Have trouble with CPU PM, not throttling down the frequency enough when idle

[originalmagneto]

Hello, after installing Catalina, I am having trouble with getting the CPU to throttle down its frequencies. It's constantly sitting at above 2.0 Ghz, which is odd.

I am attaching my config files, EFI folder etc., if someone would be so kind and take a look at them if they see some obvious culprit, that causes this strange behaviour.

THANKS!

 

[jaymonkey]

Hello, after installing Catalina, I am having trouble with getting the CPU to throttle down its frequencies. It's constantly sitting at above 2.0 Ghz, which is odd.

@originalmagneto,

You config looks ok ... native CPU power management via X86PlatfromPlugin looks to be enabled although you did not include a IOREG dump in your debug files so am unable to check if it is actually enabled in MacOS.

Run IORegistryExplorer and search for "X86" ... if it finds the "X86PlatfromPlugin" then all is good.


As for missing lower and higher CPU clock frequencies, I've always used Piker Alpha's shell script on al my Hacks to patch the Frequency Vectors used by MacOS, if you want to give it try then first make sure you have a backup, just incase you need to undo the changes made by the script.

Then download the shell script from his repo and run it as per the instructions on the GitHub page:-

GitHub - Piker-Alpha/freqVectorsEdit.sh: Script to add/replace 'FrequencyVectors' to Mac-F60DEB81FF30ACF6.plist

Script to add/replace 'FrequencyVectors' to Mac-F60DEB81FF30ACF6.plist - Piker-Alpha/freqVectorsEdit.sh

github.com

When you run the script it will give you a long list of mac models/smbios types, if the script can identify the one you are using it will be highlighted in bold text but don't worry if doesn't. Enter the number of the one that matches the SMBIOS you are using and hit return.

The script will then attempt to patch MacOs to use lower the higher frequencies supported by your CPU.

You can answer "N" (No) to the question "Do you want to open Mac-XXXXXXXXXXXXX"
Answer "Y" (Yes) to Reboot Now.

After rebooting check the CPU clock frequencies using Intel Power Gadget.

Cheers
Jay

 

[originalmagneto]

When you run the script it will give you a long list of mac models/smbios types, if the script can identify the one you are using it will be highlighted in bold text but don't worry if doesn't. Enter the number of the one that matches the SMBIOS you are using and hit return.

That worked (in a way)! THANK YOU for taking the time to help me out here, really apreciate it man!

I definately get frequencies below 2.0Ghz now, however, it still seems I could get lower. Mostly it stays around 2ghz when idle, dipping to 1.36 and 1.08 occasionally for a split second (checked this by logging the freq. through IPG).

Is the SMBIOS setting of the Board ID determining the ability of the CPU to alter its frequency according to CPU utilization? For example, when I used whis script with my hack Mini (i5 6500 CPU), the frequencies dipped to 800Mhz sometimes...

EDIT: Check my IPG reading :/

IPG Reading of my i7 7700 non-K VIDEO

 

[jaymonkey]

Is the SMBIOS setting of the Board ID determining the ability of the CPU to alter its frequency according to CPU utilization? For example, when I used whis script with my hack Mini (i5 6500 CPU), the frequencies dipped to 800Mhz sometimes...

@originalmagneto,

Yes the SMBIOS has a big effect on how MacOS power manages the CPU ...

iMac SMBIOS tend to stay close to base clocks as they are not as thermal consternated as say a MiniMac.

Only mobile SMBIOS's such as those used on MacBooks fully throttle the CPU to low clocks to conserve battery power they are also much more thermally constrained then any desktop system.

The script is more useful for enabling higher turbo rates when a CPU is over clocked, but it usually opens up a few more intermediate states on most systems.

Cheers
Jay