Current and Power Limit Throttling Indicators in the Intel® XTU Utility

What does it mean when the Current Limit Throttling and the Power Limit Throttling  indicators display “Yes” in the Intel® XTU Utility?

Processors have two modes of thermal protection: throttling,and automatic shutdown. When a core exceeds the set throttle temperature, it will start to reduce power to bring the temperature back below that point. The throttle temperature can vary by processor and BIOS settings.

If the conditions are such that throttling is unable to keep the temperature down, such as a thermal solution failure or incorrect assembly, the processor will automatically shut down to prevent permanent damage.

Current limit throttling

There can be multiple reasons why the current limit is throttling on the processor. The three common reasons for current limit throttling:

1. Processor Core IccMax is set too low in XTU.
2. VR (voltage regulator) current limit is set too low in BIOS. (Different motherboard OEMs may have different names for this control, so please check with your motherboard vendor.)
3. The motherboard is not able to provide high enough current for the given CPU. Pairing a low power motherboard with a very high Thermal Design Power (TDP) chip can cause current throttling, even with current limits set to the maximum.

Power limit throttling

There can be multiple reasons why the power limit is throttling on the processor. The three common reasons for power limit throttling:

• Processor Power Limits PL1/PL2 is set too low in Intel® XTU.
• Core Voltage limit is set too low in XTU.
• System doesn’t have sufficient cooling and power delivery.