Surface pro 4 - clock speed of CPU keeps the same

Anonymous
2016-08-03T03:19:10+00:00

After updating to windows 10 (1607), I find that the clock speed of the CPU keeps to be 2.92GHz when plugged, and to be 2.47GHz when using battery. My surface pro 4 has a core i5 CPU. It seems strange because the clock speed of CPU should change with the workload in the Task Manager. Does anyone have the same problem?

Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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Anonymous
2016-08-31T01:11:30+00:00

Fixed with today's update. Thanks, MS!

NOTE: I had to reboot twice after updating. So if anyone is not seeing the fix try a restart.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-08-22T01:22:51+00:00

    Is it possible to summarize in easy to follow steps for the less technical amongst us, the proposed "solution", please

    The easy way is to reset Speed Shift to use the default values recommended by Intel and execute the following commands with administrative privileges:

    powercfg –setacvalueindex 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 36687f9e-e3a5-4dbf-b1dc-15eb381c6863 50

    powercfg –setdcvalueindex 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 36687f9e-e3a5-4dbf-b1dc-15eb381c6863 50

    powercfg –setacvalueindex 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 cfeda3d0-7697-4566-a922-a9086cd49dfa 0

    powercfg –setdcvalueindex 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 cfeda3d0-7697-4566-a922-a9086cd49dfa 0

    Alternatively you can disable Speed Shift by executing:

    powercfg –setacvalueindex 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 8baa4a8a-14c6-4451-8e8b-14bdbd197537 0

    powercfg –setdcvalueindex 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00 8baa4a8a-14c6-4451-8e8b-14bdbd197537 0

    If you prefer GUI over command line, you can save the following as .reg file and add it to your registry:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\8baa4a8a-14c6-4451-8e8b-14bdbd197537]

    "Attributes"=dword:00000002

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\36687f9e-e3a5-4dbf-b1dc-15eb381c6863]

    "Attributes"=dword:00000002

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\cfeda3d0-7697-4566-a922-a9086cd49dfa]

    "Attributes"=dword:00000002

    After rebooting you can see 3 new options under Settings > System > Power & sleep > Additional power settings > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings > Processor power management

    • Processor energy performance preference policy
    • Processor performance autonomous mode
    • Processor autonomous activity window

    To setup Speed Shift with Intel default values change "Processor energy performance preference policy" to 50 and "Processor autonomous activity window" to 0 or disable Speed Shift with "Processor performance autonomous mode".

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-08-21T21:18:52+00:00

    I appreciate the work everyone is doing and I am eagerly reading this thread, but for the less technical among us, I am following step 1 until I see concrete evidence that a particular tweak increases battery life in a test environment. And keeping my charger handy. :-/

    I think this is great advice.

    I find all the things were discovering fascinating, but I would definitely advise most users to wait it out.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-21T21:13:11+00:00

    Actually, the culprit seems to be Microsoft using 0 as default value for "Processor energy performance preference policy". This tells your Speed Shift enabled Skylake CPU not to sacrifice performance for energy savings under any circumstances resulting in a permanent max turbo state. You can now either go back to the old supposedly inferior OS controlled P-states and disable Speed Shift by setting "Processor performance autonomous mode" to disabled

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\8baa4a8a-14c6-4451-8e8b-14bdbd197537]

    "Attributes"=dword:00000002

    or let Speed Shift actually do its job by giving it a useful policy to work with

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\36687f9e-e3a5-4dbf-b1dc-15eb381c6863]

    "Attributes"=dword:00000002

    If you set "Processor energy performance preference policy" to 50, you will see Speed Shift happily using anything from 0.5 GHz up to the max turbo frequency. By the way, 100 results in your CPU rarely exceeding 1.0 GHz.

    The current default settings most likely just disable DVFS while still allowing cores to sleep in C7, which could explain battery life being similar in a light use scenario.

    From everything I'm seeing - you may be exactly right. Good find.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-21T20:24:14+00:00

    Is it possible to summarize in easy to follow steps for the less technical amongst us, the proposed "solution", please

    1. Wait for MS to address this, because everyone above is speculating and hasn't come up with a tested method that actually increases battery life.

    I appreciate the work everyone is doing and I am eagerly reading this thread, but for the less technical among us, I am following step 1 until I see concrete evidence that a particular tweak increases battery life in a test environment. And keeping my charger handy. :-/

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