XPS 9560 CPU idle clock

Most of you may find funny my problem but I have to give a try.
This is my second 9560. So, I have two of them side by side and I have noticed that battery on the "new" one is far away from the "old" one. Both are same spec. I7,16, 512, FHD with the difference in manufacturer of Nvme M.2 drive.
Analyzing the system I have found out that new one cannot get 0.8 Ghz idle CPU clock. Most of the time it sits in 1.1 Ghz where some cores can go little bit more below. So in reality multiplier cannot get low as 8. I think this is the main reason of battery leak as CPU operates on slightly higher clock, therefore consuming more power.

Drives and BIOS are up to date. Turbo, Speed Step, C State enabled. I have tried to use even TS with Speedshift and EPP 255, still cannot get specified idle speed.
Repaste is done and temperatures are ok. Fan is on 0 rpm most of the time
I have tried disconnecting the battery for a minute.
Wear Level is 7.7 where the old one is 15+.
Brightness settings are the same on both 20% on battery.

Most of the time I am on the way so every minute and hour of battery is important to me. I really don't bother about idle clock as long the battery is as "expected".

Is there anyone with similar/same problem?
Any advice what to try?

Thank you,

 

I don't know if access to low multipliers is a problem. The developer of ThrottleStop software @unclewebb noted on the ThrottleStop thread that power consumption may be lowest if the CPU can execute tasks at very high clocks then go into deep sleep quickly.

A few ideas to reduce battery consumption:

- Look at undervolting via ThrottleStop. Doug Black has a nice guide on the internet using an XPS for example.

- SpeedShift should be more efficient than SpeedStep as management is done within the CPU

- You might want to minimize c0% shown on the main ThrottleStop screen; on idle you should be say 2% or lower. If not look at power consuming background processes

- Click on the C8 button at the bottom of the ThrottleStop screen. In idle you should see "Core C State Percent" with high values say around C7 or deeper.

- I don't remember if Dell enabled deep Package C States" on the 9560. I got them running anyhow.

All this is covered in the ThrottleStop Guide, so do some searching on each item...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/the-throttlestop-guide.531329/

 

With your computer idle, can you post a screenshot of ThrottleStop with EPP set to 255 and another image with EPP set to 0. Make sure nothing else is open or running. Are your cores spending 99% of their time in C7 like they should be? Sounds like the problem is that there are background processes keeping your CPU active instead of in a low power C State. Here is what you should be seeing when your CPU is idle.

 

Thanks unclewebb.

Here are the ss with EPP255:


And with EPP0:


One more thing I have noticed that Max CPU clocks does not got more than 3.2 GHz.

Thank you

 

Can you please share the steps how to achive this. I have tried to look for the information without success.
Thank you

 

This will get you started.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...0-whilst-on-mains-power.810634/#post-10629659

Also look at the Throttlestop guide, particularly posts from @CraftyClown and @Che0063

 

Your package is not entering C states lower than C2 This should be the main cause of your issue. Give a screenshot of your other functioning laptop.

Please note that higher clock speeds DO NOT necessarily result in higher power consumption on idle in modern CPUs This is because under a higher clock speed, more of the CPU can go into a deeper idle state. Modern CPUs (You haven't given an indication of which) can go up to C10, but most manufacturers, only have their packages go into C8.

Your CPU Package is staying at C2 on idle. It should be able to go down further. Your package power consumption is probably idling about 2.3W. Get the C states down to C3, it'll drop down to 1.4W. Get it down to C7/8, it'll probably stay at 0.4W. The difference of 2W is able to make an unbelievably huge affect on battery life. In a laptop, every milliwatt counts.


The cause of this is very likely an outdated driver. What utility did you use to update your drivers?
For me, it was fixed by updating the generic Microsoft driver to an appropriate one for my Samsing PM961 SSD.

Check your FIVR settings if your clocks aren't hitting the right thing.

You haven't actually given us the model number of your CPU, so it is difficult for me to give you a better answer, but maybe your BIOS locks the clocks down whilst on battery. Check your Turbo Ratio Limits. Keep in mind that some CPUs have different multipliers. For Example the 7700HQ has a max turbo of 3.2?GHz when fully loaded on 4 cores, but can turbo up to something higher when 1 core is loaded. My 8250U, however, can sustain a full 3.4GHz turbo under four cores (provided power liimts allow this)

Seeing the amount of locking down and "crippling" as called by @Papusan I'm really underwhelmed by dell's XPS lineup. Their specs might be good, but their hardware is seriously limited by their engineers. Never buying a Dell (and never have. Plus for me their XPS looks ugly lol)

Message to the buyer: Always look at online reviews. LinusTechTips couldn't care less about throttling. That channel is there for the entertainment, not the full on details.

 

At the moment and do not have an access to the "old" one to get some ss. I will be able to once I am back in office.

Here is a ss from CPU_Z with other details.

This is tipical CPU idle clock on this machine.

As of minimum package power best I have seen was 1.1W according to TS. I doesn't go below.

As of Storage Controller driver I am stuck with MS driver as my drive (PC400 Hynix) do not have a driver from manufacturer. Drive on another XPS is LiteOn, which again do not have support from manufacturer and running with native MS driver. On both laptops i have installed IRST driver only for IDE/ATAPI





Turbo ratings are set to 38 and non turbo rating is 27.


Is there any possibility that OS (Win 10 Pro) is somehow not allowing idle and deeper c states?
Monitoring the processes I have not found anything that keeping CPU busy.
I haven't tried yet to reinstall the Windows as I need free time to do all software installation.

Thank you,

 

Try the Windows Power Saver profile. For me that allows the CPU to enter a low C8 state. Balanced and high performance tends to push the C states higher and result in 1.4W idle power consumption instead of the regular 0.4W.

Your OS should not have anything to do with this. IS it possible to clone your old XPS's Windows installation to the new one?

What if you download the drivers from Dell's website? Are there any storage controllers or such there? What about Intel utilities (ME, RST, etc). Do you have a windows recovery partition that dell reserved on your SSD?

EDIT: Not too sure about the 7700HQ's max clock under all 4 cores. Iirc it was 3.4GHz but will have to check with my friend. Is there some sort of task that desperately necessitates this higher clock? On one hand you are trying to increase battery power, but on the other you are complaining about low turbo clock speeds. I find that on my 8250U (which has near-identical performance as your 7700HQ btw) A max clock speed of 2GHz is enough for the vast majority of daily tasks.