Power limit throttling

[johan häggström]

Hello!

Im new to the forums, just got my first intel based tablet, the i9.

 

Thanks for some great reviews and guides Chris!

 

I have done the heat sink mod and the temperatures max out at 70 under heavy load but im getting power limit throttling, benchmarks are not as good as seen here.

 

I have a theory, im running the benchmarks with the standard power adapter and not through a usb-c hub, could it be that its not getting enough power?

 

Intel xtu set to 10w/19w.

 

Any of you guys got the same problen with power limit throttling?

 

/ Johan

[Bonnom]

The power limit throttling really makes playing games unbearable due to the frame drops.

I too did the thermal mod and I’m currently having the same problem.
There was only one time that I didn’t had the power limit.
The processor reached a 100 degrees Celcius and was using 13watts on average.

I have no clue why I didn’t have the power limit throttling at that time.
I tried changing a lot of settings in XTU and nothing worked. (Iccmax, voltage)
I even turned off the bios setting for reading used power.

On the internet I found that some people had the same problem with the Surface Pro 4.
They found the problem was set by the manufacturer.
To solve this problem they made a custom bios without a power limit.

Creating a custom bios is really difficult and dangerous and I doubt someone on the forum could make one.
What also could be is that a sensor on the motherboard registers a to high temperature and starts too power throttle.
Cube didn’t calibrate the power limit throttling for people that added better thermals to the device.
Hopefully some people can give there ideas and opinion about this problem.

Also after my heat mod I have max temperatures off 56 degrees with the power limit.

 

[Bonnom]

After monitoring the power limit does kick on after some time and it kicks faster when it kicked on it the last ~5 mins.

This might indicate that there is a sensor on the motherboard that causes this limiting.
However it can still be a firmware/software problem.

[Bonnom]

I managed to disable the power limit throttling in the bios. It doesn’t have to be disabled entirely but the values can be changed in the bios!

[johan häggström]

Just did some more testing, its as you say Bonnom, i started the tablet up entered XTU and started running the benchmark.

The first run it managed to go the full 3 minutes without throttling, directly started a new test and it went for about 2 mins before starting to power limit throttle.

 

There must be some kind of temperature sensor on the MB that starts the throttling, my CPUpackage newer goes over 71C, so thats not a problem but the backside of the tablet heats upp over time.

 

Also, would it be safe to disable the power limit throttling? Maybe some other components cant take the heat.

 

Need to look if i have a usb keyboard laying around somewhere so i can get into the bios.

The thing is you might get descent benchmarks running tests up to ~5mins after that the throttling will really kill the performance.

What values are you using in the BIOS to get it disabled?

 

 

[Bonnom]

I will release a guide soon.
I managed to disable the power limit throttling but I haven’t figured out what settings actually disable power limit throttling.
Also you’re posts are bit annoying to read because off all the enters you use.
On pc you can use the “enter” key to begin a new paragraph.
You can use “shift” + “enter” to get to the next line.

[Chris]

Hi Bonnom,
Intel XTU works for me but somehow the system does not remember the settings after several restarts I am back to 4.5 W and 15 W.
I tried my luck then in the bios and eventually also found a setting saying 4500 mW, changes it to 10000 mW but still I get only 4.5 W in Windows.
I changed it here: “Advanced” tab -> “Platform Misc Configuration” -> “DPTF Configuration” -> “Minimum Power Limit 0”, “Minimum Power Limit 1”, “Minimum Power Limit 2”
I also enabled the P1 and P2 power level setting here: “Advanced” tab -> “CPU Configuration” -> “Platform PL1 Enable”, “Platform PL2 Enable”, and increased it to 10000 mW but still the same 4.5 W limit…..

Would be great if you can post how you did it.

[Bonnom]

I’m sorry I forgot! I orginally planned to make a proper guide with the correct warnings.

Fast guide disable Power Throttling Cube i9:

1. Go to the bios
2. Select advanced tab. This can be done with the left and right arrow keys.
3. Go down to and select Platform misc configuration
4. Select Dptf configuration
5. Go down and disable the “Thermal sensor devices” (Minimum power limit doesn’t have to be changed)
6. Press escape and exit bios with saving settings
7. Boot to windows
8. Open intel XTU
9. Increase the “The Turbo Boost Power Max” by sliding the slider a little bit. It has to be above 18watts for optimal performance
10. Change “Turbo boost Power Time Window” To 1 second.
11. Save settings
12. Enable “Power Limit Throttling” in the XTU graph if you haven’t already
13. Test out with a stress test or a videogame for at least 15min to see if power limit throttling is happening.
14. Check XTU if Power Limit Throttling happend
15. Close intel XTU
16. Please post here if power limit Throttling is still happening

Extra Information
When selecting a thermal sensor, in the upper right will be a description off what the sensor does.
For an example, Sensor device 3 is the “skin hotspot u50 sensor” and sensor device 5 is the cassis skin sensor.
The skin sensors keep the chassis cool. This is important for people that want to hold the tablet in there hands.
After this mod you can still hold the tablet in hand except for when the tablet has been running with full processor speed and graphics.
I also lowered the “Turbo boost power time window” in XTU to 1 second.
The “Turbo boost Power time Window” is the average time the system cannot use turbo boost.

*edit – Small improvements in guide

[Chris]

Thanks Bonnom, unfortunatelly your guide does not really help me…
I do not want to disable the temp. sensors, but just have my CPU PL1 power limit changed from 4.5 W to 7 W automatically at every boot.

When I restart Windows HWInfo tells me the PL1 power limit is at 4.5 W. As soon as I start the Intel XTU the PL1 limit changes from 4.5 W to 7 W (I am just starting Intel XTU, not loading any profile etc.). I can even close Intel XTU and exit it, but when I restart Windows I am back to the old 4.5 W and have to manually open Intel XTU again….

 

[Bonnom]

That is weird stuff. It could be a bios setting.
I think I also changed an other values in the bios but I can’t exactly determine what one it was.
In the BIOS under I have power limit override 3 & 4 disabled. CPU thermal profile disabled.

Is under Intel (r) speedstep(tm) Package power limit MSR lock disabled?

[Chris]

I flashed the modded bios version 1.8 from XDA forum and the TDP now is set to 7 W / 15 W exactly as I want it.
At XDA they wrote the TDP is set in the CPU configuration -> Set Configurable TDP Boot Mode to UP and guess what it does the job. When I set it to nominal as in the original bios I am back to 4.5 W.

 

[Bonnom]

Ok great!!
I have the TDP a lot higher. In game it can use a constant 15w power.
There is one problem however. The DC power can’t barely keep up!

[Bonnom]

With this mod I’m able to get around 50-60fps in rocket league at 1920×1200 resolution, what is pretty good considering this is a tablet.
But you won’t be able to touch the device because it gets very hot.

[Author]

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