Question What OEM wants to say by mentioning power limit as PL1=PL2 with higher value in high performance laptop and lower value in low performance laptop.

[Nikhilniks]

Suppose there are two laptop having specs:
Laptop A: Alienware x15 rtx 3070 & 11800H processor having PL1=PL2=140watt (Specs)
Laptop B: Alienware x17 rtx 3080 & 11800H processor having PL1=PL2=165watt
Default TDP@base for 11800H is 45W.

I know that when PL2=PL1 with having infinite Tau then Processors are capable to run at turbo power in long run until thermal throttled.

My ques are:
1. How high this PL2=PL1 value can get? Is there any significance of this higher value i.e., 165w vs 140w? (I have seen many vendors set even higher PL1=PL2=200w for same processor.). Does it mean high PL1=PL2=165w have better VRM and can put more voltage/current for more performance?

Also the highest power draw for Laptop A (x15) is only 94.255Watt even its PL1 is 140watt ( Prime 95 stress test )
For Laptop B (x17 ) is 108.482w with PL1 165W ( Prime 95 stress test ) (source image credit: notebookcheck website)

2. Even if the PL1=PL2=140w for laptop A its max power draw is only 94.25w. We also see that it(11800H) can use upto 108.42w (consumed in Laptop B) then why Laptop A having PL1 140W is unable to use power draw of 108.42w or upto 140W?
(This is only for reference which I can test directly. I have Dell G15 having 11260H processor with PL1/PL2 90W/109W but my CPU Package power never goes beyond 65w. Shouldn't it reach 90W watt bcoz its PL1?)
Thank You.

 

[TerryLaze]

I know that when PL2=PL1 with having infinite Tau then Processors are capable to run at turbo power in long run until thermal throttled.

Yes, you answered your own question here.

You can see in the pics for the prime benchmarks that temps go up to 100 degrees which is the point at which the CPU will throttle to stop it from getting damaged.
The second laptop just has a bit better cooling so can use a bit more power.

Prime95 also uses a lot more compute creating a lot more heat, using lighter software you could probably reach higher power usage, at least for some time.
This is why the laptops come with different PL settings, the laptop maker has a general usage scenario in mind, as does the end user, and not prime95 which has zero application to anything.

 

[Nikhilniks]

Yes, you answered your own question here.

You can see in the pics for the prime benchmarks that temps go up to 100 degrees which is the point at which the CPU will throttle to stop it from getting damaged.
The second laptop just has a bit better cooling so can use a bit more power.

Prime95 also uses a lot more compute creating a lot more heat, using lighter software you could probably reach higher power usage, at least for some time.
This is why the laptops come with different PL settings, the laptop maker has a general usage scenario in mind, as does the end user, and not prime95 which has zero application to anything.

Thanks for reply.
But it is hard to believe that Laptop A @PL1=140W has not reached upto 140W power consumption even once bcoz of thermal throttling only. What I want to say that even for just 100ms at just beginning of the task Laptop A @PL1=140W should use 140W then it should thermal throttle to lower value whatever cooling solution is capable of. And if it touched even once 140W the highest value in hwinfo monitoring should be 140W instead of 94.2W.

Maybe you are correct but what I think there is another deciding factor set by OEM who decides how high power can go into CPU else higher value of PL1=PL2 has no significance (or maybe I am wrong😄😄).

 

[TerryLaze]

What I want to say that even for just 100ms at just beginning of the task Laptop

Well maybe you should research how often hwinfo polls, half or even full second intervals are not unusual for monitoring soft.

 

[Nikhilniks]

Well maybe you should research how often hwinfo polls, half or even full second intervals are not unusual for monitoring soft.

I have 11260H processor with PL1/PL2 as 90/109W. I have stressed my system and never seen CPU POWER PACKAGE go beyond aprox 70W.
I have reduced monitoring interval from 2000ms to 20ms in hwinfo and recorded this value of Power Consumption while running Cinebench-R23 test. Max value of power package was 70.16W. Did many tests but never crossed this 70W result.

 

[TerryLaze]

For the CPU alone there are only power, Vcore, and temps, if all of these ar ok for you then the laptop may have additional temps it keeps check of like chassis temp or GPU temp or whatever else, maybe even just fan noise.
If you can upload pics of your bios more people will be able to help you.