Thermal throttling

I should add that the screenshot of the Intel Power Gadget is showing the laptop is not using as much power when the problem occurs. The CPU temps shown are nowhere near the point where the CPU will become throttled. Power related issues can cause the laptop to run at slower speeds --- many times at idle speeds (800MHz). The Apple USB-C laptops have all sorts of power related issues which can be extremely hard to identify the source of the problem.

Make sure to connect the charger directly to the laptop (try the ports on the other side of the laptop as well). If the charger is plugged into another device such as a multi-port adapter, dock, hub, etc., then the full power of the charger may never reach the laptop (this actually happens with an Apple multi-port adapter). It may also be due to bad or damaged I/O ports (very common), a battery issue, or even a Logic Board issue (it is easy to have the power protection circuitry damaged by accessories and peripherals). Power related issues on the USB-C Macs can be very difficult to figure out especially if the laptop is receiving sufficient power for a time which your screenshot may be showing (hard to say for sure without monitoring it more or seeing it in person).

Definitely run the Apple Diagnostics or have Apple or an AASP examine the laptop as suggested by @leroydouglas. The diagnostics can sometimes even detect voltage & current anomalies (at least the Apple service diagnostics, not sure about the consumer level diagnostics. You should have Apple or an AASP run their service diagnostics for the MRI (standard procedure) and the Cooling Diagnostic (insist on this one as well as it can detect issues which won't show up on the MRI diagnostic) which can catch problems the consumer diagnostic does not. An Apple Store will examine the laptop for free even out of warranty (according to posts from other more knowledgeable contributors).

FYI, Thermal throttling does not kick in until the CPU temps reach at least 100C (sometimes a few degrees more on some laptops) and the fans are running at maximum speed. From my experience your laptop is experiencing some sort of power issue or possibly a sensor issue is triggering thermal throttling too soon. I am fairly certain your laptop is not actually overheating (at least with what you've shared here). Power or sensor issues are the most likely problem, but identifying the source may be difficult unless one of the Apple Diagnostics (consumer or service) detect a problem since Apple does not have any ways or procedures to detect these types of issues since Apple will not even consider information or reproducible issues with a third party app (sort of understandable in one way and completely absurd in the other if it can help identify the source of a very odd problem).

Your laptop is not thermal throttling since the temps shown are not anywhere near 100C.

Try an SMC Reset.

Your laptop has a hardware power related issue which is causing the CPU to only run at idle speeds. Make sure to disconnect all external devices in case one of them is causing the problem. Most likely you will need to have the laptop repaired. Good luck convincing Apple there is an issue if the diagnostics do not report any issues since Apple will not consider any information from third party apps. The best you can do is to run a system stress test and show them that the laptop is not getting hot and the fans are not running at high speed.

hovhannes_asa wrote:

I know there were a lot of discussions about this but couldn't find anything that worked for me.

I have a MacBookPro 16" 2019 and I'm a software developer and using IntellijIdea for my work.

When it indexing or building the project the performance goes down in a way that I have o wait until is finished cause can't do anything else.

I run the command "pmset -g thermlog" and getting this result sometimes it goes even more down to 22

2021-09-13 10:15:19 +0200 CPU Power notify

CPU_Scheduler_Limit = 100

CPU_Available_CPUs = 16

CPU_Speed_Limit = 28

On the Intel Power Gadget, it shows 1.1 and the core utilization is about 20%.

I did almost all solutions found related to this issue none helped.

I also bought a cooler (which is funny, a laptop >3000EUR must not require this ****) but again didn't helped. The only thing that is helping a bit is ice bricks putting under the laptop.

@AppleSupport this is а cry of desperation, a 1.5-year-old mac book pro for >3000 EUR should be thrown away cause it is not usable anymore :(

PLEASE HELP!!!

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/12e3a4d8-1abd-4989-ac05-0268609521ce

pmset -g thermlog

Note: No thermal warning level has been recorded

Note: No performance warning level has been recorded

2021-09-13 08:33:05 -0700 CPU Power notify

CPU_Scheduler_Limit = 100

CPU_Available_CPUs = 16

CPU_Speed_Limit = 100

Early on an insight on the 16" MBP was to plug the charger on the right side, other peripheral on the opposite side(left).

You can See if there is any thing here—

Keep your Mac notebook within acceptable operating temperatures

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201640

16” MBP over heating ref:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253126511?answerId=255866756022#255866756022

You can try—Disable Turbo Boost, unless you are compiling, there will be no noticeable difference in most applications, but will decrease the temp

Turbo Boost Switcher for OSX / macOS http://tbswitcher.rugarciap.com

Third party— https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/resources/

hovhannes_asa wrote:

I did all except turning off turbo boost, did it as well, didn't help,

I even install a fresh macos and the issue still there, it is not connected to software or external display charging ports(left-right) I have an assumption it is VRM throttling like for this guy

https://bootcampdrivers.freeforums.net/thread/792/fix-macbook-pro-vrm-throttling

See if you run the user Diagnostic...not as definitive as Apple's own AST2 (Apple Service Toolkit) back bench diagnostic, but may kick out an error code.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

If you feel you have a hardware issue—

Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)

or on line https://getsupport.apple.com/

or call AppleCare Support at 1-800-APLCARE (800-275-2273)

Outside the USA—Contact Apple for support and service by phone

See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232

I have similar horrible experience with the throttling. I have the most expensive model and the throttling starts not even when using 20% of the full capacity of the CPU.

After a lot of crazy experiments, I found that an external HUMAN cooling fan of 30 euros makes the computer usable. That means an insane amount of noise and cancelling the possibility of portability

Did you find any solution?

I opened also a case in this link reporting my case of CPU thermal issues from throttling

in addition my GPU was roasted because of the bad thermal management

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253302113