The cpu frequency scaling on my laptop (Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4810MQ CPU @ 2.80GHz) is not working as intended. After the initial installation of ubuntu 16.04 I have made no changes regarding power management or the cpu frequency scaling. Normally I am used to the ondemand governor. However, it seems this governor was replaced with some pstate thingy and the powersave governor in newer kernels.
Even without load the cpu frequencies hover around the 2.x range thus causing the fans to be noisy and the device to heat up:
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo |grep -i mh
cpu MHz : 3435.468
cpu MHz : 2245.468
cpu MHz : 2800.218
cpu MHz : 2338.765
cpu MHz : 2800.546
cpu MHz : 2801.203
cpu MHz : 2800.875
cpu MHz : 2000.140
$ uptime
14:57:49 up 5:15, 1 user, load average: 0,01, 0,08, 0,16
$ cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 008: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: 0.97 ms.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.80 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.80 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.80 GHz.
analyzing CPU 1:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 1
maximum transition latency: 0.97 ms.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.80 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.80 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.80 GHz.
analyzing CPU 2:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 2
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 2
maximum transition latency: 0.97 ms.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.80 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.80 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.79 GHz.
analyzing CPU 3:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 3
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 3
maximum transition latency: 0.97 ms.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.80 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.80 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.80 GHz.
analyzing CPU 4:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 4
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 4
maximum transition latency: 0.97 ms.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.80 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.80 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.80 GHz.
analyzing CPU 5:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 5
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 5
maximum transition latency: 0.97 ms.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.80 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.80 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.78 GHz.
analyzing CPU 6:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 6
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 6
maximum transition latency: 0.97 ms.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.80 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.80 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.90 GHz.
analyzing CPU 7:
driver: intel_pstate
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 7
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 7
maximum transition latency: 0.97 ms.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 3.80 GHz
available cpufreq governors: performance, powersave
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 3.80 GHz.
The governor "powersave" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.79 GHz.
Curiously enough I've also observed the reverse behavior: the machine was under high load but the frequencies were being decreased until after ca. 20-30sec all cores reached ~ 800MHz. I checked with cpufreq-info and the configuration seemed fine (powersave governor, min/max freq at appropriate levels). Sadly I am unable to reproduce the error...
Any idea what causes these scaling issues or what could be done to fix them?
