Intel i5 8400 running always at 3.8 all cores

[EspinalAndres]

Greetings,

Why my i5 8400 is always at 3,8 Ghz on all cores even with 0 load on some cores?

 

I play an old game that uses only one core, so it would be nice for my first core to run at 4 Ghz with turboboost. is it possible? how do I do to let turboboost to kick in? I have never seen the first core at 4.0 Ghz.

My windows power manager is on "balanced".

 

 

All settings are on auto on the BIOS, except for some timings on my ram (15-16-16).

 

i5 8400

Board H310 pro m2

Nvidia 1070ti

 

[Jurrunio]

Go to BIOS, turn on C-states

[EspinalAndres]

Thanks, I did it but is still the same:

 

How do I get 4 Ghz on that game that uses only one core?

[Mister Woof]

4 minutes ago, EspinalAndres said:

Thanks, I did it but is still the same:

 

How do I get 4 Ghz on that game that uses only one core?

You can't. Background tasks will always preclude single core boost.

 

All core boost on Intel chips is generally what you will see.

 

Single core boost is just marketing.

[EspinalAndres]

1 minute ago, Mister Woof said:

You can't. Background tasks will always preclude single core boost.

 

All core boost on Intel chips is generally what you will see.

 

Single core boost is just marketing.

Thanks, so in non K processors is useless i guess, never the other cores would stay at 0%. I have never seen my first core at 4 Ghz.

[Mister Woof]

Just now, EspinalAndres said:

Thanks, so in non K processors is useless i guess, never the other cores would stay at 0%. I have never seen my first core at 4 Ghz.

No, they aren't useless. The way Windows works it bounces load around between cores super fast and never seems to pick just one.

 

Real talk though, there's not really any perceivable difference going from 3.9ghz to 4ghz.

 

I wouldn't worry about it.

[xtroria]

Change your power plan to balanced.

 

High performance will peg your CPU to its highest possible clock speed

[unclewebb]

@EspinalAndres - There are a couple of problems with your testing. You selected the 1 Thread test in CPU-Z but this test is not working correctly. It is actually fully loading 2 threads. You will never see your CPU's 1 core active multiplier during this test. Whatever you select in this test for threads, it always adds one additional thread of load to your request. Set CPU-Z to 1 Thread, you get 2 threads; set it to 2 Threads, you get 3 threads; set it to 4 Threads, you get 5 threads and set CPU-Z to 6 Threads and you will end up with 7 threads of your CPU fully loaded by CPU-Z. This test is broken. You should contact the programmer of CPU-Z and ask him why this test is loading the CPU like this.

 

Setting the CPU-Z test to 1 Thread, fully loads 2 threads and this will fully activate 2 cores. Any Windows background tasks during this test and then you will have 3 cores active. Not a chance you will ever see any evidence of the i5-8400's maximum 40 multiplier during this test.

 

The other problem is that CPU-Z and HWMonitor do not accurately report the maximum multiplier when a CPU is partially loaded. Most of the popular monitoring tools do not have the precision that is needed. Many of them put too big of a load on the CPU when monitoring. The more of these monitoring apps you have open, the more load they are putting on your CPU, preventing it from using the highest multiplier.

 

The result is that most users believe that Intel CPUs do not use the 1 active core multiplier very often, if at all. Definitely not true. As long as a computer is setup properly, Windows 10 can be very efficient. The Windows background tasks will barely interfere with your CPU using its highest multiplier. Here is an example.

 

A 4700MQ has a maximum multiplier of 36 when 1 core is active.

 

 

ThrottleStop uses high performance monitoring timers within the CPU and follows the Intel recommended monitoring method. The built in TS Bench - 1 Thread test loads exactly 1 thread, not 2 threads. During this test, ThrottleStop has no problem showing that the CPU is using the full 36 multiplier for the vast majority of the time.

 

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

 

A reported multiplier of 35.98 tells me that the CPU was using the 36 multiplier 98% of the time during the last 1 second monitoring interval and was using the 35 multiplier the other 2% of the time.

 

If you have too many tasks running in the background, you will never get near these results. When a 6 core CPU is idle, it should not need to spend much time at all in the C0 state processing the background tasks.

 

https://i.imgur.com/Sjo8mtn.png

 

If you have a problem getting your C0% under 0.5%, have a look in the Task Manager under the Details tab. Find out what is running on your computer.

 

12 hours ago, Mister Woof said:

The way Windows works it bounces load around between cores super fast and never seems to pick just one.

This confuses most monitoring apps but it does not confuse the CPU. An Intel CPU will consistently keep using the same multiplier based on how many cores are active, no matter where the load ends up.

[Mister Woof]

13 minutes ago, unclewebb said:

@EspinalAndres - There are a couple of problems with your testing. You selected the 1 Thread test in CPU-Z but this test is not working correctly. It is actually fully loading 2 threads. You will never see your CPU's 1 core active multiplier during this test. Whatever you select in this test for threads, it always adds one additional thread of load to your request. Set CPU-Z to 1 Thread, you get 2 threads; set it to 2 Threads, you get 3 threads; set it to 4 Threads, you get 5 threads and set CPU-Z to 6 Threads and you will end up with 7 threads of your CPU fully loaded by CPU-Z. This test is broken. You should contact the programmer of CPU-Z and ask him why this test is loading the CPU like this.

 

Setting the CPU-Z test to 1 Thread, fully loads 2 threads and this will fully activate 2 cores. Any Windows background tasks during this test and then you will have 3 cores active. Not a chance you will ever see any evidence of the i5-8400's maximum 40 multiplier during this test.

 

The other problem is that CPU-Z and HWMonitor do not accurately report the maximum multiplier when a CPU is partially loaded. Most of the popular monitoring tools do not have the precision that is needed. Many of them put too big of a load on the CPU when monitoring. The more of these monitoring apps you have open, the more load they are putting on your CPU, preventing it from using the highest multiplier.

 

The result is that most users believe that Intel CPUs do not use the 1 active core multiplier very often, if at all. Definitely not true. As long as a computer is setup properly, Windows 10 can be very efficient. The Windows background tasks will barely interfere with your CPU using its highest multiplier. Here is an example.

 

A 4700MQ has a maximum multiplier of 36 when 1 core is active.

 

 

ThrottleStop uses high performance monitoring timers within the CPU and follows the Intel recommended monitoring method. The built in TS Bench - 1 Thread test loads exactly 1 thread, not 2 threads. During this test, ThrottleStop has no problem showing that the CPU is using the full 36 multiplier for the vast majority of the time.

 

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

 

A reported multiplier of 35.98 tells me that the CPU was using the 36 multiplier 98% of the time during the last 1 second monitoring interval and was using the 35 multiplier the other 2% of the time.

 

If you have too many tasks running in the background, you will never get near these results. When a 6 core CPU is idle, it should not need to spend much time at all in the C0 state processing the background tasks.

 

https://i.imgur.com/Sjo8mtn.png

 

If you have a problem getting your C0% under 0.5%, have a look in the Task Manager under the Details tab. Find out what is running on your computer.

 

This confuses most monitoring apps but it does not confuse the CPU. An Intel CPU will consistently keep using the same multiplier based on how many cores are active, no matter where the load ends up.

either way, due to the fact there's really never a single core workload in practice, the CPU will generally hang at at its 4+ core boost, which usually is all core on a 6 core cpu. Most I have ever seen in practice never hit that because most people have at least something running in the background. If we're talking games, then it's steam, or epic, or all of them.