Why does ASUS limit CPU power draw below minimum spec?

[Raibex87]

I have an ASUS TUF F15 2022 (i7-12700H, RTX 3060), and when the GPU is active, the CPU is throttled down to 25 W.  Based on another app, the throttle reason is EDP Other, meaning the BIOS is doing it.  The CPU never even hits 80 C (with the cooling pad I use), and yet it is still throttled to 25 W.

On the Intel website, it says 45 W is guaranteed for this CPU, yet ASUS forces it for no apparent reason to run at 25 W, which greatly impacts performance in some games.  I know this because every so often, the CPU will jump up to 65 W and the FPS dramatically increases.  However, it will quickly jump back down around 10 seconds later to 25 W.

I have confirmed this is not due to the battery light turning orange (like some people were saying), as the short CPU power boost continues running even if the light turns orange.  Additionally, I tried limiting the CPU to 45 W using ThrottleStop to see if 65 W was causing temperature throttling.  With the CPU at 45 W, the max temperature hit was 80 C, and yet after 46 seconds it just goes back to 25 W (and temperature throttling starts at 90 C when running a CPU-only workload).

I've tried fully uninstalling Armoury Crate, and this didn't impact the problem.  I even tried using G-Helper, and this doesn't work either.  My only guess is this is an artificial BIOS limit to limit the performance of the TUF series, as thermals are not an issue.  The CPU will also draw up to 90 W sustained when the GPU isn't running.

Unfortunately, there's a one in a million chance of ASUS actually fixing their broken BIOS, but if anyone has found any workarounds for this, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[fran678]

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/laptop-cpu-suddenly-wont-go-higher-than-25w-it-did-before...

[Raibex87]

I've already looked at that and several similar threads and they don't fix the issue.  I'm also certain this is a BIOS limitation, although the chances of getting through to an actual ASUS employee that could change a single number in the BIOS (25 W to 45 W), are one in a billion.  That being said, if a real ASUS employee sees the post, it would be incredible if you could fix this very simple and artificial limitation.

[fran678]

Non sarà facile per qualcuno di ASUS venire qui e rispondere. Non ne ho mai visto uno.
Tuttavia, ci sono anche alcuni che apportano modifiche al firmware del BIOS.

Ad esempio, ecco una pagina che spiega come modificare il bios in modo che la sottotensione sia abilitata e le temperature possano essere abbassate.

Edit EFI Variables to Enable CPU Undervolting

https://brendangreenley.com/undervolting-2020-dell-laptops-like-the-vostro-7500-and-more-tips-to-imp...

Quindi, se dedichi del tempo a studiare bene il problema, potresti essere in grado di farlo da solo. Ma ovviamente con molta cautela e competenza.

[Raibex87]

Thanks for the reply, I had considered doing this as a last resort and it looks like I'll have to.  I'm going to go through a few other potential solutions I found like rolling back the BIOS to the oldest version on their website, and if that doesn't work, I'll look into BIOS editing.

[Raibex87]

Turns out ASUS doesn't let you get 45 W unless you aren't using a charge limiter, so I have to sacrifice my battery capacity (by constantly having it at 100%) to get the full potential of my laptop.  That took me over a year to figure out.  I definitely will not be getting another ASUS laptop until they show a commitment to less locked down BIOSes.  I'm not going to mark this as resolved unless ASUS pushes a BIOS update that allows the CPU to run at 45 W with the charge limiter active.

Update: It turns out in some CPU heavy games, the battery drains to 99%, causing 25 W throttling.  I'm looking around the BIOS settings to see if I can find anything that will fix this limit.  I've tried decreasing the IMON slope but this somehow didn't work.