Why is my CPU Clock spiking up and down during max load?

[xKr1Sx]

Purple/violet is CPU Clock, before the GPU OC it was stable at around 3.5-3.7Ghz so the same as the CPU clock at the beginning of test after OC.

 

It happened after my GPU (GTX 950) OC to +100Mhz Core clock/+100Mhz Mem Clock in Afterburner. The first pic is after OC, the second pic before OC. For sure it was not caused by temps because CPU max temp was 59C during CPU benchmark and 35-40C during the GPU bench. Does anyone know why is this happening? Thanks in advance

 

 

 

[Heliian]

Power limit throttling maybe?  

[unclewebb]

Try running ThrottleStop.

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

 

Check the Log File option on the main screen before running 3D Mark. When finished testing, exit 3D Mark and then exit ThrottleStop so it can finalize your log file. Post some pictures of how ThrottleStop is setup and attach a log file and I will tell you why your CPU is throttling. The log file will be in your ThrottleStop / Logs folder.

 

This program was originally designed for laptops with throttling issues but it also works great on intel's desktop CPUs. Turn on Nvidia GPU monitoring in the Options window before you start logging data.

[xKr1Sx]

17 hours ago, unclewebb said:

Try running ThrottleStop.

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/

 

Check the Log File option on the main screen before running 3D Mark. When finished testing, exit 3D Mark and then exit ThrottleStop so it can finalize your log file. Post some pictures of how ThrottleStop is setup and attach a log file and I will tell you why your CPU is throttling. The log file will be in your ThrottleStop / Logs folder.

 

This program was originally designed for laptops with throttling issues but it also works great on intel's desktop CPUs. Turn on Nvidia GPU monitoring in the Options window before you start logging data.

Should it be set up like this?

PS. It's not running now, idle atm. Will run it when you confirm that everything is set up correctly 

 

[xKr1Sx]

17 hours ago, Heliian said:

Power limit throttling maybe?  

I don't think that should be the issue as my PSU is more than enough for this build and during a CPU test it was constant max clock. 

 

But I just thought that it's dropping frequency on the demo and GPU tests, so is it normal that it's spiking up and down during GPU tests? Because on the CPU test it ran at constant max clock, though I think it's still pretty weird that it's spiking up and down constantly instead of running at a lower stable clock for example. So am I just silly and yesterday overlooked the aspect of dropping clocks during GPU tests and not CPU ones, and is it normal for it to do so? But if it's normal then why did it run at max clock before overclocking the GPU?

Edited March 8, 2021 by xKr1Sx

[unclewebb]

4 hours ago, xKr1Sx said:

idle atm

Your computer is not even close to idle at the moment. Look at the C0% reported on the main screen. A reading of 23.6% means almost a quarter of your CPU is processing some background tasks. One of your four cores is being wasted. Open the Task Manager, go to the Details tab and find out what is running in the background on your computer. If you can lower the C0% number, your computer will have more processing power for gaming.

 

If you want the MHz to be steady, whether idle or fully loaded, use the Windows High Performance power plan. If you cannot find this in the Power Options then you can use ThrottleStop to access this Windows power plan. Just check the High Performance box. You can also disable C1E. That might help keep the MHz from being so jumpy.

 

Click on the C1 button and open the C states window when your computer is idle. A 4590 is a locked processor so for the CPU to reach maximum speed when lightly loaded, one of the C states needs to be enabled. Either C3, C6 or C7. Post a screenshot if you are not sure. Make sure that at least one of these C states is enabled in the BIOS.

 

After you do that and clean up the background tasks, run 3D Mark and run another log file.

 

3 hours ago, xKr1Sx said:

I think it's still pretty weird that it's spiking up and down constantly instead of running at a lower stable clock for example.

Intel CPUs are not designed to run at a lower stable clock. They go full speed or no speed if the C states are enabled. Some monitoring software will report full speed or 800 MHz. Monitoring software that reports the idle cores will end up reporting a graph like you are seeing. It does not accurately represent the speed your CPU is running at. The inactive cores are supposed to be ignored. The ThrottleStop log file will correctly show the CPU multiplier that your active cores are using, not the inactive ones.

[xKr1Sx]

I disabled the C1E and made the PC more idle now. I guess C3 is enabled as it's the only column that has positive values. It appears that I had not had high performance mode selected in Windows before, so I enabled it.

 

 

I ran 3DMark with these ThrottleStop settings.  Here's the log  2021-03-08.txt

Now the CPU was at constant boost clock so I think the High Performance mode helped  

 

 

 

[unclewebb]

16 minutes ago, xKr1Sx said:

C3 is enabled

That looks good. As long as C3 or C6 or C7 is enabled, the CPU can use the maximum 37 multiplier when 1 or 2 cores are active. When 4 cores are active, the CPU multiplier drops down to 35. That is normal for these CPUs.

 

https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/Intel-Core i5-4590.html

 

If you disable all of the C states in the BIOS, you will probably see a steady 35 multiplier in ThrottleStop. This is not a good idea because it will disable access to the 36 and 37 multipliers. Your CPU is set up correctly as is. The Windows High Performance power plan is best when using a desktop computer that is plugged in.

 

If you want more performance, find out what is running in the background on your computer. Idle C0% on a 4 core CPU should be under 1.0%. Click on the Task Manager Details tab and find out if there is anything running in the background that really does not need to be running. The lower you can get the idle C0%, the better your benchmark scores will be.

 

In the BIOS you can set the BCLK to 100.000 MHz or you might be able to bump that up to 101 or 102 MHz and still be stable. These CPUs will not boot if you go much higher than that.

[xKr1Sx]

14 minutes ago, unclewebb said:

That looks good. As long as C3 or C6 or C7 is enabled, the CPU can use the maximum 37 multiplier when 1 or 2 cores are active. When 4 cores are active, the CPU multiplier drops down to 35. That is normal for these CPUs.

 

https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/Intel-Core i5-4590.html

 

If you disable all of the C states in the BIOS, you will probably see a steady 35 multiplier in ThrottleStop. This is not a good idea because it will disable access to the 36 and 37 multipliers. Your CPU is set up correctly as is. The Windows High Performance power plan is best when using a desktop computer that is plugged in.

 

If you want more performance, find out what is running in the background on your computer. Idle C0% on a 4 core CPU should be under 1.0%. Click on the Task Manager Details tab and find out if there is anything running in the background that really does not need to be running. The lower you can get the idle C0%, the better your benchmark scores will be.

 

In the BIOS you can set the BCLK to 100.000 MHz or you might be able to bump that up to 101 or 102 MHz and still be stable. These CPUs will not boot if you go much higher than that.

Okay, thank you so much for your help!  

[Kyeman97]

On 3/8/2021 at 5:37 PM, unclewebb said:

That looks good. As long as C3 or C6 or C7 is enabled, the CPU can use the maximum 37 multiplier when 1 or 2 cores are active. When 4 cores are active, the CPU multiplier drops down to 35. That is normal for these CPUs.

 

https://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/Core_i5/Intel-Core i5-4590.html

 

If you disable all of the C states in the BIOS, you will probably see a steady 35 multiplier in ThrottleStop. This is not a good idea because it will disable access to the 36 and 37 multipliers. Your CPU is set up correctly as is. The Windows High Performance power plan is best when using a desktop computer that is plugged in.

 

If you want more performance, find out what is running in the background on your computer. Idle C0% on a 4 core CPU should be under 1.0%. Click on the Task Manager Details tab and find out if there is anything running in the background that really does not need to be running. The lower you can get the idle C0%, the better your benchmark scores will be.

 

In the BIOS you can set the BCLK to 100.000 MHz or you might be able to bump that up to 101 or 102 MHz and still be stable. These CPUs will not boot if you go much higher than that.

Having the same issue should i have my cores set to sync all or turbo ratio in bios for this c states to work properly 

[unclewebb]

@Kyeman97

The C states should work if you are using sync all cores or turbo boost.

 

Avoid replying to threads that are 3 years old. Start a new thread if you need help.

[Kyeman97]

17 hours ago, unclewebb said:

@Kyeman97

The C states should work if you are using sync all cores or turbo boost.

 

Avoid replying to threads that are 3 years old. Start a new thread if you need help.

Well what’s better for gaming performance sync all cores or turbo ratio ? I disabled c states and they’re all locked at 3.9 gotta be the most stable right? Before it was changing between 3.9 4.1 and 4.4