Question P-core E-core disabling in software?

[Zepp]

I have a VAIO laptop with i5-1235U and win 10.
The Bios options are extremely sparse like most budget laptops so nothing about disabling cores.

While searching google I saw that ASUS Armory Crate software for laptops with 12th/13th gen had the option to disable at least the E-cores, so I wondered if there was another 3rd party software that I could use to do this?

I also stumbled upon a trick I did not know windows had in msconfig to set number of processors(threads) on boot. I tested this and booted with what seem to be just the P-cores. However I actually wish to do the opposite and boot with just the E-cores as I have 8 of them.
I want to use less power, and I've read win10 gets confused with Alderlake anyway (or used to at least)

 

[coercitiv]

However I actually wish to do the opposite and boot with just the E-cores as I have 8 of them.
I want to use less power, and I've read win10 gets confused with Alderlake anyway (or used to at least)

TL;DR Don't try to disable cores, instead customize your max clocks and power limits. This way you get more performance and equal or better power savings.

Disabling all the P cores isn't even available on the desktop, one needs to leave one of them active. That being said, this has become one of the most common misconceptions around modern Intel CPUs: in most consumer scenarios E-cores do not use less power than P cores at the same frequency. P cores use more power when they boost much higher. The term of Efficient core is coined around the idea of area efficiency (4 E cores take as much space as 1 P core), and power efficiency is a bi-product of area efficiency in specific MT workloads.

If you want to use less power, expose the Maximum processor frequency power plan setting and limit the max frequency to the maximum frequency of your E-cores. This will limit P-core boost, will massively decrease power usage and also offer better performance over disabling P cores.

Another way to configure your CPU is a software called Throttlestop. With this you can do a lot more than limiting the frequency, in theory you can customize package power limit and CPU frequencies, voltage, and much more. The software is very capable, but some of the features it offers may still be locked by your laptop vendor. (Intel allows them to be configured via software, but also allows OEMs to lock some settings so that the software can't touch them).

 

[Zepp]

I thought I recalled one of the tech tubers testing with only P and only E cores enabled when Alderlake was new, but I kind of didnt expect there would be a way to disable as such through software on a budget laptop.

I have used the maximum processor setting in power options on other machines for this purpose but the option is strangely missing on this machine.

I'll check out throttlestop

thanks for the help