Unusual clock speed reduction on laptop processor
Unusual clock speed reduction on laptop processor
Hey there, I’m dealing with a curious CPU problem and would love some guidance from someone more experienced. I own a Dell Inspiron 5577 with an i5 7300HQ and GTX 1050, which I used to play GTA 5. I found a Dell Inspiron 7577 with the same i5 and GTX 1060 MaxQ at a better price. After gaming, I noticed the 7577 would suddenly and repeatedly lower its clock speed every few minutes, causing FPS to drop from around 60 to about 30 for a short time. The 5577 stayed stable, hovering near 3100MHz. After about 15 minutes, both reached similar speeds—around 2000MHz for the 7577. Some observations: both setups had similar game settings and background tasks like Steam, Afterburner, and HWInfo. The 5570 ran hotter than the 7577, which dropped its clocks after a while. Neither GPU was overheating, though the 5570’s temps peaked near 95°C compared to the 7577’s 85°C. The 5570 also seemed to use less CPU power, running cooler overall. I recently cleaned both units thoroughly and have photos showing a noticeable performance dip in the 7577 after gaming.
The 7577 lacks strong power output. It might overheat due to internal dirt, leading to clockdrops when power fluctuates suddenly.
It's interesting; I'll need to clean it up more carefully. After playing the game for roughly an hour, I checked the HWInfo stats and noticed that on the 7577, the CPU Power Limit was exceeded across all cores. In contrast, the 5577 never experienced this issue.
Perform a complete cleaning and adjust your power configuration that could be restricting your laptop. Disable the battery saver feature.
These laptops running 7th Gen mobile chips face odd and excessive throttling issues. Consider using ThrottleStop 9.6 at https://www.techpowerup.com/download/tec...ottlestop/. Capture screenshots showing the FIVR and TPL windows. Enable the Log File feature and run a game for at least 15 minutes. Include a log in your upcoming post. Many problems typical of Dell laptops resolve with proper ThrottleStop configuration.
Thanks for the update. I came across a discussion that might have resolved my problems. It looks like the issue was similar, just with some unusual throttling from the power settings. So far, I've disabled the Intel Thermal Management tool through Device Manager, which seems to have helped. I played the game for roughly two hours, and both clock speeds and temperatures stayed steady around 3100mhz and about 80°C. Odd, because my other Dell (model 5577) let me push high speeds until it reached 99°C and then throttled back. I should probably clean that one too.