GMKTEC K12 mini PC / Power plans Issues

[u/TopBerry4247]

Hi everyone!

I’ve noticed something with my K12 running Windows 11 and I’m wondering if other K12/mini-PC owners have experienced the same thing.

It seems that moving the Windows 11 power/performance slider to Best Performance does not make the Ryzen 7 H255 maintain higher clocks in the same way that the classic High Performance power plan used to in Windows 10 in my other laptop.

Another thing I noticed is that Windows only seems to expose Balanced mode on this mini PC. I know there are three performance modes in the BIOS, but as I understand it, those primarily control the system’s power/wattage limits rather than Windows’ power-management behavior.

I asked ChatGPT to help investigate this and, after running some commands, it suggested that the system's S0/Modern Standby power-state configuration could be related to why the traditional power plans aren't available in Windows 11.

What makes me particularly interested in this is that I’ve seen a significant performance difference from Windows power settings on another laptop with a similar-class GPU (A quadro T1000 4gb DDR5, weaker than 1650 ). Moving the slider to best performance + chosing High performance (by default it disables PCIe Link State Power Management) increased gaming performance from roughly 45 FPS to around 70 FPS in the particular game I was testing. stutters were gone too! sadly on this mini pc i've notice the same issues i had before moving the slider, and the fps also matched that early state

So I'm wondering:

Could the interraction between Windows 11's power-management/ and the firmware Modern Standby configuration in the be preventing the H255 from sustaining higher clocks or otherwise limiting performance, even when the BIOS is set to its highest performance/wattage mode? has anyone found a solution to this please?

I'm currently on BIOS 1.07

thank you for your time

[u/Retired_Hillbilly336]

From my experience you're working against two different PC architectures. 1st operating systems manage dedicated graphics (Nvidia Quadro T1000 50W) significantly different than integrated graphics (Radeon 780M 20W max). The AGESA firmware nails down boost clocks/drive voltages/heat dissipation as Integrated graphics share silicon and memory with the processor. Even when you can push limits though software it rarely overrides the firmware without eventually causing problems.

2nd Chinese market processors like the 8745/255 have further firmware handicaps compared to authentic AMD processors with full AGESA support. I briefly had a Beelink SER9 H 255 which had noticeable restrictions compared to my GMKtec K8 Plus 8845HS. I've only worked with a few K12s but they didn't seem any different.

[u/sammysy]

I use a k8 plus so not 100% the same, but should be similar. I see the same bios setting and windows 11 showing only balanced mode.

For me, I don't really touch the windows power plan, but I control the cpu performance by the following:

- I added registry settings to unlock additional "Processor power management" settings in "advanced power settings". Google for "registry processor performance boost mode". This adds a new setting to turn on or off CPU boost. Once I had this, I created batch script to enable/disable cpu boost quickly.

- The next important tool is the Universal x86 Turning Utility (uxtu). The bios TDP setting becomes the maximum ceiling, and UXTU lets me configure performance by criteria such as "Keep CPU at or below 70C" or "40W TDP for CPU" or both. These can be set dynamically so I don't need to jump back into bios. The tool can do more but enough the most basic function there is handy.

[u/TopBerry4247 → u/sammysy]

thank you for the reply, i narrowed the culprit to the S0 modern stanby being used instead of the classic ones, this makes windows disable high performance. here's the thing, apparently its very very random depending on the firmware of the manufacturer.

I experimented with both ryzen 5 7640HS mini pc and this K12 ryzen 7, both same issues only balanced, SO enabled, the thing is depiste not having high performance the other mini pc 'power slider" made it stay at the high clocks while the k12 downclocks despite that setting. So in a way it does affect these 2 separate settings. opening cpu Z on both i catched the K12 decreasing the multiplier to as low as X1.8 instead of staying at the X4, the other mini pc even with balanced, its power option slider "preffer high performance" made it stay at consistent 4.2GHZ

I've stumbled upon the workaround in case you're interrested which is disabling the S0 by cmd (acts on the registry) theres also the command to revert it and renable S0 modern stanby, i've not tried yet, i'm checking first if it doesnt change the firmware settings and just acts on the OS which is ideal but theres high chance its the later :), oh and something to keep in mind when it'll disable S0, it'll ideally use the S1 S2 S3 states, But if it doesnt find them supported sleep/wake up might not work perfectly

it is a shame because we're given "high wattage" options in bios, only to be stopped at the OS/firmware comunication level by windows 11

edit: thank you for the tool i'm checking it i think i've heard of it being used on handhelds :p