Is It Possible To Prevent Intel® Xeon® Processors From Throttling?

Unable to prevent Intel® Xeon® Processor from throttling the uncore.

Yes, It is possible to take measures to reduce or prevent Intel® Xeon® processors from throttling, although it may not be entirely preventable under all conditions due to the need to protect the processor from overheating and ensure reliability. Here are some strategies to reduce or prevent throttling:

1. Optimized Cooling Solutions:

   • Use high-performance cooling solutions to maintain lower operating temperatures. This includes using better heatsinks, fans, liquid cooling, or improving airflow within the server chassis.

2. Configure Power and Thermal Settings:

   • Adjust BIOS settings to optimize for performance and reduce the likelihood of throttling. Settings like Performance or Balanced Performance can help.
   • Disable power-saving features like Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology or C-states if consistent high performance is required.

3. Monitor and Manage Workloads:

   • Monitor workloads to ensure that the system is not consistently operating at maximum capacity, which can lead to throttling. Distribute workloads evenly across multiple processors if possible.

4. Enable or Disable Specific Features:

   • For latency-sensitive applications, disabling Intel® Turbo Boost Technology can achieve more consistent performance.
   • Ensure Intel® Speed Select Technology (Intel® SST) features are configured properly to prioritize important cores and workloads.

5. BIOS and Firmware Updates:

   • Ensure that the system BIOS and firmware are up-to-date, as updates may include optimizations and fixes that help reduce throttling.

6. Use Thermal Management Features:

   • Utilize Intel’s thermal management features such as thermal sensors and dynamic control to manage and reduce the heat output effectively.

7. Environmental Control:

   • Maintain a controlled environment with adequate cooling and ventilation to prevent the server room temperature from rising too high.

It is important to note that while these measures can help reduce the likelihood and severity of throttling, they cannot completely eliminate it, especially under extreme conditions. Throttling is a protective mechanism to prevent hardware damage and ensure long-term reliability.

Suggested steps to help reduce the extent of throttling observed:

• Run a throttling analysis using Intel® VTune™ Profiler. Use the information to determine necessary optimizations to the cooling system. Ultimately, throttling is a hardware issue.
• Throttling analysis
• Use Intel® Data Center Diagnostic Tool for Intel® Xeon® Processors to check the CPU health.

For additional details, refer to the Intel® VTune™ Profiler User Guide User Guide.