The ThrottleStop Guide

[unclewebb]

I appreciate the feedback error-id10t. If a long time ThrottleStop user like yourself didn't notice this then it needs to be changed. I'm going to use a pop-up window that is more in your face and harder not to see.

ATi and Nvidia temperature monitoring code from their drivers is inefficient and bloated so the best thing to do is to disable it and restart ThrottleStop when you don't need it. It's handy for testing purposes but most the time I don't bother using it. Intel has made reading temperature data from their CPUs extremely efficient compared to what ATi and Nvidia are doing.

[ojojoj]

In the Options window, to the right of Start Dual IDA, try checking Profile 1. If you are using Profile 1 as your Dual IDA profile then this option should automatically get your CPU back into Dual IDA mode when you resume from Stand By mode. This works OK on my Dell with a similar T8100 so hopefully it will work for you too. When you have checked the Profile 1 option, I don't think you need to check Start Dual IDA. Let me know if this works for you.

If you use the ExitTime option then you will have to manually start ThrottleStop every time you resume from stand by mode. ThrottleStop is very efficient when minimized to the system tray so leaving it running all the time isn't such a bad thing. You will see in the Task Manager that it takes up very little CPU or memory resources when sitting like this for hours.

with Profile 1 Dual IDA woks automatically, when resume from stand by tnx
And I use ExitTime option, but for starting again your app, when resume from stand by I found this solution:
1. Open task sheduler [press windows key, type task, click on task scheduler at the top of the menu list]
2. In Actions [menu or right pane] click 'new task'
3. In General tab, give your task a name
4. In Trigger tab, click 'new'
5. Choose 'on an event' in the top drop-down list.
6. Choose 'custom' radio button
7. Click on the 'new event filter' button that now appears.
8. For event level, choose 'information'
9. In 'event logs' drop-down menu, choose windows logs > system. Put a tick next to 'system' only
10. Click on the text 'All event ID's' [the text will clear] and insert 1
11. Click ok
12. In the 'Actions' tab, choose the program you want to start by clicking 'new'
13. In the 'new action' window, use the browse button to navigate to the .exe of the program you want to run. If you have a shortcut on your desktop for the program, you can simply choose that and scheduler will extract the path from the shortcut.


Result:
When start windows and after logon ThrottleStop after few seconds automatically exit and Dual IDA runs. After x minutes laptop goes to stand by. When resuming from stand by ThrottleStop starts again and after few second exits again and Dual IDA runs

[T1mur]

Feedback on 3.1 Beta4:

- Keyboard shortcuts work.

- TDP settings are saved, recalled on restart and make a difference (aka work).

- Options are saved the moment the OK button is used. *But* it also saves the current profile settings (without pressing the SAVE button).

We are holding conversations on two forums now, so check back at GS when you find time. I wrote a rather long (hopefully elaborate) post about C-states, Core Parking and Turbo Boost there.

[T1mur]

One more thing:

TS reports C6 % when the C button is only set to allow C3.

Is there a difference between C7 and MAX?

[unclewebb]

ojojoj: That's a great solution you found to that problem so you can be in Dual IDA after stand by without having to have ThrottleStop running 24/7. Thanks for documenting it.

T1mur: Good to hear that the keyboard shortcuts and Sandy Bridge TDP settings are being saved and recalled now.

You're right. Pressing the OK button in the Options window saves the options and anything in the Profiles at the same time. Now that the Options are being saved immediately, I will try and separate that code someday so it is more intuitive.

C7 and MAX should be the same thing. I think Intel included a MAX option for future development.

I've never tested this feature on Sandy Bridge so I wouldn't be surprised if Intel has changed a few things. On previous Core i CPUs, setting this to C3 would prevent the CPU package from entering the C6 state but this may no longer be the case. When the engineers were designing Sandy Bridge, it seems like they had ThrottleStop on their dart board and blocked what TS was doing as much as possible in their new CPUs.

[T1mur]

Maybe you should rename the "Register" column to "Enable", because the "Register" name is rather confusing. I wasn't sure if it's meant to enable the shortcut or meant to do some additional magic until I tried out.

Using the C button at C1 still seems to work, only C3 does not. That being said I wonder if there is any real impact on the CPU when only changing "package" states while "core" (and thread) states are still allowed to use C3/C6/C7?!

Seeing that the reported wattage does not change when changing the "package" c-state via TS it seems that it does not make any difference at all. On the other hand it makes a huge difference when forcing "cores" to C1 via power-profile and then switching C1E on and off (huge as in 100% more wattage with C1E disabled). Maybe you could provide an option to enforce cores into lower c-states instead of the package?

[ojojoj]

I have another prob:
I want set ThrottleStop for power save. Everything is ok, but then I exit app my frequancy stops at 600Mhz at all time. I must start again app and then I can use laptop without lag between 600Mhz and max. Any solution? My screenshot:


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[unclewebb]

If you want ThrottleStop to manage your CPU then generally you have to leave it running. After you exit ThrottleStop if you want Windows to take over control of your CPU then try unchecking and clearing this box.

Do Not Reset FID / VID on Exit

Have you done any power consumption testing? That Power Saver option lowers the multiplier but it didn't reduce power consumption on my T8100. That feature is more for the previous 65nm Core 2 mobile CPUs. Check out the graphs in this post.

The "Undervolting" Guide

T1mur: I used the word Register because the Windows function is called RegisterHotkey. I agree that the Enable word makes more sense so I'll change that. Unfortunately after you boot up into Windows, there is no control over the C State of individual cores. You can only try and block the CPU package from using the deeper sleep states. I mentioned in the Gears thread why the CPU power consumption number is not necessarily 100% accurate. I'm not sure if what you are seeing between C1 and C1E is 100% accurate. Something like a Kill-a-Watt meter might confirm this or better yet using the Windows battery power consumption data. You can draw a graph of this with the Windows Performance Monitor.

[ojojoj]

ok. I understand. I must leave it running.
I have not tested power consumption because with Dual IDA my laptop allways c.a. 5C higher With Dual IDA I feel performance, but I can't use this mode because about 50% time my laptop allways on my legs and I really feel differnce with heat + in summer this is very actual.

[T1mur]

I mentioned in the Gears thread why the CPU power consumption number is not necessarily 100% accurate. I'm not sure if what you are seeing between C1 and C1E is 100% accurate. Something like a Kill-a-Watt meter might confirm this or better yet using the Windows battery power consumption data. You can draw a graph of this with the Windows Performance Monitor.

I'm usually disabling the ACPI battery driver (DPC spikes every 15s), but I took a look at my Kill-a-Watt (Energy Monitor 3000 with quite good accuracy).

When I force all cores to run at C1 (99+%) and switch C1E on/off I roughly get 14 vs. 28w according to TS and 30 vs. 60w according to my watt meter. This makes sense, because without C1E the CPU keeps running at +1 Turbo bin and maximum VID when idle. Curiously C1E only seems to affect the clock multiplier but not the VID, at least not according to what TS reports. Power profiles do affect VID though.

I also compared TS' "Power Saver" with the different Windows power-profiles, including leaving C1E running. Power Saver still has an impact even compared to the Windows "Power Saver" profile (albeit little). With my own profiles that keep unparked idle CPUs running at maximum Turbo frequency it's a useful feature to get rid of Speedstep.