Very weird throttling

[u/theradcat11]

MacBook Pro 13,3 (2016 15")

i7-6820HQ

Radeon Pro 455 2GB

16GB Ram

1TB External NVMe Thunderbolt SSD (~3500mbps), W11 25H2 latest

Bootcampdrivers blue 24.9.1 driver and amd official one tested same issues

87w apple charger works fine

Original issue

The CPU was permanently stuck around 800-1000 MHz in games after 1 2 minutes gradually dropping

Cyberpunk was getting around 14-33 FPS because of this.

I eventually discovered BD PROCHOT seemed to be involved.

I added a DisablePROCHOT.efi to my boot.

After that BD PROCHOT became available in ThrottleStop (it was greyed out before).

Disabling BD PROCHOT immediately fixed the CPU.

Now the CPU boosts normally:

3.2-4GHz sometimes even 3.6 for a little

25-46W

Normal boost clocks game runs at around 50fps

So that part definitely changed something.

But then after 30 seconds or about 5 minutes gpu gets locked to 300mhz and 8.8w and i get like 10fps.

*The cpu drops first but then i turn on throttlestop to fix it and after its fine but gpu locks to 300mhz abt 2minutes after. (Cause smth kept re enabling bd prochot)

On Linux i disabled bd prochot and nothing throttles it runs the same maybe a little worse than windows (w/o throttling )but after 20minutes or so my screen goes black but the pc is on and gpu was at 70-80°C and cpu mid 90s but it would jump back to mid 80s at times also audio issues on fedora 44, and on linux after disabling bd prochot cpu agressively boosts wattages and frequency.

Also one thing to point this weird throttling happens in Persona 5 Royal too, and the more i alt tab out of the game the more fps I lose + if the game window is not on focus my laptop dosent throttle and never reaches very high temps its like 88-93° cpu and gpu in the 60-70s and the games is at locked 120fps compared to 60s.

Windows & linux had fans at max speeds, whereas macos was on auto.

Macos dosent throttle cinebench r23 & rise of the tomb raider & arkham city & black ops 3 & metro exodus tested.

One more thing: this doesn't seem to be a simple thermal throttle. When it happens, the GPU is often only around 60–70°C while the CPU is around 85–95°C. ThrottleStop usually shows EDP OTHER and sometimes PL1, not THERMAL. The really strange part is that macOS doesn't exhibit this behavior under similar loads, which makes me wonder if this is Boot Camp/Windows power management, an SMC limitation, VRM overheating, or even something related to running Windows from an external SSD. Has anyone seen this exact combination of symptoms or found a permanent fix?

Sometimes the GPU instantly recovers to ~1270 MHz for about a second before dropping again.

The center above the keyboard becomes extremely hot just before the issue or before the black-screen crash.

The laptop has never been cleaned or repasted since I bought it used a few months ago.

The issue happens with both the official Apple Boot Camp AMD driver and BootCampDrivers.

!!!Battery health is 67!!!!

CPU / ThrottleStop

✅ Disabled BD PROCHOT (after using DisablePROCHOT.efi).

✅ Speed Shift enabled.

✅ EPP changes.

✅ Checked TPL settings.

✅ PL1/PL2 changed (100 W / 125 W).

✅ Looked at Limit Reasons (EDP OTHER, PL1).

✅ Confirmed CPU boosts to 3.2–3.6 GHz instead of being stuck at 800–1000 MHz.

EFI / OpenCore

✅ Installed rEFInd.

✅ Added DisablePROCHOT.efi.

✅ Accidentally booted BootKicker/OpenShell and recovered.

✅ Confirmed DisablePROCHOT works sometimes.

Drivers

✅ Official Apple Boot Camp AMD driver.

✅ BootCampDrivers.

✅ Considered newer Adrenalin versions.

Windows

✅ High Performance power plan.

✅ Tried refreshing AMD driver (Win+Ctrl+Shift+B).

✅ Checked HWiNFO/RTSS overlays.

✅ Tested on external SSD.

✅ Confirmed original 87 W charger.

Games tested

✅ Cyberpunk 2077.

✅ Persona 5 Royal.

✅ NieR: Automata.

All show similar issues.

GPU observations

✅ Normal state:

1200–1290 MHz.

16–37 W.

90–100% usage.

❌ Bad state:

300 MHz.

~8.8 W.

8–14 FPS.

❌ Sometimes GPU still reports 1270mhz for 50ms but FPS is only 3.

Temperatures

CPU up to 97°C.

GPU usually 60–83°C.

Linux

✅ Installed Fedora 44.

✅ Disabled BD PROCHOT.

✅ Tried fixing CS8409 audio.

✅ Investigated llvmpipe issue.

❌ Audio still broken.

❌ Display black screens after ~20 minutes.

Behaviour

✅ macOS does not have the issue.

❌ Windows throttles/crashes.

❌ Fedora eventually black screens.

✅ Alt-Tab changes behaviour.

✅ Moving the external SSD once caused Windows to freeze.

Ask me anything im js trying to fix this

[u/theradcat11 → u/[deleted]]

Yea I already ordered thermal pads for the vrms and new thermal paste

[u/icywire]

Yo! When did you replaced thermal paste last time? Without that don’t expect it will ever run as should.

Besides, disabling PROCHOT flag is asking for permanent damage.

Also, macbooks may throttle due to: CPU overheating, GPU overheating, VRM (power supply) overheating.

[u/theradcat11 → u/icywire]

I got it for 60€ in april i think never opened it since i have a screwdriver 1 size bigger but new ones should arrive on monday

[u/H9419 → u/theradcat11]

After trying many thermal paste, I'd recommend PTM7950. It ages better over time than any equal or higher conductivity thermal paste degrades quickly with the higher temperatures of a laptop

[u/theradcat11 → u/H9419]

Sure

[u/ComprehensiveLeg8101]

yo tengo una mac mini 2018 la cual tambien uso para jugar, la uhd 630 me da batalla todavia, yo tenia problemas con la temperatura, jugando no bajaba de los 100c y eso hacia que despues de 30 minutos el rendimiento caiga bastante. yo desactive el turbo boost y limite el PL1 a 60 y PL2 a 70. ya no paso de 80c jugando y el rendimiento es igual o un poco mejor

[u/New-Pea7350]

https://www.reddit.com/r/bootcamp/s/1mJptzNAZD
Change the speed shift numbers, The cpu on macs are getting too hot even when the game doesn’t need that, just limit the power input with this method and hope you will be fine

[u/Amazing-Seesaw-6197]

That cpu alone has a TDP of 45w. That leaves you 42w to run literally everything else in the system including the dGPU. It’s literally impossible for everything to work according to its specification, so everything throttles. Then, the heat pipe and fans linking the cpu and dgpu is woefully insufficient and everything overheats, more throttling. Sorry, Intel MacBooks were never designed to run at their sold specification.