HWiNFO32 Reports 25 watt TDP for i5-520m

I have an E6410, specs in sig, and HWiNFO32 reports my CPU as having a 25 watt TDP. According to Intel Ark, it should have a 35 watt TDP. My laptop doesn't use the iGPU on the i5 chip, if that changes anything?

Is this just an error, or is my TDP 25 watt?

 

HWiNFO32 reports the same for my i5-540M. That is possibly correct because the 35W rating includes not just the CPU but also the GPU and the memory controller which are in the same package. However, if the GPU is not using its nominal share then the CPU and use more power. Note that HWiNFO32 also reports its estimate of the CPU power consumption on the Sensors page (but I am not convinced about the level of accuracy).

John

 

Have you tried it on a different notebook to rule out a misread?

 

My E6410 is the only laptop that my family/friends or I have with a Core i CPU.

 

hwinfo doesnt measure anything.

It reads the CPUID bits and compares to an internal database.

So if the database is wrong or outdated or if hwinnfo is reading the CPUID bits wrong, you get wrong info.

I would think that Intels spec sheets have a greater chance of being accurate than a third party tool.

When using a third party 'catalog' tool, you really need to a) make sure that you have the most recent version and b) report problems back to the authors.

 

It's not read through CPUID, it's read directly from an MSR and doesn't need to be looked up anywhere.

@the Joker, perhaps your BIOS has decided 25W is more than enough for your laptop and set it to that. Try running TS and see if it's changeable.

 

Please avoid posting such speculations. I'm on this forum and can clarify things, so better ask next time.
All later CPUs have their TDP/TDC stored in dedicated registers and HWiNFO32 reads this info. Only for older CPUs it uses a (very large) and detailed database.
For Nehalem/Westmere and Sandy Bridge based CPUs it is also able to report the consumed power using CPU internal energy counters and that should be accurate. Unlike some other tools which just report rough estimations (based on TDP and current P-State), HWiNFO32 uses real measurements. However for Nehalem/Westmere the reported values (under PCH sensor) are only possible if the system/BIOS has this enabled and configured properly.

As for the TDP reported itself it's as Dufus said - could be overriden by the BIOS to enforce lower limits.