[SOLVED] CPU Megahertz going down

CPU speed doesn't decrease like that for no reason. Chances are good that it is not only STILL thermally throttling because you are trying to use it in a way for which it was never intended, or have at some point blocked the air intake vents in the bottom of the unit and caused thermal damage than is permanent, and potentially even made things worse by turning off power throttling which is there to protect the device from things like this in the first place.

If the CPU is being throttled, that is an integrated feature of the architecture and you cannot just "turn" that off. It will do it regardless of what you do. Chances are good that there is thermal damage to the point where the unit is just done. This is not uncommon on laptops when people try to use them for gaming and there were not really intended for gaming at the level people try to use them for OR when they use them on bedding, carpet or sitting on their legs where their pants tend to block the air vents and the cooling cannot do it's job. If that is the case, then the unit is probably just done.

I think you have the CPU model wrong too. There are no 8th gen Intel CPUs that support DDR3L, so I think you must have mistyped the model number.

Dropping FPS could be several issues.

First I would look at your HDD usage. If it is maxxing out, it could be that your hard drive isnt fast enough for your game. This will cause drops in fps.

As was stated, overheating could be a problem as well. Ensure that your air vents are clear and that you are getting cool air to cool your laptop.

Another issue is that you are using only 4GB of RAM. Windows 10 doesn't work as well with only 4GB. It prefers 8GB. This will give you a performance hit.

Your laptop wasn't designed for gaming. That is a factor as well.

It takes less than five minutes for permanent thermal damage to occur. After that, nothing else matters. Obviously, at idle there is likely not a problem.

Also, you are mistaken about the memory your system is running. Your CPU does not support the use of DDR3L memory. It supports only DDR4-2400, LPDDR3-2133 SODIMMs.

https://ark.intel.com/products/124967/Intel-Core-i5-8250U-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3-40-GHz-

Can you hear the cooling fan(s) run when it starts getting warm? Have you MONITORED the thermal sensors AT ALL to determine if it IS in fact thermal throttling that is causing your problem which I'm about 99.9999% certain it is?

You need to do that before you do anything else otherwise you are just wasting your own time. THIS is the most common problem on gaming laptops and even more so on laptops that were not intended for gaming but which people USE for gaming. Gaming creates thermal situations that are not commonly experienced when running other types of applications. Usually though this sort of thing happens when the cooling vents get blocked even for a very short time, whether by accident or because somebody thinks the fan is "too noisy" so they block the vents to reduce the noise level or they try turning off features like full fan operation (passive vs active cooling) or disabling throttling behavior.

You need to download HWinfo and look at the CPU and graphics card thermal sensor readings. Install HWinfo and run "Sensors only". Don't run "Summary" because that isn't going to tell you what we want to know.

HWmonitor, Open hardware monitor, Realtemp, Speccy, Speedfan, Windows utilities, CPU-Z, NZXT CAM and most of the bundled motherboard utilities are often not the best choice as they are not always accurate. Some are actually grossly inaccurate, especially with certain chipsets or specific sensors that for whatever reason they tend to not like or work well with. I've found HWinfo or CoreTemp to be the MOST accurate with the broadest range of chipsets and sensors. They are also almost religiously kept up to date.

CoreTemp is great for just CPU thermals including core temps or distance to TJmax on AMD platforms.

HWinfo is great for pretty much EVERYTHING, including CPU thermals, core loads, core temps, package temps, GPU sensors, HDD and SSD sensors, motherboard chipset and VRM sensor, all of it. Always select the "Sensors only" option when running HWinfo.

In cases where it is relevant and you are seeking help, then in order to help you, it's often necessary to SEE what's going on, in the event one of us can pick something out that seems out of place, or other indicators that just can't be communicated via a text only post. In these cases, posting an image of the HWinfo sensors or something else can be extremely helpful. That may not be the case in YOUR thread, but if it is then the information at the following link will show you how to do that:

*How to post images in Tom's hardware forums



Run HWinfo and look at system voltages and other sensor readings.

Monitoring temperatures, core speeds, voltages, clock ratios and other reported sensor data can often help to pick out an issue right off the bat. HWinfo is a good way to get that data and in my experience tends to be more accurate than some of the other utilities available. CPU-Z, GPU-Z and Core Temp all have their uses but HWinfo tends to have it all laid out in a more convenient fashion so you can usually see what one sensor is reporting while looking at another instead of having to flip through various tabs that have specific groupings.

After installation, run the utility and when asked, choose "sensors only". The other window options have some use but in most cases everything you need will be located in the sensors window. If you're taking screenshots to post for troubleshooting, it will most likely require taking three screenshots and scrolling down the sensors window between screenshots in order to capture them all.

It is most helpful if you can take a series of HWinfo screenshots at idle, after a cold boot to the desktop. Open HWinfo and wait for all of the Windows startup processes to complete. Usually about four or five minutes should be plenty. Take screenshots of all the HWinfo sensors.

Next, run something demanding like Heaven benchmark. Take another set of screenshots while either of those is running so we can see what the hardware is doing while under a load.

*Download HWinfo


For temperature monitoring only, I feel Core Temp is the most accurate and also offers a quick visual reference for core speed, load and CPU voltage:

*Download Core Temp

"IF" temperature issues are relevant to your problem, especially if this is a build that has been running for a year or more, taking care of the basics first might save everybody involved a lot of time and frustration.