[SOLVED] Win10 Power Plan Management for CPU performance

[DannyColdCuts]

So as many of you may know, Windows 10 has a feature where you can create a decent power plan that includes some CPU performance modifications. I plan to just keep my Ryzen 5 2600 for the next couple of years and squeeze literally every bit of use out of it before I upgrade. Either way, I plan on getting a Wraith Prism cooler because I enjoy the aesthetics of it, and because it is rated to handle the higher end Ryzen CPU's. I figured I could knock out some of the cost of good rgb's with that, and drop temps by a few degrees as well.
There are concerns about noise but that isn't what this post is for (I generally do not notice if my PC ramps up because of my quality headphones). This is mainly just to get a better understanding of what is happening to my CPU when I set different settings on the power plan.

When reading up on how the Wraith Prism automatically ramps the fans up very high, the tutorial stated that it would be best to set the power plan as something not so aggressive on the minimum processor state. However, still allowing for the CPU to run higher than average on a balanced or power saving plan.
(The default on the balanced power plan was 100% for whatever reason. This is the plan my PC was using. Still ran games at an extremely good pace paired with my Radeon 5600xt).

To start, I created a "High Performance" plan in my settings with the "Minimum processor state" at 45%. I left the "System cooling policy" as Active, and I set the "Maximum processor state" at 100%. (If it helps/is relevant, I set the "PCIE Link State Power Management" to off for my GPU). This is what I started with.

Stats from task manager with these settings
CPU Speed: Anywhere from 3.3-3.4 GHz.
3-10% Utilization with 1 instance of Firefox open, and a Discord call running.
Games ran wonderfully with no issue.

In case it is relevant, CPU temps sit at 45-50°C under casual-mediocre loads [Firefox, Discord, Excel, Steam, Spotify], and 60-70°C while a game is running [Rainbow Six Siege, Witcher 3, The Division 1 & 2].

For clarification, the tutorial wanted me to make a profile that utilized the same or less minimum processor state, but wanted me to drop my maximum processor state to 99%. (Once again this is to remedy the problem with the Wraith Prism ramping the fans up very loudly without warning during undemanding tasks.)

I found that with a minimum of 45% and a max of 99% my CPU would then display the following stats in the task manager:
CPU Speed: Basically stuck at 2.79 GHz.
7-12% Utilization with discord and Firefox open still.
Games still ran at same frame rates/preferences as the settings listed above.

All I'm looking for is an explanation as to why the CPU dropped its speed when turned down to 99% maximum processor state, and to how my games still ran very efficiently seeing as how there was a visible drop in GHz.

 

[kurdtnz]

Dropping the max power to 99% stops the cpu from boosting to it's max speed,(3.9ghz) and caps it at it's base clock speed. I had similar issues when I had a wraith prism on a 3600X, the constant ramping up and down of the cooler was driving me crazy! Although dropping the power to 99% helped with that,I lost performance because my cpu couldnt boost so I bought an after market cooler which resolved the issue. Others with more experience than me will be able to explain better than I have.

 

[CountMike]

So as many of you may know, Windows 10 has a feature where you can create a decent power plan that includes some CPU performance modifications. I plan to just keep my Ryzen 5 2600 for the next couple of years and squeeze literally every bit of use out of it before I upgrade. Either way, I plan on getting a Wraith Prism cooler because I enjoy the aesthetics of it, and because it is rated to handle the higher end Ryzen CPU's. I figured I could knock out some of the cost of good rgb's with that, and drop temps by a few degrees as well.
There are concerns about noise but that isn't what this post is for (I generally do not notice if my PC ramps up because of my quality headphones). This is mainly just to get a better understanding of what is happening to my CPU when I set different settings on the power plan.

When reading up on how the Wraith Prism automatically ramps the fans up very high, the tutorial stated that it would be best to set the power plan as something not so aggressive on the minimum processor state. However, still allowing for the CPU to run higher than average on a balanced or power saving plan.
(The default on the balanced power plan was 100% for whatever reason. This is the plan my PC was using. Still ran games at an extremely good pace paired with my Radeon 5600xt).

To start, I created a "High Performance" plan in my settings with the "Minimum processor state" at 45%. I left the "System cooling policy" as Active, and I set the "Maximum processor state" at 100%. (If it helps/is relevant, I set the "PCIE Link State Power Management" to off for my GPU). This is what I started with.

Stats from task manager with these settings
CPU Speed: Anywhere from 3.3-3.4 GHz.
3-10% Utilization with 1 instance of Firefox open, and a Discord call running.
Games ran wonderfully with no issue.

In case it is relevant, CPU temps sit at 45-50°C under casual-mediocre loads [Firefox, Discord, Excel, Steam, Spotify], and 60-70°C while a game is running [Rainbow Six Siege, Witcher 3, The Division 1 & 2].

For clarification, the tutorial wanted me to make a profile that utilized the same or less minimum processor state, but wanted me to drop my maximum processor state to 99%. (Once again this is to remedy the problem with the Wraith Prism ramping the fans up very loudly without warning during undemanding tasks.)

I found that with a minimum of 45% and a max of 99% my CPU would then display the following stats in the task manager:
CPU Speed: Basically stuck at 2.79 GHz.
7-12% Utilization with discord and Firefox open still.
Games still ran at same frame rates/preferences as the settings listed above.

All I'm looking for is an explanation as to why the CPU dropped its speed when turned down to 99% maximum processor state, and to how my games still ran very efficiently seeing as how there was a visible drop in GHz.

All W10 power plans are basically same, only differ by defaults. Each one is customizable. If you have chipset drivers installed, you should also have AMD Ryzen power plan(s) which are more reasonable and can be customized too.
As @kurdtnz said, any change in maximum processor state less than 100 result in max CPU frequency to stay at it's base frequency and any boost is disabled resulting in lower performance. Max CPU at 50% can lower highest frequency to under 2000GHz.
There is also 1usmus power plan https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/1usmus-custom-power-plan-for-ryzen-3000-download.html that has some unique (to Ryzen) features, try it.