Intel XTU PL1 change not working

[LKSk547]

So I have i5 12500h and I recently changed over to PTM7950. I benchmarked it and it had 60 degrees C at 45W and 86 degrees at max 100W, so I wanted to increase PL1 a bit, so that it would be a bit faster even in longer workloads. I know that this is not a K series chip, but I increased the power draw before and it worked.

But this time when I changed it to 70W and increased the boost to 128 seconds, it did nothing. I saw that the PL1 dynamic changed to 70W in HWInfo, but it ran at 45W after the turbo period. The turbo also lasted the same amount of time as before, so that 128 second change did not work either. 

Also every time when I shut down my computer and then power it back on and open XTU, it gives me an error message saying "application exited unexpectedly" and it prompts me to check if my clocks are stable. It was happening for about a year, but I ignored it, since the app worked fine. I get the error even when I do not change the default profile.  I will add a screenshot that someone has already taken that shows the exact error I get.

How can I make all of this work? Please let me know if you require additional info. Thanks in advance btw.

[RandyT_Intel]

Hello LKSk547,

It appears that the error message you encountered is likely due to the processor not being supported by Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU). To help you further, please refer to the following articles:

• Why Is Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel® XTU) Reporting an Installation Error?
• Product Features and Requirements for Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility

Could you please let us know if XTU worked fine on your computer before and if you were able to use it? Additionally, we would like to understand the main reason you are installing XTU.

Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility can be installed in laptops but it will not work for overclocking purposes. This is because overclocking with Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility only works for processors with K, KF, or X in their processor number.

When the tool is installed in your laptop with an unsupported processor, the user can view system information parameters such as processor information and motherboard and BIOS info. However, using the tool to change parameters in your laptop such as core voltage can result in inconclusive and unreliable behavior due to an unsupported processor.

Even if the tool is installed correctly on your system, the tool will support only a processor with the letters K, KF, or X in its numbers. Refer to the supported processors in the download link.

Best regards, 

Randy T. 

Intel Customer Support Technician 

[LKSk547]

Hi, 

Thanks for the reply.

First of all, I tried to reinstall XTU for the second time and it fixed the error message(I have no clue why it did not fix it the first time I reinstalled it). The error started randomly occuring about a year ago and XTU worked fine for me before that. I did not reinstall it or anything like that, it just started happening randomly. Maybe it confronted with the stock bios settings. And yes I downloaded the correct version (7.14.2.14).

I know that CPUs that are locked cannot be overclocked (so no voltage control or clockspeed increases), but the power targets can be changed for a bit more performance on a laptop, because the CPUs in long multicore heavy scenarios are more bottlenecked by the provided power (and thermals, but not in my case) rather than the clock speed.

I heard that you can increase the PL1 so that it will work like the Unlimited Boost Duration on i9 K processors, so that it will basically boost forever as long as there is thermal headroom (which there is, a lot of it). It is just silly to see the processor work fine at 100W boost (temps were 86°C on the hotspot at max), but then be forced to a lower power state (45W). I just wanted to add more performance.

After the second reinstall I indeed did get the PL1 to work at 90W and the boost to 128 seconds. The score in Cinebench went from 11500 points to 13500 points which is a massive increase. In Passmark it went from 20000 points to 24500 points.

When I started my computer today the error did not reoccur, but the power limit changes were again not working. So I would get 100W at 86°C and after 56 seconds 45W at 60°C even though I changed it in XTU yesterday to the settings I described earlier. In HWInfo it indeed reported that I had the stock settings turned on. So I headed back to XTU and it reported that nothing changed at all and I still ran at my changed power targets (90W, 128 second boost) and I could not hit apply. I changed PL1 to 89.75W and them hit apply at it did show up in HWInfo, but it didn´t make any change in the actual power and performance of the laptop (I was back at 11500 points in CB with 45W after 56 seconds).

I think that the problem is the laptop bios rather than XTU itself. It probably checks if the default settings were changed and if they were then it changes them back to the stock ones as seen by the fact that on startup the settings were the stock ones.

The paragraph above is all speculation, so please correct me if I am wrong about something. My laptop is the HP Victus 2022 with the stock HP bios (I of course update it), I don´t know if that is relevant, but I wanted to provide that info in case that it would be needed.

Is there a problem with XTU or is it just a bios limitation? Thanks for the reply in advance.

[RandyT_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello LKSk547,

You might want to try contacting your system manufacturer to see if they can help you alter some configurations in the BIOS. While it's not wrong to speculate, I will stand by the capabilities and limitations of XTU based on the information you provided.

You can indeed adjust some settings in XTU, but these changes may not be reflected in other third-party software you are using. Even though XTU is successfully installed, in my experience, it is a straightforward software that displays some features of the app for non-K processor. However, using this software for underclocking, undervolting, or overclocking purposes is not possible, as it only works for processors above those I mentioned.

If you want to explore CPU states by altering the BIOS for better wattage readings, I highly suggest contacting HP for tailored support.

Best regards, 

Randy T. 

Intel Customer Support Technician