CPU throttling eventhough temperature is low

[deezebee2]

Hey guys, I've been experiencing this issue for about a week and still haven't found a way to fix it.

Basically, a week ago my CPU decided to keep throttling to 800MHz every 5 - 10 seconds when playing certain games like World of Warcraft or Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

I've downloaded ThrottleStop 6.00 to try to keep this from happening. I've successfully been able to change the CPU speeds without any issue, but when I started up one of the previously mentioned games, the CPU forced itself to throttle to 800MHz, which caused the game to lag for about 4 - 5 seconds, then running alright again once the CPU got back to its original speed (Temperature of all components was still at <70 deg. Celsius, so there was no reason for any thermal throttling).

I tried disabling "BD PROCHOT" through ThrottleStop, which did sort of fix this particular issue, but created a new one: This time, the CPU apparently ran at a constant 2.3 GHz (No turbo), according to ThrottleStop, but the game started to stutter every 5 seconds, and FPS kept dropping from 150 to 90, then went up again.

I think this issue cannot be caused by a too high temperature of the CPU, because I also downloaded Intel XTU and ran a stress test, first on 2.3 GHz where the temperature didn't even get to 70C, then on 3.2GHz where it went up to about 85. XTU claimed there wasn't any throttling during the stress test.

I also restored my computer to factory defaults, which didn't fix the issue.

So, basically, I think the throttling only starts when I run certain games, and I don't think it's caused by high temperatures because they have always been too low to trigger thermal throttling. On the other hand, the issue did change after disabling ProcHot, which is quite confusing.

Info about my computer and its components:


OS: Windows 10 Home 64 bit (10.0, build 10240)

System version: G750JX

BIOS: G750JX.207

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700HQ CPU @ 2.40Ghz (8CPUs), ~2.4GHz

Memory: 16384MB RAM; 3.975 used, 15270 available

DirectX version: 12

GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 770M

It's an ASUS gaming notebook btw.



Thanks in advance for helping (or trying to help) me out with this problem, I'm sorry if wrote something incorrectly or didn't provide more information, I'm not very experienced with this sort of stuff.

UPDATE: Here's how I set up my throttlestop: http://imgur.com/1qNM0Ys

Here are the logs of Throttlestop when I set my CPU frequency to 2.4GHz and to 3.2GHz whilst playing World of Warcraft: http://pastebin.com/JGHYtWmF

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Could your GPU be throttling?

 

[jkhoward]

This is common in World of Warcraft. I used to have this problem when playing. With C-States enabled the processor will throttle its speed to improve power efficiency. For example, if you're looking for herbs on your flying mount, which doesn't really need maximum speed since it is only loading your model, some doodads, the CPU will throttle down to save power. As soon as you hit a larger area with more players, mobs, doodads and such your processor will increase it clock speed to improve performance. The opposite is also true. If you leave Stormwind and head to Goldshire your CPU will throttle due to less demand. During this time the game will hiccup for a brief moment. A solution to this problem would be to disable C-States in the BIOS. Keep in mind that your power consumption will increase in the process. You may also be able to set your computer if Windows to High Performance in the control panel. Sometimes this overrides the BIOS C-State.

This may or may not be your problem since your temperatures aren't high, but I would recommend taking a look at this and making sure that your computer isn't on Low Performance mode in the control panel.

EDIT: Also make sure that you have your laptops power adapter installed. Most gaming laptops will throttle significantly if they aren't attached to the power adapter. (I have a gaming laptop with two video cards, while off the power adapter with SLI enabled the computer slows down to a crawl causing SLI to stutter with black screen flickers, as soon as the power adapter is plugged in the problems go away.)

 

[deezebee2]

This is common in World of Warcraft. I used to have this problem when playing. With C-States enabled the processor will throttle its speed to improve power efficiency. For example, if you're looking for herbs on your flying mount, which doesn't really need maximum speed since it is only loading your model, some doodads, the CPU will throttle down to save power. As soon as you hit a larger area with more players, mobs, doodads and such your processor will increase it clock speed to improve performance. The opposite is also true. If you leave Stormwind and head to Goldshire your CPU will throttle due to less demand. During this time the game will hiccup for a brief moment. A solution to this problem would be to disable C-States in the BIOS. Keep in mind that your power consumption will increase in the process. You may also be able to set your computer if Windows to High Performance in the control panel. Sometimes this overrides the BIOS C-State.

This may or may not be your problem since your temperatures aren't high, but I would recommend taking a look at this and making sure that your computer isn't on Low Performance mode in the control panel.

EDIT: Also make sure that you have your laptops power adapter installed. Most gaming laptops will throttle significantly if they aren't attached to the power adapter. (I have a gaming laptop with two video cards, while off the power adapter with SLI enabled the computer slows down to a crawl causing SLI to stutter with black screen flickers, as soon as the power adapter is plugged in the problems go away.)

I do have my computer set to high performance mode, and I'm having some trouble accessing CPU options, because I am on a laptop, and apparently I can't access all the settings there are because of that. Is there any other way to disable these C-states?

 

[deezebee2]

Could your GPU be throttling?

I'm not sure. I mean, I can clearly see that it's the CPU that's throttling when playing a video game, on both XTU and ThrottleStop.

 

[unclewebb]

On a laptop, disabling the C States is not a good idea. Besides making your laptop run hotter, disabling the C States prevents Intel Turbo Boost from working properly.

My first recommendation would be to completely exit Intel XTU. It draws some nice graphs but cannot help with the problem you are having and it also puts a significant load on your CPU. All it is doing is reducing your performance.

ThrottleStop 8.00
https://www.sendspace.com/file/78dnne

The latest version of ThrottleStop has a lot more features for the 4th Gen CPUs. From overclocking to full voltage control. It also has features that are not available in Intel XTU.

Use ThrottleStop to disable BD PROCHOT. BD PROCHOT is not the same as PROCHOT. If your CPU gets too hot ( PROCessor HOT ) your CPU will slow down to protect itself from damage whether BD PROCHOT is enabled or disabled. Disabling BD PROCHOT prevents other items on your motherboard from throttling your CPU.

Can you post a picture of how you have ThrottleStop setup? You should have a check mark in the Set Multiplier box and this should be set to the highest possible value. Also click on the Turn On button.

No fancy graphs in ThrottleStop but the Log File feature will provide you with accurate performance data. Check this option when gaming so you have a record of your CPU's performance and CPU and GPU temperatures.

Many Asus gaming laptop models have significant throttling issues like you are experiencing. ThrottleStop can be used to get the most out of your CPU. Intel XTU cannot.

ThrottleStop should look something like this.

http://i.imgur.com/3IogLVd.png

 

[deezebee2]

On a laptop, disabling the C States is not a good idea. Besides making your laptop run hotter, disabling the C States prevents Intel Turbo Boost from working properly.

My first recommendation would be to completely exit Intel XTU. It draws some nice graphs but cannot help with the problem you are having and it also puts a significant load on your CPU. All it is doing is reducing your performance.

ThrottleStop 8.00
https://www.sendspace.com/file/78dnne

The latest version of ThrottleStop has a lot more features for the 4th Gen CPUs. From overclocking to full voltage control. It also has features that are not available in Intel XTU.

Use ThrottleStop to disable BD PROCHOT. BD PROCHOT is not the same as PROCHOT. If your CPU gets too hot ( PROCessor HOT ) your CPU will slow down to protect itself from damage whether BD PROCHOT is enabled or disabled. Disabling BD PROCHOT prevents other items on your motherboard from throttling your CPU.

Can you post a picture of how you have ThrottleStop setup? You should have a check mark in the Set Multiplier box and this should be set to the highest possible value. Also click on the Turn On button.

No fancy graphs in ThrottleStop but the Log File feature will provide you with accurate performance data. Check this option when gaming so you have a record of your CPU's performance and CPU and GPU temperatures.

Many Asus gaming laptop models have significant throttling issues like you are experiencing. ThrottleStop can be used to get the most out of your CPU. Intel XTU cannot.

ThrottleStop should look something like this.

http://i.imgur.com/3IogLVd.png

Oh awesome, thanks for giving me a link to throttlestop 800, I only found the earlier beta verison which didn't let me install it.

This is how I set mine up: http://imgur.com/1qNM0Ys

It's not exactly set up the same as yours, I turned SpeedStep off because I thought it could also lower the performance of the CPU, but I'll ofcourse turn it back on if you think I should do so.

 

[unclewebb]

SpeedStep needs to be enabled if you want the ThrottleStop - Set Multiplier feature to work correctly. Why did you set this to 32 T? Why not set it to the maximum value? Will that cause too much heat?

I don't remember seeing any laptop that uses Clock Modulation throttling as well as Chipset Clock Modulation throttling. Most laptops will use one or the other but not both. If you do not know if your laptop is using either one of these then go do some gaming and run the ThrottleStop Log File option to see which one your laptop uses. You only need to check off the one that your specific laptop is using.

Is your laptop running OK now?

You should be able to under volt your CPU by about -50 mV. You can do this in the ThrottleStop FIVR window. Less voltage will lower your peak temperatures but do not get too carried away or else your laptop will become unstable.

Post some pics or some Log Files if you need more help. You can copy and paste log files to www.pastebin.com and then post a link here.

 

[deezebee2]

SpeedStep needs to be enabled if you want the ThrottleStop - Set Multiplier feature to work correctly. Why did you set this to 32 T? Why not set it to the maximum value? Will that cause too much heat?

I don't remember seeing any laptop that uses Clock Modulation throttling as well as Chipset Clock Modulation throttling. Most laptops will use one or the other but not both. If you do not know if your laptop is using either one of these then go do some gaming and run the ThrottleStop Log File option to see which one your laptop uses. You only need to check off the one that your specific laptop is using.

Is your laptop running OK now?

You should be able to under volt your CPU by about -50 mV. You can do this in the ThrottleStop FIVR window. Less voltage will lower your peak temperatures but do not get too carried away or else your laptop will become unstable.

Post some pics or some Log Files if you need more help. You can copy and paste log files to www.pastebin.com and then post a link here.

The reason why I have it set to 32T is because this is the default value with the in-built turbo boost, and I don't really want to overclock my CPU even more with throttlestop because apparently it shortens its life-span even more.

I unchecked both CKMOD and CHIPM, played some WoW, then checked the logs; both CKMOD and CHIPM stayed at 100.00% all the time, so I left them both unchecked.

I tried playing WoW without turbo boost (2.4GHz), lag spikes didn't happen very often, like 1 - 2 every 10 seconds. With turbo boost (3.2GHz), there were lag spikes every single second, game was absolutely unplayable. Here are the logs from both scenarios: http://pastebin.com/JGHYtWmF

This is quite strange, because my CPU doesn't seem to be throttling; the logs claim that the frequency is relatively stable, and the lags become worse the faster my CPU's frequency is set to.

 

[unclewebb]

http://ark.intel.com/products/75116/Intel-Core-i7-4700HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_40-GHz

The default maximum multiplier for your CPU is 34 so ThrottleStop should be set to 34 T. A setting of 32 T is called under clocking, 34 T is normal and 36 T would be overclocking. Intel would not have included overclocking in the design of the 4700HQ if they thought it was going to shorten its life span any meaningful amount. This is not part of the problem you are having but I just wanted to let you know that there is no need to worry. Intel CPUs are very robust.

It would have been better to include more data but what you did include shows a CPU that is running very steady without any throttling problems. The game you are playing is not a significant load for a 4700MQ. I think your CPU is fine. Have you logged your GPU? Is your GPU running at a steady MHz? Have you tried different GPU driver versions?

One problem I noticed when upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 is that I ended up with a lot of background processes that were significantly loading my CPU. I waited a couple of days for W10 to settle down but it never did. It took a while but I finally found some Microsoft bloatware that seemed to be stuck and was constantly loading my CPU. Once I got rid of that, my CPU was finally able to settle down. With absolutely nothing running on your computer, what percent of time is your CPU spending in the C0 state processing background tasks? Here's how my 4700MQ looks now.

http://i.imgur.com/FhdRds4.png

Windows 10 and all of its background tasks should be using up less than 0.5% of one of these CPUs. Unfortunately, I am seeing some laptops that never settle down and they need to spend almost 10% in the C0 State to manage the background tasks. These background tasks can interfere with smooth gaming and they completely kill battery run time.

(Edit - The above pic was just sitting at the Desktop without Google Chrome or anything else running in the background.)

You might also want to run something like LatencyMon.

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

One bad driver can cause the kind of problem that you are seeing.

Also try going into the ThrottleStop Options window and set the AC Timer Resolution to 1. The default setting for this is usually 15.6 ms. A setting of 1 ms can make a big difference for some stuttering problems.

 

[deezebee2]

http://ark.intel.com/products/75116/Intel-Core-i7-4700HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_40-GHz

The default maximum multiplier for your CPU is 34 so ThrottleStop should be set to 34 T. A setting of 32 T is called under clocking, 34 T is normal and 36 T would be overclocking. Intel would not have included overclocking in the design of the 4700HQ if they thought it was going to shorten its life span any meaningful amount. This is not part of the problem you are having but I just wanted to let you know that there is no need to worry. Intel CPUs are very robust.

It would have been better to include more data but what you did include shows a CPU that is running very steady without any throttling problems. The game you are playing is not a significant load for a 4700MQ. I think your CPU is fine. Have you logged your GPU? Is your GPU running at a steady MHz? Have you tried different GPU driver versions?

One problem I noticed when upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 is that I ended up with a lot of background processes that were significantly loading my CPU. I waited a couple of days for W10 to settle down but it never did. It took a while but I finally found some Microsoft bloatware that seemed to be stuck and was constantly loading my CPU. Once I got rid of that, my CPU was finally able to settle down. With absolutely nothing running on your computer, what percent of time is your CPU spending in the C0 state processing background tasks? Here's how my 4700MQ looks now.

http://i.imgur.com/FhdRds4.png

Windows 10 and all of its background tasks should be using up less than 0.5% of one of these CPUs. Unfortunately, I am seeing some laptops that never settle down and they need to spend almost 10% in the C0 State to manage the background tasks. These background tasks can interfere with smooth gaming and they completely kill battery run time.

(Edit - The above pic was just sitting at the Desktop without Google Chrome or anything else running in the background.)

You might also want to run something like LatencyMon.

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

One bad driver can cause the kind of problem that you are seeing.

Also try going into the ThrottleStop Options window and set the AC Timer Resolution to 1. The default setting for this is usually 15.6 ms. A setting of 1 ms can make a big difference for some stuttering problems.

Well, it turns out it was in fact the GPU that was causing the issue. Seems like it's most likely throttling because it's reaching the power target, which I've been trying to set higher with Precision X, but sadly, I am too useless to do so, because I can't find the Voltage Control option which I can tick so I can control the Power Target. These are the logs for the GPU during gaming: http://i.imgur.com/D1PiRd2.png

 

[DonkeyOatie]

That was my experience with my laptop.

 

[cheezy174]

That was my experience with my laptop.

Hi! Could you please tell how you fixed your GPU throttling? I got pretty much the same GPU behaviour which OP has.

I got ASUS k56cb , with Core i5 3337U, gt 740m. GPU starts throttling after ~20 seconds of any activity that requiers about 80% or higher GPU load. That causes GPU keep changing MHz and voltage from the bottom min to max every 2-3 seconds. I disabled BD-PROCSHOT with ThrottleStop 6.00, so my CPU MHz could be stable, but GPU still does that. I figured out i can overclock the "Performance Level [0]" with Nvidia Inspector up to my normal Clocks so when throttling happens it could keep my normal MHz, but this isnt really a solution, because i know throttling keeps triggering every second, which worries me.

Temperatures are fine:
gpu-z render test: CPU at 68C, GPU at 59C.
gaming: CPU at 78C, GPU at 69-71C at most.
Both tests triggers GPU throttling like crazy.

I got Windows 8.1 (64), High Performance power preset, latest Nvidia driver, Intel DPTF driver, Intel Engine managment, ASUS ATK package, ASUS Power4Hybrid.
I tested GPU without all of this software as well, tried older Nvidia drivers. Results still the same.

Here's the most interesting thing: Throttling on low temperatures with rapid MHz changes accurs Only when AC power plugged in. I tried changing AC power adapter to more powerfull one - results still the same. The moment AC unplugged - throttling stops. Everything goes normal with high GPU MHz. With AC unplugged throttling can be triggered only with stress test with temertures like CPU 88C+, GPU 76C+, and it doesnt change MHz rapidly, it just keeps them low until i got decent temperature.

I would be happy if you could share your experience with this.

Thank you!

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Hi. This is a dead, solved thread. The two best ways to handle this would be to:

a. Send a Private Message linking to this thread and asking for help

b. Start a new thread of your own, referencing this thread.

Most users bypass Solved threads and activity messages from old threads clogs up the notification lists for the rest of us.

That was my experience with my laptop.

Was a bit terse, but means I had that problem too, not that is has a magic solution to rewrite the laws of thermodynamics. Laptops have a very tight power and thermal envelope that is it very hard to impossible to break out of, push in one place, and it squeezes out somewhere else.

 

[Seba_5]

and u fix it ? im having the same problem, only when i plugg the charger, u can tell me some fixes guys ?

 

[enrijss]

I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM. I can't disable intel turbo boost.. without it my cpu will run at 2.8ghz but with, 3.5.. its a big fps boost. any other fixes?