Thermal Monitor TM2

[Zorg]

I have been looking around and noticed that it appears to be standard to disable TM2 when overclocking. Here is a link to a guide that has recommends disabling TM2. There are many other similar posts.

Gigabyte GA-P35 DS4 v2 and Q6600 (overclock CPU)? - Page 3 - Forums - OverclockingWiki.org

This sounds like complete BS to me, and very foolish as well. If anyone has substantiated evidence to the contrary, please let me know.

 

[randomizer]

Isn't TM1 the system used for thermal "throttling"? I thought TM2 was just for lowering power consumption as part of EIST. Need to find some more info on it.

 

[Andrius]

I agree. Disabling TM2 is just asking for a new $200 keychain.

Someone should tell the author what TM2 does as opposed to EIST and C1E.

 

[randomizer]

This article might let you draw your own conclusions:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/intel-thermal-features/index.html

EDIT: From how I read the article, TM2 works essentially the same as EIST, except it is triggered by excessively high temperatures. Interestingly, the way they worded the article makes it sound (to me) like both TM2 and EIST don't actually drop the multiplier, but instead throttles the CPU as though the multiplier had dropped to the minimum.

 

[Andrius]

^IIRC from my November research it's something like this.
EIST and C1E adjust voltage and frequencies.

TM1 stops the CPU (ie no clock is generated so the CPU does not perform state switches and thus has a much lower thermal output) for a period of time and then resumes. This causes stuttering and erratic mouse movement ...

TM2 is an "upgrade" for TM1 that reduces the intervals and creates a more user responsive system. I'm not sure it improves the thermal situation.

From the article posted by randomizer

...It's a non-standard CPU mode to enable or disable both TM1 and TM2 at the same time, thus it's not recommended by the manufacturer. ...

I wonder if that means that if you disable TM2 you enable TM1.

Gigabyte's manual says it reduces the frequency when overheating. I don't know about the rest of you but I REALLY DON'T want to disable that when I'm testing my overclocks.

 

[randomizer]

Even if you do disable both TM1 and TM2 you still can't stop THERMTRIP if you get a bit carried away.

 

[Andrius]

^That's almost like saying "There's always a fire extinguisher in case I catch fire while playing with petrol and matches" or "There's always the airbag in case I crash my car into a tree while going too fast for my own good".

I'm not sure how "safe" THERMTRIP is but the risk of damage to the chip is far greater. Ergo ... use TMx.

 

[Zorg]

So there is agreement that disabling TM2 has no bearing on overclocking and is not very smart, or should I say is very stupid.


I want my CPU to shut down, uh er drop the multi, on PROCHOT#. THERMTRIP is probably just before avalanche breakdown.

Documentation regarding this is hard to find on Intel's website. I found some information, but it was not very in depth.

This looks like a pretty good explanation. The Intel links are dead.

And CompuTronix mentions it in his Core 2 Quad and Duo Temperature Guide, which was the impetus for the question in the above link.

I'm pretty sure what Comp is saying is you may be screwed anyway based on Tcase. Maybe he will pop in for clarification. In either case disabling TM2 is unnecessary and a bad idea.

If temperatures increase beyond Hot Scale, then ~ 5c below Tjunction Max, Throttling is activated. The Digital Thermal Sensors (DTS) are used to trigger Intel`s TM1 and TM2 technologies for frequency, multiplier and Vcore Throttling within individual Cores. If Core temperatures increase further to Tjunction Max, then Shutdown occurs. Since Tcase indicates CPU Die temperature only, it is not used for Throttle or Shutdown activation, however, as Tcase Max will be exceeded before Tjunction Max is reached, Tcase Max is always the limiting thermal specification.