CPU running under base clock at 100% load

[Sarra]

I was waiting for pricing to come down, waiting for over 2 years, actually, when the Human Malware hit, and instead, I decided to just stick with my current system for a little longer. So, I upgraded my CPU, since that was pretty much the only thing I could realistically upgrade and get a performance boost, without a totally new system.

 

Specs:

EVGA 980

SSD Boot drive

32GB of DDR3 RAM

H97 Gigabyte board with the BIOS that supports the E3 V3 series of Xeon CPU's

Windows 8.1

 

Originally, I had a Core i5 4440, 3.1 GHZ with a 3.3 boost clock. I spent a bit of time looking for a 4790, 4790k, 4770, or 4770k to come up for sale at a reasonable price. $300 for a used Haswell CPU is not a reasonable price. I could buy a brand new one off newegg for that, so I waited. Then I noticed that my board supports the Xeon CPU's, and since I have no need for onboard graphics, I grabbed one for around $100 shipped to my door.

 

Xeon E3 1280V3, 3.6 GHZ base, 4 GHZ boost clock.

 

So, I dropped it in, and realized I needed a new CPU cooler. I grabbed a Noctua NH-D16S, and was shocked that it fits in my case.

 

What happens if I load it down, is the CPU clocks down to 3.5 GHZ. Temps are at 54C, I'm only pulling 81 watts through the CPU, I've got it set in BIOS to turbo until well past 90w. This board isn't an OC board, hence H97, so I'm wondering if attempting an all-core turbo is causing something to revert in BIOS, and reset the base clock multiplier to 35 instead of 36? It does turbo to 4 GHZ, but I've noticed that even on 'spikey' loads, it doesn't tend to go much past 3.8 or 3.9, and the only time I really see 4.0 is when it's idling, and the multiplier just kinda bounces around from 3.2 to 4.0 randomly.

 

Any suggestions for keeping my clocks up when running heavy loads longer? I'd like to at least not clock down until temp becomes an issue, but I'm not sure if this board will do that... Maybe I should have grabbed a Broadwell CPU, though that would require a BIOS update...

[Haro]

When on an all core Turbo this seems fine to me 

You getting 3.8-3.9 on single threaded is normal 

It won't stay at 4 ghz all the time even in single threaded

 

[Sarra]

It was running 3.5 all core, and it was running 3.5 on single core as well... I can get it to run 4.0 all core for the first second of whatever, then it clocks down to 3.5 instead of 3.6, and I'm not quite sure why.

[Haro]

Just now, Sarra said:

It was running 3.5 all core, and it was running 3.5 on single core as well... I can get it to run 4.0 all core for the first second of whatever, then it clocks down to 3.5 instead of 3.6, and I'm not quite sure why.

Try flashing the mobo with a newer bios or a different one 

 

[unclewebb]

9 hours ago, Sarra said:

then it clocks down to 3.5 instead of 3.6, and I'm not quite sure why.

Not sure what controls this but some Xeon CPUs have a feature that reduces the CPU speed to base clock minus 100 MHz. 

 

Core Frequency P1 Status (R0) When set, frequency is reduced below max non-turbo P1.

 

HWiNFO might report this type of throttling. You can also try ThrottleStop. Click on the Limits button to open the Limit Reasons window.

 

Here is an example of a Xeon E5-1650 v4. The base multiplier is 36 but at full load, it is reduced to 35.

 

https://i.imgur.com/Ew6BqBd.png

[Sarra]

I manually set the bclock multiplier to 36, and oddly enough, it has stopped doing this. It sits at 3.6 ghz solid at full load now, and it seems to sit right between 3.7 and 3.8 90% of the time when playing games.

 

Would I get any benefit from using the Intel extreme tuning utility in Win10? I really like windows 8.1, though sooner or later I will have to update, as DirectX 11 is getting... Long in the tooth. I was hoping to get a Ryzen or 9th gen before being forced to upgrade my current machine, but with pricing and availability being so unpredictable right now, I might just have to run this 7 year old machine another 3-4 years.