Weird CPU Issue

[Shizen86]

Hi !

I'm experiencing a strange issue with my computer since yesterday.

Most of the ressources I found online as of yet did not help.

 

To put it in simple terms, my CPU seems to do less with more.

I'll illustrate with an example.

I've been playing Horizon: Zero Dawn recently and since I'm running Afterburner/Rivatuner all the time I know that for this game my average CPU consumption is around 70w, temps in the high 60s for an absolutely rock solid 120 FPS.

Now since yesterday CPU consumption jumped to 180w which is pretty much the max I can cool with my setup, I'm thermal throttling and all that for 60-70 FPS with dips in the 30s.

Also, loading times are substantially longer.

I tried other games, same thing.

I also feel it around the desktop with windows and programs taking a little bit longer to open and the CPU fan ramping up a little bit when previously it did not.

Idle CPU temp did not change tough, around 35C

I'm trying to find out what could have changed between Sunday and yesterday for not luck so far.

Latest GPU update is older than that, same for Windows updates.

I changed nothing in the BIOS

Thanks in advance for the support!

Config:

MB: GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX

CPU: i9 13900k

GPU: GIGABYTE Gaming GeForce RTX 4090

RAM: 2x 16GB Corsair Vengeance 4800

[BetteBalterZen]

I your PC was mine, I would go into BIOS and default all settings. Don't know much about Gigabyte, but if some sort of AI overclocking enabled some stupid settings, this may cause the system instability and higher wattage/temps. If defaulting BIOS does not help, I would see if any BIOS updates are available. 

And if the above don't fix anything, I guess I would try a clean Windows install, not that I really think it would fix it but that's just me. 

I hope you find a fix! 

[Shizen86]

14 hours ago, BetteBalterZen said:

I your PC was mine, I would go into BIOS and default all settings. Don't know much about Gigabyte, but if some sort of AI overclocking enabled some stupid settings, this may cause the system instability and higher wattage/temps. If defaulting BIOS does not help, I would see if any BIOS updates are available. 

And if the above don't fix anything, I guess I would try a clean Windows install, not that I really think it would fix it but that's just me. 

I hope you find a fix! 

Hi, thanks for the reply.

 

Yes, this was indeed the issue. Damn if I know why but the CPU profile in the BIOS got set to something extreme. I switched it back and everything seems to be back to normal. 

If this was to happen to someone not very tech savvy I can easily imagine that they would just think that this is the normal perf for their machine. What a shame.

 

Thanks! 

[BetteBalterZen]

8 hours ago, Shizen86 said:

Hi, thanks for the reply.

 

Yes, this was indeed the issue. Damn if I know why but the CPU profile in the BIOS got set to something extreme. I switched it back and everything seems to be back to normal. 

If this was to happen to someone not very tech savvy I can easily imagine that they would just think that this is the normal perf for their machine. What a shame.

 

Thanks! 

Fantastic, glad it worked for you! 

Yes I agree. It's a shame some motherboards enable OC features by default, for multiple reasons... 

I would suggest you go into BIOS again though and make sure that XMP is enabled on your system. If not, your RAM is not running at its intended speeds, which can lower performance a fair bit in some games and programs  

[Shizen86]

On 12/14/2023 at 2:02 AM, BetteBalterZen said:

Fantastic, glad it worked for you! 

Yes I agree. It's a shame some motherboards enable OC features by default, for multiple reasons... 

I would suggest you go into BIOS again though and make sure that XMP is enabled on your system. If not, your RAM is not running at its intended speeds, which can lower performance a fair bit in some games and programs  

Thanks for the tip! 

I actually looked a little bit into XMP when I built this computer, but I couldn't really figure it out. 

There is an XMP setting in the BIOS and when I go to enable it, I get a choice of profile and I don't know which one to pick. I tried a few but got boot failures and the setting was reverted. I tried to look into it online but found no definitive answer. 

In the end I just left that alone because the system is already blazing fast anyway, and I have yet to find a game that it won't rip through. 

[BetteBalterZen]

2 hours ago, Shizen86 said:

Thanks for the tip! 

I actually looked a little bit into XMP when I built this computer, but I couldn't really figure it out. 

There is an XMP setting in the BIOS and when I go to enable it, I get a choice of profile and I don't know which one to pick. I tried a few but got boot failures and the setting was reverted. I tried to look into it online but found no definitive answer. 

In the end I just left that alone because the system is already blazing fast anyway, and I have yet to find a game that it won't rip through. 

You are welcome. 

In terms of the XMP failing to boot; If you select one of your XMP profile and your PC fails to boot, that could either mean:

1. Your CPUs MC cannot handle XMP (simply unlucky, technically not an RMA reason)

2. Your RAM is faulty (sort of, can't handle promised XMP speeds but normal JEDEC still possible, is an RMA reason)

3. Your motherboard needs a BIOS update that possibly fixes RAM stability with high speed kits, making XMP profiles stable and usable.

4. Your motherboard simply do not technically support your RAM kit (RAM kit not on QVL)

5. Your motherboard is faulty. 

I see that you mention your RAM is 4800MHz. That is the base DDR5 RAM speed, the JEDEC speed. If your RAM kit simply is a JEDEC rated kit, it makes perfect sense that whatever XMP profile you can see in the BIOS (for whatever reason?) does not work with your RAM. 

But if your RAM kit is a 6000MHz kit, then it means either of the 5 reasons above (normally). If this is the case, I would check and see if any BIOS updates are available and make sure that your RAM kit is on your motherboards QVL. 

If you update your BIOS to the latest one and your RAM kit is on the QVL and still cannot boot when using XMP, this means either reason number 1, 2 or 5 - or a mix of them (again, normally).