The laptops available today pack a lot of performance under the thin chassis, and some even manage to stand out from some high-end desktops in terms of sheer power. However, this comes at the expense of warmth. If you own a laptop and use it for fairly intense tasks like rendering and gaming, you’ve probably already encountered these temperature issues. Most of this heat comes from the CPU, and that’s certainly not a good sign because it shortens the life of your CPU, which in turn reduces the life of your laptop. Other than that, at high temperatures, these processors do not perform at their full potential due to Intel’s thermal throttling limit. So, how can we overcome these problems, you might ask? Well, today we’re going to discuss exactly that and we’re going to use a third-party software called ThrottleStop. Well, without further ado, let’s take a look How to use ThrottleStop to check your CPU performance:
Download ThrottleStop
Developed by Unclewebb, ThrottleStop is a third-party software widely used by people to monitor and fix thermal throttling issues of their CPU. First released in 2010, the software has evolved a lot in the last 7 years. The latest version of ThrottleStop is 8.48 which you can download. here. Extract the downloaded zip file and click the ThrottleStop application to launch it.
Control CPU Temperature with ThrottleStop
Well, the primary reason someone would install ThrottleStop is to keep CPU temperatures in check because this software excels at exactly that. Therefore, almost all of the Intel Core processors available today support Turbo Boost technology. With the help of Turbo Boost, your CPU boosts its clock speed from its base operating frequency when the operating system requests the processor’s peak performance state. This is not necessarily a good thing, because the higher the clock speed, the higher the temperatures. So if you’re looking forward to keeping your temperatures low, Turbo Boost is one of your worst nightmares.
Now that ThrottleStop is here, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. You can completely turn off Intel’s Turbo Boost technology by checking it. “Disable Turbo” choice. Once complete, your CPU will stay at stock frequency and will never go higher unless re-enabled. If you want to confirm this, Check the FID column On the right side of the ThrottleStop application window.
You can take a look at my CPU for example. I have an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor with a base frequency of 2.8 GHz and it is capable of turbo boosting up to 3.8 GHz. As you can see from the screenshot above, when the Turbo Disable option was checked, the CPU frequency remained at around 2.8 GHz. By disabling Turbo Boost, Your CPU’s maximum temperature will drop by at least 5-10 degrees Celsius.
Check CPU Performance with ThrottleStop
Not everyone may be interested in keeping CPU temperatures low. Some people may not want CPU performance to be affected by these high temperatures. So, if you are one of them, Disable “BD PROCHOT” by unchecking the box. It basically means bidirectional processor hot. This may sound complicated, but we’ll let you know what it is.
The CPU isn’t the only component in your laptop that generates all the heat. The graphics chip inside your laptop generates a good amount of heat, especially during long gaming sessions. This essentially increases the overall temperature of your laptop. As a result, the CPU temperature also rises.
Intel introduced this BD PROCHOT feature so that if another component, such as your graphics chip, was running too hot, it could send a PROCHOT signal directly to the CPU and force it to cool via throttling. As a result, the entire laptop cools down. By disabling BD PROCHOT, Your CPU will continue to run at full speedeven if the temperatures of other components in your system are quite high.
How to Overclock the CPU Using ThrottleStop
note: Before continuing with that, you should understand that CPU overclocking will only work on unlocked K-series processors like Intel 7820HK, 6820HK and so on. If nothing else, this step is not for you and you can very well skip this part.
If you think you have enough temperature range and you have an unlocked processor, you can try to overclock your processor and push the limits. However, if your CPU’s temperature is already high at stock speeds, we highly recommend staying away from overclocking. ThrottleStop allows you to easily overclock your processor in a matter of seconds. To do this simply to increase “Cluster Multiplier” according to your preference.
The cluster multiplier may seem complicated at first, but it’s pretty easy to understand. All Intel Core CPUs available today have a base clock speed of 100 MHz, regardless of the multiplier. Let’s say you have an i7 7820HK CPU with a base frequency of 2.9 GHz and a boost frequency of 3.9 GHz, you can overclock to 4 GHz by setting the multiplier to 40, which essentially means: 40 x 100 MHz base clock = 4 GHz. Once complete, the FID column on the right side of the application window will show 40.xx if it actually worked. Unfortunately, the processor I have is a non-overclockable i7-7700HQ, so the software doesn’t allow me to overclock at all.
Overclocking Processor with ThrottleStop
Unlike the overclocking procedure, which is limited to K-series unlocked processors, any Intel processor can be overclocked or overclocked using ThrottleStop. People who choose to do this often want to stop the CPU from getting too hot to increase its lifespan. The procedure for doing this is pretty much the same as overclocking, but reduction”Set Multiplier” according to your preference.
Be sure Activate “SpeedStep” by ticking the box. If disabled, you cannot slow down your CPU. Take my i7-7700HQ for example, its base frequency is 2.8 GHz. Therefore, if I want to reduce the speed to 2.1 GHz, I will have to reduce the Tuning Multiplier to 21. Once done, you will be able to notice the reduced clock speed in the FID column of the application, as shown below. screenshot above. Although it slows down your CPU increases the temperature by a large margin, the overall performance of your laptop will also be affectedBecause the CPU is not performing at its full potential.
SEE ALSO: How to Overclock GPU for Better Gaming Performance
Avoid Thermal Throttle Problems with ThrottleStop
Depending on the problems you encounter, you can take full control of your CPU’s performance and keep temperatures under control with the nifty ThrottleStop software. The process is pretty simple, and if you know what you’re doing, ThrottleStop is something you should use every day. So, what are your thoughts on this great software? Can it finally solve most of the problems laptop users face? Let us know in the comments section below.
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