cpu_throttle.py

Throttle / limit CPU power when getting hot - Python3 cli tool which also can run as a daemon systemd service or in the background.

Script for throttling system CPU frequency based on your desired maximum temperature (celsius).

CPU throttle is released under the terms of the GNU GPLv3 License.

Set a maximum temperature for your cpu using this tool. If the maximum temperature is exceeded, the script will limit the speed of all your CPU cores until the system is again below your desired maximum temperature. (If your system remains above maximum temperature after completely limiting your CPU cores, it will simply stay limited until temperatures drop below the maximum desired).

When you exit or kill the script, the limitation is automatically released and cpu can run at maximum speed again.

Version 1.2

• Included handling for cpu governors (low and high governor).
• Included sigterm signal handling. Same handling as KeyboardInterupt (ctrl+c): exit gracefully!

Usage

Usage: cpu_throttle.py [-h] [--time TIME] [--crit_temp CRIT_TEMP] [--debug]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help              show this help message and exit
  --time TIME             Seconds to cooldown cpu before next check, default is 30 seconds.
  --crit_temp CRIT_TEMP   Temp for cpu to throttle down (temperature in celcius degrees).
                          Default is 64 degrees.
  --debug                 Output more information when set to True.

Example: sudo cpu_throttle.py --crit_temp 45 --time 15 --debug

This will keep cpu temp below 45 degrees celcius (most of the time) and let cpu cool down
at a lower speed for 15 seconds, before checking again. Also it prints all debug messages to screen (and to logfile).

Works on modern AMD and Intel CPU's with Linux Kernel 5.4 and newer.

Required packages

This script requires package: cpufrequtils Install command for Ubuntu based distro's: sudo apt install cpufrequtils

Python version 3.7 or higher

How to stress test the CPU

Stress testing cpu with command: stress -c 4 -t 120s With c the number of threads and t time in seconds to stress test.

Install helpful Gnome extensions

You can install Gnome extensions on https://extensions.gnome.org/ Very helpful tools are: cpufreq and Freon for temperature and cpu speed measurements

Make this script run as a systemd service

Instructions for running the script as a systemd service daemon:

Step 1.
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/cpu_throttle.service

[Unit]
Description=Throttles cpu speed at defined temperature
After=multi-user.target

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/<username>/cpu_throttle.py

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Step 2.
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Step 3.
sudo systemctl enable cpu_throttle.service
sudo systemctl start cpu_throttle.service