I have an MSI Trident X equipped with a 9700K clocked at 4.9 GHz, a 2080 Ti, 32GB of RAM DDR 4 at 2666 Mhz in dual channel, and a Samsung nvme SSD 970 Evo plus.
PC runs great but I am noticing fps drops after I play for a while, especially in open-world games whenever I move around the map at high speed (Cyberpunk is a good example, but also Watch Dogs Legion). My CPU utilization is very high in such scenarios while GPU sits around 70-80%.
I tracked my CPU status thinking that it may be related to overheating and throttling but, although temps are not ideal (up to 85 C but usually hovering around 78 C), apparently there is no throttling, clock remains locked at 4.9 GHz throughout long game sessions (checked with HWiNFO). GPU temps are around 69 C at sustained full load so no problem there. It seems to me that I am somehow CPU limited in those games, even at 1440p, but at the same time seems weird that a 9700K at 4.9 GHz cannot handle these games properly. One weird thing that I have noticed with HWiNFO is that the ''effective clock speed" while gaming is 500 MHz lower on average than the nominal clock speed, I don't know if this is something to consider or not.
Then, I thought that it might be a RAM issue since I know that RAM can also induce a CPU bottleneck. My RAM is a low-profile Samsung model running at 2666 Mhz with not too great timings (CL 19). Can this be a RAM issue? Do I need faster RAM to remove this weird bottleneck that seems to get worse after I play for a while? Is it just a plain CPU bottleneck?
Unfortunately, I cannot overclock my current RAM since it has no XMP profile and I am afraid that if I overclock it manually the system won't boot and I'll need to reset the CMOS, which is not convenient on a Trident X since you need to remove the heatsink to short the jumpers.
Thanks in advance for your help.