CPU max clock speed on idle.

[Airetto]

Hello, I just built my new pc and it's always running at max clock speed.
I tried things like speed step, balanced power plan, restarting bios and still nothing.
PC specs:
I7 13700kf
RTX 4070ti
64gb ram
NZXT z690
Windows 11

[unclewebb]

@Airetto

If you want to reduce low load power consumption, go into the BIOS and make sure that the C states are enabled. When a core has nothing to do, it will automatically enter the low power C7 state. In this state, cores are disconnected from the voltage rail and they are disconnected from the internal clock. That means the core will be sitting dormant at 0 MHz and 0 volts. It is impossible for monitoring software to report this correctly.

 

Use HWiNFO to make sure your cores are entering C7 when your computer is idle at the desktop. That is all you need to do. The 5287 MHz number that monitoring software reports is a meaningless number when cores are sitting idle in the low power C7 state. That is how modern Core i CPUs save power. It has been like this for the last 15 years but everyone still wants to see low MHz. 

[Airetto]

9 hours ago, unclewebb said:

@Airetto

If you want to reduce low load power consumption, go into the BIOS and make sure that the C states are enabled. When a core has nothing to do, it will automatically enter the low power C7 state. In this state, cores are disconnected from the voltage rail and they are disconnected from the internal clock. That means the core will be sitting dormant at 0 MHz and 0 volts. It is impossible for monitoring software to report this correctly.

 

Use HWiNFO to make sure your cores are entering C7 when your computer is idle at the desktop. That is all you need to do. The 5287 MHz number that monitoring software reports is a meaningless number when cores are sitting idle in the low power C7 state. That is how modern Core i CPUs save power. It has been like this for the last 15 years but everyone still wants to see low MHz. 

Thank you for the respond, but is it normal that the 5200 MHz has bad impact on the games? Like in the first screenshot I have around 20 FPS in cyberpunk on low settings. I was thinking that the CPU clock speed is causing the problem.

[Airetto]

Just now, Airetto said:

Thank you for the respond, but is it normal that the 5200 MHz has bad impact on the games? Like in the first screenshot I have around 20 FPS in cyberpunk on low settings. I was thinking that the CPU clock speed is causing the problem.

Also I wonder why it stays at 5287 MHz and not 3800 as the CPU is nor working on turbo mode and Im not overcloaking it.

[unclewebb]

7 hours ago, Airetto said:

I was thinking that the CPU clock speed is causing the problem.

Why would a fast CPU speed cause low FPS? That conclusion does not make any sense. 

 

7 hours ago, Airetto said:

Also I wonder why it stays at 5287 MHz and not 3800 as the CPU is nor working on turbo mode

When an Intel CPU has a task to perform, they are designed to use as much turbo boost as possible. The performance core base speed is 3400 MHz. Intel CPUs are not designed to run at their rated base speed.

 

20 hours ago, Airetto said:

balanced power plan

Are you back using the Windows High Performance power plan?

 

Your screenshot shows that the GPU MHz are very low. This is the probable cause of low FPS. Use GPU-Z and log the GPU MHz data. You have a new GPU so it is possible that the GPU driver is bugged and it is not letting the GPU run at its full rated speed. Try using an older or newer beta GPU driver.