[SOLVED] Razer Blade 15 2018 1070 max-q ridiculous power limit throttling while MSI GS65 Stealth is completely fine.

[NickinAction]

I own a Razer blade 15 with the 1070 max-q released in 2018 and I have been getting a lot of power limit throttling on the CPU (i7-8750H). One of my friends has an MSI GS65 Stealth with the same cpu and almost all internals except the gpu, which is a 1060. We have run cinebench scores and have gotten different results. I usually get anywhere from 2100 to 2250 and he gets around 2600 (probably not normal scores, but we have tweaked some throttlestop settings) This is due to my laptop power limit throttling, it sticks around 3.8 GHz for about 10 seconds, then it power limit throttles down to about 3 GHz, occasionally rising by a couple hundred MHz. The temperatures I get vary on things like the amount of time that I use the laptop. For example when I just boot up, temps are at about 45C and then when I run cinebench it goes up to about 75C and then throttles down to 65C. The package power is at around 75 watts and that it drops to the 45 that razer has set as a limit. I have messed around with some settings in Throttlestop and sometimes managed to get it to draw around 55W and still be fine at 3.7 – 3.8 GHz. I still get power limit throttling and it locks onto 45W again, still throttling down to about 3.1 GHz. I usually have a -0.140 undervolt on core and -0.135 on cache for my cpu and my friend has the same. And yet, he doesn’t get power limit throttling and his wattage is at around 50-55W when running cinebench.

Another thing that I didn’t mention is that my Turbo ratio limits are set to 39,39,38,38,37,37. (again, GS65 has the same set). I am using gaming mode in Razer Synapse. I have tried different power plans: Balanced, High Performance, Ultimate, and Razer Cortex Power Plan. Not much changed when switching them. My fans are usually always set to max (I don’t care very much about the noise). One of my suspicions is that the GS65’s 1060 draws less power than my 1070 max-q and therefore it allows for more on the CPU, also I don’t thing that MSI has a firmware lock like the razer does for the CPU wattage, given that even their BIOS unlocks with a key combination.

Here is what a graph in XTU looks like when running cinebench r20:

I have been thinking of maybe unlocking the bios and changing the power limit there or something but since razer makes it a painful process I won't be able to understand what I am doing in the process and don't want mess up my computer or brick it.

Any help or information is much appreciated!

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Can you download hwmonitor or hwinfo then leave it backround and do some gaming. Sometimes VRM and PCH high temperature can lower clocks for CPU and GPU both. (80c on cpu might already be the limit)

However anything i would suggest like repasting the cpu with conductive liquid metal or non conductive paste, replacing thermal pads and flashing modded bios will void warranty.

Replacing thermal paste and pads is safe if done right and you gain some performance , but flashing bios with new power limit or advanced menus might have risk of bricking your laptop and then you need to reflashing the bios chip with a programmer, fun stuff ends there.

 

[NickinAction]

Can you download hwmonitor or hwinfo then leave it backround and do some gaming. Sometimes VRM and PCH high temperature can lower clocks for CPU and GPU both. (80c on cpu might already be the limit)

However anything i would suggest like repasting the cpu with conductive liquid metal or non conductive paste, replacing thermal pads and flashing modded bios will void warranty.

Replacing thermal paste and pads is safe if done right and you gain some performance , but flashing bios with new power limit or advanced menus might have risk of bricking your laptop and then you need to reflashing the bios chip with a programmer, fun stuff ends there.

I have HWMonitor installed already and will try to leave it on to see what happens.

I have already repasted my cpu and gpu on this laptop since my warranty ran out in 2019, i didn't use liquid metal (although i was considering). Instead i used Arctic MX-4. i also replaced thermal pads. I didn't find it having that much impact on my temps.


Yeah flashing the bios is what I'm mostly worried about. I have not found a video guide (i much prefer those) on how to properly do it for my model and have only seen a forum post for the RTX versions of my laptop with about 5 different warnings about how this could brick my laptop.

Thanks for replying!

 

[lga1156_ftw]

You will not gain much anything from "unlocking" thermal throttling limits and upping the power limit if your already hitting 80c+

What thermal pads did you replace? There is tons of guides out there. Liquid metal might need some maintenance work after 3-6months, its safe to use with that heatsink but temperatures might spike up again after some time , best non conductive paste is thermal krizzly kryonaut so that would be worth to try if you decide to open it up once more.

I would suggest getting laptop cooling pad too, i been using "kootek cooling pad" 5 fan model its decent and cheap.

DONT start flashing bios, there is many things to consider like your vbios might be different than the thread your reading and then you will brick the board and need to use programmer to reflash the chip. Only if your 100% sure what your doing and have temperatures around 75c

 

[lga1156_ftw]

This is very good video if you want to use liquid metal, use 90% isoprohyl alcohol for cleaning.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xK4SjOra1E

 

[NickinAction]

This is very good video if you want to use liquid metal, use 90% isoprohyl alcohol for cleaning.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xK4SjOra1E

Something that I don't really understand is even if I do repaste with liquid metal, wont the power limits still stay the same? Does reducing temperatures mean that the CPU has to draw less power to maintain the same clock speed? Theoretically speaking if I do repaste with liquid metal, and my temperatures would be at around 70C on a full load (I'm not too sure if these are accurate). What will stop the CPU from still power limit throttling because it still draws the same amount of power? I'm not too sure on how exactly power limit throttling works, but it sounds to me that it isn't affected too much by temperatures.

Thank you!

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Download aida64 trial and open it with administrative rights, then check in sensors "CPU package power" you can then see same time when your running benchmark how much power your cpu is drawing and compare that with your friend to see if hes GPU draws less power. It will probably change mid benchmark so keep looking at it.

Using liquid metal wont change your power limit, but clock speeds can still change even if package power is the same 45w during load. This is also a step you need to do if you really plan to raise the power limit with unlocked bios.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Also about undervolting no every chip is the same and you might lose some clock speed in benchmarks when your cpu cant stay in certain clock speed with current voltages. With liquid metal and drop in temperatures you can undervolt less and up the multipliers for more performance in games and benchmarks. Try to set undervolt to 0.100v on both cache and core and raise all core multipliers to 39. What other options did you tweak in throttlestop?