i7-9700K Stuck on 3.6GHz under load - Help

[katulen]

Hey guys.

 

For information my specs are:

Intel Core i7 9700K / 3.6 GHz Coffee Lake Processor Tray

ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-F GAMING

I did some Cinebench R15 and R20 to see how my CPU was performing under load.
And i noticed that under 100% load, all 8 core's was sitting on 3.6GHz.

This should be the table of Intel Turbo Boost for i7-9700K.

Core 1: 4.9 GHz

Core 2: 4.8 GHz
Core 3: 4.7 GHz
Core 4: 4.7 GHz
Core 5: 4.6 GHz
Core 6: 4.6 GHz
Core 7: 4.6 GHz
Core 8: 4.6 GHz

So i assume it should hit 4.6GHz when all 8 cores is under 100% load, however it sits at 3.6GHz.
Here is some screenshots of temps & clock speed from HWiNFO.

https://gyazo.com/90a15707b77a5df409da404826a382b0

https://gyazo.com/0dac8283744e385c9898bbb183727d79

 

So it for sure ain't thermal throttling.

 

I then went into BIOS to check if Turbo Boost was disabled, but i can't even locate it in BIOS.

Only thing i can find is Turbo Mode (see picture: https://gyazo.com/8c3301bdd902affbd896e4cb4b6ae3ef)

Which is enabled, and i dont even think that is the one im looking for.

Thanks in advance.

[Terabyte_272]

do you have an xmp profile or messed with the bios at all? You could try doing a full reset of the bios 

[Terabyte_272]

Also whats your cooler could your cpu be thermal throttling?

[Princess Luna]

4 minutes ago, katulen said:

ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-F GAMING

Well this board sure isn't doing you any favors....

 

You might have to update your BIOS since you're not thermal throttling so there's something else going on in here... what PSU do you have by the way?

[katulen]

10 minutes ago, Terabyte_272 said:

do you have an xmp profile or messed with the bios at all? You could try doing a full reset of the bios 

Well I havent touched anything in BIOS myself, but i noticed that the company who build my system have.

I went into BIOS earlier for the first time, and noticed that XMP I was active, and i assume was enabled by the company who build the system for me.

This picture shows the last settings saved: https://gyazo.com/62b499587baae183f5a02ed63414fb69

 

And i am not thermal throttling, as you can see in the pictures on the thread.

I've got a NZXT Kraken X72 cooler.

8 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

You might have to update your BIOS since you're not thermal throttling so there's something else going on in here... what PSU do you have by the way?

Yeah its super weird, and i cant locate anything called Intel Turbo Boost in my BIOS at all. Only that "Turbo Mode" which is already enabled, but i doubt that is was im looking for.

 

I've got a CORSAIR RMx Series RM750x PSU.

[GoldenLag]

19 minutes ago, katulen said:

ASUS ROG STRIX Z390-F GAMING

well. Asus is the only one that isnt breaking intel TDP spec. so that behavior is sort of expected. 

 

you are running a 9900k to spec. 

[jj9987]

13 minutes ago, Terabyte_272 said:

Also whats your cooler could your cpu be thermal throttling?

Expanding on this.

 

Show your load temps. Idle temps say nothing.

[Terabyte_272]

1 minute ago, jj9987 said:

Expanding on this.

 

Show your load temps. Idle temps say nothing.

well he was mainly talking about full 100% load in cinebench so it was implied. 

[katulen]

2 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

well. Asus is the only one that isnt breaking intel TDP spec. so that behavior is sort of expected. 

 

you are running a 9900k to spec. 

Not quite sure i understand what you mean by that? Sorry.

1 minute ago, jj9987 said:

Show your load temps. Idle temps say nothing.

https://gyazo.com/90a15707b77a5df409da404826a382b0

The 3rd column from the left, shows MAX TEMPS when under load. Running several Cinebench r15 & r20 for 5-10 minutes.

[nick name]

Those items set to Auto -- have you tried them set to Enabled?

[Princess Luna]

So this is a Pre-Build? urgh... it could be anything, from BIOS settings or version to OS changes, it's hard to troubleshoot it without having the system at hand.

 

I'd clear CMOS and start with BIOS settings fresh new, maybe even update it if possible after cleaning the CMOS.

 

If behavior continues then issue might be on the OS.

 

     

[Mister Woof]

Just manually overclock it and kill two birds with one stone.

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, katulen said:

Not quite sure i understand what you mean by that? Sorry.

intel TDP spec defines how much power/heat the CPU can generate. and when under full load the 9700k will generate its 95 watt TDP at 3,6ghz allcore. 

 

now intel TDP spec is something everyone except Asus breaks, meaning only on Asus board the intel CPUs will run as advertised. every other board it will break spec and boost higher than 3,6 ghz. 

 

 

you will find if you do cinebench R15 singlecore benchmark that the one core will boost much higher as the spec isnt broken by a single core running at full speed. 

 

 

TL;DR: your CPU will run a 3,6 ghz when all cores are working to maintain its TDP. 

[katulen]

11 minutes ago, nick name said:

Those items set to Auto -- have you tried them set to Enabled?

Which items are you refering too ?

10 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

I'd clear CMOS and start with BIOS settings fresh new, maybe even update it if possible after cleaning the CMOS.

Will reset bios to default work as well? Or only CMOS.

 

8 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

TL;DR: your CPU will run a 3,6 ghz when all cores are working to maintain its TDP. 

So to understand this correctly.

What you're saying is that, when it runs 3.6GHz on all cores, it will hit TDP at 95w and therefor not go into Turbo Boost, cause then it will break the TDP of 95w?

 

And this is only something is occuring with Asus ?

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, katulen said:

So to understand this correctly.

What you're saying is that, when it runs 3.6GHz on all cores, it will hit TDP at 95w and therefor not go into Turbo Boost, cause then it will break the TDP of 95w?

more or less. it will break the spec in the beginning due to turbo boost 3.0 i belive. though this is very short as to not overwealm the cooler with too much heat. 

2 minutes ago, katulen said:

And this is only something is occuring with Asus ?

i think Gigabyte had a board that did the same. though the CPU is running according to spec, it is just that every mobo vendor except Asus is breaking it. which isnt great for benchmarking as its essentially nolonger a 95 watt CPU and it will more or less overwealm most coolers on the market. 

[Mister Woof]

3 minutes ago, katulen said:

Which items are you refering too ?

Will reset bios to default work as well? Or only CMOS.

 

So to understand this correctly.

What you're saying is that, when it runs 3.6GHz on all cores, it will hit TDP at 95w and therefor not go into Turbo Boost, cause then it will break the TDP of 95w?

 

And this is only something is occuring with Asus ?

It's just for default settings and for marketing. Intel TDP is always busted.

 

Other motherboards break spec and allow above rated TDP, so in reviews, their boards score better.

 

In practice, everyone who gets a Z390 and a k chip is gonna manually OC anyway, so it doesn't matter.

 

Manually OC it and fix both problems.

[katulen]

4 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

Manually OC it and fix both problems.

Well i guess that makes sense. 

It just annoys me that i cant even to run as default tbh. And i wanted to see where 4.6GHz is through benchmarks and such, before i started to overclock anything.

 

Also, when it comes to CPU overclocks, i have done alot of research on the subject, however don't feel quite confident in doing so, even tho i want to really badly.

[Mister Woof]

2 minutes ago, katulen said:

Well i guess that makes sense. 

It just annoys me that i cant even to run as default tbh. And i wanted to see where 4.6GHz is through benchmarks and such, before i started to overclock anything.

 

Also, when it comes to CPU overclocks, i have done alot of research on the subject, however don't feel quite confident in doing so, even tho i want to really badly.

It's hard to mess up these days.

 

You can use the automatic OC if you are concerned, but it will just run a bit hotter and at higher voltage than it really needs probably.

[katulen]

7 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

It's hard to mess up these days.

 

You can use the automatic OC if you are concerned, but it will just run a bit hotter and at higher voltage than it really needs probably.

Yea so ive heard.

And regards to the automatic OC or AI Overclocking. Ive heard good and bad things about it. Bad things being something like the AI Overclocking suddenly thinks it can run 5.5GHz because the system has been idling for a few hours, and then on restart it booted up with 5.5GHz etc.

But also heard some good things about it.

 

However, isn't there anyway to get Turbo Boost to work with my Asus board, without having to directly overclock my CPU ? 
It seems VERY ODD to me, that JUST because i use a asus z390 board, i cant use default Turbo Boost.

 

UPDATE:

 

I googled abit and found this thread, from this specific website as well.

Seems like he have exactly same issue as me. Same CPU and same Mobo.

He fixed it by updating BIOS, so i guess that is my next step?

 

However, is there a way to check current BIOS version without having to go into BIOS or?

[Mister Woof]

20 minutes ago, katulen said:

Yea so ive heard.

And regards to the automatic OC or AI Overclocking. Ive heard good and bad things about it. Bad things being something like the AI Overclocking suddenly thinks it can run 5.5GHz because the system has been idling for a few hours, and then on restart it booted up with 5.5GHz etc.

But also heard some good things about it.

 

However, isn't there anyway to get Turbo Boost to work with my Asus board, without having to directly overclock my CPU ? 
It seems VERY ODD to me, that JUST because i use a asus z390 board, i cant use default Turbo Boost.

 

UPDATE:

 

I googled abit and found this thread, from this specific website as well.

Seems like he have exactly same issue as me. Same CPU and same Mobo.

He fixed it by updating BIOS, so i guess that is my next step?

 

However, is there a way to check current BIOS version without having to go into BIOS or?

CPUZ will tell you your BIOS version in the motherboard tab, and so will Windows System Information System Summary tab under "BIOS Version/Date"

 

Just type "system information" in the search bar and it will pop up.

 

However, I recommend updating BIOS in BIOS with a USB stick. Never had good luck with windows-based BIOS flashing.

Make sure your power is good and clean, and not expecting any power losses during update.

[katulen]

8 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

However, I recommend updating BIOS in BIOS with a USB stick. Never had good luck with windows-based BIOS flashing.

Alrite, i figured out current BIOS version is an old one, version 0506.

And the current version is 0905. That is now downloaded.

 

So now i just plug it on my USB, let the USB sit in the pc, reboot and go into BIOS -> Tools -> Flash new BIOS/Update BIOS - Is that correct?

 

[Mister Woof]

1 minute ago, katulen said:

Alrite, i figured out current BIOS version is an old one, version 0506.

And the current version is 0905. That is now downloaded.

 

So now i just plug it on my USB, let the USB sit in the pc, reboot and go into BIOS -> Tools -> Flash new BIOS/Update BIOS - Is that correct?

 

don't know that specific board, but probably. do it in the bios. make sure your power doesn't fail. should be fine. please report back if it works.

 

then once you confirmed your problem is fixed

 

OC that badboy

[katulen]

34 minutes ago, Plutosaurus said:

don't know that specific board, but probably. do it in the bios. make sure your power doesn't fail. should be fine. please report back if it works.

 

then once you confirmed your problem is fixed

 

OC that badboy

Well well well, would you look at that.

 

BIOS is updated to newest one available from ASUS, and suddenly it works as it should.

 

Here is some screenshots from after i updated to this new BIOS.

 

Cinebench r15 improvement: https://gyazo.com/4b73b5db45743fd38e5570852a791d37

HWiNFO core speed: https://gyazo.com/dd2324f7a71ca054acfac432ff8f70ba

HWiNFO temp: https://gyazo.com/fb63d7ce3becedf42f66c8f651604134

 

So apparently updating BIOS to the newest version, fixes the issue for the i7-9700K not Turbo Boosting as it should.

I find it abit weird a bios version would fix that, but apparently does.

 

Thanks alot for the help guys. Much appreciated.

[Mister Woof]

6 minutes ago, katulen said:

Well well well, would you look at that.

 

BIOS is updated to newest one available from ASUS, and suddenly it works as it should.

 

Here is some screenshots from after i updated to this new BIOS.

 

Cinebench r15 improvement: https://gyazo.com/4b73b5db45743fd38e5570852a791d37

HWiNFO core speed: https://gyazo.com/dd2324f7a71ca054acfac432ff8f70ba

HWiNFO temp: https://gyazo.com/fb63d7ce3becedf42f66c8f651604134

 

So apparently updating BIOS to the newest version, fixes the issue for the i7-9700K not Turbo Boosting as it should.

I find it abit weird a bios version would fix that, but apparently does.

Now OC it!!!!!!11111

[katulen]

Just now, Plutosaurus said:

Now OC it!!!!!!11111

Haha, i want to so badly, cause i find it fun overclocking my GPU. But as said earlier, even tho i did ton of research on the CPU overclocking subject, it still scares me a little haha.

Dont know why