Question GTX 1060 in Lenovo Y720 laptop Stuck at Low Core Clocks (500–600MHz) – "Performance Limit: Power" Always Active

[Dedsec96]

Hi everyone,

I'm having an issue with my Lenovo Legion Y720 gaming laptop. The GTX 1060 6GB (Mobile) GPU is consistently running at very low core clock speeds — typically around 500–600MHz, only occasionally jumping to around 1200MHz under load. This is severely impacting gaming and performance across the board.

System Specs:​

• Laptop: Lenovo Legion Y720 (Model 80VR)
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (Mobile)
• CPU: Intel Core i7-7700HQ
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• Storage: 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD
• OS: Windows 11 using TPM bypass method
• Drivers: NVIDIA 576.02
• BIOS Version: rolled back to 4GCN31WW

Diagnostics:​

Using HWiNFO, I noticed that "Performance Limit - Power" is stuck on "Yes", even at idle, and only occasionally flickers to "No". Other performance limiters (thermal, voltage, utilization) are mostly off. GPU temperatures are staying in the mid-40s to mid-50s °C at idle and go up to mid-60s to max 70°C under load, so I don’t think this is thermal throttling. The battery is quite worn out at 63% of design capacity.

Steps I’ve Tried:​

• Clean reinstall of GPU drivers using DDU
• Rolled back BIOS since I read the latest bios version had issues
• Switched power plan to "High Performance" in Windows
• Verified NVIDIA Control Panel is set to "Prefer maximum performance"
• Cleaned laptop internals and fans.
• Changed thermal pads and paste
• Checked for any Lenovo Vantage power-saving settings (none found affecting GPU)

Questions:​

• Could this be a power delivery issue with the internal VRM or motherboard?
• Is this a known issue with this model or GTX 1060 laptops in general?
• Is this a power supply / battery issue issue?
• Any suggestions for further troubleshooting?

Any help or insight is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

 

[helpstar]

reinstall chipset drivers and others from the lenovo homepage
power plan back to balanced
whuch power supply are you using?
try a new one

 

[Dedsec96]

reinstall chipset drivers and others from the lenovo homepage
power plan back to balanced
whuch power supply are you using?
try a new one

Thanks will try reinstalling the drivers and check the brick with a multimeter.

 

[Eximo]

Multimeter will only show voltage output. You would have to wire a multimeter between the system and power brick to measure power output.

Or a wireless clamp meter, after separating the negative and positive wires inside the cable.

I agree on the battery being a potential issue. Many systems come with a relatively small power brick at 65W and the combined CPU and GPU draw can be higher than that, which would cause the battery to drain even while plugged in. If the extra power is not available it may self throttle.

And yes, motherboard issues are always a possibility. Something as simple as a sensor not working may prevent full power operation, even if nothing else is wrong.

 

[Dedsec96]

Multimeter will only show voltage output. You would have to wire a multimeter between the system and power brick to measure power output.

Or a wireless clamp meter, after separating the negative and positive wires inside the cable.

I agree on the battery being a potential issue. Many systems come with a relatively small power brick at 65W and the combined CPU and GPU draw can be higher than that, which would cause the battery to drain even while plugged in. If the extra power is not available it may self throttle.

And yes, motherboard issues are always a possibility. Something as simple as a sensor not working may prevent full power operation, even if nothing else is wrong.

Its the original lenovo brick - 170W. But I'm not very sure if it's faulty. It doesn't seem to be since the battery is being charged well and the max voltage is being met. Here's a screenshot of the gpu rail power and gpu voltage expanded -

https://imgur.com/a/ZIHPPH4

View: https://imgur.com/a/ZIHPPH4

Are there any other drivers I need to install from lenovo apart from the chipset?