[SOLVED] i5 10500H Current/EDP Limit Throttling and Power Limit Throttling

Apr 2, 2021
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Hello everybody,

I have recently bought a laptop with i510500H cpu and GTX 1650 Ti. To test the machine and see the performance I installed XTU, Cinebench, AIDA64 and Timespy. One thing I noticed while I was running the stress tests and benchs is that Current/EDP Limit Throttling and Power Limit Throttling is almost always active. Even in idle without any loads these are coming on and off in intervals of minutes and while under load, they activate and never goes away. My concern is that when CPU is loaded (all the same in benchs, games and stress tests) Max. Core Frequency decreases from 4.2 GHz to 3.6 GHz and when I monitor clock speeds on AIDA64 its is confirmed that clock speeds does not reach anything higher than this value. The specified Max. Turbo Freq. for this processor is 4.5 GHz, and I know that i will not receive all of this but getting 3.6 GHz seems too extreme. Below I attached 2 images while laptop is idle, and under load of Cinebench. You can see what I described above in graphs of XTU.

Another thing to mention related to this case is that nothing is even near thermal limits as you can see. In about a week I played R6 Siege, COD Warzone, SC2 and Cities. Temperature of CPU almost never exceeds 80 C.

Idle: Intervals of Current/EDP Limit Throttling and Power Limit Throttling

pHEmZuv.png


Underload: Continuous Current/EDP Limit Throttling and Power Limit Throttling, and decreased Max. Core Freq. although CPU is utilized 100%.

rOsOfg4.png


Based on what I found on internet (actually not much) I thought this is an issue of electrical limits, and I came up with an idea that if I undervolt on BIOS maybe it is solved, but no. I undervolted using step decrease ((-) 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50mV) and behavior of these two throttlings does not change. However, I must add that after undervolting performance scores of the machine is increased in Cinebench independent of temperature values. Temperature values are still the same, even under serious loads of benchs I mentioned in the begining, it tries to hold it below 80 C.

So friends, I really need help to figure this out. I seriously suspect this is something to do with motherboard, cpu relation or something interfering with circuits, I do not know.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: I perfomed isolated stress tests of CPU, FPU & Cache on AIDA64. In CPU alone test frequency reached 4.2 GHz, in FPU and Cache alone tests it hangs around 3.5 GHz. Might be a useful piece of info.
 
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Solution
I see many complaints about gaming laptops not performing well.
Usually gaming while plugged in.
One common cause is thermal throttling.
Laptop coolers must, of necessity be small and light.
They are also relatively underpowered.
If you run an app such as HWMonitor or HWinfo, you will get the current, minimum, and maximum cpu temperatures.
For intel processors, if you see a max of 100c. it means you have throttled.
The cpu will lower it's multiplier and power draw to protect itself
until the situation reverses. At a lower multiplier, your cpu usage may well be at 100%
What can you do?
First, see that your cooler airways are clear and that the cooler fan is spinning.

It is counter-intuitive, but, try changing the windows power...
Hey there,

What exact model laptop do you have?

You can increase the PL1 (Long power max) to 60w. Set PL2 (short power max) to 80w, and leave the time at 28 seconds. See how that affects your clockspeeds. It will help boost higher, at the expense of heat and fan noise, but you should get a better all core.

I use Throttlestop instead of XTU. Better results.

What undervolt are you applying? Although all chips are different, you should be able to go -160mv on core, and maybe the same on the cache. Some people will advise to undervolt core/cache the same, but for my CPU (I7 9750h) I get a higher reduction in temps by having the core more than the cache. My underovlt currently is -225mv core, and -121mv cache. It seems quite a lot of folk get better results with a cache at roughly half of the core undervolt.
 
Hey there,

What exact model laptop do you have?

You can increase the PL1 (Long power max) to 60w. Set PL2 (short power max) to 80w, and leave the time at 28 seconds. See how that affects your clockspeeds. It will help boost higher, at the expense of heat and fan noise, but you should get a better all core.

I use Throttlestop instead of XTU. Better results.

What undervolt are you applying? Although all chips are different, you should be able to go -160mv on core, and maybe the same on the cache. Some people will advise to undervolt core/cache the same, but for my CPU (I7 9750h) I get a higher reduction in temps by having the core more than the cache. My underovlt currently is -225mv core, and -121mv cache. It seems quite a lot of folk get better results with a cache at roughly half of the core undervolt.

Well it is a brand in my country Monster Abra V15.10.1. I am quite a noob in clocking and although I have seen people use Throttlestop more often I actually do not know how to use it but I will take a look at maybe some guides for that.

I undervolted on BIOS and max alloved there is - 50 mV and lots of advanced settings are closed on bios too. Higher temperatures and fans speeds will be welcomed because cpu temps does not exceed 80 C right now, I think I have decent room to play around there.
 
Here's a starters guide/explanation for TS: The ThrottleStop Guide (2021): How to Lower Temperatures, Increase Performance, and Boost Battery Life on Your Laptop (ultrabookreview.com)

You will have much better results with it rather than undervolting/offset from the bios.

It's quite easy to use. Look up some guides/videos with your CPU. Your CPU is essentially the same as my own (I7 9750h). This guide is pretty easy to follow and shows you how each setting effects your CPU speed, power draw etc: i7 9750H Undervolt Settings Using Throttlestop - YouTube
 
I see many complaints about gaming laptops not performing well.
Usually gaming while plugged in.
One common cause is thermal throttling.
Laptop coolers must, of necessity be small and light.
They are also relatively underpowered.
If you run an app such as HWMonitor or HWinfo, you will get the current, minimum, and maximum cpu temperatures.
For intel processors, if you see a max of 100c. it means you have throttled.
The cpu will lower it's multiplier and power draw to protect itself
until the situation reverses. At a lower multiplier, your cpu usage may well be at 100%
What can you do?
First, see that your cooler airways are clear and that the cooler fan is spinning.

It is counter-intuitive, but, try changing the windows power profile advanced functions to a max of 90% instead of the default of 100%
You may not notice the reduced cpu performance.
 
Solution