Current /EDP Limit Throttling and Power Limit Throttling Indicators in the Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility

What does it mean when the Current/EDP (Electrical Design Point) Limit Throttling and the Power Limit Throttling indicators display Yes in the Intel® Extreme Tuning Utility (Intel® XTU)?

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/EDP Limit Throttling

There can be multiple reasons why the current/EDP throttling is set on the processor. Three common reasons are listed below:-

• Processor Core IccMax is set too low in the Intel® XTU. (The IccMax can be found on the processor datasheets volume 1 under the VCCCORE DC Specifications)
• VR (voltage regulator) current limit is set too low in BIOS. Different motherboard OEMs may have different names for this control. Contact your motherboard vendor.
• The motherboard is not able to provide high enough current for the given processor. Pairing a low-power motherboard with a very high Thermal Design Power (TDP) chip can cause current/EDP 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. Three common reasons are listed below:

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