Intel i9 12900 stuck at around 2.8 GHz

[arminro]

CPU: Intel i9-12900

PSU: Corsair sf750

Cooling: Arctic Liquid Freezer 280 II

Motherboard: Asrock h670m-itx/ax

I recently purchased the hardware and just assembled my PC. Much to my surprise, my i9 scores around 17000 points on cinebench and it seems that even at 100% CPU usage, the average effective clock seems to stuck on 2.6-2.8 GHz, when I check it with HWinfo64. The temps are around 40-60C and Core Thermal Throttling is showing No, however, the Core Power Limit Exceeded flag is showing Yes for all cores. Intel Hyper threading is enabled (as is the default) and I also tried disabling intel Speedstep to no avail.

 

The issue occured at first boot with the original  BIOS version and XMP profile 1 enabled. Then, I checked my pump, reapplied the thermal paste, but the issue remained. I updated my bios to the latest version with instant flash and went with the default uefi settings but the issue still remains. 

The only way I could improve on this when I cranked up the Base Frequency Boost to 150W (which is the max settings), this way, my CPUS reached around 3.4-3.6 GHz, but never more, even with CPU Vcore compensation set to level 5 (TBH I'm not sure what exactly it supposed to do).

It is a hunch the the CPU is undervolted for some reason, but I have no idea why. If you know any recommended BIOS settings for the CPU, I would also welcome that, because I did not find any.

[Alvin853]

1 minute ago, arminro said:

Motherboard: Asrock h670m-itx/ax

Check your VRM temperatures. Asrock seems to have extremely sketchy LGA1700 boards with overheating VRMs that cause the CPU to throttle. Haven't seen a test of that exact board, but Hardware Unboxed showed that exact problem on multiple other Asrock boards.

[arminro]

16 minutes ago, Alvin853 said:

Check your VRM temperatures. Asrock seems to have extremely sketchy LGA1700 boards with overheating VRMs that cause the CPU to throttle. Haven't seen a test of that exact board, but Hardware Unboxed showed that exact problem on multiple other Asrock boards.

Unfortunately, my motherboard does not support VRM monitoring. At least, it seems to be missing from HWinfo under the mobo stats.

[Alvin853]

3 minutes ago, arminro said:

Unfortunately, my motherboard does not support VRM monitoring. At least, it seems to be missing from HWinfo under the mobo stats.

You can try pointing a fan at the VRMs and see if that makes any difference. Having an AiO doesn't help in this situation, because an air-cooler would get more airflow across the VRMs.

Looking at pictures of the board, there don't seem to be any heatsinks on half the phases, and the other half only has a tiny heatsink, and a 12900 draws a lot of power, so those components will get hot.

[arminro]

3 minutes ago, Alvin853 said:

You can try pointing a fan at the VRMs and see if that makes any difference. Having an AiO doesn't help in this situation, because an air-cooler would get more airflow across the VRMs.

Looking at pictures of the board, there don't seem to be any heatsinks on half the phases, and the other half only has a tiny heatsink, and a 12900 draws a lot of power, so those components will get hot.

My AIO actually has a tiny vrm fan on the pump (picture with the build is not mine, but same AIO, reference: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/p8x6Mp)
()

[Stormseeker9]

17 minutes ago, Alvin853 said:

You can try pointing a fan at the VRMs and see if that makes any difference. Having an AiO doesn't help in this situation, because an air-cooler would get more airflow across the VRMs.

Looking at pictures of the board, there don't seem to be any heatsinks on half the phases, and the other half only has a tiny heatsink, and a 12900 draws a lot of power, so those components will get hot.

Sound like the board OP has may not the best choice for that CPU. 

[--SID--]

Motherboard VRM is to weak for a 12900. Using an AIO helps in the wrong direction because it lacks airflow on the VRM. Better use a massive top down cooler like the be quiet! Dark Rock TF.

[svmlegacy]

The 12900 is a 65W chip by default, it is power limiting to this.

 

Unlock your power limit via XTU or through BIOS.

[arminro]

56 minutes ago, svmlegacy said:

The 12900 is a 65W chip by default, it is power limiting to this.

 

Unlock your power limit via XTU or through BIOS.

I started asking around on reddit as well as tweaking my mobo further and it seems that I cannot remove power limits in this motherboard and after a while, it starts to Power throttle during the XTU Stress Test when it consistently tries to maintain 165W. In the BIOS, the maximum power possible to set is 125W which is the power it defaults back to. According to Intel specs on 12900 the CPU needs around 200W to reach peak turbo performance.

So it more and more seems to be a case of incompatibility in this regard.

[Alvin853]

1 hour ago, arminro said:

I started asking around on reddit as well as tweaking my mobo further and it seems that I cannot remove power limits in this motherboard and after a while, it starts to Power throttle during the XTU Stress Test when it consistently tries to maintain 165W. In the BIOS, the maximum power possible to set is 125W which is the power it defaults back to. According to Intel specs on 12900 the CPU needs around 200W to reach peak turbo performance.

So it more and more seems to be a case of incompatibility in this regard.

Sadly Intel is pretty anti-consumer in this regard, they allow mainboard manufacturers to label a mainboard compatible with a CPU if the mainboard can deliver the base power rating, which in case of a 12900 is 65W. So Asrock is allowed to put the 12900 on the compatibilty list, even though it can't deliver the proper boost power. And they will gladly do so, because Asrock doesn't care about you getting your full performance.

 

This is the video HUB are reviewing the Asrock B660M-HDV and explaining the whole situation of power limits:

You can find a similar video for an Asrock B560 board on the channel, and a budget B660 VRM thermal test, where they're testing more Asrock boards that perform terrible.

[arminro]

22 minutes ago, Alvin853 said:

Sadly Intel is pretty anti-consumer in this regard, they allow mainboard manufacturers to label a mainboard compatible with a CPU if the mainboard can deliver the base power rating, which in case of a 12900 is 65W. So Asrock is allowed to put the 12900 on the compatibilty list, even though it can't deliver the proper boost power. And they will gladly do so, because Asrock doesn't care about you getting your full performance.

 

This is the video HUB are reviewing the Asrock B660M-HDV and explaining the whole situation of power limits:

You can find a similar video for an Asrock B560 board on the channel, and a budget B660 VRM thermal test, where they're testing more Asrock boards that perform terrible. And I thought that this being sold-out in the US is a great indicator of its success (at least, to my knowledge it is).

I wish I had seen this before I decided to buy this motherboard.

[Alvin853]

4 minutes ago, arminro said:

And I thought that this being sold-out in the US is a great indicator of its success (at least, to my knowledge it is).

It may be an okay board for lower end CPUs, many people out there getting i3 or i5 tier CPUs, and that board will probably suit them well, especially if the price is low. If it is sold-out everywhere then at least you should be able to sell it on the used market very easily.

[arminro]

22 minutes ago, Alvin853 said:

It may be an okay board for lower end CPUs, many people out there getting i3 or i5 tier CPUs, and that board will probably suit them well, especially if the price is low. If it is sold-out everywhere then at least you should be able to sell it on the used market very easily.

Yes, I hope so. Thank you for the help, all of you!

[arminro]

3 hours ago, Stormseeker9 said:

Sound like the board OP has may not the best choice for that CPU. 

Yes, that is my conclusion as well, unfortunately.

[svmlegacy]

3 hours ago, arminro said:

I started asking around on reddit as well as tweaking my mobo further and it seems that I cannot remove power limits in this motherboard and after a while, it starts to Power throttle during the XTU Stress Test when it consistently tries to maintain 165W. In the BIOS, the maximum power possible to set is 125W which is the power it defaults back to. According to Intel specs on 12900 the CPU needs around 200W to reach peak turbo performance.

So it more and more seems to be a case of incompatibility in this regard.

 

2 hours ago, Alvin853 said:

Sadly Intel is pretty anti-consumer in this regard, they allow mainboard manufacturers to label a mainboard compatible with a CPU if the mainboard can deliver the base power rating, which in case of a 12900 is 65W. So Asrock is allowed to put the 12900 on the compatibilty list, even though it can't deliver the proper boost power. And they will gladly do so, because Asrock doesn't care about you getting your full performance.

 

This is the video HUB are reviewing the Asrock B660M-HDV and explaining the whole situation of power limits:

You can find a similar video for an Asrock B560 board on the channel, and a budget B660 VRM thermal test, where they're testing more Asrock boards that perform terrible.

This is not a case of incompatibility. It's a case of how power limits are ignored by reviewers, as unlocking the limit is not running within specifications defined by Intel.

[arminro]

8 hours ago, svmlegacy said:

 

This is not a case of incompatibility. It's a case of how power limits are ignored by reviewers, as unlocking the limit is not running within specifications defined by Intel.

Define it however you wish, I bought the best non-overclocking intel CPU with the best non-overclocking ITX mobo and I cannot use my i9 for heavy load compilation tasks I bought it specifically for. This is pretty much a case of incompatibility in my eye, even if these parts can technically work together. It makes me even more bitter that this piece of info is never published nor it seems to be reviewed for some reason.

I try my luck with a much more expensive Gigabyte Z690I AORUS ULTRA Mini.

[arminro]

On 4/25/2022 at 2:35 AM, svmlegacy said:

 

This is not a case of incompatibility. It's a case of how power limits are ignored by reviewers, as unlocking the limit is not running within specifications defined by Intel.

 

Thank you for your helpful comments and suggestions. I contacted ASRock about this and they confirmed that since the CPU requires 202W of power for multi-core performance and this board can only sustain around 150W (and will default back to 120W after a period of maximally 200-ish seconds I think) it is more or less official that the mobo cannot  supply my CPU to sustain a multi-core performance around 5GHz under heavy loads. I could probably tweak around a bit more, but I would rather do with something that can actually power the CPU within its specifications. If anyone arrives here out of finding oneself in the same shoes, I received helpful suggestions for this problem over at Intel Reddit. It sucks to pay extra without the need for overclocking, but  I will need a strong PC soon and I don't want to get rid of my NR200 itx case.