$ cd pranavchip.com && cd /docs

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Tuning Intel CPU for performance
================================
Pranav Chiploonkar 
2026-07-08

This is brief documentation on how to eke every last ounce of
performance from an Intel CPU.

My current CPU is my beloved i7-10750H.

We'll be modifying two settings, and making both persistent on
CachyOS/Arch Linux, but this should be applicable to other distros
as well.

I. CPU Governor
===============
This is the Linux Kernel deciding how aggressively to ramp up/down
the CPU clocks. To maximize this, we'll need to set it to "performance."

II. Energy Performance Preference (EPP)
=======================================
This is part of the chip's hardware itself, and determines how generous
it should be with power to threads that are starting up. To maximize
this, we'll need to set this to "performance" too.

Viewing current information:

    $ cpupower frequency-info

    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
      energy performance preference: performance
      hardware limits: 800 MHz - 5.00 GHz
      available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
      current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 5.00 GHz.
                      The governor "performance" may decide which
                      speed to use
                      within this range.
      current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
      current CPU frequency: 4.20 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
      boost state support:
        Supported: yes
        Active: yes

Observe these two lines:

1. energy performance preference: performance
2. current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 5.00 GHz.
                   The governor "performance" may decide which speed
                   to use
                   within this range.

These are the two we need to change. Mine's already changed, but I'll
describe it regardless.

1. Edit cpupower's systemd service config file

    $ micro /etc/default/cpupower-service.conf

Set the following:

    # Define CPU governor
    # Valid governors: ondemand, performance, powersave, conservative,
    userspace
    GOVERNOR='performance'

    # Set a register on supported Intel processore which allows
    software to convey
    # its policy for the relative importance of performance versus
    energy savings to
    # the processor. See man CPUPOWER-SET(1) for additional details
    PERF_BIAS=0

    # Set the Energy Performance Preference
    # Available options can be read from
    #
    /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/energy_performance_available_preferences
    EPP=performance

2. Save and exit

3. Reload configuration files

    $ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

4. Enable and start cpupower service to run at boot

    $ sudo systemctl enable --now cpupower.service

5. Check status of the service

    $ systemctl status cpupower.service

    ● cpupower.service - Apply cpupower configuration
         Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cpupower.service;
         enabled; preset: disabled)
         Active: active (exited) since Wed 2026-07-08 20:20:50 MST;
         20s ago
     Invocation: 6097b217c0274c3797eb81b348ede7fe
        Process: 48580 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/scripts/cpupower
        (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
       Main PID: 48580 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
       Mem peak: 2.9M
            CPU: 8ms

    Jul 08 20:20:50 candypaint systemd[1]: Starting Apply cpupower
    configuration...
    Jul 08 20:20:50 candypaint systemd[1]: Finished Apply cpupower
    configuration.

6. Final verification

    $  cpupower frequency-info

    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
      energy performance preference: performance
      hardware limits: 800 MHz - 5.00 GHz
      available cpufreq governors: performance powersave
      current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 5.00 GHz.
                      The governor "performance" may decide which
                      speed to use
                      within this range.
      current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
      current CPU frequency: 4.20 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
      boost state support:
        Supported: yes
        Active: yes

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