TurboBoost doesn't work when ASUS Turbo Mode is off (Intel Core 10700F)

[abalone]

EDIT: I started a new thread when I realized this has all to do with my CPU usage. I know this is a problem lots of people had in the past, so I figured a new thread would be in its' place, considering I might have found a solution:

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1296875-acpisys-maxing-out-one-cpu-core-on-asus-motherboards-possible-solution-explanation-please/

 

Hey! I have acquired a new computer equipped with ASUS B460-F, RTX 3060Ti and Intel i7 10700F.

I had some trouble with my idle cpu usage (always 5-10% usage by "System" and "Interrupts", mostly from ACPI.sys i think, my idle cpu usage always sitting at 9-14%) and tried looking into it. After trying LOTS (and I mean LOTS) of things, I decided to conclude that it's simply the way my build works since the system works fine and smooth and I've had no performance issues so far.

 

The other day I saw that my idle cpu temps were at 44-48C and one of my threads were constantly running at 100% (4,6ghz).

After messing around in the BIOS, the only thing that lowers the temperatures (38-39C) and reduces Core 0 usage to around 50-60% instead of 100%, is turning off Turbo Mode by ASUS. BUT, this fixes the CPU clocks to 2,9GHz (base speed).

Since turbo mode raises my temps by 10C and causes fans to rush, as well as increases CPU idle usage by 2-3%, I really want to keep this off. But obviously I want the CPU to raise its clock when gaming or using other power hungry applications.

 

I have TurboBoost 3 enabled in bios, as well as SpeedStep (there are "Auto" options for both these also, what are they for?). When looking into the CPU usage, I tried the 2 latest versions of BIOS and checked all drivers (and disabled every device) as well as resetting Windows. In safe mode my general CPU usage goes down to 5% (system), yet one thread still runs at 50-60%.

 

This is my chassi: https://www.komplett.se/img/p/2400/1134871.jpg

CPU fan: CM Hyper H411R (not the best, I know)

PSU: Corsair TX650M, 650W

 

Very grateful for any aid!

 

BTW, the idle CPU usage isn't very much of a concern of mine anymore, but I figured the information could be of help. A constant 4-10% at idle doesn't seem very troublesome?

[Helpful Tech Witch]

40-50c is really good idles. Dunno what your on about.

[abalone]

6 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

40-50c is really good idles. Dunno what your on about.

Well 47-48C. If that's the case, then I guess I can keep Turbo Mode on? I'm kind of looking for a way to let the CPU calm down when I'm just surfing, and not constantly use 100% on one Core, sit on 48C and make the fans keep rushing.

But I mean if it's not a problem, no need to fix it.

 

My only concern then is the very lively fans a long with the fact that one thread is fixed at 100% usage.

 

update: according to HWInfo, the thread uses 68-70% in idle. That feels a bit better i guess

[Helpful Tech Witch]

37 minutes ago, abalone said:

Well 47-48C. If that's the case, then I guess I can keep Turbo Mode on? I'm kind of looking for a way to let the CPU calm down when I'm just surfing, and not constantly use 100% on one Core, sit on 48C and make the fans keep rushing.

But I mean if it's not a problem, no need to fix it.

 

My only concern then is the very lively fans a long with the fact that one thread is fixed at 100% usage.

 

update: according to HWInfo, the thread uses 68-70% in idle. That feels a bit better i guess

The thread would me the main thread, where all of the main stuff is. If the fans are pissing too hard, set a curve. That would upper the temps a bit, but a normal idle is around 60-65c, so you have a bit of leway 

[abalone]

Just now, HelpfulTechWizard said:

The thread would me the main thread, where all of the main stuff is. If the fans are pissing too hard, set a curve. That would upper the temps a bit, but a normal idle is around 60-65c, so you have a bit of leway 

I understand. So even whilst idling in Windows, it's perfectly normal for one thread to sit at 50-60%? My CPU usage while idling sits around 8-12% at all times.

That high for idle temps, really? I thought idle temps were supposed to be at 30-40C.

 

Well that's soothing to hear. Thank you a bunch for the clarification.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

18 minutes ago, abalone said:

I understand. So even whilst idling in Windows, it's perfectly normal for one thread to sit at 50-60%? My CPU usage while idling sits around 8-12% at all times.

That high for idle temps, really? I thought idle temps were supposed to be at 30-40C.

 

Well that's soothing to hear. Thank you a bunch for the clarification.

Overall about idle usage 5-10 is normal.idles in the 60-65c idle are normal. That 30140c number is mainly for water-cooling. But ambients after about 72f gives you a minimum possible temp of about 23c, but that's the off temp.

[abalone]

5 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Overall about idle usage 5-10 is normal.idles in the 60-65c idle are normal. That 30140c number is mainly for water-cooling. But ambients after about 72f gives you a minimum possible temp of about 23c, but that's the off temp.

Good to know. What do you mean by 30140c?

My ambients are probably at 22-23C.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

14 minutes ago, abalone said:

Good to know. What do you mean by 30140c?

My ambients are probably at 22-23C.

I hit 1 instead of -, I meant 30-40c

[abalone]

7 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

I hit 1 instead of -, I meant 30-40c

Okay. Well thank you a lot for the help. I'll return to Turbo Mode and simply use it all.

The fans aren't annoying as long as I know everything is fine.

[unclewebb]

1 hour ago, abalone said:

one of my threads were constantly running at 100%

 

37 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

idle usage 5-10 is normal

That is not normal at all. If some task is loading one thread like that when idle, one has to open up the Task Manager and find out what it is. A properly setup computer running Windows 10 with an 8 core CPU can average 0.1% load when idle. 5% to 10% load when idle is the sign of a problem. Something is running full bore that should not be constantly running.

 

 

 

 

A total of 1% load spread out over 20 threads is 0.05% per thread.

That is what it takes to run Windows 10.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

18 minutes ago, unclewebb said:

A total of 1% load spread out over 20 threads is 0.05% per thread.

That is what it takes to run Windows 10.

Sure. But windows doesn't use all of the threads. Add in game lAunchers, realise you are talking about a 6/12 CPU, turn on wifi, a couple of always on programs, it's bound to hit one thread hard. From experience, you get one thread/core hit hard, in the 60-70% which op said it was with hwinfo64.

[abalone]

My other budget rig with an i5 from 2015 for $400 runs at a CPU usage of 0.5-2%.

My guess is that it has something to do with the motherboard and the power settings? When I limit my cores to lower speeds, the usage of the processes "System" and "Interrupts" goes down and starts changing. 

 

This is how it looks like very close to idling.

 

When I play high end games at max settings, the temperatures linger around 60-70C and everything is very smooth and fine. I can also see the process "System" reducing its' usage when other application starts using more.

 

 

Update: And these are the threads in "System" (ACPI is causing the DPC shown in System Interrupts, I assume?)

 

 

 

 

[abalone]

56 minutes ago, unclewebb said:

 

That is not normal at all. If some task is loading one thread like that when idle, one has to open up the Task Manager and find out what it is. A properly setup computer running Windows 10 with an 8 core CPU can average 0.1% load when idle. 5% to 10% load when idle is the sign of a problem. Something is running full bore that should not be constantly running.

 

 

 

 

A total of 1% load spread out over 20 threads is 0.05% per thread.

That is what it takes to run Windows 10.

I see. These are mine whilst idling. See above post for processes.

                                                       (Current - Min - Max - Avg)

 

 

[unclewebb]

The System and Interrupts should not be using your CPU as much as they are. Likely a driver that is not working correctly.

When a driver is stuck in an endless loop doing nothing, it will load one thread to 100%. This load might get moved to a different thread once in a while but it is likely stuck and will never end. This is not normal when Windows 10 is working correctly.  

 

 

The Task Manager CPU Utilization data changes based on CPU speed. When the CPU MHz goes up, the Utilization number will also go up. When CPU MHz goes down, the Utilization number will also go down. Most people do not realize this relationship. They assume that this represents CPU load but it does not.

 

When you disabled turbo boost, the CPU was running slower. When this happens, it is normal for Utilization to go down. This is not a good measure of what the task is actually doing.

 

Here is an example of this issue. The first test has turbo boost disabled so the CPU is running at the base frequency of 3600 MHz. A 10 thread benchmark load on a CPU that can process 20 threads results in a load of 50% and Utilization also reports 50%.

 

 

With the exact same 10 thread (50%) load, when you increase the CPU speed to 5000 MHz, the Task Manager reports this as 69% Utilization. Why? Because 50.4 X (5000 MHz / 3600 MHz) = 70%. This shows that the Utilization data is scaled based on the CPU speed. 

 

 

When the CPU speed is held to 800 MHz, the same 50% 10 thread load shows Utilization at 11%.

51.3% X (800 MHz / 3600 MHz ) = 11.4%

 

 

4 hours ago, abalone said:

turbo mode raises my temps by 10C and causes fans to rush, as well as increases CPU idle usage by 2-3%

Long story but turbo boost does not increase idle CPU usage. It increases the meaningless CPU Utilization data that the Task Manger Processes and Performance tabs report. Utilization is not load.

 

Track down the driver issue and your computer will run better and smoother.

[abalone]

6 minutes ago, unclewebb said:

The System and Interrupts should not be using your CPU as much as they are. Likely a driver that is not working correctly.

When a driver is stuck in an endless loop doing nothing, it will load one thread to 100%. This load might get moved to a different thread once in a while but it is likely stuck and will never end. This is not normal when Windows 10 is working correctly.  

 

 

The Task Manager CPU Utilization data changes based on CPU speed. When the CPU MHz goes up, the Utilization number will also go up. When CPU MHz goes down, the Utilization number will also go down. Most people do not realize this relationship. They assume that this represents CPU load but it does not.

 

When you disabled turbo boost, the CPU was running slower. When this happens, it is normal for Utilization to go down. This is not a good measure of what the task is actually doing.

 

Here is an example of this issue. The first test has turbo boost disabled so the CPU is running at the base frequency of 3600 MHz. A 10 thread benchmark load on a CPU that can process 20 threads results in a load of 50% and Utilization also reports 50%.

 

 

With the exact same 10 thread (50%) load, when you increase the CPU speed to 5000 MHz, the Task Manager reports this as 69% Utilization. Why? Because 50.4 X (5000 MHz / 3600 MHz) = 70%. This shows that the Utilization data is scaled based on the CPU speed. 

 

 

When the CPU speed is held to 800 MHz, the same 50% 10 thread load shows Utilization at 11%.

51.3% X (800 MHz / 3600 MHz ) = 11.4%

 

 

Long story but turbo boost does not increase idle CPU usage. It increases the meaningless CPU Utilization data that the Task Manger Processes and Performance tabs report. Utilization is not load.

 

Track down the driver issue and your computer will run better and smoother.

Thank you a lot for the information, that clearly gave me better insight.

 

Turned out it was a problem with the Thunderbolt header or PCI Express… I'm not entirely sure. In my original post I've now linked to a new thread where i describe my solution and ask for explanation. Apparently this is not a very uncommon issue (with very few fixes)

[unclewebb]

@abalone I just saw your other thread and I agree, this issue needs a separate thread. Good work tracking this bug down as much as you have so far. There is some bad code somewhere that is stuck, fully loading one thread. It might be a while before this bug is fixed.