CPU stays underclocked under load

[BeTristan]

Hello all,

My laptop has the following issue: it is a bit slow. Now i have checked, and already upgraded hdd to ssd and put 4GB extra ram into it, but it keeps a bit laggy (nothing much, but performing less than might be expected). I did some test and research, and found out that the CPU stays at 0,8 ghz, out of the 1,7 which should be the max. I loaded it with heavyload, but the cpu stays at 0,8ghz. How can this happen?
Laptop: Samsung NP530U3c-A07
CPU: Intel i5 3317u

Hope to hear from you guys!

Tristan

 

[Aspiring techie]

It might be the CPU getting hot, and the laptop underclocks it so it stays within the thermal limits. Those limits are defined in the power plan. Set your power plan to high performance and see what happens.

 

[Calculagator]

Laptop CPUs down-clock when under load. They only hit their maximum clocks for short burst of activity that only use a single core.
Laptop cooling solutions cannot handle the heat generated by CPUs under load at high clocks. You can improve your performance by making sure your cooling system is properly functioning and by supplementing your cooling with an external fan.

 

[BeTristan]

Thank you both for your answers. This morning, I found out that the problem was in the deactivation of the fan or so, that is activated with the fn-key + F11. If this is activated, the clockspeed goes up. Thanks for your help!