Throttlestop 8.7 questions and suggestions from a beginner

[luka_cbc]

I recently bought a Razer Blade 15 and wanted to undervolt the cores & caches of the CPU and limit the turbo to get better temps. Therefore, I tried XTU, but switched to ThrottleStop due to the limitations of XTU and better performance of ThrottleStop. I´ve read several guides and tutorials to set ThrottleStop up properly, however, even tough everything seems to work fine now, I´m still left with some small questions as well as some suggestions.
Note: Monitoring was done by HWMonitor

1) Turn On/Off Button: My initial thought was that this button would turn off ThrottleStop completely and the CPU will go back to default behavious. After reading some guides I found out that this is not the case. But what does it do exactly? Since I´m able to apply my undervolt (according to HWMonitor) without ever turning it on with the button.

2) Start/Stop Data: I like this function, but it would be nice to permanently keep the setting for this button. I would like to always have it off due to performance reasons until I actually want to montor some data. However, everytime I reboot, the data monitoring is active and enabled.

3) Profiles: Why are there four initial profiles and not just one with the option to create additional?

4) Switch Profile (Undervolt Setting): This is what puzzled me the most. I wanted to have one profile with undervoltage and max boost limit applied, which worked fine. But everytime I switched to one of the other three default profiles with no changes, the voltage offset didn´t change back to 0. After reading several posts, I found out that those profiles won´t change the voltage offsets, because "unlock adjustable voltage" is not checked. This seems to be logical after you know it, but at first you´re thinking that this just means that these profiles stil have the default voltage offsets and switching to them will default your current settings.

5) Reset Turbo: I changed the max clock for each core from "41, 41, 40, 40, 39, 39" to "37, 37, 36, 36, 35, 35" in the turbo ratio limits, because it mostly enough for most of my activities. But for some reason this setting is now in all profiles and the "reset turbo" button does nothing.

 

[unclewebb]

Monitoring was done by HWMonitor

Why not just use the voltage table in the top right hand corner of the FIVR window? That shows all of the important FIVR voltage data in real time. Intel CPUs use a single register that all FIVR voltage data goes through. Reading or writing voltage data does not matter. It all goes through the same register. The fewer monitoring apps you use the better.

1) The Turn On / Turn Off button only applies to 3 things; Clock Modulation, Chipset Modulation and Set Multiplier. That button goes back to the early days of ThrottleStop development because new users were afraid to try ThrottleStop. As users became more comfortable using ThrottleStop, this button has became mostly unnecessary. My plan was to do a redesign and move that button so it is more obvious what it controls. Most 8th Gen CPUs do not need to use any of these three features so I will probably just leave it as is.

2) The Stop Data status is saved when ThrottleStop exits. The next time you start ThrottleStop, it should use the previous setting. If you force Windows to reboot, it is possible that ThrottleStop does not have time to update this setting before it exits. Make sure you are using the latest version. There have been a few minor bug fixes and improvements since the last release that was posted to TechPowerUp.

ThrottleStop 8.70.6
https://drive.google.com/open?id=19h2pOlAZWjP0UVecQw-i6HTJikgq_xzo

3) A single profile with an option to create more profiles is a good idea but at the time, it was easier and faster to just create four separate user profiles. Out of the box, none of these profiles do anything. They are just there for user convenience and all of them need to be setup by a user. Keep in mind that I am not a professional programmer and ThrottleStop is only a hobby. No time or interest in competing with Intel XTU in the looks department.

4) When programming, it is difficult to guess what a user would like ThrottleStop to do. I am a logical person so I tend to create options that work in a logical way. After hundreds of thousands of downloads, there have been very few complaints about having to specifically tell ThrottleStop to apply zero offset voltage. I have to assume that most people get this figured out.

5) The Reset Turbo feature was a work in progress. I have never had access to the full Intel documentation or any recent Intel hardware so I was not able to complete this feature. I am still rocking a laptop with a 4th Gen CPU so I am a few generations behind the curve. I have never run ThrottleStop on an 8th Gen CPU so be happy that it works at all on your 8750H.

When you start ThrottleStop, if it does not find a ThrottleStop.INI configuration file, it will read the Turbo Ratio Limits that the CPU is presently using. It will then copy those limits to each profile so at least you have something to start with. To me, that made more sense than just leaving them blank. After that, you will have to manually adjust the Turbo Ratio Limits for each profile. At least ThrottleStop lets you access this useful feature.

 

[luka_cbc]

Thank you for taking the time for this detailed and very helpful answer.
Since I´m a web developer, I know that good usability and design are very challenging aspects, but I think you´re doing a great job considering the complexity of your software.

Why not just use the voltage table in the top right hand corner of the FIVR window? That shows all of the important FIVR voltage data in real time. Intel CPUs use a single register that all FIVR voltage data goes through. Reading or writing voltage data does not matter. It all goes through the same register. The fewer monitoring apps you use the better.

Yeah, it was just for the initial testing, because it had everything in one window including the clocks of each core. Therefore I was able to make sure thate the Turbo Ratio Limits were applied.

1) Got it.
2) I´ll try that version, thanks.
3) But in contrast to XTU your Software seems way less performane heavy and more lightweight which I like.
4) I´m glad that there are so many comprehensive guides out there.
5) For some reason the Turbo Ratio Limits defaulted back to my previous set values when I deleted the ini file.

 

[unclewebb]

5) You need to reboot after deleting the INI file. Hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and then select the Power - Shutdown menu option. If you do not do this, you might only be doing a hybrid reboot shutdown where the CPU does not get reset to its default values. If you only delete the INI file and do not reboot at all, ThrottleStop will read the values that the CPU is presently set to.

3) XTU graphs look good but they chew up lots of CPU cycles. Everything that is added to TS is done so very carefully. If it cannot be done efficiently, it usually does not make the cut.