AMD Ryzen 5 5500U issues with frequency scaling

shiny_mew · 2025-02-08 21:31:20

Since a couple months I'm having some issues with my CPU's frequency scaling. While Gaming, i noticed that after a while going at full speed, frame rate suddenly drops, and looking at mangohud and other tools I found out it actually was being downclocked. After I updated my RAM, thinking it was a shortage of that, and seeing there was no fixing it, I tinkered here and there and I found out it actually was a driver issue, and that now my CPU was actually using amd_pstate_epp driver, and not the acpi_cpufreq one, but that didn't fix the issue. Since my UEFI is VERY limited (HP 255 G8 laptop), I found out about Smokeless_UMAF and tinkered some more. After I tried a lot of configurations here's what I found out:

1 On the amd_pstate the cpu it's almost as if it's scared of going over 60°, doesn't matter if STT, STAPM, PSPP or whatever are on or off. This is a bit mildier on the acpi_cpufreq driver;
2 Considering the above, the downclocking on the first driver happens almost immediately and it never seems to dethrottle. On the other driver it recovers after a while, and then it rethrottles.
3 The same applied to the GPU, but thanks to a kernel variable I managed to make it way stabler.

Does anyone know a way to make this CPU, or has a similar model, to make it run above its soft limit (2.1 GHz) or, even better, making it run to its limit (4.1GHz)?

Thanks for the attention

JafKC · 2025-06-18 20:04:37

Try turning off Virtualization (SVM) and changing the performance profile in your UEFI settings. Some of those two settings fixed the problem for my friend.

mbuteler · 2025-08-30 22:37:14

shiny_mew wrote:

Does anyone know a way to make this CPU, or has a similar model, to make it run above its soft limit (2.1 GHz) or, even better, making it run to its limit (4.1GHz)?
Thanks for the attention

Hey! Sorry if this is necro-posting. I also have a 5500U, did you manage to get it optimized? Thermal management on mine is terrible.

shiny_mew · 2025-08-31 13:45:37

mbuteler wrote:

shiny_mew wrote:
Does anyone know a way to make this CPU, or has a similar model, to make it run above its soft limit (2.1 GHz) or, even better, making it run to its limit (4.1GHz)?
Thanks for the attention
Hey! Sorry if this is necro-posting. I also have a 5500U, did you manage to get it optimized? Thermal management on mine is terrible.

Not really. Managed to change some of the values but nothing to make it drastically better. If the thermals are your issue though you can use the tool i linked and try to undervolt it manually

Arch Linux

#1 2025-02-08 21:31:20

AMD Ryzen 5 5500U issues with frequency scaling

#2 2025-06-18 20:04:37

Re: AMD Ryzen 5 5500U issues with frequency scaling

#3 2025-08-30 22:37:14

Re: AMD Ryzen 5 5500U issues with frequency scaling

#4 2025-08-31 13:45:37

Re: AMD Ryzen 5 5500U issues with frequency scaling

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