Razer Blade Pro 2017 (17") CPU Too Slow

The CPU never exceeds 3.54 GHz, regardless of workload.

The design spec of this CPU is 2.9 GHz - 3.9 GHz, meaning it is expected to hit 3.9 GHz easily, depending on the workload, without any custom overclocking.

Additionally, Razer also advertises that the CPU is overclocked up to 4.3 GHz automatically when the "Performance Optimized" selection is made in their Synapse app, which is the only place according to them where overclocking may be made.

This setting has no effect. Additionally, the app is quite buggy - choosing the "Balanced" selection in their Synapse app does not enable the Quiet fan mode.

So this new Razer Blade Pro 2017 is stuck on ultra-loud fans and a CPU that performs slower than Intel's factory specs.

Razer support have not yet provided any assistance.

No drivers or documentation is available to troubleshoot the issue.

Has anyone run into this and solved the issue?

 

cpu runs to hot and cannot be overclocked to advertised speeds (4+ghz for 7820HK)

 

I cannot even get it to run at 3.9 GHz, which is Intel's design spec.

 

what cpu do you have? 7820HK?


the intel design spec is only for base clock, anything higher than that isn't guaranteed

 

Yes, 7820HK.

I have never seen an Intel CPU fail to reach its top turbo limit (3.9 GHz in this case).

It may not sustain it based on load, but it must easily reach it.

 

what stress test are you running

can you replicate the problem while running throttlestop and opening "limit reasons" tab?

 

The default profile is 3.9GHz for 1 active core + 3.7 two cores + 3.6 three cores + 3.5 four active cores. Most probably your benchmark uses all 4 cores thus the 3.5GHz reading. This can be seen using a tool such as Intel XTU.
The performance profile sets 4.3GHz for all cores. Synapse software is buggy so you may have to create new profiles in order to get the proper default and performance mode respectively.
With an undervolt of 130mV for default I get decent CPU temps in games/benchmarks (low 80s). In performance mode undervolting 80m will usually prevent termal throttling (at least for shorter stress duration) but will get the CPU temps to the high 90s.
Hope this helps.

 

I've attached the results with throttlestop:


Limit reasons appears empty, the issue is not hardware/thermal related:


The results don't change no matter what app I use, for example DiskZIP compression with 8 cores, wPrime benchmark with 8 cores, XTU benchmark, etc.

 

That helps a LOT.

I believe buggy Synapse profiles are to blame. First of all, Synapse doesn't even see my Razer laptop (notice how you can only see the headphone at the bottom of this screenshot):


Choosing this headphone results in an impossibility to revert back to the Razer laptop settings, as in this screenshot:

The only way to revert is by shutting down and then restarting Synapse. However, this results in the new problem where you cannot select the Auto or Low power profiles, even when in the Balanced power profile selection (see first screenshot above).

The only fix to that problem is by creating a new Razer Synapse profile as you have suggested. However, this still does not solve the problem of the CPU running too slow. Enter XTU:

Even though I have manually requested an overclock to 4.3GHz, Synapse is somehow overriding the processor core ratio to 35x, and the processor cache ratio to 36x. XTU loses, Synapse wins:


As you can see in the Task Manager, the CPU is firmly pegged down to an underperforming GHz.

This is when the system is under stress; when it is operating normally, the performance never exceeds 3.54 GHz (which makes sense for the first time, in light of the default profile that is exposed by XTU).

The question is - given how buggy Synapse is - how do I fix the problem?

Where does Synapse store its settings, default profiles, and such?

Uninstalling and reinstalling Synapse, as suggested by Razer support didn't help.

Their "cloud sync" is a menace, and probably just retrieves corrupted settings again.

If there isn't a local cache of these settings that can be overridden without syncing on the cloud, does this mean this buggy software is irremediably locking me out of this machine's true performance?

 

I would uninstall synapse and go into bios do a reset bios defaults.

And see what happens? I had similar issue and that brought my cpu back to 3.9

 

That small one on top of Syanpse looks like an update notification, isn't it?

 

I can try that, sure - thanks for the tip.

However, how would I enjoy the advertised overclocking, then?

The system can handle 4.3 (10% overclocking), and I'd like to use what I paid for.

 

Its another bug with Synapse, the software is fully updated. During one of the earlier updates that icon remained stuck there and has been there ever since.

On that note, Razer sent me a fresh download URL for the latest version of the software, which I also installed; immediately after installing even that one updated itself once.

However the icon remains.

Does anyone know how to fully reset Synapse? Does it write to the registry? How does one wipe the data it stores in the cloud?

 

It used to be based on a file stored in documents folder, just uninstall, delete said folder and the one in programs folder; as stuff is cloud based and account related, just register a new account and try like that.

 

Which folder, precisely?

 

I think the new RBP comes with xtu preinstalled (mine did) and uses it to set the CPU clocks (this is just a guess). I noticed there are two services running (please see link below for screenshot). You may try disabling them and set the frequencies in the XTU app.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4N68EAwm1cIR0JreEtWdHo3VWM/view?usp=sharing

 

You need to get your thermals under control first and foremost....96C is not a good place to be.

 

They are generically called Razer, there's where every **** from Razer Synapse is stored.

 

Program Files? ProgramData? AppData? etc.

 

That's just a momentary spike in the XTU benchmark process.

 

Mine didn't have XTU and doesn't seem to have the services without it. Thanks for the guess though.

 

I noticed this on my Alienware 18 as well....for whatever reason, XTU benchmark will throw out your voltage offset settings and use whatever the hell it wants. I'm sure you've tried undervolting yes? Enable voltage monitor and see what the voltage is at load (CPU stress test, not benchmark) then try the hwbot benchmark again, note the voltage difference. Kinda dangerous how it does that.....

 

"Documents" and "Programs" or programs files, I'm not running an English version of W10; just guessing the name for the main programs folder.
I can't recall seeing anything Razer related on any other folder, but you might want to have a look in there and delete anything; problem is that they refresh the whole Synapse structure every now and then.

 

I don't think so

 

You can find the default specs for the i7-7820HK at CPU World.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i7/Intel-Core i7 i7-7820HK.html

The maximum multiplier when 3 or 4 cores are active is 35. ThrottleStop shows that your CPU is running exactly as Intel intended it to run when set to its default specs. Run a 1 Thread test using the ThrottleStop - TS Bench test. If your multiplier is still maxing out at 35.00 then that means that your C States are probably disabled. At default spec, at least C3 has to be enabled in order for your CPU to achieve the maximum multiplier. When idle, the ThrottleStop C State window will confirm what C States are enabled.

ThrottleStop also shows that the thermal throttling temperature has been set to 97°C by Razer which is a little below the Intel spec. Your Intel XTU screenshot is showing a package temperature of 96°C so of course your CPU is not running at full speed. It is too damn hot and is thermal throttling. As soon as a check mark appears in the ThrottleStop PROCHOT box, that confirms that thermal throttling has started. You should never see that. That appears to be the biggest problem. A poorly designed cooling solution that cannot adequately handle the speeds that a 7820HK is capable of running at.

You are going to need to improve your cooling and do some under volting to get your temps under control.

 

The cooling system is actually quite robust, it is the thermal compound that is lacking.....liquid metal should quickly and significantly improve the temperatures. Too many of these BGA notebooks are bouncing off the thermal limiter right from the factory, it's not just a razer problem.

 

with undervolting, most of these 45w cpu can do just fine with the stock thermal compound, if the contact isn't messed up like the first generation of alienware machines

 

If my C-states are disabled or otherwise messed up, how would I fix them?

Razer do not acknowledge any sort of issue with their `Synapse` software that is breeding ground for bugs, so I am having to check everything manually and laboriously.

Shudder!

 

Push the button to the right of the BCLK button if you want to see what C States your CPU is using. You can also run a single thread of the TS Bench test. Take a screenshot of ThrottleStop while this test is running. ThrottleStop should be showing multipliers higher than 35.00 during a single thread test.

All manufacturers ship some products that they probably shouldn't. It is the responsibility of a new owner to test the new hardware that they have bought. If it does not meet the specifications then you have the option to try and return it. Many companies can be real bears to deal with because they know they sold you junk and they would rather not have to buy it back from you. The people answering phones get a bonus if they can convince you to keep a new laptop. It probably won't be too bad once you fix the cooling issues. Many laptops have similar problems.

 

Notification upon launch:

---------------------------
ThrottleStop
---------------------------
Performance Counter = 0
CPU not fully supported.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

C-states:


Single thread bench:

 

Your core C States are working correctly. When I said post a screenshot when half way through a single thread TS Bench test, I meant to post a picture of the main screen of ThrottleStop so I can observe the multipliers. The C States are working so you should be seeing multipliers higher than 35.00 during this test.

When a computer is idle, the individual cores can spend over 99% of the time in the low power C7 C state.



Many people have too much crap running on their computer, so they are not able to enjoy maximum performance.

Edit - Not a single user has ever posted that notice. Not sure why you are seeing that message. If ThrottleStop seems to work OK, I wouldn't worry about that quite yet. That message does not pop up on my 7th Gen Desktop or 7th Gen Laptop computer. What antivirus program are you running? Some of these programs have a sandbox feature that blocks software like ThrottleStop from accessing the CPU directly.

 

Here's the screenshot captured at exactly 50%:

 

That screenshot confirms that multipliers higher than 35 are available and are being used. During a single thread TS Bench test, if you have a lean system without much running in the background, you should be able to get very close to your max single core multiplier which is 39. The max multi on my 4700MQ is 36 and I am able to see a peak of something like 35.95 during that test. If individual cores are becoming active to run background tasks, your single thread performance will suffer. The C0% at idle should be down around 0.5%. If way above that, start looking at what is running in the background and get rid of it if you do not need it.

 

Unfortunately, in my case, I never get above 3.56 GHz, no matter how idle my PC is.

In this screenshot, does it appear that I have non-idle tasks running?

 

Disable the AV if it's running when you test. See if you get closer to single core max

 

When your CPU is idle, what is reported for C0%?



35.98 out of a possible 36.00 is excellent for my 4700MQ. If you want your CPU to run faster in single thread, you need to get a handle on useless background tasks.

Compare my screenshot to yours. During this test on every core of my CPU, the secondary hyper thread is doing next to nothing. On your screenshot, both threads are significantly active. More active cores equals a lower multiplier and more heat.

 

I don't use AV (other than MS built-in).

Defender was disabled during the test.

 

Thing is, this CPU should be running 3.9GHz on a single thread.

I cannot see the image you have shared, it is displayed as only [ I M G ]? (without the spaces)

I'll be back in a couple hours to resume testing.

 

Disable Razer's software when testing. Use Autoruns.Exe for this. Use it also for other unnecessary software in the background.

 

Your CPU cannot use the 39 multiplier and run at 3.9 GHz if more than 1 core is active. The TS Bench will keep a single core active. You have too many other background tasks running on your computer. These background tasks are keeping more cores active and preventing your CPU from using its 39 multiplier. Is Intel XTU running in the background? It alone can degrade performance almost a full multiplier for single threaded tasks.

Here is a direct link to the image I posted.

http://i.imgur.com/4x1K8p2.png

Your screenshot during the TS Bench test showed an average C0% of 21.0%. That is terrible. My screenshot shows 13.0% which makes a lot more sense. 1 out of 8 threads are loaded so the minimum one should see is 12.5% and then add on another 0.5% for Windows background tasks and a number like 13.0% is reasonable.

 

XTU is linked with Razer's software as I understand it. Use Autoruns.Exe for disabling software/tasks during your testing. Run as adm. Don't disable tasks you don't know what is.

 

Thank you.

I will try out your suggestions as soon as my disk has finished recompressing:

 

Almost done, but still processing:


I need to leave the office soon, I will pick this up tomorrow.

 

That would explain a few things. No use doing any benchmark testing when an app like that is running in the background. I knew something was keeping your CPU cores busy.

It is 2017. Huge mechanical hard drives are cheap. No need to zip anything anymore.

 

Not at all. This is DiskZIP Offline, which runs, well, offline. I captured those screenshots using snap-pe64. You'll notice the Task Manager has the legacy look because, well, this is not the online Windows session, but something like Windows PE/RE which DiskZIP Offline automatically invokes to optimize your disk offline.

DiskZIP actually accelerates disks, it is the only disk optimization tool I have seen that actually works. We use it at my company not only to accelerate disks (even SSDs), but also to grow them (without deleting or ZIPping or having to UNZIP anything), and to protect our data from malware attacks (the disk state is `locked` when you optimize it, and malware cannot touch it - reducing any potential attack surface to the changes you made since the last optimization). Works great as an imaging tool too. Check their website, they have some benchmarks which illustrate disk performance growth (as well as capacity growth).

Getting back to the matter at hand:

I do notice constant 9%-12% CPU usage on this system, which is very odd. There is a lot of bouncing around when I sort by CPU usage, so I sorted by CPU time. Does anything ring a bell? This is our build machine, so it does have a lot of IDEs and technology frameworks installed on it - nothing we can do about that, I'm afraid. But I don't see any of them in the list above. There's some Razer crap and some Killer crap for sure. I am particularly surprised the audio driver and/or service takes up so much CPU. To be honest, most of the stuff seems to be system services and third party drivers.

 

Disable or remove Killer Network Software (control center). It is just system eating bloatware, not needed for good internet connection.
Pretty sure Razer Game management service is bloatware too.
I would also disable "Superfetch" and "Windows Search" in Control Panel>Administrative Tools> Services

 

Superfetch is already disabled, it is not useful on an SSD, and actually harms DiskZIP optimization.

Windows Search must remain enabled for Outlook mailbox indexing; but it does not index anywhere else on the drive - so should be safe to use.

I will uninstall the Killer and Razer software and let you know what I find.

 

Another oddity...anybody still using wPrime? Does it run on Kaby Lake? For some reason, when I start benchmarking with it, it takes ages to spawn all 8 threads that I ask it to. I am wondering if this is an issue with wPrime on Kaby Lake. I've tried the latest 2.1 version.

 

Should work. But try wPRIME v1.5 who is used for point on Hwbot.org

 

Thanks, that one did work!