Bad CPU Performance X380 Yoga

[DJ51]

@someotherguy: Yep, that looks pretty good. I've installed the Bios 1.18_T1, and I felt pretty much immediately a better system performance. After some quick benchmarking I can say its much better. In Cinebench it makes about 370-390 Points after 15 runs, thats better than before. If forced to 100% CPU Load with Prime 95 the CPU Package Power does not go below 8W, sometimes it peaks up to 10W. CPU runs at about 70°C. Before Prime95 forced it down to 5W... Even daily work was able to do the same result, even just regular Office work. Interesting is the PL1: It stays at about 10-11W, but the Package power does go below this. 

This Bios is making the X380 performance much better. I hope the improvement will be released officially with a Bios 1.19 soon. I think it could be even better, if the CPU would have a little more room for a higher temperature under continious load. But I can't judge what power limits and temperature limits are set in the background.

I will benchmark a factory install in detail, and share the results.

Thanks for your effort!

Regards, DJ

[sranjeet]

@someotherguy: Thanks for this ! much better and much appreciated.

Only thing if this can be addressed is the fan is running continiously off and on when on power supply. removing the power supply it normalizes....

[MTSt]

Thanks for providing the test bios. It works fine and solves the perfomance issue.
Do you know when this will be released?

[someotherguy]

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@MTSt wrote:

Thanks for providing the test bios. It works fine and solves the perfomance issue.
Do you know when this will be released?

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I don't know the release date, but I can tell you this:  Because X380 Yoga already went through thermal certifications they don't want to change the default performance.  So, to fix this in an upcoming BIOS release, they are thinking to add a new BIOS setting to improve the performance.  When the new BIOS setting is enabled, the PC will perform like the trial BIOS.  When it is disabled, it will perform like the current BIOS as of today.  The default setting will be disabled.

[e6400ultra]

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@someotherguy wrote:

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@MTStI don't know the release date, but I can tell you this:  Because X380 Yoga already went through thermal certifications they don't want to change the default performance.  

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Wow. What a bizarre choice. The default performance behavior is unacceptable. I would fire the persons who implimented it.

[mikebordon]

Test firmware has made a HUGE difference, but I was still noticing power throttling even when the usage was not coming anywhere close to the PL1 (see attached). Similar behavior as without the firmware - on startup and resume from sleep, CPU would be 3+ GHz with everything zipping along, but gradually over time it couldn't max out much over 2 GHz.

And then I flipped the laptop from stand mode (connected to an external dock) to standard mode. And then the fan cranked up, the CPU cranked up, and it started zipping again.

I guess I can see how the thermal behavior might be different between the two configurations, but is this documented anywhere and I just missed it?

[e6400ultra]

Anyone with an i5 experiencing this, or is it just the i7s?

Edit: Apparently the i5 is just as abysmal: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-X380-Yoga-i5-8250U-FHD-Convertible-Review.316442.0.htm...

I can't beleive Lenovo gimped the X380. What a waste. The L380 is far superiror CPU throttling wise. I just wish it had the carbon fiber chassis.

[EQ3]

Have the same issue with the i5 in my X380.

[FTP]

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@sranjeet

 Only thing if this can be addressed is the fan is running continiously off and on when on power supply. removing the power supply it normalizes....

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I have the same problem.
The fan is continiously running off and on, off and on when on power supply, even when the laptop is absolutely unused for hours. Room temperature is only 22° :-/

[davide445]

Received my new X380 with i5-8350U I didn't have problems with heavy load but still find the fan noisy and cpu temp too high. 

Tried to install Intel XTU but told me I'm trying to install it on an unsupported platform. It's possible? Anyone have tried to use it on the X380?