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

[Lemuth80]

Turn off ht/virtual cores and see.

What is that going to do?

 

[Precision_03]

The only solution at the moment is to use ThrottleStop to Lock the Turbo Power Limit register so no other software can mess around with this. Whoever wrote this malicious code forgot to set the lock bit.


It is the power limit register that is causing the problem. It is not HT related.

So the problem is game related and not BIOS/Motherboard?

 

[unclewebb]

So the problem is game related and not BIOS/Motherboard?

It could be both. It is definitely game related but it could also be targeting specific motherboards. You will need to do your own testing.

Shut down your computer. When you restart, run CPU-Z, go to the About tab and generate a report. Find the line that starts with MSR 0x00000610 and see what your turbo power limit register is set to. Start a game and immediately check this register again. Exit the game and check this register one more time. Do not run ThrottleStop while you are testing this.

Do this testing for multiple games. Older games might be OK.

 

[Precision_03]

It could be both. It is definitely game related but it could also be targeting specific motherboards. You will need to do your own testing.

Shut down your computer. When you restart, run CPU-Z, go to the About tab and generate a report. Find the line that starts with MSR 0x00000610 and see what your turbo power limit register is set to. Start a game and immediately check this register again. Exit the game and check this register one more time. Do not run ThrottleStop while you are testing this.

Do this testing for multiple games. Older games might be OK.

Alright, thanks! I'll give this a try later when I'm at my setup.

 

[unclewebb]

When the power limit register has been set to zero, ThrottleStop shows a reduced speed and constant PL2 power limit throttling.
Whether idle or full load, a setting of 0 Watts is not enough for any turbo boost.

HWiNFO also shows that power limit throttling is in progress.

 

[Precision_03]

When the power limit register has been set to zero, ThrottleStop shows a reduced speed and constant PL2 power limit throttling.
Whether idle or full load, a setting of 0 Watts is not enough for any turbo boost.

View attachment 182265

HWiNFO also shows that power limit throttling is in progress.

View attachment 182266

Is it bad to use while it's power limit throttling?

 

[unclewebb]

Is it bad to use while it's power limit throttling?

You are not going to hurt your CPU by running it slower than its rated speed. You are just missing out on maximum performance. No turbo boost means a 9900K will run at the processor base frequency which is 3.6 GHz instead of the maximum turbo speed which is 5.0 GHz.

Product Specifications

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

ark.intel.com

Some mobile CPUs have an even bigger difference between base and turbo speeds.

 

[Precision_03]

You are not going to hurt your CPU by running it slower than its rated speed. You are just missing out on maximum performance. No turbo boost means a 9900K will run at the processor base frequency which is 3.6 GHz instead of the maximum turbo speed which is 5.0 GHz.

Product Specifications

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

ark.intel.com

Some mobile CPUs have an even bigger difference between base and turbo speeds.

Makes sense, thanks!

 

[unclewebb]

Exact same thing happening....

Do you have a Nvidia gpu or an AMD gpu?

Just in time for Intel's 11th Gen release when review sites have 11th Gen engineering CPUs available for testing purposes.

 

[Lemuth80]

Do you have a Nvidia gpu or an AMD gpu?

Just in time for Intel's 11th Gen release when review sites have 11th Gen engineering CPUs available for testing purposes.

3090 rtx

Hopefully it's an easy fix

 

[Agentbb007]

Sounds like you've got an issue with your bios and the way it's handling the Intel power limits, is there a bios update you could flash or maybe try an older one?
I have a 9900k on the Asus Maximus XI Hero and just did a test in Call of Duty Modern Warfare campaign and it held at my 4.8GHz turbo boost the entire time. Here is a screenshot how I have my power limits set you can see my "Long Duration Package Power Limit" (PL1) set to 4095 Watts, while gaming I bounce around 110 Watts. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but "Short Duration Package Power Limit" (PL2) only applies when PL1 is exceeded so PL2 limits should never apply with my PL1 set to 4095 Watts.

 

[Lemuth80]

Yeah well it's weird also it only appears to have issues with both our gigabyte boards

 

[Agentbb007]

Yeah well it's weird also it only appears to have issues with both our gigabyte boards

I saw your BIOS screenshots, PL1 at 4090 Watts should be good and it should never hit that but maybe that's causing a problem. Try setting it to something more realistic like 200 Watts.
Also what if you change that "CPU Flex Ratio Settings" to 48 does the CPU stay at 4.8GHz if you do that? It sounds like that might force the minimum frequency to whatever value you input there.
One more thing can you change "Intel Turbo Boost Technology" from Auto to enabled?

 

[Lemuth80]

I saw your BIOS screenshots, PL1 at 4090 Watts should be good and it should never hit that but maybe that's causing a problem. Try setting it to something more realistic like 200 Watts.
Also what if you change that "CPU Flex Ratio Settings" to 48 does the CPU stay at 4.8GHz if you do that? It sounds like that might force the minimum frequency to whatever value you input there.
One more thing can you change "Intel Turbo Boost Technology" from Auto to enabled?

Well you can't forget if i use throttle stop it goes away so yeah definitely something is weird ...

 

[unclewebb]

Sounds like you've got an issue with your bios

The BIOS is setting the power limits correctly. Before starting a game, the power limit register is set exactly as the BIOS has requested that it be set. The typical maximum is 4095 Watts. Asus uses that value and it does not cause any problems. Setting this to 4090 or 4095 should not make any difference.

Turbo boost is also working correctly. If you run a non-game benchmark like Cinebench, the CPU goes up to full speed with no problems.

The common thread so far is this is happening only on Gigabyte boards, Z390 and Z490. Is there any Gigabyte game control software that you are using on these boards?

 

[Lemuth80]

The BIOS is setting the power limits correctly. Before starting a game, the power limit register is set exactly as the BIOS has requested that it be set. The typical maximum is 4095 Watts. Asus uses that value and it does not cause any problems. Setting this to 4090 or 4095 should not make any difference.

Turbo boost is also working correctly. If you run a non-game benchmark like Cinebench, the CPU goes up to full speed with no problems.

The common thread so far is this is happening only on Gigabyte boards, Z390 and Z490. Is there any Gigabyte game control software that you are using on these boards?

No not really i only use siv ( fan control ) and rgb software that's it

 

[Mussels]

I also second trying lower numbers, a bug in the BIOS could make high numbers glitch out

 

[Agentbb007]

Turbo boost is also working correctly. If you run a non-game benchmark like Cinebench, the CPU goes up to full speed with no problems.

I’m not sure Cinebench is the best app to test the power management since the benchmark finishes quite quickly and may not exceed the PL1 time which is why it holds turbo for the entire benchmark. Perhaps try the Intel XTU stress test and monitor your CPU frequency and see if it drops out of turbo during the stress test. If so this shows turbo boost is working but not using the values you’ve entered in the bios.

 

[unclewebb]

Problem
- both turbo power limits are being incorrectly set to 0 Watts.

Result
- Intel Turbo Boost is now disabled so the CPU cannot run higher than its base frequency.
- 9900K = 3600 MHz
- 10850K = 3600 MHz

How to Test
- run CPU-Z and on the About tab, press the Save Report button.

- save the Report file, open it and search for the turbo power limit register, MSR 0x00000610

If you see the value 8000 at these two locations within that register, that is the problem.
The 8 means that this power limit is enabled and the 000 means the turbo power limit register is set to 0 Watts.

When to Test
- after booting up and before running anything, run CPU-Z, create a report and check this register. If you see the 8000 value displayed for either power limit then the BIOS is not setting your CPU up correctly. You should never see 8000 on either side of this register.

- if you have a game that has this throttling problem, start the game, ALT+TAB out to your desktop, run CPU-Z and look at the turbo power limits register to see if either of the power limits have been set to 8000 (0 Watts).

- exit the game and check to see if this register has been reset. If it is still set to 8000 then any other game you try to run is also going to be limited to the base frequency. If your computer is stuck at 0 Watts, you need to reboot before testing a different game.

HWiNFO
- to confirm this problem, run HWiNFO and check to see if it is reporting, Power Limit Exceeded.

Solution
- if you have this problem, run ThrottleStop, click on the TPL button and use the Lock option to lock the turbo power limits register so no other software can modify these values. Setting both power limits to the maximum value (4095) will prevent all power limit throttling.

After the power limit register is locked, you can exit ThrottleStop. This register will remain locked until you sleep, hibernate or shut down your computer. You will need to run ThrottleStop again so it can lock your power limit register. If you leave ThrottleStop running, minimized to the system tray, it will automatically lock this register after you resume from sleep or hibernate.

Results So Far
- at the moment, this throttling problem has been discovered on Gigabyte motherboards with the Z390 or Z490 chipset. More user testing needs to be done to try to find out what is causing this problem. If you have this problem, post what motherboard, CPU and GPU you have and the name of any game that is causing this problem

 

[Darth_Spythor]

The BIOS is setting the power limits correctly. Before starting a game, the power limit register is set exactly as the BIOS has requested that it be set. The typical maximum is 4095 Watts. Asus uses that value and it does not cause any problems. Setting this to 4090 or 4095 should not make any difference.

Turbo boost is also working correctly. If you run a non-game benchmark like Cinebench, the CPU goes up to full speed with no problems.

The common thread so far is this is happening only on Gigabyte boards, Z390 and Z490. Is there any Gigabyte game control software that you are using on these boards?

It's happening on my ASUS Prime Z390-p board also. i9-9900K. Only on Cold War so far but have only tried it and Forza Horizon 4. It just started Sunday.

 

[unclewebb]

@Darth_Spythor - Can you take the time to do the testing that I outlined just above your post? Really curious about what is going on here.

Games should not have access to the power limit register. Did using ThrottleStop to Lock the power limit register immediately solve your problem? What GPU do you have?

 

[Darth_Spythor]

I haven't tried it yet. A friend of mine sent me this thread today. I have a MSI GF 2070 Super.

I may have time to run the tests tonight.

 

[Toothless]

I didn't read the whole thread but are all the cpu power connectors in? Is it 8 or 4 pin?

 

[R00kie]

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

Try disabling it instead of enabling it?

 

[FireFox]

Games should not have access to the power limit register

I was talking on the phone with a friend of mine about this issue, he has a Maximus X Hero + 9900K and a friend of his the same setup and both play Warzone, no issues so far. He thinks that it's bios or windows problem.