How to turn off CPU Turbo Boost in Ubuntu to reduce CPU overheating

Hi Guys,

If you guys are working on a laptop with a Linux OS and if you are facing overheating of CPU, this article might be helpful.

My workstation is a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop with Ubuntu OS. A few days back I was facing the problem of CPU overheating reaching a temperature of 96 Degrees Celcius. After investing, I found that in AC mode, the CPU was overheating but in Battery mode, the CPU was working absolutely fine, with temperature ranging between 50 – 65 Degrees Celcius. I guess Turbo Boost was never enabled so I never faced this problem until a few days back when the kernel was updated which enabled the Turbo Boost.

I checked BIOS, but I didn’t find an option to turn on or off the Turbo Boost. So, I decided to turn it off in the OS.

So, let’s see how we can turn off Turbo Boost.

Step 1. Verify the Settings:

First, check if Turbo Boost is enabled or not.

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo

If this command returns “1”, then Turbo Boost is already disabled. Having said that, you might want to reach out to the Support of the maker of your laptop.

But, if this command returns “0”, then Turbo Boost is enabled. Run the following command to turn it off.

echo '1' > /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo

Step 2. Create a Systemd Service for Persistence:

To ensure these settings persist across reboots, create a systemd service.

1. Create the Service File:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/disable-turbo-boost.service

2. Add the Following Content:

[Unit]
Description=Disable Intel Turbo Boost
After=multi-user.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c "echo '1' > /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

3. Reload Systemd Daemon:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

4. Enable the Service:

sudo systemctl enable disable-turbo-boost.service

5. Start the Service:

sudo systemctl start disable-turbo-boost.service

Step 3: Verification

1. Reboot the System:

sudo reboot

2. Check Turbo Boost Status After Reboot:

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo

The output should be “1”, indicating that Turbo Boost is disabled.

 

That’s it.

I hope this helps someone.

Have a great day ahead.