i9-9900k won't go above 3.6GHz while gaming

[Precision_03]

Hello!

I recently built a new gaming PC with an i9-9900k and a gigabyte z390 aorus pro wifi. For a solid month, I had no problems and my CPU would stay at 4.7GHz while gaming with temps around 65C. A few days ago I noticed a major FPS drop. I normally get around a stable 200 FPS in Call of Duty Cold War. I started getting around 140 FPS and noticed my CPU was stuck at 3.6GHz. When I boot up my computer, the CPU is fine but as soon as I load a game the screen dims and the CPU stays at 3.6GHz. I tried overclocking my CPU to stay at 5GHz, but once I load any game it drops to 3.6GHz. I played around with the BIOS and had no luck. I tried intel XTU and it said I was power limit throttling while in-game. All the solutions I found to this only work on laptops. I did a clean install of windows, and it worked for a little bit, but whenever I would open the bios to enable XMP again, it would revert to the original problem. Even if I would then turn off XMP again the same thing happens. I am at a loss of what is wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated! If pictures or videos are needed I can get some. Thank you!

Full Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i9-9900k

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i RGB PLATINUM SE

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI ATX LGA1151

RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory

GPU: RTX 3070 MSI Gaming x Trio

Power Supply: Gigabyte P750GM 750 Watt 80 Plus Gold ATX

Fans: 4 of the Corsair LL Series CO-9050091-WW LL120 RGB

Case: Corsair iCUE 465X RGB

 

[newtekie1]

but as soon as I load a game the screen dims

That sounds like what happens when a computer is running off of a battery. Do you happen to have a UPS?

There is also usually a power limit setting in the BIOS that might be causing the issue.

Of course it is also a Gigabyte motherboard and Gigabyte power supply, which are low quality. So either could be causing a power issue.

 

[unclewebb]

Are you using any Gigabyte software that has some sort of cool and quiet setting. Some manufacturer software can lower the turbo power limits significantly which will result in constant power limit throttling and your CPU will be left running at its default base frequency which is 3.60 GHz.

Product Specifications

quick reference guide including specifications, features, pricing, compatibility, design documentation, ordering codes, spec codes and more.

ark.intel.com

ThrottleStop has a couple of options so you can try and lock the power limits to prevent this from happening. In the FIVR window, check the Disable and Lock Turbo Power Limits box. In the TPL window, set the turbo power limits sky high and use the Lock option so no other software can make changes. My Asus board defaults to 4095 for both power limits. This is of course completely unobtainable so no more power limit throttling to worry about. Use the latest version of ThrottleStop. Intel XTU does not give you access to the Lock variable.

ThrottleStop 9.2.9

ThrottleStop 9.2.9 https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-throttlestop/ New Features - added 10850K / 10900K support including a new Turbo Group access window. - updated the TS Bench and the C State window for the 10 core CPUs. - enabled Limit Reasons support for Comet Lake CPUs. -...

www.techpowerup.com

Turn on the Log File option while gaming. This will show any reasons for throttling in the log file. Attach a log to your next post after gaming for at least 10 or 15 minutes.

 

[Precision_03]

Is there a way I can change the power limit setting is the BIOS? What doesn't make sense is it worked for a while then just randomly occurred. Then when I reset windows to worked until I reentered the BIOS again.

When I used Intel Extreme and saw the power limit throttling I put the limit to unlimited and then it worked until I start up another game or restart the one I was in. This only occurs when I play games like COD or CS:GO but when I play Rainbow 6 all is good.

I'm not using any Gigabyte software that has some sort of cool and quiet setting. I'll try using throttle stop again. When I used it before the same thing that occurred in intel extreme happened, it worked until I closed the game. Do I need to redo the throttle stope setting each time I shut down my computer and reboot?

 

[unclewebb]

If some software on your computer is changing the power limits then yes, you need to run ThrottleStop each time you start your computer to Lock the turbo power limits so no other software will change these. It is easy enough to add ThrottleStop to your Windows startup sequence.

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove

forum.notebookreview.com

Do some proper testing first. Post pictures of how you have ThrottleStop setup and run a log file while gaming.

Edit - Your BIOS might have a bug when enabling XMP. Something is setting your turbo power limits too low.

 

[Precision_03]

Thank you I will try this next time I game! Do you think getting a higher-end board would solve this?

 

[nuggdoctor]

Check your thermal paste. Intel cpu's will auto downclock to cool down if they get too hot. the 9900k is hot anyway and if youre running a solid 4.7 all core overclock then its going to get VERY hot VERY fast. Have you noticed any difference in your systems fan speeds during these drops? if you got robbed in the silicon lottery, you may be forced to delid.

 

[unclewebb]

Do you think getting a higher-end board would solve this?

Solve what? You have not done any testing yet so I do not know what the problem is.

Your board looks decent enough. It is not unusual for the BIOS to have a bug or two. That is why manufacturers release updates. Someone must have screwed up the last update.

I believe that you can completely solve this problem by using ThrottleStop. No need to buy a new board.

Intel cpu's will auto downclock to cool down if they get too hot.

His CPU is not thermal throttling. It is power limit throttling. Intel Turbo Boost is being disabled because of this. It is a common problem recently.

 

[nuggdoctor]

I couldnt get over 4.8ghz stable on my 8700k overclock with stock. so i delidded and run at 5.1ghz at 1.365 volts. but the problem is warzone is demanding in a different way. idk why but to keep it from crashing over extended gaming/stream sessions ive had to drop to 4.9 all cores just on that game though. everything else like gta 5, paladins, lol, smite, gears of war etc all play perfect at the 5.1 its strange.

Solve what? You have not done any testing yet so I do not know what the problem is.

Your board looks decent enough. It is not unusual for the BIOS to have a bug or two. That is why manufacturers release updates. Someone must have screwed up the last update.

I believe that you can completely solve this problem by using ThrottleStop. No need to buy a new board.


His CPU is not thermal throttling. It is power limit throttling. Intel Turbo Boost is being disabled because of this. It is a common problem recently.

so they basically want everyone to overclock and use custom bios profile just to keep constant voltages? thats messed up.

 

[Precision_03]

The thing is I had it at 5GHz and I ran a bunch of stress tests and it passed all of them. Even when I have it at 4.7GHz it decided to lock at 3.6GHz. It's weird tho because the screen dims and the visual quality gets worse right before it goes to 3.6GHz. I got it to work and run normally but as soon as I entered the bios and rebooted the problem occurred again.

 

[unclewebb]

as soon as I entered the bios and rebooted the problem occurred again

It is not unusual for the BIOS to have a bug or two.

Let me know when you have time to troubleshoot and solve this problem. Talking about this over and over again on multiple forums will not solve anything.

 

[Precision_03]

Let me know when you have time to troubleshoot and solve this problem. Talking about this over and over again on multiple forums will not solve anything.

I'm going to try Throttle Stop when I game next and I'll report back with the results. Thank you so much for all the help!

 

[nuggdoctor]

The thing is I had it at 5GHz and I ran a bunch of stress tests and it passed all of them. Even when I have it at 4.7GHz it decided to lock at 3.6GHz. It's weird tho because the screen dims and the visual quality gets worse right before it goes to 3.6GHz. I got it to work and run normally but as soon as I entered the bios and rebooted the problem occurred again.

Thats strange. but i had a similar issue when doing my overclock on my 8700k. I cant set it at 5.0ghz no matter what voltage. it just wont get stable there. but 5.1 is 100% stable. the silicon lottery is real lmao

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Thats strange. but i had a similar issue when doing my overclock on my 8700k. I cant set it at 5.0ghz no matter what voltage. it just wont get stable there. but 5.1 is 100% stable. the silicon lottery is real lmao

Yeah but the difference is, youre trying to OVERCLOCK your processor. He isnt and his i9 wont turbo to the speed it should do.

 

[Precision_03]

Yeah but the difference is, youre trying to OVERCLOCK your processor. He isnt and his i9 wont turbo to the speed it should do.

Yeah, I don't really care about overclocking, I just want mine to turbo. I'll update everyone once I run some more tests. Thanks!

 

[Caring1]

Just a thought, what power plan are you using in Windows settings?

 

[Precision_03]

Just a thought, what power plan are you using in Windows settings?

I have ultimate with the processor power management at 100% I tried balanced but didn't see a difference.

 

[nuggdoctor]

It may be an issue with the chip itself. The reason i bring up the overclocking is because when you overclock you turn the boost settings and stuff off. and you run a custom memory profile and also change the voltages which might be whats needed to get his cpu to run optimally. I had to with my 8700k. thats why i started overclocking it to begin with.

are you changing your settings in your bios? or through the intel tuner or some other software?

 

[Precision_03]

It may be an issue with the chip itself. The reason i bring up the overclocking is because when you overclock you turn the boost settings and stuff off. and you run a custom memory profile and also change the voltages which might be whats needed to get his cpu to run optimally. I had to with my 8700k. thats why i started overclocking it to begin with.

I did the same thing. I tried overclocking to solve the problem. I followed this video

and I got a stable overclock but when I try and play a game it would still go back to 3.6GHz

 

[unclewebb]

That is a useless guide. At 8:14 he goes from talking about the turbo ratios and then jumps right over setting the turbo power limits. The step he left out is the most important part.

You can see that the Package Power Limit1 is set to the default value which is 95W. He also left the platform power limit set to 95W. An eight core Intel CPU is going to throttle itself to death when limited to 95W. When overclocking on an Asus board, these power limits are automatically set to 4095W to avoid any power limit throttling. After you fix this problem, run ThrottleStop and it will show you in the TPL window what the BIOS has set these power limits to. 95W is not enough.

 

[Precision_03]

Let me know when you have time to troubleshoot and solve this problem. Talking about this over and over again on multiple forums will not solve anything.

So I was able to test out ThrottleStop and got some interesting results. Following your guide you wrote earlier everything workout flawlessly, but the moment I stopped using ThrottleStop everything went back to the way it was. I linked two videos displaying each situation. I also attached photos of my ThrottleStop setup and the activity log it created while I was playing call of duty. Is there a way to make the same changes permanent in the bios so I don't need to use ThrottleStop? Thank you for the help!

Not working - no ThrottleStop

Join the web’s most supportive community of creators and get high-quality tools for hosting, sharing, and streaming videos in gorgeous HD and 4K with no ads.

vimeo.com

Working with ThrottleStop

Join the web’s most supportive community of creators and get high-quality tools for hosting, sharing, and streaming videos in gorgeous HD and 4K with no ads.

vimeo.com

 

[Mussels]

Have you tried updating the BIOS and resetting it to defaults? (of course, re-enable XMP)

 

[Precision_03]

Have you tried updating the BIOS and resetting it to defaults? (of course, re-enable XMP)

Yeah, once this started happening I updated to the latest BIOS (F12j) and rest everything to default. I cleared my CMOS and still no success.

 

[unclewebb]

Is there a way to make the same changes permanent in the bios

Read my last post. Your turbo power limits need to be set much, much higher in the BIOS. Setting the power limits to the default value of 95W is not enough. Go to 8:14 in the video you posted. Those are the power limits that need to be adjusted.

 

[Precision_03]

Read my last post. Your turbo power limits need to be set much, much higher in the BIOS. Setting the power limits to the default value of 95W is not enough. Go to 8:14 in the video you posted. Those are the power limits that need to be adjusted.

I set it like this and still have the problem. Did I do something wrong?