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I have MacBook Air (early 2014) with Big Sur installed as an emergency.

And it happened, I lost my job, work laptop was taken back, and I had to use my emergency laptop.

The battery is damaged, it does not charge at all, so the power adapter needs to be connected all the time.

Something tells me the MacBook is slower the listed CPU speed because the battery level is constantly on 0-1%, even if it is charging from adapter.

I'm not sure if it is a problem, ideally I can buy a new battery and try to replace it, but I'm not sure it will solve the problem, and I'm on a low budget during my job-hunt.

Is there any way to check the CPU speed level, and is it possible to force MacBook to not decrease CPU speed?

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  • Are you asking for theoretical reasons, or are you actually perceiving different / slower behavior?
    – pion
    Commented Dec 23, 2021 at 15:42
  • Macbook's performance does certainly throttle on dead battery. I think it goes down 70% or so. Had the same happening to me. The computer was almost unusable. New battery fixed it but it's ridiculous this has to be done
    – 0101
    Commented May 22 at 21:44

3 Answers 3

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Many Mac laptop models throttle the CPU when the battery is not capable of supplying enough power (or if it absent or faulty). It is not possible to overcome this. Otherwise the Mac would (sometimes) want more power that the charge cable can provide.

Is it possible to disable CPU throttling on a MacBook Pro with a completely dead (not recognized) battery?

Why does a MacBook throttle without a battery?

CPU throttling on Macbook with bad battery and Catalina

I know this a bad time to be outlaying cash, but you either need a new battery, or a new Mac.

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  • i will buy a new battery (it costs 60 euros) if I know that it will solve the problem
    – Aziz
    Commented Dec 24, 2021 at 0:16
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The main reason for Low Frequency - BD Prochot, it's a problems with logic board powering . SOLUTION: You should replace your battery if you've got an macbook or DC if it's an iMac.

Also you could check for BD Prochot error via terminal:

# sudo powermetrics

and you will see something like this

$ sudo thermal levels
cpu: 180
gpu: 30
io: 30



$ sudo powermetrics
...
**** Processor usage ****

Intel energy model derived package power (CPUs+GT+SA): 2.48W

LLC flushed residency: 65.9%

System Average frequency as fraction of nominal: 27.52% (798.17 Mhz)
Package 0 C-state residency: 67.72% (C2: 9.36% C3: 2.08% C6: 56.28% C7: 0.00% )


Performance Limited Due to:
CPU LIMIT PROCHOT <--- HERE IT IS !!!!!
GPU LIMIT PROCHOT <--- HERE IT IS !!!!!

Core 0 C-state residency: 83.91% (C3: 0.00% C6: 0.00% C7: 83.91% )

CPU 0 duty cycles/s: active/idle [< 16 us: 92.56/27.35] [< 32 us: 14.86/12.29] [< 64 us: 19.82/76.90] [< 128 us: 32.70/49.35] [< 256 us: 49.15/26.76] [< 512 us: 32.90/34.68] [< 1024 us: 27.15/21.80] [< 2048 us: 5.95/33.30] [< 4096 us: 0.40/36.47] [< 8192 us: 0.20/14.67] [< 16384 us: 55.49/0.00] [< 32768 us: 2.18/0.00]
CPU Average frequency as fraction of nominal: 27.52% (798.17 Mhz)


Core 1 C-state residency: 84.27% (C3: 0.00% C6: 0.00% C7: 84.27% )


CPU 1 duty cycles/s: active/idle [< 16 us: 125.26/30.32] [< 32 us: 6.94/8.92] [< 64 us: 16.05/82.65] [< 128 us: 45.19/44.79] [< 256 us: 30.52/32.31] [< 512 us: 34.29/40.83] [< 1024 us: 21.60/22.99] [< 2048 us: 10.11/30.13] [< 4096 us: 5.75/38.05] [< 8192 us: 9.32/22.99] [< 16384 us: 47.96/0.20] [< 32768 us: 1.39/0.00]
CPU Average frequency as fraction of nominal: 27.52% (798.18 Mhz)


Core 2 C-state residency: 82.53% (C3: 0.02% C6: 0.00% C7: 82.50% )


CPU 2 duty cycles/s: active/idle [< 16 us: 130.81/31.91] [< 32 us: 8.32/3.37] [< 64 us: 19.82/104.84] [< 128 us: 41.42/44.00] [< 256 us: 38.65/33.30] [< 512 us: 34.09/46.38] [< 1024 us: 27.95/20.02] [< 2048 us: 13.48/28.94] [< 4096 us: 6.94/41.03] [< 8192 us: 10.11/24.77] [< 16384 us: 46.38/0.20] [< 32768 us: 0.79/0.00]
CPU Average frequency as fraction of nominal: 27.52% (798.17 Mhz)


Core 3 C-state residency: 86.15% (C3: 0.00% C6: 0.00% C7: 86.15% )


CPU 3 duty cycles/s: active/idle [< 16 us: 105.64/27.95] [< 32 us: 5.95/0.99] [< 64 us: 13.28/80.07] [< 128 us: 39.04/35.48] [< 256 us: 29.93/25.57] [< 512 us: 32.31/36.07] [< 1024 us: 20.41/22.40] [< 2048 us: 4.76/26.95] [< 4096 us: 2.38/34.29] [< 8192 us: 2.58/22.59] [< 16384 us: 54.90/0.00] [< 32768 us: 0.79/0.00]
CPU Average frequency as fraction of nominal: 27.52% (798.17 Mhz)

**** SMC sensors ****
CPU Thermal level: 180
GPU Thermal level: 30
IO Thermal level: 30
Fan: 2471 rpm
CPU die temperature: 38.38 C
GPU die temperature: 41.00 C
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You can use Intel Power Gadget, it's an official app from Intel that shows you your processor's current frequency among other things. If you have the Intel Core i5 model then your normal working frequency should be around 1.4GHz and can get up 2.7GHz for more demanding tasks.

But please note that a lower frequency doesn't necessarily mean that your laptop "lowers the CPU", it might also happen just because your laptop isn't doing anything particularly demanding at the moment and so it allocates only as much CPU resources as it thinks would be enough to get the job done ideally without any noticeable degradation in performance. I hope my feedback would be useful

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  • Thank you for answer, So I installed Intel app, and for the Frequency it says Max - 0.9, Avg - 0.8, Min - 0.7
    – Aziz
    Commented Dec 24, 2021 at 0:15

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