Hi community, I have something for you that is not an issue per se, just an interesting thing to discuss and investigate. I have a Framework 13 AMD with an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U. Initially, the tools that report the max boost of the CPU like neofetch, fastfetch, or Zenmonitor3 show that the CPU could boost to the 5.1 GHz that AMD says it can boost. But I made a silly mistake, I was very annoyed by the spikes on fan speed that the default fan curve has and I installed fw-fanctrl to personalize the fan curve. Long story short this tool was not reading the temperature correctly from the CPU and it was running very hot until I figured out that the CPU was throttling and the chassis very hot. I just disabled the tool and let the bios manage the fan curve but now the CPU can’t do the max boost to 5.1 GHz only goes to 4.35 GHz and tools like fastfetch also report that as the max boost. For example, see this screenshot from Zenmonitor3:
Hi @Charlie_6, thanks for answer. I double check that when I disable the tool the fan was again managed by the BIOS because the annoying spikes return, and the temps go down. But just in case I remove the tool and did the power off with the USBC PD disconnected, etc., and nothing, no matter the power profile that I have selected, my max boost is 4.35 GHz now…
Did you measure the actual frequency (not the “ideal” frequency in neofetch) before using the fw-fanctrl? Compare these values. AFAIK the 4.35GHz is the instantaneous boost on all cores, single core boost is higher, 5.1 instantaneous and 4.6 continuous
I didn’t make rigorous measurements at that time, I have a widget on the desktop that shows the max clock and I saw spikes that match the original value that I remember well that I saw the first time that I installed the machine. However, I did not pay a lot of attention at that time (I do not record a profile of measurements). Now I never see that big spikes and the new value in tools like neofetch and fastfetch is too different to pass unnoticed…
Someone with an Framework 13 AMD with an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U can execute cpupower frequency-info and share the output. I’m putting mine here. Thanks!
analyzing CPU 15:
driver: amd-pstate-epp
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 15
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 15
maximum transition latency: Cannot determine or is not supported.
hardware limits: 400 MHz - 4.35 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 400 MHz and 4.35 GHz.
The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
current CPU frequency: 3.33 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
boost state support:
Supported: yes
Active: yes
AMD PSTATE Highest Performance: 166. Maximum Frequency: 4.35 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Nominal Performance: 126. Nominal Frequency: 3.30 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Lowest Non-linear Performance: 42. Lowest Non-linear Frequency: 1.10 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Lowest Performance: 16. Lowest Frequency: 400 MHz.
$ cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 4:
driver: amd-pstate-epp
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 4
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 4
maximum transition latency: Cannot determine or is not supported.
hardware limits: 400 MHz - 5.45 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 400 MHz and 5.45 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
current CPU frequency: 1.37 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
boost state support:
Supported: yes
Active: yes
AMD PSTATE Highest Performance: 208. Maximum Frequency: 5.45 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Nominal Performance: 126. Nominal Frequency: 3.30 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Lowest Non-linear Performance: 42. Lowest Non-linear Frequency: 1.10 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Lowest Performance: 16. Lowest Frequency: 400 MHz.
$ sudo tlp-stat -p
[sudo] password for dec:
--- TLP 1.6.1 --------------------------------------------
+++ Processor
CPU model = AMD Ryzen 7 7840U w/ Radeon 780M Graphics
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver = amd-pstate-epp
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor = powersave
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors = performance powersave
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq = 400000 [kHz]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq = 5132000 [kHz]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq = 400000 [kHz]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq = 5132000 [kHz]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference = balance_performance [EPP]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/energy_performance_available_preferences = default performance balance_performance balance_power power
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1..cpu15: omitted for clarity, use -v to show all
/sys/devices/system/cpu/amd_pstate/status = active
/sys/devices/system/cpu/amd_pstate/cppc_dynamic_boost = (not available)
/sys/module/workqueue/parameters/power_efficient = Y
/proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog = 0
+++ Platform Profile
/sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile = balanced
/sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices = low-power balanced performance
I find this very strange, as the default cpufreq governor should be powersave instead of performance, and your current CPU frequency is exactly at base speed, this also wastes energy when idling.
During single-core boost, most other cores are underclocked, hence the “powersave” to enable that single core to boost to max speed, at least for a short time.
What’s your current OS? What’s your power management, TLP or PPD? AFAIK the amd-pstate-epp should be set to active, the cpufreq govenror should be set to powersave and the energy_performance_preference should be set to either balance-power or balance-performance
I think this is could be a protection at firmware level or something that if you stress thermally the CPU they will low the pstate_max_freq for future protection in case of an sufficient thermal solution, I just want to revert that because is not the case. Unless is a kind of physical fuse and then I’m screw… Maybe flashing an old bios and upgrading again… or maybe just accept the fact that I lost a little bit of performance…
Hi @Charlie_6, just to let you know that I reset the bios, but that did not do the trick, then I installed Windows 11 on another drive and I could easily see the CPU boosting over 4.3 GHz. Then I did a clean install and now I’m seeing the original values again. It seems that there was a wrong software configuration in someplace. I will pay more attention now to see if it happens again. Thanks!
cpupower frequency-info  ✔
analyzing CPU 3:
driver: amd-pstate-epp
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 3
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 3
maximum transition latency: Cannot determine or is not supported.
hardware limits: 400 MHz - 6.08 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 400 MHz and 6.08 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
current CPU frequency: 400 MHz (asserted by call to kernel)
boost state support:
Supported: yes
Active: yes
AMD PSTATE Highest Performance: 232. Maximum Frequency: 6.08 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Nominal Performance: 126. Nominal Frequency: 3.30 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Lowest Non-linear Performance: 42. Lowest Non-linear Frequency: 1.10 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Lowest Performance: 16. Lowest Frequency: 400 MHz.
FWIW there is a kernel bug that prevents max boost on the Phoenix or Hawk PointAPUs in kernel 6.9. It’s going to be fixed in 6.10-rc1 and will come to 6.9.y. If you want to apply it to your kernel now here is the patch.
Hi @Mario_Limonciello, I can confirm now that the Kernel 6.9 was the issue. I’m going back to 6.6 LTS until 6.10 is released in the stable channel. Thanks for let me know, have a nice day…
I also found that the unsafe_shutdown in SSD has been increasing rapidly (once or twice per shutdown/suspend) since very recently. Is this have something to do with kernel 6.9?
Mine also says 4.35 max, but I guess it’s due to the bug mentioned by Mario?
I’m on kernel 6.9.1 and I didn’t mess with my power profiles (i.e. no TLP installed, just power-profiles-daemon from my distro).
cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 12:
driver: amd-pstate-epp
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 12
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 12
maximum transition latency: Cannot determine or is not supported.
hardware limits: 400 MHz - 4.35 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 400 MHz and 4.35 GHz.
The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
current CPU frequency: 2.86 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
boost state support:
Supported: yes
Active: yes
AMD PSTATE Highest Performance: 166. Maximum Frequency: 4.35 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Nominal Performance: 126. Nominal Frequency: 3.30 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Lowest Non-linear Performance: 42. Lowest Non-linear Frequency: 1.10 GHz.
AMD PSTATE Lowest Performance: 16. Lowest Frequency: 400 MHz.
