i9-9880h power limit throttling unusual behavior

[mikey]

Hello guys,

I've recently got a zbook 17 g6 workstation, with the i9-9880h processor, despite all the warnings and bad feedback online.

Without getting into too much detail, trying to tame the beast's thermals, playing around with Intel XTU, i was able only to lower the TDP. 

This showed the interesting behaviour that under no load, the system seems to be 'throttled' without any apparent reason. 

Anyone else encountered such behaviour with another Intel processor or machine?

My speculation is that the firmware is not reporting actual values, and some safeguard in the processor kicks in (for the ~60 degrees shown in the screenshot, the laptop itself is too hot to touch).

[AlHill]

XTU does not support your H processor.  XTU only supports X and K processors.

You do not have an unlocked processor.  And, undervolting can cause you problems.

https://securityboulevard.com/2019/12/plundervolt-a-new-intel-processor-undervolting-vulnerability/

Doc

[mikey]

Hello AlHill,

Thanks for the answer,

I'm aware that the CPU isn't unlocked, and haven't tried to lower the voltage.

I was merely looking if anyone else had a similar observation by just lowering the TDP.

Further on that, is the TDP lowering supposed to work? Most of the time I see the system following the rule, yet that TDP flag showing under no load is what really bugs me.