CPU Throttling But Temps Are Fine?

[mr.michael5530]

Hello all!

So I have an XPS 15 9550 that I got for school, but one of the big reasons I decided to buy it was because of the dedicated GPU. Until a few months ago, light gaming has been perfectly fine, running all the games I play at a steady 60 FPS (League, CS:GO, Fortnite). Now after maybe 30 minutes of gaming, FPS will drop significantly, down between 20-30 FPS for up to 10 minutes before returning to normal. After downloaded Intel's XTU, I noticed that temps were getting pretty high before the FPS drops (between 80-90 degrees).

In attempt to fix this, I've undervolted the CPU by 125mv and results have been good. The CPU is running much cooler at around 60-70 degrees under load, but the throttling still hasn't gone away. As soon as I've noticed the huge FPS drops, I've checked XTU and temps were still between 60-70 degrees, but the Max Core Frequency has dropped to .80GHz. It usually does this in short bursts for about 3-5 minutes before returning back to the full 3.3GHz.

I should also note that I play plugged in on the highest performance setting in the control panel.

I'm really at a loss, I feel like I"ve tried everything and it's so frustrating to see my FPS drop for what seems like no reason at all. I've searched and searched for issues like mine, but none of the forums I've came across are quite like the issues I'm having.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Gingerbread]

The throttling is be a of the gpu, not the cpu, unless you have an integrated gpu, but you said yours is dedicated, so check gpu temps.

 

[SgtScream]

In addition to what boom stated above, Intel throttle does not occur until temps hit 100C. No need to under volt the cpu. Was there a recent graphics driver update? Or do you need to update your graphics drivers?

 

[mr.michael5530]

In addition to what boom stated above, Intel throttle does not occur until temps hit 100C. No need to under volt the cpu. Was there a recent graphics driver update? Or do you need to update your graphics drivers?

Would the throttling of the GPU have any impact on the CPU then? Does that explain why my CPU Frequency drops to .80GHz? Also, what do you recommend to check my GPU temps and what do you think a solution would be to prevent it from happening? I have the option to undervolt the GPU in Intel's XTU, maybe I can try that?

 

[Gingerbread]

CPU frequency drops due to low load when you alt rab most of the time the most likely problem is your gpu.

 

[whateverdude]

It's very normal to throttle on 80-90 degrees if that's your CPU socket temp and not your CPU core temp.
To see the CPU core temp while playing i'd recommend MSI afterburner.
If i was you i'd open the laptop and see if the CPU cooler is still properly stuck on the CPU....

 

[Kisianik]

You are not alone - there are many posts in Dell Community forum, and Dell is not responding to them, meaning that this model has too many issues.

So far users come up with only solutions, which worked, at least for a while - disassembling laptop, cleaning from dust (one user reported too much dust), changing thermal pads and thermal paste (helped someone for a few months).
Others tried undervolting CPU with mixed results.

Here are 2 videos where you can get heatpipe removal visual instructions.

First video actually shows poorly applied (factory) thermal paste over CPU, which could be the source of extreme overheating. Once you removed heatpipe, clean it and use at least Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUSBm1KZZp8

Second video just to help you to see the process from different user.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSkoQ8Oayw8&vl=en

Arctic Silver 5. I would recommend to use full kit including cleaning solutions for the best results, if you want to save money (a few bucks), you can get Arctic Silver 5 only paste by itself, your choice.

Arctic Silver 5 kit https://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-Thermal-Compound-ArctiClean/dp/B002DILLMS/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1535300510&sr=1-5&keywords=Arctic+Silver+5

Arctic Silver 5 paste only https://www.amazon.com/Arctic-Silver-AS5-3-5G-Thermal-Paste/dp/B0087X728K

While separating parts you obviously want to clean dust off all parts, something like this helps a lot https://www.amazon.com/Office-Depot-Cleaning-Duster-OD101523/dp/B00DB8NSG6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535300945&sr=8-1&keywords=Compressed+Air+Spray

I hope it helps