Is My CPU Working Fine?

[IamMedician]

Hey there,

Just repasted with Arctic MX-4 and played some games. I played Battlefield 4 for around 20 minutes. Can you please help me to tweak some settings or how can I improve it? At araound 12.50 I switched to Performance Mode which offered by Ideapad Gaming 3 and it can be seen that the temps and the wattage increased. By the way, I am not reaching 94 degrees but the BD PROCHOT is red after playing some games.

Thank you.

 

[unclewebb]

Just repasted with Arctic MX-4

A lot of people have reported problems when using this paste on laptop CPUs. Some long term results with this paste are terrible. Keep a close eye on your CPU temperatures. If they are increasing within a few weeks of replacing the paste, you will have to do this job again with something else. Noctua NT-H2 has a good reputation on laptop CPUs.

the BD PROCHOT is red

Your screenshot shows that PROCHOT is red. This is not the same as BD PROCHOT. CPUs can change temperatures instantaneously. ThrottleStop is only sampling the temperature of your CPU once every second. It is possible that your CPU got up to 94°C, maybe only for a millisecond or two. The maximum temperature reported by ThrottleStop is 92°C so it is very likely that one of your CPU cores touched 94°C long enough to trigger the thermal throttling flag. That is what it means when ThrottleStop shows PROCHOT 94°C in red.

If you want to increase this limit, go into the Options window and lower the PROCHOT Offset value. Many laptops set this to 2 or 3 so the CPU will start thermal throttling at 98°C or 97°C. The Intel default is 0. Intel designs their CPUs so they start thermal throttling at 100°C. Ultimately you will have to improve your cooling. With Lenovo laptops, when you find an offset value that you like, check the Lock PROCHOT Offset option. This will prevent any Lenovo software from making changes to this setting. Some Lenovo laptops can randomly drop the throttling temperature to 70°C or less. This can kill performance and it is a hard problem to troubleshoot if you are not familiar with what is happening. Not a lot forum posts talk about this issue.

The Turbo Power Limits window shows that your computer is using two different power limits. It would be best to check the MMIO Lock box so this lower power limit is not used. Also clear the Disable Power Limit Control box. When this box is clear, it tells ThrottleStop to monitor and maintain the PL1 and PL2 power limits. When this box is checked, ThrottleStop will not do anything to maintain your power limits.

Check the Speed Shift box while you are in the TPL window.

 

[IamMedician]

A lot of people have reported problems when using this paste on laptop CPUs. Some long term results with this paste are terrible. Keep a close eye on your CPU temperatures. If they are increasing within a few weeks of replacing the paste, you will have to do this job again with something else. Noctua NT-H2 has a good reputation on laptop CPUs.


Your screenshot shows that PROCHOT is red. This is not the same as BD PROCHOT. CPUs can change temperatures instantaneously. ThrottleStop is only sampling the temperature of your CPU once every second. It is possible that your CPU got up to 94°C, maybe only for a millisecond or two. The maximum temperature reported by ThrottleStop is 92°C so it is very likely that one of your CPU cores touched 94°C long enough to trigger the thermal throttling flag. That is what it means when ThrottleStop shows PROCHOT 94°C in red.

If you want to increase this limit, go into the Options window and lower the PROCHOT Offset value. Many laptops set this to 2 or 3 so the CPU will start thermal throttling at 98°C or 97°C. The Intel default is 0. Intel designs their CPUs so they start thermal throttling at 100°C. Ultimately you will have to improve your cooling. With Lenovo laptops, when you find an offset value that you like, check the Lock PROCHOT Offset option. This will prevent any Lenovo software from making changes to this setting. Some Lenovo laptops can randomly drop the throttling temperature to 70°C or less. This can kill performance and it is a hard problem to troubleshoot if you are not familiar with what is happening. Not a lot forum posts talk about this issue.

The Turbo Power Limits window shows that your computer is using two different power limits. It would be best to check the MMIO Lock box so this lower power limit is not used. Also clear the Disable Power Limit Control box. When this box is clear, it tells ThrottleStop to monitor and maintain the PL1 and PL2 power limits. When this box is checked, ThrottleStop will not do anything to maintain your power limits.

Check the Speed Shift box while you are in the TPL window.

I have cleared the Disable Power Limit Control box and checked MMIO. And also checked the Speed Shift box in TPL window. Played Battlefield 4 again and I have seen that the CPU always getting 40 watts right now and the CPU temperature is 93-94 Celcius overall.

I know that the cooling system is not designed properly in this laptop... I am using an old cooling pad which is 500 RPM, 20 cm diameter. What should I do know? Should I buy a new laptop cooler or do I have to live with these temperatures? So depressed right now. I would be really happy if you can help me with this.

 

[unclewebb]

Most modern gaming laptops run at over 90°C. This is a normal operating temperature for an Intel CPU. That is why Intel sets the thermal throttling temperature to 100°C. There is no reason for the CPU to slow down before it reaches this temperature. Is PROCHOT Offset Locked in the Options window?

How long ago did you replace your thermal paste? Some pastes can start to degrade in as little as one week.

Cooling pads do very little to reduce the CPU temperature. They are not money well spent.

Run another log file. Is your computer running badly or are you just worried about the temperatures?

Poorly engineered laptops are everywhere. Good ones are hard to find. That is why I mostly use a desktop computer. Way less issues.

 

[IamMedician]

How long ago did you replace your thermal paste?

I have replaced it 2 days ago with the Arctic MX-4 but I will get Mastergel Pro I think...

Is PROCHOT Offset Locked in the Options window?

I set it to 3 and locked it.

Here are the log files while playing Rainbow Six and Battlefield 4... Battlefield seems much hotter because of the CPU-intensive thing I think.

I have been watching especially Battlefield benchmarks on YouTube on laptops MSI, Acer... and it seems that they are all suffering from the same thing; low CPU clock and high temperatures for example 3494 MHz and 86 Celcius. What would you do if you were me, let the laptop run and have fun or try to get 40-45 watts playing with 93-94 Celcius?

 

[unclewebb]

I set it to 3 and locked it.

I think that is a good compromise.

BF4 shows that your cooling is only good for about 40W. When CPU power consumption gets up to 45W, thermal throttling starts. The TEMP messages in the log file confirm this.

It is OK to run your laptop like this. Some thermal throttling is not going to hurt anything. Your CPU is still under the Intel 100°C thermal throttling spec when this is happening. If you want, you can try setting the long term PL1 power limit to 40W. A little bit of power limit throttling or a little bit of thermal throttling will probably not make much of a difference. Some users prefer one type of throttling over the other.

Most modern gaming oriented laptops are all in the same boat. It is a constant battle between thermal throttling and power limit throttling.

 

[IamMedician]

Thank you so much for your help.

try setting the long term PL1 power limit to 40W

What should be the PL2 value? Is 50 or 55 Watt okay or can it stay like that?

 

[unclewebb]

What should be the PL2 value?

To answer that question you have to ask yourself what is your cooling system capable of? Can it run at 90W for 28 seconds without thermal throttling? Answer, probably not.

Reduce the PL2 power limit to what your cooling can manage. You can also reduce the turbo time limit. Maybe 60W for 8 seconds is all your cooling system can dissipate.