[SOLVED] CPU speed drops while gaming, but temperature is normal

[bosourd]

I'm pretty new on PC hardware stuff so I'm at a loss here. Pardon if I look like an idiot.

My CPU drops while in-game recently (I think, I don't really check on task manager while gaming so I'm not sure when this start to happen, I figured this out by accident) from 3.00 GHz to as low as 1.00, and hangs around 1.50ish, but goes back up to full speed as soon as I quit the game.

Acer E5-475G
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz
RAM: 8,00 GB
GPU: Nvidia 940MX (2GB)
BIOS: InsydeH20

It's an old low-end laptop I know, but it never drop that low before especially while gaming (note that I used to run my game with the temp went hardcore, to 95+ degrees playing Apex Legends, I know, it's crazy), yet the CPU speed didn't drop and stable at full speed. I also regularly clean my laptop, cooling pad at full RPM, running in a cool room temp, changed the thermal paste once like 6 months ago since I have only had this laptop for 2+ years now.

And all of a sudden since I figured my CPU speed drop, so I thought it may be overheating even though in GPUz or other monitor software the temp seems pretty much normal, so I opened my laptop case cause I thought my thermal paste dried out, or heavy dust blocked the fan, but the thermal paste is pretty much still wet, but I applied a new paste anyway, fan running fine at full RPM but somehow the heatsink exit doesn't blow air as much even though I cleaned it, no heavy dust whatsoever (?)

when I figured the CPU drops drastically, I was playing House Flipper, not even graphics demanding, CPU load around 30%-40%, GPU load pretty much 99%. Set everything at high performance in Nvidia control panel, power options, and graphics options.

but the weird thing is, even though the CPU speed drops, my FPS seems normal like always, I tried Apex Legends, F1 2020, Hitman 3, with 1.50ish speed, I don't really notice FPS difference that much, but the temp is like 10 degrees less than it used to be when I run heavy games. I also use another monitor and run most of my software and run my games there, could that be a problem as well?

what is happening here? I'm afraid if I'm damaging some components...

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I don't really check on task manager while gaming so I'm not sure when this start to happen

what are you using to monitor system stats?

use an OSD while running games and other intensive software to keep a live view on all stats as they are happening.
either Afterburner+RTSS or HWiNFO have easy to use interfaces.

 

[bosourd]

what are you using to monitor system stats?

use an OSD while running games and other intensive software to keep a live view on all stats as they are happening.
either Afterburner+RTSS or HWiNFO have easy to use interfaces.

so far I have tried to monitor it with HWmonitor, GPU Z, and throttlestop on my second monitor while running games, everything seems normal (at least from what I understand, can’t fully understand some of the terms) I have also tried to disable turbo boost, undervolt, and limit my clock speed, but no luck, the most obvious thing is the speed drops still happen even with normal temperatures, barely touch 80degrees

edit: I also use NotebookFanControl to override the fan speed, and it changes accordingly, so the fan speed sensors seems working just fine

I can provide screenshots later on though

 

[uWebb429]

The 7200U is a low power CPU with a TDP rating of 15W. At default specs, it is designed to power limit throttle so it does not exceed 15W. This type of throttling is not temperature related.

Turn on the Log File option in ThrottleStop and play a game for at least 15 minutes so you have a record of your CPU performance. The log file will also record any reasons for throttling. Copy and paste your log file data to www.pastebin.com and then post a link here so I can have a look. The log file will be in your ThrottleStop / Logs folder.

Open up the Limit Reasons window while playing a game and watch for anything lighting up red. That will show you why your CPU is throttling.

Upload images of the main ThrottleStop window as well as the FIVR and TPL windows. A bios or Windows update might have changed one of the power limits so your CPU no longer performs like it used to. Stuff like this happens all of the time. You have to be aware and monitor for any changes on a regular basis.

 

[bosourd]

The 7200U is a low power CPU with a TDP rating of 15W. At default specs, it is designed to power limit throttle so it does not exceed 15W. This type of throttling is not temperature related.

Turn on the Log File option in ThrottleStop and play a game for at least 15 minutes so you have a record of your CPU performance. The log file will also record any reasons for throttling. Copy and paste your log file data to www.pastebin.com and then post a link here so I can have a look. The log file will be in your ThrottleStop / Logs folder.

Open up the Limit Reasons window while playing a game and watch for anything lighting up red. That will show you why your CPU is throttling.

Upload images of the main ThrottleStop window as well as the FIVR and TPL windows. A bios or Windows update might have changed one of the power limits so your CPU no longer performs like it used to. Stuff like this happens all of the time. You have to be aware and monitor for any changes on a regular basis.

will do, by the way, I’m pausing my windows update right now, should I update the windows first and see if that fix anything?

as for BIOS i’m pretty much blind about it, never really change anything there

 

[bosourd]

@uWebb429 @JohnBonhamsGhost

I just updated windows, the problem still exists, here are the screenshots: throttlestop

and the log file: logfile

I didn't tick anything else other than the log file, clicked the turn on button then start playing a game.

edit: disabling BD PROCHOT and ticking the disable and lock turbo didn't help either

 

[uWebb429]

@bosourd
Your computer has a couple of different throttling problems so it is best to check and uncheck a few different things in ThrottleStop.

TPL Window

• check the MMIO Lock box
• clear the Disable Power Limit Control box.
• check the Speed Shift box and set Speed Shift Max to 31.
• press OK to save these settings.

Main Window

• check the Speed Shift EPP box.
• where it says 128, click on this to edit the EPP value. For maximum CPU speed regardless of load, set EPP to 0. When you are running on battery power, try setting EPP to 84. This will let your CPU slow down when lightly loaded.
• clear the BD PROCHOT box.

FIVR Window

• check Unlock Adjustable Voltage for the CPU Core and the CPU Cache. Increase IccMax to the maximum value for both of these, 255.75. This will help prevent some types of throttling.
• check the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box if it is not already checked.

Play a game and run another log file. If you are still having problems, post another round of screenshots so I can see your updated settings. With some laptop throttling problems, when you fix one problem, another problem can pop up. Hopefully enabling Speed Shift is going to help out. This was a popular feature for Intel mobile CPUs but it took some manufacturers years to get around to enabling Speed Shift.

 

[bosourd]

@bosourd
Your computer has a couple of different throttling problems so it is best to check and uncheck a few different things in ThrottleStop.

TPL Window

• check the MMIO Lock box
• clear the Disable Power Limit Control box.
• check the Speed Shift box and set Speed Shift Max to 31.
• press OK to save these settings.

Main Window

• check the Speed Shift EPP box.
• where it says 128, click on this to edit the EPP value. For maximum CPU speed regardless of load, set EPP to 0. When you are running on battery power, try setting EPP to 84. This will let your CPU slow down when lightly loaded.
• clear the BD PROCHOT box.

FIVR Window

• check Unlock Adjustable Voltage for the CPU Core and the CPU Cache. Increase IccMax to the maximum value for both of these, 255.75. This will help prevent some types of throttling.
• check the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box if it is not already checked.

Play a game and run another log file. If you are still having problems, post another round of screenshots so I can see your updated settings. With some laptop throttling problems, when you fix one problem, another problem can pop up. Hopefully enabling Speed Shift is going to help out. This was a popular feature for Intel mobile CPUs but it took some manufacturers years to get around to enabling Speed Shift.

it seems to work, the speed is stable at 3.09, and the temp got to 83 as you can see (i think it's normal just like always) unlike before no matter how long I play the temp stays around 60-65 with low CPU speed

note: in the Limit Reasons tab, yesterday it showed BD PROCHOT under the GPU and Core tab and out of curiosity I clicked on both of the tab and the yellow thing is gone, and now after your setting recommendation, the yellow sign didn't show up at all, I don't know if that's because I clicked on it or not, just so you know

logfile
throttlestop

I guess my laptop is safe to use now with this setting? Or is there something else I should do?
if yes, should I open ThrottleStop and click turn on before I play games?

 

[uWebb429]

the speed is stable at 3.09

Your computer is running fantastic compared to how it was throttling before.

should I open ThrottleStop and click turn on before I play games?

The ThrottleStop Turn On - Turn Off button only controls two things; Clock Mod and Set Multiplier. You only need to press the Turn On button if you are using either of those two features. You are using Speed Shift Technology so Set Multiplier is disabled and not used. Clock Modulation throttling is rarely used on 7th Gen laptops. Your computer is running great. No need to check anything else in ThrottleStop. I outlined the important stuff for you.

Any core temperature under 100°C is fine. Your CPU will automatically slow down if it ever gets too hot so you do not need to worry about its temperature.

If you really want your CPU to run cooler, go into the FIVR window and set a negative voltage offset of -50 mV for both the CPU Core and the CPU Cache. Most Intel CPUs are stable at this reduced voltage.

 

[bosourd]

Your computer is running fantastic compared to how it was throttling before.


The ThrottleStop Turn On - Turn Off button only controls two things; Clock Mod and Set Multiplier. You only need to press the Turn On button if you are using either of those two features. You are using Speed Shift Technology so Set Multiplier is disabled and not used. Clock Modulation throttling is rarely used on 7th Gen laptops. Your computer is running great. No need to check anything else in ThrottleStop. I outlined the important stuff for you.

Any core temperature under 100°C is fine. Your CPU will automatically slow down if it ever gets too hot so you do not need to worry about its temperature.

If you really want your CPU to run cooler, go into the FIVR window and set a negative voltage offset of -50 mV for both the CPU Core and the CPU Cache. Most Intel CPUs are stable at this reduced voltage.

thank you so much! your method worked like a charm

another thing if you don't mind, I usually watch live streams almost every night before sleep, just for white noises, and set a shutdown timer, usually will shutdown around 1-2 am. Before, I always switch to power saver mode to clock down my CPU so it wouldn't use so much power.

And after running TS, even though I fully close it, the CPU speed won't go down after switching to power saver mode. So, I switched to battery mode preset on TS, to make the speed go down, is that safe to do to switch between profiles on TS? and shutting down while TS is running?

 

[uWebb429]

@bosourd
When Speed Shift is enabled, the Speed Shift EPP variable controls whether the CPU will slow down or not when lightly loaded. You can click on the EPP value in the box to edit it.

When EPP is set to 0, this tells the CPU to run at maximum speed regardless of load. If you want the CPU to slow down when lightly loaded, change the EPP value. When running on battery power, you can try setting EPP to somewhere between 80 and 128. I set EPP to 0 when plugged in.

Intel CPUs conserve power by entering low power C states like C7. Slowing the CPU down is not as important as most people think.

Speed Shift Technology was designed so when a CPU has a task to perform, the CPU is able to get up to full speed as fast as possible. This allows the CPU to run at a more efficient speed. A 10% or 20% increase in voltage might allow the CPU to run 100% or 200% faster. That is a good thing.

This concept is called race to sleep. The CPU races through tasks, gets tasks done as fast as possible and then immediately re-enters the low power C7 state where the core is disconnected from the voltage rail and is sitting idle at 0 MHz. When a core is in this dormant state, waking it up to query its speed is pointless. Before it was woken up, the core was sitting in C7 consuming next to nothing for power. That is why monitoring C state residency time is more important than monitoring MHz when a CPU is idle. Eliminate useless background tasks and try to improve C state percentages. This is the best way to save power and increase battery run time.

You can have a fast CPU and low power consumption as long as the C states are well used. My 10850K is a good example of this. Check out the idle temps and idle power consumption even though 10 cores are running at 5000 MHz when idle. A fast CPU is an efficient CPU. It is not a bad thing.

Here is a good paper from some smart people at Berkeley.

Power Optimization - A Reality Check
http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2009/EECS-2009-140.pdf

If you still like seeing a slow CPU, set one profile in ThrottleStop with EPP set to 0 for maximum speed and set up a second profile in ThrottleStop with EPP set to between 80 and 128. You can switch ThrottleStop profiles at any time or you can exit or suspend Windows at any time while ThrottleStop is running. You can also setup ThrottleStop to automatically switch profiles when you switch from AC to battery power.

On my computer, the Windows Power Saver power plan sets EPP to 153. This lowers the MHz more compared to the Balanced power plan but power consumption as measured at the wall is no different. On my desktop computer, Balanced vs High Performance only reduces idle power consumption at the wall by 1 Watt. Definitely not worth worrying about when plugged in. Like the paper above says, might as well just run fast.

When you exit ThrottleStop, it leaves everything as is. If you use ThrottleStop to set EPP to 0 and then you exit ThrottleStop, the EPP register will still be set to 0. That is why your computer continues to run at full speed. If you want your CPU to slow down, switch to a different ThrottleStop profile first or change the EPP value first before exiting ThrottleStop.

 

[bosourd]

@bosourd
When Speed Shift is enabled, the Speed Shift EPP variable controls whether the CPU will slow down or not when lightly loaded. You can click on the EPP value in the box to edit it.

When EPP is set to 0, this tells the CPU to run at maximum speed regardless of load. If you want the CPU to slow down when lightly loaded, change the EPP value. When running on battery power, you can try setting EPP to somewhere between 80 and 128. I set EPP to 0 when plugged in.

Intel CPUs conserve power by entering low power C states like C7. Slowing the CPU down is not as important as most people think.

Speed Shift Technology was designed so when a CPU has a task to perform, the CPU is able to get up to full speed as fast as possible. This allows the CPU to run at a more efficient speed. A 10% or 20% increase in voltage might allow the CPU to run 100% or 200% faster. That is a good thing.

This concept is called race to sleep. The CPU races through tasks, gets tasks done as fast as possible and then immediately re-enters the low power C7 state where the core is disconnected from the voltage rail and is sitting idle at 0 MHz. When a core is in this dormant state, waking it up to query its speed is pointless. Before it was woken up, the core was sitting in C7 consuming next to nothing for power. That is why monitoring C state residency time is more important than monitoring MHz when a CPU is idle. Eliminate useless background tasks and try to improve C state percentages. This is the best way to save power and increase battery run time.

You can have a fast CPU and low power consumption as long as the C states are well used. My 10850K is a good example of this. Check out the idle temps and idle power consumption even though 10 cores are running at 5000 MHz when idle. A fast CPU is an efficient CPU. It is not a bad thing.

Here is a good paper from some smart people at Berkeley.

Power Optimization - A Reality Check
http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2009/EECS-2009-140.pdf

If you still like seeing a slow CPU, set one profile in ThrottleStop with EPP set to 0 for maximum speed and set up a second profile in ThrottleStop with EPP set to between 80 and 128. You can switch ThrottleStop profiles at any time or you can exit or suspend Windows at any time while ThrottleStop is running. You can also setup ThrottleStop to automatically switch profiles when you switch from AC to battery power.

On my computer, the Windows Power Saver power plan sets EPP to 153. This lowers the MHz more compared to the Balanced power plan but power consumption as measured at the wall is no different. On my desktop computer, Balanced vs High Performance only reduces idle power consumption at the wall by 1 Watt. Definitely not worth worrying about when plugged in. Like the paper above says, might as well just run fast.

When you exit ThrottleStop, it leaves everything as is. If you use ThrottleStop to set EPP to 0 and then you exit ThrottleStop, the EPP register will still be set to 0. That is why your computer continues to run at full speed. If you want your CPU to slow down, switch to a different ThrottleStop profile first or change the EPP value first before exiting ThrottleStop.

Got it, seems like the battery power profile did the job pretty well on clock down the speed.

But I have a question though, what caused my speed to slow down massively in the first place? what went wrong? Cause it's so out of the blue...

 

[uWebb429]

what caused my speed to slow down massively in the first place?

Throttling problems like this are very common in many different laptop models from all of the major manufacturers. Most users never seem to notice. There is no legit reason for a computer to throttle down to 25% of its rated speed during normal use.

It is impossible to say what the trigger was for this to start happening to your laptop. Maybe it was a Windows update or a recent BIOS update. Maybe a cheap sensor somewhere has failed.

Enabling Speed Shift Technology allows the CPU to manage itself. No more throttling.

 

[bosourd]

Throttling problems like this are very common in many different laptop models from all of the major manufacturers. Most users never seem to notice. There is no legit reason for a computer to throttle down to 25% of its rated speed during normal use.

It is impossible to say what the trigger was for this to start happening to your laptop. Maybe it was a Windows update or a recent BIOS update. Maybe a cheap sensor somewhere has failed.

Enabling Speed Shift Technology allows the CPU to manage itself. No more throttling.

Alright then, thank you for the help, it's been really helpful, I'll be sure to let you know if something happen again

 

[Anandapr]

@uWebb429 Hello, i have similliar issue like this and same spec like this. So, ive got PL2 Core Red while gaming and EDP Other Ring Red. Can someone help me with this? i tried the method like this in Throttlestop but my CPU is still throttled when gaming , cpu speed drops from 3.09 Ghz to around 1.6 or 2 Ghz

 

[bosourd]

@uWebb429 Hello, i have similliar issue like this and same spec like this. So, ive got PL2 Core Red while gaming and EDP Other Ring Red. Can someone help me with this? i tried the method like this in Throttlestop but my CPU is still throttled when gaming , cpu speed drops from 3.09 Ghz to around 1.6 or 2 Ghz

I probably won’t be able to help, but since we have the same specs, just for your information, the reason of my throttle most likely to be caused by a broken/fault censor, so one of my censor detect a high temp then clock down my cpu immediately (even though it’s normal for the cpu to run that high)

but in your case it could be a real thermal throttling, have you tried cleaning your laptop? reapply thermal paste? etc

 

[Anandapr]

I probably won’t be able to help, but since we have the same specs, just for your information, the reason of my throttle most likely to be caused by a broken/fault censor, so one of my censor detect a high temp then clock down my cpu immediately (even though it’s normal for the cpu to run that high)

but in your case it could be a real thermal throttling, have you tried cleaning your laptop? reapply thermal paste? etc

Yes i cleaned the fan and applied with new thermal paste, i used Thermal Grizzly Kryonout. Temp is max around 80 C and the CPU is throttled idk why. It makes my game run worse like in AAA games stutter , GTA 5 is missing texture caused by a slow CPU. Is that my censors may have fault like yours?

I have same spec and same laptop model like you Acer E5-475G, this laptop usually run well even at 90 C

I checked also on Hwinfo 64 i see that the core power limit exceeded and Package ring power limit exceeded is Maximum Yes

https://imgur.com/15KFKuI

View: https://imgur.com/15KFKuI