Temperature Monitoring

[Merrick9889]

Hi there - I hope I'm using the right method to query this and apologies if I'm not.

I've been using Throttlestop now for around 4 months, producing some very positive results. Something about it however, is playing on my mind and I hope you would indulge me?

Below is a screenshot of my Throttlestop under heavy load. What concerns me is that on the temperature readings of my threads, I only ever have fluctuations for the first 2 lines. Along with a 100% C0% for these, and a comparatively smaller figure for the rest, which does not change. When I am not under heavy load, all threads regularly adjust their temp and C0%. Is this standard, or something systemic with my machine that prevents the other threads from being utilised?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Merrick.

 

[rethcirE]

Try setting 'Speed Shift EPP' value to '0' and see how it acts.

Additionally, you'll noticed the red "POWER" next to Limits which means you are power limit throttling at the time CPU is under load.

Give us a shot of your TPL windows settings and maybe we can see why it's throttling.

 

[unclewebb]

@Merrick9889 - Start by downloading ThrottleStop 9.2. Post a few screenshots of ThrottleStop 9.2 to see if this version makes a difference.

Your screenshot shows that something is definitely not right. What antivirus program are you using? Some antivirus programs run apps like ThrottleStop in a sandbox. This can block ThrottleStop from reading the monitoring timers correctly.

The other possible issue is that Intel CPUs use shared monitoring timers. Any software that you have running on your computer can read and write to these timers at any time. This can prevent ThrottleStop from getting accurate information out of them. Exit the Task Manager and exit any other monitoring programs that are running on your computer.

Intel made a fairly recent and undocumented change to how their monitoring timers work. These timers worked exactly the same going back to 1st Gen Core i in 2008. Sometime in the last year or two, the timers in some of their CPUs started working differently. When they were busy during the last year or two fixing bugs within their CPUs, they must have changed something.

I first saw this problem on some 9750H CPUs. The weird part is that it did not effect all of the 9750H CPUs. I think their new and improved timers might be part of a microcode update. ThrottleStop was working great on my daughter's 8550U when she first got it. A year later, some update broke the C0% data. Same ThrottleStop version. No changes to it but the C0% data was no longer working at all.

Still not sure what changed or when. I ended up changing ThrottleStop to try and work around this issue.

 

[Merrick9889]

Afternoon,

Thank you both for responding. It really is appreciated.

So I firstly tried adjusting the figure of 255 to 1 (couldn't set it to 0), within the TPL window next to speed shift. This did not have any impact on the rest of the threads, although the temp of the 2 being recorded, dropped by 20 degrees. This caused my computer to go very slow with everything, so I have reverted to the 255.

Next I have downloaded 9.2, with screenshots below. Interestingly, all settings I inputted from 9.0 have been copied over to 9.2, I'm assuming standard? I'm currently relying on the built in Windows Security, no additional 3rd party software for anti viral. The computer is mostly used for gaming, and rarely visits any sites or receives downloads.

In terms of exiting monitoring software, I have done this, along with GeForce Experience whilst taking the below shots. To my mind, no other software is monitoring the particulars of my computer and the issue still persisted. Then, I realised that when booting up games, Razer Cortex applies an optimisation to my computer to free up RAM. I disabled this in-game and immediately, all threads lit up with activity as per the final screen shot. Whilst I am annoyed that using this programme has caused issues, as I do like the feature to free up RAM, all I can say is thank you for the suggestion! Is there anything glaring with the rest of my settings that I may have ticked or set, in error whilst you have been kind enough to look them over?

Regards,
Merrick.

 

[unclewebb]

couldn't set it to 0

@rethcirE suggested setting the Speed Shift EPP value to 0. This setting is on the main ThrottleStop screen. Changing the Speed Shift values in the TPL window to 0 is not possible and is definitely not a good idea. In the TPL window it shows you in the Speed Shift Range box the appropriate settings. Your screenshot shows Speed Shift Range 1..50. That means to set Speed Shift Min to 1 and Speed Shift Max to 50. You can set Speed Shift Max to 255 but anything beyond 50 is ignored by the CPU and the CPU will use 50 instead.

Back to the main screen. This is where it says Speed Shift - EPP. To the right of that setting it says 128. This value can be changed! Click on 128 and try changing that to 0. A setting of 0 tells the CPU to use maximum MHz regardless of load. If you do not check the Speed Shift - EPP setting, Windows 10 will automatically control this setting. Open the FIVR window up and look in the monitoring table. That shows you what EPP setting the CPU is currently using. When you adjust the Windows power plan or move the Windows power slider in the system tray back and forth, you will probably see the EPP value change in the monitoring table. If Windows can handle this setting appropriately, you do not need to check this option in ThrottleStop. Many computers use an EPP setting of 84. That works well.

Nice to know that it is Razer Cortex that is screwing with your CPU. The way Windows memory management is supposed to work is that when an app needs some more memory, Windows automatically frees up memory for your app. I have never used a separate app to free up memory. Some of these apps have proven to be of little to no benefit. If it works for you and allows your games to run smoother then keep using it.

Did you reduce the turbo ratio limits to control your CPU temperatures? Intel has been setting the default thermal throttling temperature to 100°C for the majority of their CPUs for the last 12 years. No need to worry about the CPU temperature. Gaming laptops are engineered to run at over 90°C without any problems. They will automatically slow down if they get too hot.

You do not need to set the CPU core and cache voltages equally. Do some testing with Cinebench R20. Leave the cache at -90 mV and see if you get better Cinebench performance or better temperatures by adjusting only the core voltage further. The core might still be OK at -150 mV or beyond. Use the default turbo ratios when testing.

When your computer is idle with only ThrottleStop open on the desktop, what is reported for C0%? Normal is somewhere around 0.5%.

http://imgur.com/n6hBvYv

If you are way above this, open the Task Manager, click on the Details tab and the CPU heading to find out what is running on your computer. Too many background tasks will interfere with smooth game play. It takes hardly any CPU resources to run all of Windows 10 and ThrottleStop. Some apps are a bloated mess and will load your CPU when they really do not need to.