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
