barlew
Godlike
Whilst tracking this problem for a couple of months it has became apparent that people appear to be having difficulty configuring ThrottleStop to fix the Vyper 17" battery performance issues.
It has been suggested I create a guide to show people how to do it so here it is, apologies I have had to split it across multiple posts because of the number of pictures.
*Before we start I take absolutely no responsibility for any damage caused to the readers laptop during the use of this guide. Use this guide at your own risk and if you aren't comfortable doing so then wait for the fix from PCS. ThrottleStop provides a warning on initial start-up for good reason. If you change settings you do not understand in this program there is potential to cause damage to your CPU.
With that said when I first discovered this issue I detailed the fault and the temporary fix to PCS and they were happy for me to do it. If you have any concerns just send them an email before you continue and I am sure they will give you the go ahead.
Before we start you will need the following programs:
ThrottleStop (Use the stable release): https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/
HWiNFO: https://www.hwinfo.com/
HWMonitor: https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
A brief overview on the cause
So in brief the reason the the Vyper 17" runs poorly on battery is because for some reason TongFang have set the PL1 and PL2 (long burst and short burst) power limits to 5W when running on battery. To put this into perspective Intel rate the chip at 45W TDP (Thermal Design Power) which means Intel say the chip should be supplied 45W power average which can then be increased through PL1 and PL2 states to give you the advertised boost frequencies. A point to note here Intel have repurposed what TDP actually means but that is beyond the scope of this guide.
As TongFang have reduced the boost states as aggressively as they have what we see happen when the chip tries to go into a boost state is the CPU enter a condition called Power Limit Throttling (PLT). This means that the CPU is trying to increase frequency but recognises it is not being supplied enough power to reach it or run in a stable state. To stop errors occurring within the CPU it aggressively throttles its frequency all the way down. This is why the laptops run so badly on battery power.
The reason TongFang have done this in my opinion is so they can claim the laptop battery time is incredibly long, which incidentally they are right however it causes massive performance issues.
We can observe the Power Limit Throttling in ThrottleStop as indicated by the "Power" indicator highlighted by the green box:
We can also observe what is going on in much more detail using HWMonitor the screen below is indicative of the CPU operation when there is no PLT taking place:
As you can see the CPU is receiving 10.5W power and the core frequencies are what you would expect to see from this CPU when at idle.
When PLT kicks in however the following happens:
As you can see the Package power has dropped below 10W and all of a sudden the CPU has drastically scaled back the frequencies on all cores.
A point to note here, it is possible to see the CPU drop frequencies like this briefly during normal operation. The reason for this is the CPU has hit a slight lull in activity so the frequencies drop. The difference with PLT is the drop is enforced and prolonged when the CPU is at high demand which causes the laptop to lag.
It has been suggested I create a guide to show people how to do it so here it is, apologies I have had to split it across multiple posts because of the number of pictures.
*Before we start I take absolutely no responsibility for any damage caused to the readers laptop during the use of this guide. Use this guide at your own risk and if you aren't comfortable doing so then wait for the fix from PCS. ThrottleStop provides a warning on initial start-up for good reason. If you change settings you do not understand in this program there is potential to cause damage to your CPU.
With that said when I first discovered this issue I detailed the fault and the temporary fix to PCS and they were happy for me to do it. If you have any concerns just send them an email before you continue and I am sure they will give you the go ahead.
Before we start you will need the following programs:
ThrottleStop (Use the stable release): https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/
HWiNFO: https://www.hwinfo.com/
HWMonitor: https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
A brief overview on the cause
So in brief the reason the the Vyper 17" runs poorly on battery is because for some reason TongFang have set the PL1 and PL2 (long burst and short burst) power limits to 5W when running on battery. To put this into perspective Intel rate the chip at 45W TDP (Thermal Design Power) which means Intel say the chip should be supplied 45W power average which can then be increased through PL1 and PL2 states to give you the advertised boost frequencies. A point to note here Intel have repurposed what TDP actually means but that is beyond the scope of this guide.
As TongFang have reduced the boost states as aggressively as they have what we see happen when the chip tries to go into a boost state is the CPU enter a condition called Power Limit Throttling (PLT). This means that the CPU is trying to increase frequency but recognises it is not being supplied enough power to reach it or run in a stable state. To stop errors occurring within the CPU it aggressively throttles its frequency all the way down. This is why the laptops run so badly on battery power.
The reason TongFang have done this in my opinion is so they can claim the laptop battery time is incredibly long, which incidentally they are right however it causes massive performance issues.
We can observe the Power Limit Throttling in ThrottleStop as indicated by the "Power" indicator highlighted by the green box:
We can also observe what is going on in much more detail using HWMonitor the screen below is indicative of the CPU operation when there is no PLT taking place:
As you can see the CPU is receiving 10.5W power and the core frequencies are what you would expect to see from this CPU when at idle.
When PLT kicks in however the following happens:
As you can see the Package power has dropped below 10W and all of a sudden the CPU has drastically scaled back the frequencies on all cores.
A point to note here, it is possible to see the CPU drop frequencies like this briefly during normal operation. The reason for this is the CPU has hit a slight lull in activity so the frequencies drop. The difference with PLT is the drop is enforced and prolonged when the CPU is at high demand which causes the laptop to lag.
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