i5 6th Gen has been underclocked for two years

[Paul Rudd]

My CPU is clocked at 2708 GHz while gaming as shown in MSI AB. In CPU HW Monitor, it shows all 4 cores are clocked at 2693-2695 GHz while idle.

 

Even when playing Assassins Creed Origins or running the Assassins Creed Origins benchmark, it never leaves 2708 GHz.

 

So I'm guessing it's currently clocked at 2.7 GHz.

 

However, my i5 is supposed to be clocked at 2.8 GHz.

 

It also has a turbo boost of 3.2 GHz when using 4 cores and 3.4 GHz when using 2 cores.

 

So my questions are:

• Why is it clocked at 2.7 GHz?
• Am I able to clock it to 2.8 GHz without any issues doing so?
• Why is my turbo boost not working during games(it sits at 2708 GHz), especially Assassins Creed Origins?
• Am I able to clock it to 3.2 GHz without any issues doing so?
• Is it clocked at 2.7 GHz as some type of "cool & quiet" default setting?

CPU: i5-6402p

Mobo: B150M Bazooka PLUS

Cooler: Cryorig C7

Turbo Boost: ENABLED in BIOS

 

I don't have many issues(if any) arise with how it is setup now. No temp issues either, my cooler keeps my CPU very cool. Just want to know why it's at 2.7 GHz(has probably been there for 2 years now) and if I can at least get that set to 2.8 GHz and get turbo boost working so it will hit 3.2 GHz while playing games that use 4 cores and possibly even hitting 3.4 GHz when playing games that use 2 cores. All help is much appreciated.

[Fasauceome]

In your BIOS your CPU clock might be set strange, but you can use the "load optimized defaults" setting to see what it gives you. Also, try a BIOS update.

[narrdarr]

25 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

In your BIOS your CPU clock might be set strange, but you can use the "load optimized defaults" setting to see what it gives you. Also, try a BIOS update.

+1

[Paul Rudd]

10 hours ago, fasauceome said:

In your BIOS your CPU clock might be set strange, but you can use the "load optimized defaults" setting to see what it gives you. Also, try a BIOS update.

 I updated my BIOS to the newest version. I was using one from May of 2016. It changed nothing. It's still set to 2.7 GHz and same results in Assassins Creed Origin.

 

I don't see where this "load optimized defaults" setting is. Where would it be located in my BIOS?

[Fasauceome]

13 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

 I updated my BIOS to the newest version. I was using one from May of 2016. It changed nothing. It's still set to 2.7 GHz and same results in Assassins Creed Origin.

 

I don't see where this "load optimized defaults" setting is. Where would it be located in my BIOS?

In some it's in the "save and exit" menu

[Paul Rudd]

50 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

In some it's in the "save and exit" menu

I don't know what else that would do though. I just want to change the CPU to where it's supposed to be at. I can't find this load optimized defaults anyway but I'll keep looking. There's gotta be another way to determine what is going on.

[Fasauceome]

Just now, A Random Dude said:

I don't know what else that would do though. I just want to change the CPU to where it's supposed to be at.

You can select the recommended defaults and then change your settings later. However, if you've never changed the settings yourself, chances are the recommended defaults won't do much.

[nick name]

4 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

I don't know what else that would do though. I just want to change the CPU to where it's supposed to be at. I can't find this load optimized defaults anyway but I'll keep looking. There's gotta be another way to determine what is going on.

He is saying that "load optimized defaults" is under the "save and exit" part of the BIOS.  So when you select "exit" it will give you the options for "saving and exiting" , "not saving and exiting" or "load optimized defaults and exiting".  

[Paul Rudd]

14 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

You can select the recommended defaults and then change your settings later. However, if you've never changed the settings yourself, chances are the recommended defaults won't do much.

I was thinking the same thing.

10 minutes ago, nick name said:

He is saying that "load optimized defaults" is under the "save and exit" part of the BIOS.  So when you select "exit" it will give you the options for "saving and exiting" , "not saving and exiting" or "load optimized defaults and exiting".

This is what I'm interested in finding out...

• Why is it clocked at 2.7 GHz?
• Am I able to clock it to 2.8 GHz without any issues doing so?
• Why is my turbo boost not working during games(it sits at 2708 GHz), especially Assassins Creed Origins?
• Am I able to clock it to 3.2 GHz without any issues doing so?
• Is it clocked at 2.7 GHz as some type of "cool & quiet" default setting?

[Fasauceome]

Just now, A Random Dude said:

Am I able to clock it to 2.8 GHz without any issues doing so?

If you set that in the BIOS, it probably won't take, it'll just sort of pretend it's overclocked but windows will report your old frequencies.

[Paul Rudd]

Just now, fasauceome said:

If you set that in the BIOS, it probably won't take, it'll just sort of pretend it's overclocked but windows will report your old frequencies.

It's grayed out. It won't let me change it. I'm trying to determine if and how to change it.

[nick name]

Have you checked what Maximum Processor State is set to in your Windows power plan?  

[Paul Rudd]

4 minutes ago, nick name said:

Have you checked what Maximum Processor State is set to in your Windows power plan? 

High Performance. Which is set at 99% on both min and max. My CPU hits 100% regardless so I'm not sure if changing that to 100% on both would do anything.

[Paul Rudd]

12 hours ago, fasauceome said:

-Snip-

 

31 minutes ago, nick name said:

Have you checked what Maximum Processor State is set to in your Windows power plan? 

 

27 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

High Performance. Which is set at 99% on both min and max. My CPU hits 100% regardless so I'm not sure if changing that to 100% on both would do anything.

Solved! Thanks to @nick name I went into my additional power plan settings and changed my min and max to 100% instead of 99%(as I predicted as shown above). As soon as I read what I put about changing it to 100% on both, I figured it would be worth a try. Immediately after changing it to 100% on both instead of 99%, I loaded up Assassins Creed Origins. Low and behold, the first thing I saw as I loaded up the game was that my CPU was clocked at 3208 instead of 2708. It's at 3208 since it is a 4 core game. So now at idle it is clocked at 3.4 GHz and I have to figure out how to get that to 2.8 GHz while idle.

 

This has immediately boosted my performance. I ran a benchmark on Assassins Creed Origins (with my frames limited to 60) and these were my results:

• Very High
• 7638 frames
• 64 fps

The benchmark I ran right before that with the CPU at 2.7 GHz, these were the results:

• Stable
• 7011 frames
• 59 fps

So now I'm very happy I posted this topic and I'd like to thank all involved to help me fix it. Now as I said, I just need to figure out how to get my CPU to 2.7-2.8 GHz while idle. Maybe change the min to lower than 100%? I don't want to change the whole power plan, I like it at High Performance.

 

One more thing to note is this fix. This will definitely help a lot of other people in knowing about it. The difference between 99% and 100% is basically the difference in where your CPU is clocked at. That's a very good thing to know right there.

[nick name]

Ayyyy we fixed it.  

[Paul Rudd]

10 minutes ago, nick name said:

Ayyyy we fixed it.

That we did. Do you think putting the min at 5-10% would be wise to save power? It's currently at 3.4 GHz at idle. I just checked and putting the min at 5% and the max at 100% is basically the Balanced power plan. High Performance is 99% and 99%. What I think I can do is determine the % of what 2.8 GHz is and put that as the min.

[nick name]

1 minute ago, A Random Dude said:

That we did. Do you think putting the min at 5-10% would be wise to save power? It's currently at 3.4 GHz at idle.

Yeah that won't hurt anything other than performance.  It's the briefest of moments when the CPU needs to go from a lower power state to its highest.  So the compromise is saving power for that small loss in performance.  However, if Intel designed the chip so that it needs some cores to be in lower power states in order for other cores to be at their highest then you will need to set Minimum Processor State to a lower value.  This is how AMD setup Ryzen 2000 CPUs to behave.  

[Paul Rudd]

26 minutes ago, nick name said:

Yeah that won't hurt anything other than performance.  It's the briefest of moments when the CPU needs to go from a lower power state to its highest.  So the compromise is saving power for that small loss in performance.  However, if Intel designed the chip so that it needs some cores to be in lower power states in order for other cores to be at their highest then you will need to set Minimum Processor State to a lower value.  This is how AMD setup Ryzen 2000 CPUs to behave.

I just tried setting it to 5% and 100% while still on High Performance and it's still at 3.4 GHz while idle. But when I change the power plan from High Performance to Balanced and it sets them to 5% and 100% automatically, my CPU at idle drops from 3.4 GHz to around 0.7 GHz. I think what this means is that there's another setting in the power plan itself that has to do with where my CPU is at idle. I'm gonna look around in there and see if I can find it.

 

EDIT: Well I can't find anything in there so I think that means the plan itself is the reason it's at 3.4 GHz while idle. As long as it's set at 100% in the High Performance power mode, it will be at 3.4 GHz while idle. If I change that to 99%, it drops to 2.7 GHz. The only way to drop the GHz to lower than that while idle is to set it to Balanced. I don't like the Balanced power plan because it messes with game performance big time. That whole going from a lower power state to its highest thing I notice while gaming. IIRC it causes stuttering.

 

I might just set it to High Performance and set it to 5% and 100% and call it a day but my other option is to basically set it to balanced outside of gaming and switch it back to High Performance before loading up any game. I already have the tedious process of always loading up MSI AB and my fan control before gaming, might as well add this one to it.

Edited December 18, 2018 by A Random Dude