Help with overheating CPU (notebook)

[tobythecat]

Run something consistent like Cinebench when testing. What PKG Power consumption does ThrottleStop report on its main screen when PL2 is red or flashing red?

Your screenshot shows that you have the MSR PL2 power limit set to 115W. That should be enough. Are you at this power level or much lower when PL2 throttling is happening? Some laptops set a lower power limit internally which ThrottleStop cannot adjust higher. Turn the Log File option on when testing. It makes it a lot easier to see how your computer is performing over time or while in a game for 15 minutes. It will help show how much, if any, thermal headroom you have.

When finished testing, exit ThrottleStop so it can finalize the log file. Attach a log to your next post. The default log file location is your ThrottleStop / Logs folder.

So its kinda weird, it PL2's at 50-55, and before I saw that it could reach up to 70, which I think is the set max wattage my laptop is allowed to. also i'm using the all core overclock you said I could utilize, which is giving me a lot of performance. It gives me 90C temps which is kinda high so idk if you have any input on that. side note: it also reports my GPU as reaching thermal throttling but I'm assuming this is the iGPU because my main gpu doesn't even reach 80C.

 

[unclewebb]

its kinda weird

It is not that weird. Your CPU has a 45W TDP rating. Locking the CPU down to this level is what many manufacturers like to do. The MSR and MMIO power limits are ignored when a manufacturer uses an embedded controller (EC) and sets a lower power limit. For short periods of time you might see 70W. Long term, you will probably be limited to about 45W.

which is giving me a lot of performance

That is all that is important. If your laptop is running great then do not be afraid to use the performance that you paid for. You bought a CPU that supports limited overclocking. Intel knows this and Acer knows this. If overclocking your CPU was going to be a problem, Acer could have locked this feature. They left it unlocked so go ahead and use it if it helps game play.

It looks like Acer set the thermal throttling (PROCHOT) temperature way below the 100°C Intel spec. If PROCHOT Offset in the Options window is not locked, I would reduce the offset to raise the thermal throttling temperature. The way it is set now, your CPU is extra safe. Temperatures up over 90°C are high but they are completely safe. If these sort of temperatures were not safe, Intel would have set the recommended thermal throttling temperature to 90°C. Intel has been using 100°C as the standard thermal throttling temperature for over a decade now. No worries.

Limit Reasons only reports the Intel GPU. You should be able to ignore this if you have a Nvidia GPU for gaming. If the Intel GPU in Limit Reasons is showing something constantly red then I would look into that further.