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GPU reaching temp limit for no reason and throttling down to 210mhz

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gunsho

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Hello. I've been having this problem with my Legion 5 for a year now, and still haven't managed to fix it. Whenever I'm gaming, after 5-10 minutes the GPU will reach its temp limit despite actually being nowhere near it, and the GPU clock speed will lock to 210mhz. A strange fix I have found is that if I hold the laptop in the air it will immediately fix it 100% of the time, and when I place it back down on the table or stand it will go back to throttling straight away. Due to this, I thought it was the fans needing a clean, so I went ahead and did that, and it did fix the problem... for a few weeks, then it went back to how it was before. Tried cleaning the fans again but no luck. Disabling BD PROCHOT or raising the temp limit does nothing. Any idea what the issue could be?
 
Post some ThrottleStop screenshots so I can see your settings. Did you check the Lock PROCHOT box? This feature was made for a variety of Lenovo laptops. Lenovo uses software to change the throttling temperature to absurdly low values.

Is it the Intel GPU or do you have a Nvidia GPU that is being severely throttled? Nvidia I assume. Check the Log File box on the main screen and check the Nvidia GPU box in the Options window so this data is included in your log file. Go play a game for 15 minutes. When done testing, attach a log file and some pics to your next post.
 
unclewebb said:
Post some ThrottleStop screenshots so I can see your settings. Did you check the Lock PROCHOT box? This feature was made for a variety of Lenovo laptops. Lenovo uses software to change the throttling temperature to absurdly low values.

Is it the Intel GPU or do you have a Nvidia GPU that is being severely throttled? Nvidia I assume. Check the Log File box on the main screen and check the Nvidia GPU box in the Options window so this data is included in your log file. Go play a game for 15 minutes. When done testing, attach a log file and some pics to your next post.
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Here are my current settings. I have Lock PROCHOT enabled, and had PROCHOT Offset set to 0 in the past but changed it to 3. Neither setting seemed to make a difference.

Both the GPU and CPU are being throttled by the temp limit, however, disabling BD PROCHOT in Throttlestop fixes it for the CPU, just not for the GPU. I have attached a log file to my post. You can see the moment the GPU begins to throttle, (around 5 mins in I think?), and at around the 10 minute mark I briefly lifted my laptop off its stand and into the air and you can see the temp throttling stop right at that moment before beginning again as soon as I place it back down.
 

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Lifting it up being the fix definitely sounds like an airflow issue, I'm assuming you're gaming on a hard surface and not something like a blanket right? I don't know what you mean by stand. This would probably fit better in general hardware.
 
ShiBDiB said:
Lifting it up being the fix definitely sounds like an airflow issue, I'm assuming you're gaming on a hard surface and not something like a blanket right? I don't know what you mean by stand. This would probably fit better in general hardware.
Click to expand...
Never once used it on a blanket or a soft surface, have always used a hard surface like my desk, and have been using a stand for about a year, after this issue started. The stand is just some metal bars that lift it up at an angle to raise it off the surface and improve air flow. But I noticed that anything blocking the fans even a little bit (including the stand itself) causes the thermal throttling to kick in. The laptop literally has to be floating in the air for it to run normally. I posted it here because I've been using Throttlestop to try and stop the thermal throttling occurring in the first place, because I know for a fact my temps are fine and I keep the fans clean.
 
gunsho said:
Never once used it on a blanket or a soft surface, have always used a hard surface like my desk, and have been using a stand for about a year, after this issue started. The stand is just some metal bars that lift it up at an angle to raise it off the surface and improve air flow. But I noticed that anything blocking the fans even a little bit (including the stand itself) causes the thermal throttling to kick in. The laptop literally has to be floating in the air for it to run normally. I posted it here because I've been using Throttlestop to try and stop the thermal throttling occurring in the first place, because I know for a fact my temps are fine and I keep the fans clean.
Click to expand...
dust and dirt still gets inside and need periodic cleaning.
 
gunsho said:
Never once used it on a blanket or a soft surface, have always used a hard surface like my desk, and have been using a stand for about a year, after this issue started. The stand is just some metal bars that lift it up at an angle to raise it off the surface and improve air flow. But I noticed that anything blocking the fans even a little bit (including the stand itself) causes the thermal throttling to kick in. The laptop literally has to be floating in the air for it to run normally. I posted it here because I've been using Throttlestop to try and stop the thermal throttling occurring in the first place, because I know for a fact my temps are fine and I keep the fans clean.
Click to expand...
These so called gaming laptops out today are just overglorified notebooks, majority out suck in the cooling department and all throttle.
 
Code: 
   DATE       TIME    MULTI   C0%   CKMOD  BAT_mW  TEMP   NVIDIA GPU     VID   POWER
2023-05-04  21:03:16  28.93   52.2  100.0       0   65    1755    59   0.8875   23.1
2023-05-04  21:03:17  28.98   52.2  100.0       0   64    1755    59   0.8875   23.1
2023-05-04  21:03:18  28.76   36.8  100.0       0   62     210    58   0.8899   17.9
2023-05-04  21:03:19  28.23   30.0  100.0       0   61     210    58   0.8849   15.4
2023-05-04  21:03:20  28.60   30.2  100.0       0   61     210    57   0.8875   15.3

@gunsho
The log file shows that the Nvidia GPU is only 59°C when your laptop decides to drop the GPU from 1755 MHz down to 210 MHz. The CPU is only at 64°C when this happens. If BD PROCHOT was checked, the CPU would likely throttle down to 400 MHz. This is horrible design on Lenovo's part. They have been using some extreme and illogical throttling schemes like this on many of their laptops for many years. They also like to drop the CPU thermal throttling temperature down to an absurd 65°C. There is no reasonable reason to be doing this.

Are you using any Lenovo control software? Perhaps it is set to cool and quiet. I would remove all of their junk software.

If the voltage regulators were overheating, Limit Reasons and the ThrottleStop log file would show VR TEMP. That is not the problem.

You can use ThrottleStop to fix Lenovo's ridiculous CPU throttling scheme but I do not know how to fix the throttling that Lenovo is doing to Nvidia GPUs. I know you will be shopping elsewhere next time.

There might be an IR temperature sensor on the motherboard that is pointing up at the back side of the keyboard. If it determines that the keyboard is too hot, throttle city begins. Try pointing a fan at the keyboard to keep this sensor from tripping. Not sure what else you can do. The Lenovo throttling algorithm needs some major work.
 
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