i7 4500U underclocks to 0.5GHz when running games

[Cowabunga!]

Hi there,

Im running a Sony notebook with an intel 4500U CPU which is decent enough most of the times, however when it comes to gaming it seems to be doing the complete opposite of what it is supposed to do - instead of turbo boosting it significantly underclocks whenever a tiniest bit of performance is needed.
Even running such 'light' titles as Rogue Legacy brings the CPU down to 0.5-0.8 GHz most of the time. During this time there is a significant drop in framerate which makes it impossible to enjoy the game. From time to time it would clock back to 1.8 GHz (which is the usual clock speed) but I never saw the core actually overclocking during a game.
While monitoring this I noticed that the actual usage of the cores is constantly kept at 25% - which doesnt make sense at all for me.
Concluding I have come to believe that my computer is mocking me whenever I try to run a game by restricting the resources. I have checked Sony's preinstalled programms for performance management - everything is set to "high performance".

Other than that is there anything I can do to get my CPU running at at least the standard clock speed instead of underclocking. Is there any additional software or system settings within Windows that I missed out?

Thanks a l-l-l-ot!

[rotNdude]

The CPU you have is a dual core and won't turbo unless it's only being stressed on one core. I'm guessing it's throttling due to temperatures and the other core is being stressed too.

[yberkurko]

I would guess what you are experiencing is thermal throtling. (Cpu is running too hot and lowers it's speed to avoid temperatures going high enough to do permanent damage.) Get core temp program and see how high cpu temps are when issue comes.

[Cowabunga!]

Temperatures are at 60-70°C when running a game, and at 40-50°C when just browsing the web.

[yberkurko]

... You have only integrated graphics (intel one)? If you have highish graphics settings it could be just gpu being bottleneck, when cpu will throttle down as it can keep up with strugling gpu even at low clock rates and thus save energy. Temps like that aren't likely cause for throtling.

edit. i just googled the game... i would now suspect cpu throtles down because not much power is needed to run the game. Requirements aren't especially high.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

U model CPUs are very low power, not meant for stressful apps/games
They lack processing power, more like the class of a Celeron or Pentium; not in-line with the MQ or HQ i5/i7 series.

[Cowabunga!]

Correct, its an Intel Integrated Graphics only Ultrabook. Even so, I do think that the CPU is the main reason for the severe lag. If you say that temperatures around 65°C aren't as much as a core could usually handle I still do not understand why it is behaving so strange.

[yberkurko]

Seems weird situation. Only explanation i can think of would be that ultra low TDP cpu hit's dtp limit when trying to game (both integrated gpu and cpu needing power) and it thotles down to keep within it's desing power usage limit. Seems unlikely case but it's all that comes in my mind now. Ofcourse there is other possible one that your laptop is damaged in some way. I have no experience with low tdp parts so can't say what is normal for them.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You can try Disable Intel Speed-Step in BIOS and see if that help keep the GHZ at a steady Freqency no matter the load. Then in Windows; go to Control Panel > Power Options and set to the High Performance profile. Then right click Desktop and go to Graphic Options for the Intel HD GPU and set that Profile to Performance or Balance as opposed to Quality.

Overall, you should also install Intel Update Utility[www.intel.com] and check for Driver updates and install those, such as Intel HD GPU and Chipset INF.

Then install HWMonitor[www.cpuid.com] and IntelBurnTest[www.majorgeeks.com]
Launch HWMonitor and you should be able to see Frequency and Voltages change depending on load. Launch IntelBurnTest, select anything other than Maximum from the drop-down list and click Start. This will max out the load on the CPU & Chipset. See how it does with that, by monitoring everything shown in HWMonitor

[Cowabunga!]

Soounds like a plan. Thank!