Is the laptop CPU clock reducing to 800MHz when under load while using battery power?
Is the laptop CPU clock reducing to 800MHz when under load while using battery power?
Hello everyone!
I've been looking around everywhere for this issue and nobody seems to have my exact same problem, so no useful solutions so far. I bought an Asus vivobook pro n580vn this summer, it runs on a 7700hq and it does so great generally. Except if I'm working on battery!
This is the context:
I'm in high performance mode in windows, and I mean all-out high performance manual settings (min-max clock at 100% etc.), so the cpu is at a variable 3.4-3.7ghz but no less. As soon as it starts draining a certain amount of power though it drops down to constant 800mhz. Temps are fine, I even properly replaced the thermal paste with noctua's nt-h1 (we're talking 90-95C during AIDA64 stress test on AC power: no thermal throttling once the fan reaches max RPMs, clock around 2.9-3Ghz which is higher than the stock 2.8 so no problem there)
I noticed this on my framerates in games, even old ones like SW Kotor (but who cares, could be also related to graphics, so tough: i'll run my games on AC). The problem is that it behaves the same way when using evne just cpu related programs, such as Cubase or other DAWs. I'm a composer, imagine needing to show a working project to a client while on battery power and not being able to use the whole potential of my laptop, it sucks big time!
Somebody wrote in another forum that these issues were caused by the battery not being able to supply as much power as needed, but I should think that this would cause a proportionate clock speed drop based on how much power it's actually being drawn, not solid 800mhz across the board. I think I should be able to use full power for some glorious 30 minutes if I chose to, rather than have my pc decide to save power and last longer regardless.
My question is: does anybody have a software solution? Do you think it's something wrong in the bios p-states (version 308 btw, the latest as I'm writing this) and Asus should fix it? Keep in mind that bios options are practically nonexistent, especially power and clock related ones.
Thanks to anyone that has a clue to what's happening and possibly how to fix it!
My asus with 7700hq does same thing on battery, doesnt affect me much though. Itll always be clocked lower while on battery, but yeah I agree under 1Ghz is pretty crazy.
I even went with liquid metal on the cpu to reduce temps which helped immensely(from 90c to 65c) but have the same power limitations on battery.
I might try some stuff out this evening, but if there is a known solution I may be interested in trying also.
Thank you for your response. It seems many users encounter this issue, likely related to power management at the BIOS level. The problem isn't primarily about a lower clock speed on battery life, but rather about it consistently dropping to its minimum even when AC is enabled. Without forcing the computer to boost, it maintains full boost frequency. The challenge arises with AC usage—it remains stuck at low speeds under load, gradually reducing to 800MHz regardless of changes, without variation until the workload drops or the machine idles. Once idle, the CPU quickly returns to 3.4GHz. In regular use, performance is normal for tasks like web browsing and video streaming, but it becomes ineffective on battery when actual work is performed.
I recall it's been several years, but I'm sharing this fix for anyone who might face the same problem on different setups. Essentially, my laptop only provides 47W of power, yet the system is configured to be very cautious. Whenever the CPU requires even a tiny bit of that power, it activates the BD PROCHOT flag, reducing overall power consumption to just 28% CPU usage—this isn't due to overheating (it's around 40-50°C), but rather a conservative approach.
Using ThrottleStop helped remove the BD PROCHOT restriction, disabled turbo on the battery profile, and set Speed Shift to 2.5Ghz. Under heavy load (like the Prime95 stress test), the system managed to draw between 42-46W. It's not flawless—it mainly considers CPU and RAM usage, ignoring GPU impact—but since GPU usage is minimal in real-world tasks, it should perform adequately.
The main challenge is needing throttlestop enabled on autostart, switching between a "nerfed" battery profile and normal mode for AC power. This sometimes leads to crashes when plugging in or unplugging the device. Still, the PC becomes much more functional with only a slight performance drop on the battery side. It can handle moderate gaming too.