Question Acer Nitro 5 AN515-42 | CPU throttle 2.0Ghz when reaching 75 Celsius | AMD Ryzen 5 2500U

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May 16, 2020
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Hello,

Im using Acer Nitro 5 AN515-42 v1.17 BIOS update, with Ryzen 5 2500u RX 560X 4GB, 12 GB DDR4, SSD+HDD, Windows 10 PRO.
I have proper up to date AMD Chipset drivers and Adrenaline 2020 GPU driver.

Im getting issues with my CPU. Whenever CPU reaches 75 Celsius it will downclock to 2.00Ghz (base clock) even tho it can easly handle 95+ Celsius.
Boost clock (3+GHz) gets back as soon as it drops down a bit (usually in few seconds)

This bothers me because I get stuttering ingame because of this throttling for no reason. 75 Celsius is a joke for this CPU.

I've tried to repaste both GPU and CPU. I've used RyzenADJ and Ryzen Controller (Unofficial Ryzen Master overclock tool) but those programs cannot remove this 75 Celsius thermal restriction for some reason.

Is there any way to report this to ACER or increase max temperature to atleast 85 Celsius?
I assume a BIOS update would fix this.

Thanks!
Best regards.
 

Phaaze88

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I'd be surprised if it's not power throttling, which is another reason for frequency throttling besides temperatures.
The U-series is a low power variant with a default TDP of 15w, with a configurable range of 12-25w - but Acer may have locked that in the bios.
It is intended for light, bursty workloads, and not sustained ones... so what are you doing with this setup?
 
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May 16, 2020
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I'd be surprised if it's not power throttling, which is another reason for frequency throttling besides temperatures.
The U-series is a low power variant with a default TDP of 15w, with a configurable range of 12-25w - but Acer may have locked that in the bios.
It is intended for light, bursty workloads, and not sustained ones... so what are you doing with this setup?
Acer Nitro 5 is a gaming laptop tho.
Im using it for gaming. Weird thing is that it only happens at 75 Celsius.
I checked in AMD uProf and default TDP value is 25w (boost value is set to 30w and slow value to 25w). Those settings are set by Acer.
Its impossible that it gets Lower power than 25w right?

When I manually dropped the power to 15 TDP using Ryzen Controller my clock speed could not go over 1.7GHz. Thats the default TDP when its using battery because I get the same clock speed then.

The only thing that I can think of right now is to drop TDP a little bit to lose some heat and maybe get a Grizzly thermal compound (since I used Arctic TX-4 rn).
 

Phaaze88

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Yeah, the product page does say that...
The higher the power consumption, the higher the temps. The cpu happens to hit the power limits first though.

I checked in AMD uProf and default TDP value is 25w (boost value is set to 30w and slow value to 25w). Those settings are set by Acer.
Its impossible that it gets Lower power than 25w right?
I pulled that from AMD themselves: https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-5-2500u

Max operating temp for that cpu is 95C... why would Acer need to set a lower cap at 75C?
 
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Yeah, the product page does say that...
The higher the power consumption, the higher the temps. The cpu happens to hit the power limits first though.


I pulled that from AMD themselves: https://www.amd.com/en/products/apu/amd-ryzen-5-2500u

Max operating temp for that cpu is 95C... why would Acer need to set a lower cap at 75C?
Yeah and thats whats bothering me... I've seen Intel CPU in the same laptop series I have and they get 90+ Celsius with full clock with no throttle....

Also I've seen on couple of places that people with Ryzen 5 2500u also have this issue when reaching 75 Celsius.

I've sent an email to my local Acer support... I'll see if this is a MB issue or something... It should not downclock at 75C.

Too bad Ryzen Master is not supported for Mobile CPU/APU... I could easily change this temperature cap.
 
May 16, 2020
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Those Intel chips are like 45w cpus, aren't they? That's way more power than the 2500U's 25w...
Oh yeah you're right ... Didnt notice that.

Meh I guess Ill wait for the Acer support to reply, if this is "normal" I might try Grizzly thermal compound and Lower TDP.

Too bad there is no easy way to replace BIOS firmware for my Nitro 5.
 

Phaaze88

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Oh wow - I just checked - that's been a thing on these laptops: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo...en-5-2500u-underperforming/m-p/4229974?page=1
A 26 page thread in the Lenovo forums!

It's not temps, but power - a quote from Longhorn87 in that thread:
"This is completely unacceptable and unfair, since there is no thermal reasons but only a nonsense performance limit releated to the STAPM, which is a simple algorithm that decides to throttle the CPU after 2-3 minutes of load on certain voltages. You can check this behaviour by using AMD uprof app and se how the STAPM power limit is unreleated to the temperatures. Even after the CPU stops working and cools down to the idle temperature, the STAPM value will falls indipendently and reach its baseline after ~10 minutes. Throttling in this laptop is not caused by high themperature, since during the 2-3 minutes windows at "full" power the CPU is stable at around 70°C whit fans running at medium speed, there's really no reason to cut the power by an half and cool it down to 58°C (!!). The good news is that we have an mXFR unlocked APU, so there is a chance to unleash its full power through a simple BIOS update, if only they would care."

"Lenovo, you have to explain the reasons of this behaviour, you can't get full money for mid range laptops and sells them with this kind of limitations and no support. I ask to any mod/admin who will ever read this to forward the feedback to the BIOS developing team.
C'mon Lenovo, you can't left thousands of customers in this situation. Other OEMs like Acer, Huawei or HP already solved this issue by releasing a BIOS update or a new power management profile."

The above quote implies that Acer already has a workaround for the power issue...

I do find some other 'fixes' via Google Search, but they're a bunch of mods that could do more harm than good.
 
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Oh wow - I just checked - that's been a thing on these laptops: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo...en-5-2500u-underperforming/m-p/4229974?page=1
A 26 page thread in the Lenovo forums!

It's not temps, but power - a quote from Longhorn87 in that thread:
"This is completely unacceptable and unfair, since there is no thermal reasons but only a nonsense performance limit releated to the STAPM, which is a simple algorithm that decides to throttle the CPU after 2-3 minutes of load on certain voltages. You can check this behaviour by using AMD uprof app and se how the STAPM power limit is unreleated to the temperatures. Even after the CPU stops working and cools down to the idle temperature, the STAPM value will falls indipendently and reach its baseline after ~10 minutes. Throttling in this laptop is not caused by high themperature, since during the 2-3 minutes windows at "full" power the CPU is stable at around 70°C whit fans running at medium speed, there's really no reason to cut the power by an half and cool it down to 58°C (!!). The good news is that we have an mXFR unlocked APU, so there is a chance to unleash its full power through a simple BIOS update, if only they would care."

"Lenovo, you have to explain the reasons of this behaviour, you can't get full money for mid range laptops and sells them with this kind of limitations and no support. I ask to any mod/admin who will ever read this to forward the feedback to the BIOS developing team.
C'mon Lenovo, you can't left thousands of customers in this situation. Other OEMs like Acer, Huawei or HP already solved this issue by releasing a BIOS update or a new power management profile."

The above quote implies that Acer already has a workaround for the power issue...

I do find some other 'fixes' via Google Search, but they're a bunch of mods that could do more harm than good.
Yeah its been a thing before but Acer has released like 8 BIOS updates so far for my laptop...

AMD uProf shows no changes in TDP values when I experience downclock to 2GHz. So that is weird.

Ill read the whole thread later.
 
May 16, 2020
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@Phaaze88 lol I just got this email from Acer support:
"Response By Email (Yewda) (17/05/2020 21:44)
Hi Marko,

Please note it is not normal it will have to be assessed by a technician.

Kind Regards,
Yedwa
Agent 302"

Umm how can they repair this tho? I already sent email to my local service.
 
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May 16, 2020
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Yeah if I pay for the upgrade prolly lol. Since my warranty expired when the corona lockdown started...maybe they will take that in consideration.

Even if they offer that, unless they flash the new Bios I would still experience same throttle (unless this is really a CPU fault ???)

I'll keep this thread updated.
Maybe Ill just ignore this issue and learn to live with it. Lol
 
May 16, 2020
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...
This is making less and less sense now.
This is their answer:
"Please re-install AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 (downloaded from manufacturer support web pages) chipset drivers. Because could be, that the software will download some additional drivers which weren't included in the Windows Update + Acer support.

· Also for gamers we recommend turning on “coolboost” to improve thermal performance, while at the same time there will be more fan noise."

Told em its still the same. Waiting for New info.
 

Phaaze88

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Well, the first part makes sense and is true, but that 2nd part about coolboost is bull, as I already looked up other threads regarding this throttling, and it's not temperature, but power.
The temperature thing is just a coincidence.

Hopefully they won't lead you in circles...
 
May 16, 2020
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Well, the first part makes sense and is true, but that 2nd part about coolboost is bull, as I already looked up other threads regarding this throttling, and it's not temperature, but power.
The temperature thing is just a coincidence.

Hopefully they won't lead you in circles...
Already reinstalled drivers so many times and got fresh W10... I dont know honestly it could be..
Funny how today I tried to edit ACPI and thing is you can set whatever TDP you want, even 60+w with no issues but when you edit maxiumum temperature it just wont let it be over 75c maxiumum (compiler says 0 errors).

Ive seen some threads too idk if its a power or temp limit but something is not right.

This is my last Acer/AMD laptop prolly. I'll change vendor for sure.
 
Sep 30, 2020
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Made an account just do reply to this because I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!
I've also fresh installed windows TEN times (I'm not even exaggerating), optimized the system to its fullest, overclocked the GPU, increased the TDP, overclocked the VRAM, but nothing... Have you found a fix yet? This case happens to me when I play fortnite. It runs at 3.6Ghz for a quick 5 minutes and when I land on the ground it gets stuck at 2.00 Ghz (2 Ghz according to MSI AB, but 1.98 Ghz in task manager). This has been driving me nuts because I get a lot of micro stuttering at the end of the game and it feels as if im playing with vsync on. :(
 
May 16, 2020
28
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Made an account just do reply to this because I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!
I've also fresh installed windows TEN times (I'm not even exaggerating), optimized the system to its fullest, overclocked the GPU, increased the TDP, overclocked the VRAM, but nothing... Have you found a fix yet? This case happens to me when I play fortnite. It runs at 3.6Ghz for a quick 5 minutes and when I land on the ground it gets stuck at 2.00 Ghz (2 Ghz according to MSI AB, but 1.98 Ghz in task manager). This has been driving me nuts because I get a lot of micro stuttering at the end of the game and it feels as if im playing with vsync on. :(
Sadly no. I doubt this can be fixed.
Maybe with custom BIOS flash.

We gotta live with this issue.
 
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