How do limit the CPU clock speed? (cooling cant keep up)

My acer predator gets absurdly hot when running certain games, as in too hot to touch, and this will occasionally lead to an abrupt power down (which I assume is a safety measure built into the hardware to protect it from overheating).

The thing is that when my laptop is running on battery power, it doesnt get nearly as hot, and it still runs the games I'm playing just fine. There is no observable drop in performance.

From monitoring the CPU and GPU temps, I've noticed that when the laptop goes from battery power to being plugged in, the CPU usage shoots through the roof and the CPU temperature sky rockets.

I've spent the last week or so trying to find a way, via acer software or windows settings, to lower the performance output so that it doesnt pointlessly generate so much heat while plugged in, but I havent had any luck. Surely there is a way to customize the performance settings....

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Red-Sand

Yes there is a way to modify performance of the CPU to a desired clock speed.
In this video when you designate "Turbo Ratio Limits" it allows capping of the CPU.
For example: 32 = 3.2ghz.

https://youtu.be/N3v3o21M8gg

Red-Sand

I'd like to add that following this video also allows your laptop to have profiles while on AC & battery and let's you customize the CPU usage on each profile, where the program then automatically switches when you plugin/unplug.
Which is quite useful since you dont need such high clocks on battery when Nvidia powermizer kicks in.

sri369

Set processor max to 99% in your power settings. This will disable turbo from getting triggered and should keep your laptop considerably cooler. There could be hit on performance based on software you are using though.

SugarNoodles

I feel silly for asking this, but what is Tornado? The video references it but doesnt specify how to obtain it. It's not turning up when I search windows, and googling it just results in a web server software?

Red-Sand

SugarNoodles said:k

I feel silly for asking this, but what is Tornado? The video references it but doesnt specify how to obtain it. It's not turning up when I search windows, and googling it just results in a web server software?

It's actually called "Throttlestop" tornado was just the name of the version of it.

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

SugarNoodles

Ah, I see. I've downloaded throttlestop and I've watched the video tutorial a couple of times. It makes me rather nervous to follow the tutorial because it doesnt really explain what each step is doing, and I'm reluctant to make changes that I dont understand (especially when all I really want is for it to behave the way it does when it runs on battery, which shouldnt really require third party software I guess?)

I did finally find the advanced power settings for windows (you have to click on "additional power settings" and THEN click on "advanced power settings" again in the new window that pops up). In these settings there is still no apparent difference between the battery vs plugged in settings that would cause such a stark difference in temperature when playing games. I could lower the maximum CPU output percentage and see how that goes, but the maximum output for the CPU is 100% both on battery and plugged in so it doesnt really make sense that it would help.

Here's a screenshot of predator sense:

https://imgur.com/a/0hLOSRz

At the very beginning there's no game running, then I started running Divinity OS2 while connected to power. The segment in the middle where the temperature goes down (and the GPU usage shoots up to max for whatever reason) is when I disconnected the power and had it running on battery for a bit, then reconnected it to power.

Does this shed any light on it?

Red-Sand

The thing is when your on battery Nvidia has a feature called "Powermizer" that kicks in. This lowers the Nvidia GPUs power and clock speed to maintain better battery life. So the reason you have "better" performance while on battery is because your GPU isnt using it's full power.

The video I sent you I created myself, so I have no problem explaining what those options do.
Undervolting lessens the voltage used by the CPU. By default intel uses a set amount of voltage which can be lowered slightly and theres no change in performance just lesser voltage is used which helps lower temps and can also help to remove thermal throttling. It's actually quite common for gaming rigs to be undervolted to achieve this.

The next thing is Speed shift eep. Intel CPUs have a feature called "Speedstep" which allows the CPU to use set clock speeds depending on how demanding the task is. When you set speed shift eep you bypass the OS's control of this feature and allow yourself to control it via speed shift.
(Because Windows doesn't really control this well)

Speed shift works like this.
0-255 is the range.
0= Absolute performance
255= Absolute power saving/lesser performance.
128 shown in the video (speed shift value) is a perfect balance of the two and since its controlled via software the benefits are much greater.
128 was the value I discussed with throttlestops creator/developer as being the best value.

Turbo ratio limits are caps set on the CPU core & threads for their maximum clock speeds.
So in the video setting all the turbo ratio limits to 32 will cap all CPU cores to 3.2ghz which is plenty to game on any title and stream etc while still lessening clock speeds enough to make a difference in temps.

I have another video on my channel for GPU overclocking and undervolting that lessens the GPU clock speed slightly and lessens the voltages used greatly.
The "Max Q" profile on that video caps the GPUs clock speed to 1721mhz while using only 800mV. I have a feeling that would create something similar to what your looking for but it is an advanced technique. It's simple to watch the video and let me know if youd like me to help you through it.

Overall an option you may like is to just open throttlestop and click on the "disable turbo" check box on the main screen.
This will fir example (if you have an i7-7700HQ) lower all clock speeds to 2.8ghz at the click of the one button.

There is no one click solution to make your system behave as it does on battery but there are many tweaks you can do to achieve similar results if you don't mind the lesser power.

You can even enable "whisper mode" (only for gtx 1060 and higher gpus) in geforce experience and then use geforce experience to "optimize" your games which sets all graphics to a optimized value to lessen temps (thus the name) and maintain the fps you set. If you enable whisper mode you can go into your nvidia control panel and find your game in the program settings and scroll down to the bottom and set a custom FPS of your choosing.

AceXnight

Red-Sand said:

The thing is when your on battery Nvidia has a feature called "Powermizer" that kicks in. This lowers the Nvidia GPUs power and clock speed to maintain better battery life. So the reason you have "better" performance while on battery is because your GPU isnt using it's full pow........

.......whisper mode you can go into your nvidia control panel and find your game in the program settings and scroll down to the bottom and set a custom FPS of your choosing.

I'm having the same problem and I've decided to follow the tutorial but there seems to be something wrong. I've done the first step and set the profiles but when you show the values changing at Turbo FIVR Control, Mine doesn't change.

Red-Sand

AceXnight said:

Red-Sand said:

The thing is when your on battery Nvidia has a feature called "Powermizer" that kicks in. This lowers the Nvidia GPUs power and clock speed to maintain better battery life. So the reason you have "better" performance while on battery is because your GPU isnt using it's full pow........

.......whisper mode you can go into your nvidia control panel and find your game in the program settings and scroll down to the bottom and set a custom FPS of your choosing.

I'm having the same problem and I've decided to follow the tutorial but there seems to be something wrong. I've done the first step and set the profiles but when you show the values changing at Turbo FIVR Control, Mine doesn't change.

Is your BIOs updated?

AceXnight

Red-Sand said:

Is your BIOs updated?

Yes, The Bios Version is V1.14
I believe this is the latest for Predator G3-571

Red-Sand

AceXnight said:

Red-Sand said:

Is your BIOs updated?

Yes, The Bios Version is V1.14
I believe this is the latest for Predator G3-571

Do you have XTU installed?

AceXnight

Red-Sand said:

AceXnight said:

Red-Sand said:

Is your BIOs updated?

Yes, The Bios Version is V1.14
I believe this is the latest for Predator G3-571

Do you have XTU installed?

No, I don't

Red-Sand

First make sure your manually changing the Turbo Ratios as they dont automatically change

If you are manually doing so then I suggest rebooting into BIOs (F2) and hitting F9 to default the BIOs then F10 to save and exit and try again.

davew26

sri369 said:

Set processor max to 99% in your power settings. This will disable turbo from getting triggered and should keep your laptop considerably cooler. There could be hit on performance based on software you are using though.

Thanks for the "THROTTLE STOP' recommendation. I installed the program and slowed the CPU two notches and my Acer runs much cooler. So far, no surprise shutdowns. That was easy.. Any more recommendations to keep the Acer Aspire running smoothly?