The ThrottleStop Guide

I don't know exactly where it was, but UncleWebb had noted that undervolting only works when both CPU and GPU are set to the same decrease (note changes in static voltage produce crashes). I was able to decrease CPU and GPU to -170 - that turned out not to be so stable, but -140 seems very stable. With Speedshift activated and undervoltage, package power at idle runs ~ 1.5-3w, with idle temps in the 28-33 degree range. Stressing CPU and Gpu with Firestrike takes CPU temp into the 70's - at stock, the peak was in low 90's. I haven't tried undervolting the other items...

J

 

Possible. Luckily, now that several others have reported the same thing with 8.2, it is (well, was; see below) either an issue with Windows or an issue with what SendSpace is (or rather, was) serving. (I am choosing to run @unclewebb's stuff, and have for ages, ergo I trust @unclewebb fully.)

Lol. Also true in the general case, but I would know better than you, whether a generalized threat model is applicable to me, or not. No offense

Indeed. Can't speak for everyone but as I said, I'm trying to run your stuff, thus I trust you. And it seems Windows has decided it is safe (or whatever was happening is no longer happening!) now -- I just downloaded 8.2 again, and it wasn't quarantined. I did not retain the other downloads to compare, so perhaps this will remain a mystery. (And probably, it was just Microsoft being Microsoft.)

For the benefit of the thread and the security questions, when I checksum the 8.2 zip, I get:

SHA256:
9819b354caa601cfe0f556f409da22a9cb2ba5110f6315136f2154d43bd8f209

Whirlpool:
882946b144c5dc5c215e6d780f9781cd35d2185d408dff343e2b24762b4a2ba0a757590c4b0ac024652b49669ec9b9eace0974896a6f32ef0eca8e7ef53ef8

I used https://defuse.ca/checksums.htm because I know and trust the guy who runs DefuseSec personally, but any tool should come up with the same checksums. Presumably that is what you'd get, @unclewebb, if you tested your copy of the 8.2 zip as well.

If it isn't too much trouble, when you update it in the future, I hope you'll consider posting such checksums of the zip here, so we can be sure that we have downloaded the same thing that you uploaded. It won't stop silly people who are paranoid about you, but it would prevent concerns like mine. (And if you do, if you aren't familiar with the state of infosec and crypto, I didn't choose SHA256 and Whirlpool at random. Many hashes are not safe to use anymore, such as MD5.)

Thanks again for being such a studious maintainer and making this great software freely available.

Best regards, everyone.

 

When you say undervolting only works when both CPU & GPU are set to the same decrease, what do you mean exactly by "both CPU and GPU"?
CPU Core, CPU Cache, and intel GPU? And are we both talking about skylake?

I ask because I haven't tried the combination of undervolting CPU Core, CPU Cache & intel GPU and I wouldn't expect that combo would do anything beyond undervolt the CPU, which can be done already by undervolting just CPU Core & CPU Cache alone.

Here is what I have tested:
I have tested CPU Core & CPU Cache together, which acts to reduce CPU voltages (as measured by cpu-z). I haven't tested them separately because I thought I read earlier in this thread that undervolted separately, they do nothing for skylake. I also haven't tested static voltages because I read that would freeze the comp instantly.

I have also tested System Agent & intel GPU together (where the lesser of the two undervolts seem to take effect on the iGPU, as measured by power consumption graphs in AIDA64 & GPU-z [I don't know of software that can measure intel GPU voltage directly]) and separately (where nothing seems to happen. IA core/iGPU/uncore power consumption doesn't change)

-----------------------------
Other results on my i7-6700HQ on a dell inspiron 7559, bios 1.0.4, TS 8.2 (obviously YMMV)
On my machine, undervolts persist through hard reboots even if TS doesn't autorun, which is really dangerous. This caused BSOD boot loops for me.
(apparently this is the OEM's doing, as noted by unclewebb a few posts ago)
Also for me the undervolt clears after a wake from hibernate.

-160mV on both CPU Core & CPU Cache was stable, even through reboots.
-170mV on both CPU Core & CPU Cache was stable through a reboot, but I didn't test that long
-175mV on both CPU Core & CPU Cache was not stable, after 6+ hours of stability a BSOD from GPU undervolt caused this to be unstable
-180mV on both CPU Core & CPU Cache was not stable, instant BSOD & reboot loop

-125mV on both system agent & intel GPU was not stable, instant BSOD (fortunately so quick the voltages didn't save so no reboot loop)
-100mV on both system agent & intel GPU was not stable, instant BSOD & reboot loop
-80mV on both system agent & intel GPU was not stable, resulted in a driver crash after 6+ hours desktop use
-75mV on both system agent & intel GPU was not stable, caused BSOD and boot loop after I had just finished writing this post for the first time

Going to try -172mV on CPU core/cache and -70 on sys agent/iGPU next. (edit: -172 not stable)

Potential bug:
I noticed as I was stuck in a boot loop and trying to reset the voltages in TS 8.2 that if I clicked zero offset + apply for one item and then zero offset + apply for another item, the voltage offset in the top right chart for the first item reset to where it was before I clicked zero offset for it (and then I crashed moments later). This surely cannot be intentional.
Even prior to this, during my undervolt testing I remember noticing that I had an item with an offset voltage that differed from the offset in the top right chart, and the 'apply' button greyed out so TS must have changed its offset from what should have been there. Don't remember what I did to cause that one.
I can't reproduce this behavior now though... weird.

 

Yes exactly, i am starting Throttlestop on startup with the task scheduler. I had stopped the program and extracted the 8.20 version to the desktop - moved the files into the existing throttlestop folder. Old files were overwritten and did a reboot.

I'll check out your suggestion and do a "Clean" install and configure again from scratch.

Maybe you can write a little "guide" how the upgrade to a newer Version should be done (without losing the settings)...

 

Misstatement on my part. It was CPU Core and CPU Cache that I undervolted together. I have not been able to undervolt the other two successfully, though I have not tried very hard.
Sorry if I produced confusion - it was the end of a long day.

J

 

ok i have clean installed and it's working fine now. I could clean the "list" of icons with the notification area .bat
Looking good now :-D thanks a lot v.8.20 is working really well

 

ThrottleStop 8.30
https://www.sendspace.com/file/ghbhyh

Code:

  File: ThrottleStop.exe
CRC-32: 849b3ca1
   MD4: 5833f9252f785cdd0bbadffc7d2793b7
   MD5: c2256cab6a2ad7f7054f3e590d530ef7
 SHA-1: 342c154df9d076959ccd612e997d8224a5266c47

New Features
- added Energy Performance Preference (EPP) adjustment to Speed Shift feature.
- added Limit Reasons reporting for Xeon E5/E7 v3/v4, CPU only.
- two new mini mode features.

If you already have TS installed, just download the zip and copy the new ThrottleStop.exe over top of the previous version.

If your computer does not reset the voltages when you reboot, turn your computer off, unplug it and remove the battery if possible. This will reset the CPU.

If you are playing with voltages then it would be best to use the FIVR option OK - Save voltages after ThrottleStop exits. This will prevent any voltages from being saved until after ThrottleStop safely exits. Change voltages, do some testing, exit ThrottleStop after you are 100% sure about your voltages. This way if you have a BSOD while testing, your voltage settings that you are testing will not be saved.

Anyone that was having problems with their CPU not reaching full turbo speed while overclocking and using Speed Shift, let me know if the new EPP adjustment helps out.

 

Thanks for 8.30 update unclewebb. Works just fine on my Dell 9550 (skylake 6300HQ).

Quick question regarding EPP. On my laptop it defaulted at 128; does that equate with a 50-50 balanced mode and that 0 would be max energy saver preference and that 255 would be max performance preference?

Basically I am trying to get max performance from the chip...

 

Intel says that the default value for Speed Shift - EPP is 128 so I am assuming that most manufacturers will go with that. I am not yet sure if the Windows 10 power plan or something else might change this on the fly or if it will be left alone at 128.

With your CPU idle, set EPP to 0 and check out what multiplier is reported. Change EPP to 255 and have another look at the multiplier. This test should tell you what setting does what.

 

Thanks for the prompt response Uncle Webb. Really nice to just push a button to enable Speed Shift despite fact Dell has yet to support it.

It seems for my i5 6300HQ (running max 3.2ghz):

I. EPP settings:
EPP 0 ==> "Max" clock (performance)
EPP 255===> "Min" clock (energy efficient)
Note - some systems seem to scale these to a range of 0%-100% so be careful...

II. SpeedShift ranges:
- Speed shift min/max on my laptop range from 1 to 32
- Setting min to 32 and max to 32 seems to lock the computer on max CPU as you (I think) mentioned before.
----> Setting min to 32 and max to 32 seems to "disable" EPP (careful!)

III. More Speed Shift intro material for other novices:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9751/examining-intel-skylake-speed-shift-more-responsive-processors
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Proces...sted-Significant-User-Experience-Improvements
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...e/a20f481a-fe3d-4e15-b0b5-ea11f8c62795?page=8

==> It seems SpeedShift can make a big difference in latency-dependent processes

Thanks!

 

Please vote 5 stars for ThrottleStop guys by giving it a 5 rating on the right of this page: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/throttlestop.html

 

Great news here.

ThrottleStop 8.30's new SpeedShift settings have significantly improved performance of my i5 6300HQ (Dell 9550). I think the new EPP factor is what makes the difference so encourage others to try it out.

Note Dell does not support SpeedShift for the 9550 so ThrottleStop opens new frontiers here...


EDIT - If the laptop goes to sleep, the clicking problem returns, so sleep is impacting something; not sure if it is directly or indirectly impacting SpeedShift. I know some people have sleep problems with their Dell 9550s and 9350s so it really could be anything.

Full shutdown (didn't try restart) fixes the problem.

EDIT2 - The clicking problem seems to return after some time running so I will look at that and post more details. Full shutdown fixes the problem

 

Done Unclewebb deserves this for the awesome piece of software he has made!!

 

How can I see if my voltage changes took effect?

The VID display doesn't seem to differ if I make changes to the "Offset Voltage" setting.

I got a Skylake CPU, and yes, I made sure that CPU offset and cache offset are the same.

 

8.30 has fixed the duplicate system tray notification icon issue.

But there is another quirk. When I run a game that changes resolution, the Throttlestop window reappears even when only running in the tray. Minimize it back to tray, and it returns again eventually. Strange.

This is on Windows 10.

 

@Dufus @xJohnSmithx

I have a MSI GE62 2QD, with the PROCHOT set at 90 aswell.
Might I ask you how did you manage to change it? I get its a BIOS mod, mind helping modding it? Since its almost the same laptp,I guess it will be easy to mod.

Much appreaciated.
Thanks.

 

Are you using any game boosting kind of software that kills various background processes? I will see if I can duplicate this issue. Maybe I need to create a game mode option to prevent this from happening.

You might want to try adjusting these voltages when there is a load on the CPU so it is easier to see any changes. There are some desktop boards that completely ignore ThrottleStop voltage changes and there might be some laptops that also ignore these changes.

 

It's my Surface Pro 4. No special software is running. It only happens if the game changes screen resolution.

 

Thanks unclewebb for making Throttlestop, which helps me tone-down the throttling on my XPS 9550.

I have an issue ever since I was forced to upgrade from 8.10 to 8.20 (now using the latest 8.30) where I can't Set Multipliers. I *can* change clock modulation (which appears to force the multipler to 8x on my Core i7-6700HQ after around ~60%).

Any ideas? Aside from SpeedStep being off, and SpeedShift being on, nothing else has changed about my setup from when I was using 8.10. I have tried with SpeedStep on and SpeedShift off, with no change in behavior.

 

Thanks for the update unclewebb.

If I want to use Speedshift, should I uncheck Speedstep ?

 

Hello, help set up one profile 2 at full capacity in the second on the contrary battery savings or share your settings. I'm not good with English and as well as with a computer. Notebook acer aspire e5-571g

 

With ThrottleStop minimized to the system tray, can you try changing screen resolutions. When I do this, ThrottleStop does not pop up. It stays minimized. Are you playing a game that takes up the full screen or are you playing a game in a window on the desktop? I am not much of a gamer but in a few days, if I have some time, I will try to install a game on my Win 10 laptop to see if this happens to me. It is difficult for me to fix things unless I can find a way to recreate the problem.

The Set Multiplier option needs at least 3 things to be set correctly or it will NOT work.

1) SpeedStep has to be enabled.
2) Speed Shift has to be disabled.
3) Non Turbo Ratio has to be set to zero (0).

Your settings are blocking the Set Multiplier function from working correctly. Also, do not use the Clock Modulation setting unless your laptop has this problem. Most modern laptops do not use Clock Modulation anymore so there is probably no need to turn this on and adjust it.

When using Speed Shift, I do not think it matters if SpeedStep is checked or not. Speed Shift is new technology that takes control of your CPU speed. The old methods of CPU speed control are ignored when Speed Shift is enabled.

 

That did the trick. It looks like it was defaulting to 34 for my system/cpu. I don't recall ever changing this value. What does the Non Turbo Ratio do? Any idea why it was set to 34?

I have a ThrottleStop profile that actually disables turbo (since it's useless for gaming, as it just speeds up my time to throttle), but I don't recall the multipliers going over 28 with turbo off, so that value is a mystery to me .

Roger that. Thanks for the help!

 

unclewebb
Can you help it? Or is it so hard?

 

I think I understand what is causing this problem. For a quick fix, try positioning TS in the top left corner of the screen before minimizing it. After that, go play a game and see what happens. I will get this fixed up shortly.

Yes. Do you have any English speaking friends that can help translate for you. Maybe try using Google translate or post some pictures of ThrottleStop so I can try and understand your problem.

 

http://i.imgur.com/fl3tNUw.png
http://i.imgur.com/bhFHts9.png

I translate from English but that's still not know anything about computers through Google translate. I need to set up two profiles, one at maximum capacity, and the second on the contrary low battery consumption. That's what I was able to just set up. Other settings are not touched, because there is even no familiar terms. Thank you .

 

@DmiTrah - ThrottleStop is a tool. It can be used to fix computers that slow down (throttle). ThrottleStop can also be used to overclock some computers and make them run faster. If you are not having any throttle problems and your CPU cannot be overclocked, there is no reason to run ThrottleStop.

When running on battery power, turn off all of the programs that you do not need. This is the best way to save power. There is no need to run ThrottleStop when on battery power. The Core i5-4210U is a low power CPU. Intel designed it to be very efficient so you do not have to do anything to it. Running ThrottleStop while on battery power will probably use more power.

The only adjustment I would recommend is to lower the CPU voltage. You can do this in the FIVR window but changing the CPU voltage is only for advanced users. If you are not an advanced user, I would leave the voltage alone.

It looks like your computer is running good.

 

Throttlestop still reappears when I minimize it after moving it to the top left of the screen.

 

http://imgur.com/a/kPPeA

Take a look at these options, please I want to, what would I have it running at full capacity, when I play the game and do not burn. Thank you so much . I'm a noob at this and do not understand that where pushed. The battery and the energy does not need to save, I want to squeeze out of him all at maximum power. Video my nvidia geforce 840m, if it too, as it should be. Thank you

 

TS also pops up randmly for me when minimized. I don't really know why.
Its not really a problem, just a random nuisance.

Its not resolution related because I never change from 1080p in anything.
Sometimes I'm playing for some time (could be more then an hour) and randomly TS just pops up and "steals" the show from the game, and the game minimizes and TS appears alone in the middle of the screen in all its glory!

Any idea why?

 

Hey man is there a way to enable speed shift without throttlestop because my cpu cant overclock and i dont want undervolt it,but speed shift seems to help my performance.Any way?

 

@Maximus34: Enable Speedshift in Throttlestop. Set "Task Scheduler" to stop throttlestop after 30 seconds. Speedshift is a persistive setting that is only lost after sleep/ power off.

 

Here is a better idea. Add the ExitTime option to the ThrottleStop.INI config file.

ExitTime=5

The Core i5-4210U is a low power CPU. It is locked by Intel. You cannot use ThrottleStop or any software to overclock your CPU or make it run faster.

At the moment, I don't have any ideas why this might be happening. Did this just start happening with TS 8.30? I will have a close look at any recent changes I have made. If I figure something out, you and @swaaye can be my beta testers.

 

Did anything change in Throttlestop at some point in time (version) that showed a much higher Package Power? I remember being around 7watts or lower.. Now i'm around 14watts on newer version or my computer is just that inefficient I guess compared to other machines.

Only curious and has no relation to my current machines in my signature.. Only something i've seen over the past 6 months it feels like.

 

@Diversion - I cannot think of anything that has changed recently. What C0% is TS reporting when your CPU is idle and has there been a change in the C States that you are using? Post a screenshot of the C States window when idle. If you have disabled some of the package C States, either in the bios or by adjusting something in ThrottleStop, that might cause a change in power consumption. That can also happen if you have updated the bios.

My Win 10 laptop continues to spend 0.5% or less of its time in the C0 state when idle. Maybe a recent MS update has gone rogue.

If anyone else is having problems with TS randomly popping up while gaming, send me a PM and I will send you a version that might have fixed this issue.

 

You may also have accidentally switched the package power display to maximum power by clicking it. Click it to cycle through min/max/current.

 

unclewebb

Thanks for the help earlier. I have an issue that's not necessarily related to Throttlestop that just started happening. My i7-6700HQ no longer idles at an 8x multiplier. It now idles at 9x multiplier. I can adjust the multiplier to anything greater than or equal to 9x, but even using Throttlestop to try and force the processor down to 8x does not work.

I did recently re-apply thermal paste and pads to this laptop, but I'm unsure why that would affect the multiplier.

Any ideas?

 

With a mobile 6th Gen Skylake processor, if you want a low multiplier when the CPU is lightly loaded, I would enable Speed Shift so the CPU can manage itself. Even if ThrottleStop was working for you and you were able to force the multi to 8, this might consume more power compared to using Speed Shift. Intel put a few bucks into developing Speed Shift. I think that power management at the hardware level is probably best and Speed Shift has advantages compared to letting Windows or ThrottleStop control things.

If you have TS setup correctly based on the info I previously gave you then I am not sure what is blocking you from accessing the 8 multiplier. The 8 multi is still available on my desktop Skylake so I am not sure what is preventing you from using the 8 on your 6700HQ. Post a screenshot at idle and with a small load on your CPU (1 thread of TS Bench) so I can have a look.

 

Here you go: http://imgur.com/a/Dybon

I have pictures for the following:

• multiplier @ idle
• multiplier under light load (1 thread TS Bench)
• multiplier @ idle (when speedshift is enabled)
• multiplier when set to 8x
• multiplier when set to 9x
• multiplier when set to 10x

I discovered that I can actually force it to 8x if I constantly spam the "back arrow" button to select the multiplier when "Set Multiplier" is enabled. Of course it only goes down to 8, but if I keep clicking it, my multiplier actually sits at 8x. Once I stop clicking on the button, however, it swings back up to 9x, even though 8x is selected.

Thanks again.

 

Perhaps there is a hidden Windows power profile setting that is blocking the 8 multiplier on your system. I wish I had an answer for you but without access to your laptop, there could any number of settings blocking this. My desktop Skylake can run at the 8 multi whether idle or full load so I do not think this is a bug in TS.



The good news is that the 8 multi vs the 9 multi does not make any significant real world difference. Your screenshot with Speed Shift enabled shows reported CPU package power consumption is at 0.8 Watts. If you eliminate some background tasks, you should be able to get the C0% number much lower and that should result in lower power consumption too. Thanks for taking the time to post those pics.

Try running CPU-Z, click on the About tab, go to the bottom and click on Save Report (.TXT). Post or send me the info in that report and I will check to see if there are any clues in there.

 

Hey Guys,

I am sorry if it has been asked before. I recently purchased a MSI GS60 6QE with Skylake 6700HQ.

It is running on 3.1 GHz on all 4 cores and I would like to force it to 3.5 as it was on my previous laptop with 4710HQ.

However when I set the multiplier to 35 it still goes only to 3.1 GHz. I also noticed that there is no option to overclock to 37 as it was in the previous 4710. Is that intended for the Skylake CPUs or do I have to change something in BIOS/Throttlestop settings.

The CPU runs quite cool tho. It barely reaches 70 C while running prime on 3.1Ghz.

Many Thanks.

 

6700HQ is not an overclockable chip.

3.1Ghz on all 4 cores is how the 6700HQ operates.

 

I know that but on 4710 I was able to increase the speed to the single core frequency which was 3.5 and i had all 4 cores run at that speed instead of only one of them. Furthermore I was able to increase the single core clock speed to 3.7 GHz. And everything that only trough Throttlestop. On 6700hq i cannot do that. It allows me to change the settings but they do not apply.

 

Plur is right. While 4710 can be overclocked, 6700hq cannot. Maximum speed for all 4 cores is fixed at 3.1 GHz. 6700hq is a fairly fast processor, but locked. You can undervolt and reduce temps significantly, and Speedshift works really well, however.
Sorry to be the bearer of (somewhat) bad news.
J

 

Open up the ThrottleStop FIVR window. A laptop with a 4th Gen CPU should show at least +2 in the Turbo Overclocking section and some will show +4 or +6 or Unlimited. On many of the 6th Gen Skylake CPUs, this box is going to show +0 which means it cannot be overclocked. The Overclock box below that will also be locked.

ThrottleStop left the multiplier adjusters partially unlocked just in case someone found a way to overclock one of these but so far, no luck. 31 is the max multi when 4 cores are active.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i7/Intel-Core i7-6700HQ Mobile processor.html

In many apps, the 6700HQ is not going to be any faster than a 3+ year old 4700MQ. That's a long time with zero progress.

 

Nor any faster than my overclocked 6 yr old (nearly) 2920XM! Although probably not fair to compare top of the line CPU with mid range CPU, but still - 6 yrs! That's not a lot of progress!

 

How do I reset everything set up? It was even worse ...

 

The best way to reset everything is to reboot and before running ThrottleStop, delete the ThrottleStop.INI configuration file. This forces ThrottleStop to reset everything you have previously saved.

 

Awesome, seems with this speed shift mode I have good working turbo on Windows 7 with i7-6700HQ.
Question anyone tried to undervolt System Agent on Skylake? Last time even small modifications did blue screens on Brodwell CPU to me.

 

Hello there, jsut to say that whereas throttle stop has been working flawlessly for me, the last release of it causes any game that switches resolution to go back into windows. I think this is because throttle stop wants to be somehow as the top window.