CPU speeds remain steady at 3GHz during gaming on a laptop.
CPU speeds remain steady at 3GHz during gaming on a laptop.
https://imgur.com/a/EIoULy5 I own Asus FX504GE ,i5 8300H,1050ti,16GB. In cinebench benchmarks,the cpu score is good but when i play any game ,the clockspeed stays at 3ghz despite it having a max speed of 4ghz.After some research i found that theres a power limit to the CPU when GPU is on load i.e 25W in my case ,instead of whole 45W i get while using cinebench. My question is it possible to get 3ghz and above clock speed while gaming? Some cpu intensive games dont perfom good because of this. Due to low clock speed,the temps are fine too.Around 70-80C.So is it possible to get better perfomance from this laptop? I attached my throttlestop screenshots.
Screenshots are good but you need to check the Log File box on the main screen of ThrottleStop. The log file will show whether your main problem is power limit throttling or if your computer is thermal throttling. After you check that box, go play a game for at least 15 minutes. When finished gaming, exit the game and then exit ThrottleStop so it can finalize your log file which will be in your ThrottleStop / Logs directory with today's date in its name. Attach that log file to your next post so I can have a look. Before you start testing, are you able to use ThrottleStop to undervolt your CPU core and cache? A lot of these CPUs will show improved results with the cache set at approximately -125 mV and the core set as high as -200 mV. Some recent BIOS updates have eliminated voltage control on some laptops but for many laptops, this is still a great way to reduce power consumption and improve temperatures. The monitoring table in the top right corner of the FIVR window shows the voltages your CPU is using. After you apply a voltage in ThrottleStop, make sure that this shows up in the monitoring table. If all you see is +0.0000 in the Offset column after you Apply an offset voltage, that means that voltage control is likely blocked. The default thermal throttling temperature for the majority of Intel CPUs including the 8300H is 100°C. It looks like Asus might have set this significantly lower than the Intel default spec. Open the Options window and you will probably see that the PROCHOT Offset is set to 12°C. This setting forces your CPU to start thermal throttling at 88°C (100°C - 12°C) instead of the full 100°C that you paid for. This is a real cheesy setting that manufacturers use to cover up their poorly designed laptops. Including an adequate heatsink and fan costs money. Doing stuff like this does not cost Asus anything today. Hopefully it will cost them some future customers but most people never realize what companies like Asus are doing. Is there a lock icon near this setting? If this is not locked, try setting PROCHOT Offset to 3 and then check the Lock PROCHOT Offset option. Asus is crafty. This is likely locked by the BIOS. When you buy a CPU with a 45W TDP rating, the cooling should be good enough to prevent the CPU from thermal throttling when running at 45W. Lowering the turbo power limit down to 25W when the Nvidia GPU is active is another way that some manufacturers are cutting corners. This will prevent your laptop from running at its rated spec and their might not be anything you can do about it. In the FIVR window make sure you have checked the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits option. This can help some laptops with these kinds of power limit problems. It is likely that your laptop is using the EC to force this limit so any tricks in ThrottleStop are not going to work. A log file will help confirm what is going on. Most 8th Gen laptops are using Speed Shift Technology but it looks like this is not enabled in your BIOS. I would enable this in the ThrottleStop TPL window. After you enable this, you should see SST in green on the main screen of ThrottleStop. Now you can check the Speed Shift EPP box. An EPP value of 0 is for maximum performance and a value of between 80 and 128 is a good compromise value, similar to a balanced profile where your CPU will slow down when lightly loaded. When you have poor cooling, using an EPP value can help reduce temps while gaming without sacrificing too much performance. Edit - The turbo ratio limits for the 8300H are 40, 40, 39, 39. With proper cooling and a 45W turbo power limit, this CPU can and should run at up to 3900 MHz while gaming. If it is only running at 3000 MHz, that is a sign of some severe throttling, usually because of poor design choices.
It usually doesn't occur often while I'm playing, it just rises at certain moments.
A lot of details! I adjusted the cache core voltage to -130mV and noticed BSOD when anything below it was used. The core and cache offset in the FIVR table is -0.1309. I set PROCHOT to 3 and it stabilized at 97C in ThrottleStop. TPL option is disabled and locked, Speedshift is enabled with a value of 0. Your EPP recommendation? I’ve attached the log file as requested. You mentioned playing Apex Legends for 15 minutes, which is known to be CPU-heavy. Thanks for the update! 2020-07-30.txt
Also confirming PROCHOT value at 3 is secure? Currently CPU is drawing 50W in Cinebench and hitting 95°C.
The Intel default value for PROCHOT Offset is 0 so setting this to 3 is definitely safe. You could say that a setting of 3 is safer than safe. This will force your CPU to slow down (thermal throttle) slightly before the Intel recommended 100°C thermal throttling temperature. Here is the Intel documentation that confirms the maximum safe temperature for the 8300H. https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/...0-ghz.html That sounds wonderful. Much better than the CPU being limited to 88°C. Intel specifically states that setting the PROCHOT temperature too low will reduce CPU performance but manufacturers do it anyhow. If it was my laptop, I would set this to 0. The official Intel thermal shutdown temperature is set at 125°C within the processor. Some laptop manufacturers are incorrectly setting this to 100°C. A PROCHOT Offset value of 0 will allow your CPU to get up to 100°C. If your laptop is designed by Asus to shut down at this temperature then setting a PROCHOT Offset value of 3 will help prevent it from ever getting to 100°C. I will go check out your log file now to see what else I can learn.
The records indicate frequent PL2 throttling and stable power draw around 22W or 25W, with most readings near 22W. The system was built for a CPU rated at 45W TDP, yet Asus allows it to operate only at half that level. This restriction isn’t clearly addressed in their marketing materials. It seems some OEMs are compromising performance for power limits. This practice is concerning and unethical. A laptop with such restrictions feels like a poor deal—like buying a car rated 400 HP but limiting it to 200 when using the radio or air conditioning. Such measures aren’t acceptable in the industry. There appears to be a fundamental flaw in how these devices are managed. The use of Disable and Lock features suggests the EC is enforcing this low power cap without user control. Voltage adjustments don’t guarantee balanced core and cache offset voltages, which can cause instability. The cache voltage is the main bottleneck, often leading to crashes when both are altered together. Intel’s claims about not allowing individual adjustments were misleading; their XTU software doesn’t support this. Modern CPUs have separate registers for different voltages, but the cache offset remains critical. A value around -125 mV is typical for many 8th Gen chips. Setting it to -125 mV or -120 mV can improve stability. Testing with Cinebench R20 helps verify performance under these settings. Newer programs leverage AVX instructions and benefit from fine-tuned voltages. Running a baseline test, then tweaking only the core voltage in small increments, reveals better results. Adjusting between -20 mV steps often boosts speed or reduces heat. Some models run perfectly stable at -200 mV or slightly higher. The key takeaway is that enforcing such limits harms performance and reliability. Consider returning the device if it prevents it from reaching its full potential.