core running full bore, all of the time. Open up the Task Manager and find out what is running in the background. Look at the Details tab and click on the CPU heading to organize running tasks by CPU usage. A clean install of Windows 10 will only need the CPU to spend about 0.5% of its time when idle in the C0 state.

The culprit in your screenshot is definitely current related and not power related. It could be the CPU or iGPU set incorrectly. We can worry about that after you fix the above problems. When you boot up, have a look to see what bios you are currently running. I think CPU-Z can also report this information on the Mainboard tab.

 

[Ivendete]

This is a major design problem so I am hoping that this has already been fixed with a bios update. Go to Dell's website to look for the latest bios version.

If your computer is a Dell Latitude E6540, the latest bios is listed as version A26 and it says Urgent beside it.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/ca/en/cappp1/product-support/product/latitude-e6540-laptop/drivers

Your computer was not idle during that screenshot. The C0% is showing 24.4%. That is the equivalent to one core running full bore, all of the time. Open up the Task Manager and find out what is running in the background. Look at the Details tab and click on the CPU heading to organize running tasks by CPU usage. A clean install of Windows 10 will only need the CPU to spend about 0.5% of its time when idle in the C0 state.

The culprit in your screenshot is definitely current related and not power related. It could be the CPU or iGPU set incorrectly. We can worry about that after you fix the above problems. When you boot up, have a look to see what bios you are currently running. I think CPU-Z can also report this information on the Mainboard tab.

I just finished updating my bios and this is what my main windows and limit reasons looking like idle:

https://imgur.com/ZTKs0tz

this is my main window and limit reason while im throttling https://i.vgy.me/grLiGm.png

 

[Metroid]

It must be kilos of dust inside your pc hehe

 

[unclewebb]

The C0% looks a lot better but you still have EDP CURRENT throttling. That is a bug. Either there is something physically wrong with your CPU or the Dell bios is not setting your CPU up correctly. There should not be any throttling like this going on when a CPU is idle. Here is how Limit Reasons looks on my 4th Gen laptop.

No throttling.

You can try running the Dump program that my friend Dufus wrote a long time ago.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0dpSo9k93jDX1Fpa1FpTmo1Qk0

When you run Dump.exe, it will create a file called Dump.txt that contains the values of all of the important registers within your CPU. You can send it to me in a private message if you do not want to share it with the world. It won't make too much sense to most people anyhow.

It might take a day or two. If I find anything interesting I will let you know. There are some power limits that you cannot get to. If this is the case, there is nothing you can do.

It must be kilos of dust inside your pc

Cleaning out the dust bunnies is always a good place to start.

 

[Ruru]

Cleaning and maybe putting new thermal paste is something I would also do.

 

[Wavetrex]

Maybe you have a coinminer malware ?

Have you checked actual GPU utilization with GPU-Z ?

 

[Ivendete]

Cleaning and maybe putting new thermal paste is something I would also do.

That's the next thing I'll be doing.

Maybe you have a coinminer malware ?

Have you checked actual GPU utilization with GPU-Z ?

I've ran malwarebytes and my dGPU utilization is always at 0% unless I run something heavy, while my iGPU runs 1%~10% at most.

 

[Wavetrex]

my dGPU utilization is always at 0%

I didn't mean the dGPU...

You complained that Throttlestop says it throttles because of GPU POWER.
That is the iGPU inside your i7: Intel® HD Graphics 4600, which in laptops is always on, as the discrete GPU is actually routed through it for outputting to the screen.
Surprisingly, those Intel iGPU's are totally capable of mining... of course they'll be slow as f***, but a malware doesn't care.

You should be able to see both devices in GPU-z (and switch to HD4600 and check it's utilization.

Or maybe it's just bad/dried paste...

 

[phanbuey]

sounds like a motherboard power limiter, you may be able to fix by undervolting the GPU using afterburner.

 

[vgm]

@unclewebb I feel OP must use RWE driver to disable TDP throttling and EDP throttling. It might be older DPTF drivers as well.
@Ivendete You can look at Win-raid MEI FW section to update the FW to 9.1 branch if current Dell BIOS use the branch. Don't flash higher branch v9.5 if your BIOS still uses 9.1 branch, you might soft brick or brick it completely. Use MEAnalyzer from platomav github page which can be found in this guide https://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html

 

[Ivendete]

Thank you all for the replies.

I didn't mean the dGPU...

You complained that Throttlestop says it throttles because of GPU POWER.
That is the iGPU inside your i7: Intel® HD Graphics 4600, which in laptops is always on, as the discrete GPU is actually routed through it for outputting to the screen.
Surprisingly, those Intel iGPU's are totally capable of mining... of course they'll be slow as f***, but a malware doesn't care.

You should be able to see both devices in GPU-z (and switch to HD4600 and check it's utilization.

Or maybe it's just bad/dried paste...

I just checked, and gpu load in gpu-z is 1%-6% so I doubt a malware caused my issue.

sounds like a motherboard power limiter, you may be able to fix by undervolting the GPU using afterburner.

I've tried underclocking my dGPU which should do more than simply undervolting but that didn't work either. What I've noticed though is that, when the cpu load is more than the dGPU I dont get throttled. The EDP CURRENT limit reason stays but I dont see any throttling at all even for an hour and half of continuous use.

@unclewebb I feel OP must use RWE driver to disable TDP throttling and EDP throttling. It might be older DPTF drivers as well.
@Ivendete You can look at Win-raid MEI FW section to update the FW to 9.1 branch if current Dell BIOS use the branch. Don't flash higher branch v9.5 if your BIOS still uses 9.1 branch, you might soft brick or brick it completely. Use MEAnalyzer from platomav github page which can be found in this guide https://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html

I'm sorry but I'm not sure I understand this. I might sound annoying but, is there a step by step on how to check my branch, and to what bios I should flash? Really don't want to brick my laptop.

Another thing I noticed is that, with power mode enabled and my cpu underclocked to 2.5GHz, I don't get limit reasons at all, even with heavy load until 20~23 minutes in, which gpu power pops up and thats it. Nothing else pops up other than gpu power.

 

[phanbuey]

Thank you all for the replies.


I just checked, and gpu load in gpu-z is 1%-6% so I doubt a malware caused my issue.


I've tried underclocking my dGPU which should do more than simply undervolting but that didn't work either. What I've noticed though is that, when the cpu load is more than the dGPU I dont get throttled. The EDP CURRENT limit reason stays but I dont see any throttling at all even for an hour and half of continuous use.


I'm sorry but I'm not sure I understand this. I might sound annoying but, is there a step by step on how to check my branch, and to what bios I should flash? Really don't want to brick my laptop.

Another thing I noticed is that, with power mode enabled and my cpu underclocked to 2.5GHz, I don't get limit reasons at all, even with heavy load until 20~23 minutes in, which gpu power pops up and thats it. Nothing else pops up other than gpu power.

Underclocking does nothing compared to undevolting. Undervolting decreases power, underclocking keeps the same power at lower clocks.

Your most likely throttling on the VRM which is why you should try to undervolt both the CPU and GPU. If you do this your power throttle will most likely go away.

You can also use the intel advanced tweaking utility to make sure the integrated gpu is undervolted as well.

 

[Ivendete]

Underclocking does nothing compared to undevolting. Undervolting decreases power, underclocking keeps the same power at lower clocks.

Your most likely throttling on the VRM which is why you should try to undervolt both the CPU and GPU. If you do this your power throttle will most likely go away.

You can also use the intel advanced tweaking utility to make sure the integrated gpu is undervolted as well.

Do you know of another dGPU undervolting program? Or how to enable undervolting in MSI Afterburner for M series GPU's? I've checked videos but all of them are for the RX series. MSI doesn't seem to work for me as the undervolting bar is greyed out:

Also, is there a way to increase the motherboard power limit? Because as I said, this only happened recently and the laptop has been with me for about 6 months and didn't experience any thing odd.

 

[phanbuey]

yes here -

when in afterburner hit ctrl+f and it will bring up the voltage table.

here is a video of how to do it on the 2080ti (but it works the same for all gpu).

 

[Ivendete]

yes here -

when in afterburner hit ctrl+f and it will bring up the voltage table.

here is a video of how to do it on the 2080ti (but it works the same for all gpu).

CTRL+F doesn't seem to work. Tried with both, unlock voltage control on and off.

 

[vgm]

@Ivendete Check Win-raid intel ME section. Unpack Intel system tools v9.1 and go to MEinfo folder and open cmd or powershell as admin and type meinfo.exe and if you see ME version 9.1.x then you have downloaded correct toolset to update MEIFW to latest 9.1.x version from Win-raid.
If its showing MEI version 9.5 then download and unpack v9.5 system tools.
It will show which model or platform the MEI FW is based on, say 1.5MB or 5MB version and post a screenshot or put MEINFO results in file or in <code> so that others can check the version and help you in updating MEI FW if its too old. Do note that if your version is 9.1, don't update to 9.5 version.
Original site https://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html

 

[MohamedOsama]

Cleaning and maybe putting new thermal paste is something I would also do.

Sir,i have aproblem like that mentioned above .. if i installed the new version of bios... cleaning out the dust from my laptop..do you think it can be solved

 

[unclewebb]

Post a screenshot of ThrottleStop with the Limit Reasons window open. Find out what the problem is before trying to solve it.