New system... i5 3570K "stuck" at 3.8GHz

[Le Québécois]

Be kind with me, it's been a while since I posted here. I hope my post isn't too "stupid".

Just upgraded to an Asus Maximus V Gene (bios is up to date and all) and Core i5 3570K.

I installed every drivers and did a quick setup in the BIOS to put everything on auto just to make sure everything would run nicely to install Windows... ... and everything went according to plan.

So I did the next thing I do every time I build a new system. Stress testing. Launched CPU-Z and RealTemp to monitor my processor while I ran prime95 and that's when I saw it was running at 3.8Ghz instead of the "normal" 3.4. The CPU seems to be stuck at its maximum Turbo speed. Tried Prime95, 3.8, left the computer alone for a while, "idle", still 3.8. What ever I do, seems like the multiplier is "stuck" at 38.

Aside from that, everything is fine. Temp doesn't get higher than 65 under Primer95, blend or large FFT. Ran it for 6 hours or so,no problem.

I'd like for it to be able to throttle down when I don't need 3.8GHz, 1.6 would be nice when the computer is idle.

Both Speedstep and Turbo boost are enabled in the BIOS. Right now I don't mind so much about the higher C state as much as not running on Turbo all the time.

Any idea of what I could be doing wrong?

Extra info on my setup if needed:
Seasonic X850
Asus DirectCUII Radeon HD 7970 1GHz
4 x 4 G.Skill Ripjaws X 12800 9-9-9-24

PS: Almost forgot, in the BIOS, the CPU runs at 3.4GHz with 3.8 set as the "Turbo Boost" target value.

 

[scragnoff]

Hi Le Québécois!

Have you checked your Windows Power Options? What Plan are you on?

 

[Idontcare]

Just upgraded to an Asus Maximus V Gene (bios is up to date and all) and Core i5 3570K.

I installed every drivers and did a quick setup in the BIOS to put everything on auto just to make sure everything would run nicely to install Windows... ... and everything went according to plan.

So I did the next thing I do every time I build a new system. Stress testing. Launched CPU-Z and RealTemp to monitor my processor while I ran prime95 and that's when I saw it was running at 3.8Ghz instead of the "normal" 3.4. The CPU seems to be stuck at its maximum Turbo speed. Tried Prime95, 3.8, left the computer alone for a while, "idle", still 3.8. What ever I do, seems like the multiplier is "stuck" at 38.

I have an Asus Maximus-IV Extreme-Z and I have the exact same issue if I use the latest release BIOS for the board. (REV 3603)

I wasted an entire day attempting to figure out why I could not OC my 3770k any more Only to find out that ASUS somehow has borked the BIOSes for the ROG boards. (really not a surprise if you have much experience with ASUS)

In my case going back one BIOS rev, to 3510, was all I had to do. OC'ing works perfectly fine with rev 3510, doesn't work at all with rev 3603. I flashed back and forth repeatedly to confirm.

So my advice to you is just start going backwards with the BIOS revs until you find one that isn't borked. For the MIVE-Z the OC'ing is borked once ASUS went to having two BIOSes that depend on the end-users OS.

In my case there are two versions of 3603, one for XP/Vista and another one for Win7 and Win8. Going to the BIOS rev that was still "OS agnostic", rev 3510, fixes the OC'ing issue.

Hope this helps. ASUS makes great mobos but they have a history of "fixing" things that aren't broken by breaking them.

It is to bad too, there is a nifty cool feature in the new BIOS rev that lets you set an offset voltage that is specific to the turbo-bin used in OC'ing. Only you can't use it because you can't OC

 

[coffeejunkee]

Apart from powerplan or bios, Asus also uses a thing called Multicore Enhancement, meaning it will always boost to 3.8Ghz be it 1 or 4 threads. To get official Turbo Boost behavior you need to disable that setting and set Turbo Ratio to auto (if you use manual and then set individual cores to auto you still get 3.8). Also, you will probably never see 3.4GHz, on a normal desktop system it will never drop below 3.6GHz.

 

[Le Québécois]

Hi Le Québécois!

Have you checked your Windows Power Options? What Plan are you on?

I did set it up to high performance but it's also one of the first thing I thought about when I saw the problem. Changing it to something else didn't change anything, even with a complete shutdown/reboot.

 

[Le Québécois]

In my case going back one BIOS rev, to 3510, was all I had to do. OC'ing works perfectly fine with rev 3510, doesn't work at all with rev 3603. I flashed back and forth repeatedly to confirm.

So my advice to you is just start going backwards with the BIOS revs until you find one that isn't borked. For the MIVE-Z the OC'ing is borked once ASUS went to having two BIOSes that depend on the end-users OS.

Sorry if my first post wasn't clear. I saw this before I flashed the bios. First thing I did when I saw that was to flash it to a newer version. Unless they managed to "brake" their BIOS twice, I doubt the problem is coming from there. Still, if nothing else work, I'll try an even older BIOS version than the one the board shipped with...

 

[Le Québécois]

Apart from powerplan or bios, Asus also uses a thing called Multicore Enhancement, meaning it will always boost to 3.8Ghz be it 1 or 4 threads. To get official Turbo Boost behavior you need to disable that setting and set Turbo Ratio to auto (if you use manual and then set individual cores to auto you still get 3.8). Also, you will probably never see 3.4GHz, on a normal desktop system it will never drop below 3.6GHz.

Okay, I'll look into it later this afternoon when I have the time.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[sm625]

If Asus' software is anything like Gigabyte's, you want to get rid of ALL of it.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Apart from powerplan or bios, Asus also uses a thing called Multicore Enhancement, meaning it will always boost to 3.8Ghz be it 1 or 4 threads. To get official Turbo Boost behavior you need to disable that setting and set Turbo Ratio to auto (if you use manual and then set individual cores to auto you still get 3.8). Also, you will probably never see 3.4GHz, on a normal desktop system it will never drop below 3.6GHz.

Thanks, I just installed a Sabertooth Z77 and was wondering what the heck that setting actually was (Asus being notorious for inadequate descriptions of BIOS settings, after all).

If Asus' software is anything like Gigabyte's, you want to get rid of ALL of it.

So... you've pretty much ruled out the two biggest mobo manufacturers with the wave of a hand. Care to suggest alternatives?

 

[coffeejunkee]

Okay, I'll look into it later this afternoon when I have the time.

I'll keep you posted.

Well, even with the multicore enhancement setting enabled it should still drop to 1.6 Ghz during idle. Maybe try forcing all energy saving settings (eist, c1e, c3, c6, package c state) to enabled instead of auto and see what happens.

So... you've pretty much ruled out the two biggest mobo manufacturers with the wave of a hand. Care to suggest alternatives?

I've had nothing but trouble with the AI suite as well, but there is no real alternative to software based overclocking (except bios ofc) or some of the other stuff like setting network priority (although I understood from reading other peoples experiences it sucks anyway). For fancontrol I strongly prefer Speedfan.

 

[Meghan54]

Apart from powerplan or bios, Asus also uses a thing called Multicore Enhancement, meaning it will always boost to 3.8Ghz be it 1 or 4 threads. To get official Turbo Boost behavior you need to disable that setting and set Turbo Ratio to auto (if you use manual and then set individual cores to auto you still get 3.8). Also, you will probably never see 3.4GHz, on a normal desktop system it will never drop below 3.6GHz.

What are you talking about? I've got the same exact motherboard and cpu as the OP, and have yet to see any "Multicore Enhancement" in the BIOS, anywhere. Of course, I'm still using BIOS 0813, but since the board is stable as granite with the cpu oc'd to 4.4GHz on 1.275V, I see no reason to change anything.

To the OP, probably a BIOS problem, as I'm using the exact same mb/cpu combo and mine idles at 1.6GHz, hits 4.4GHz when loaded, without fail or problems. I'd suggest moving backward in BIOS revs. until you get the proper behavior out of it....it should downclock automatically to 1.6GHz when idling. The notion presented by the quoted poster that you'd never see anything under 3.4GHz, even at idle, is just silly.

 

[coffeejunkee]

It was introduced with later bios versions:

Obviously this is normal Asus uefi but I remember reading the ROG boards have it too, and it also follows from OP's statement he sees x38 during prime.

If you read my second post you can see I clearly state that it should still go down to 1.6 during idle with this setting enabled. What I am saying is that under load you will never see 3.4GHz, always minimum 3.6Ghz turbo.

 

[Xed]

Change C1E to enabled instead of auto if you want it to downclock/volt at idle

 

[Termie]

It was introduced with later bios versions:

Obviously this is normal Asus uefi but I remember reading the ROG boards have it too, and it also follows from OP's statement he sees x38 during prime.

If you read my second post you can see I clearly state that it should still go down to 1.6 during idle with this setting enabled. What I am saying is that under load you will never see 3.4GHz, always minimum 3.6Ghz turbo.

This is completely correct. There's some misinformation in this thread, but not from coffeejunkee.

I have the board, I know the setting, it's a feature, not a bug.

If your system isn't down clocking to 1.6GHz at idle, there's another issue, but the OP may have confused the issue of multicore enhancement with the ability to go into idle mode.

The system is likely fine. Don't flash the BIOS, don't panic, just enjoy.

 

[Le Québécois]

Okay, finally got the time to do some tests and reading this afternoon. I have to admit, the results are quite puzzling, at least for me.

First thing first, I was never able to find the "Asus MultiCore Enhancement", even after looking into the BIOS for 10 min. So not being able to find it, I went on to read mutiple reviews of the ROG Maximus V series. Seems like there's no easy "on/off" option for the "Asus MultiCore Enhancement" on the ROG UEFI. From what I understood, you need to, if I may quote something I read on hardware-review24:

"On the Asus board you should set "Ai Overclock Tuner” to "Manual”, which will give you access to a number of additional parameters. Here you should disable "Ratio Synchronizing Control” and only after that the processor will start working in its true nominal mode."

Now, that being said, I also discovered something else while playing in the BIOS. I don't know if it was there to begin with or if I did set it by "accident" but the X.M.P. profile was selected.

Knowing all this, I went on a "quest" and tested 4 different scenarios:

1- XMP on, everything else auto (which is what I was running until today).

2- XMP on, using the hardware-review24 instructions to disable the MultiCore Enhancement.

3-No XMP, everyting on "auto", just like I'm assuming the BIOS should have been when I first booted.

4-No XMP, using the hardware-review24 instructions to disable the MultiCore Enhancement.

Here are the results:

1- Always running at x38 (3.8Ghz), be it under Prime95, a game or idle.

2- Goes from x16 while idle up to x36 under Prime95.

3- Goes from x16 while idle up to x38 under Prime95.

4- Goes from x16 while idle up to x36 under Prime95.

So, from what I gathered here, seems like my problem was with XMP AND Asus MultiCore Enhancement both "running" at the same time. For some odd reason, the CPU never throttle down when both are active.

Using Asus MultiCore Enhancement by itself, with everything else set to auto seems to be the best way to set it if I want to get some mild "OC" without any hassle, which is exactly what I want right now, I'll play with real OC later, once everything is properly installed and and working perfectly for at least a few weeks.

Disabling Asus MultiCore Enhancement just... well, disable it and makes everything works as it should.

The only thing I don't understand is number 1. Isn't XMP some Intel memory profile? If so, why would it always stay at x38 when using Asus MultiCore Enhancement but be able to throttle down if it's disable? I don't see the link between the two.

I guess to only thing left for me to do right now is to set the proper memory timings without using XMP.

Before I go, couple of questions:

I ran my tests using 4 monitoring software to read the multiplier and frequency, AIDA64 CPUID, AI Suite II CPU monitor, CPU-Z CPUID and RealTemp.

AIDA64 CPUID seems to be able to detect every change on the multiplier. AI AI Suite II CPU monitor, almost the same as AIDA64. CPU-Z CPUID(which I thought would be the same as AIDA64 CPUID) never went under x36. As for RealTemp, it was all over the place, except for scenario 1, going down in the low 20 or all the way up.

Which one is the best to monitor the frequency and multiplier? I know CPU-Z is accurate for the voltage but aside from that?

Also, is there a difference between using XMP to set the memory timings and setting them up manually? Will I "lose" something but leaving every "auto" but manually set the timings? Seems like it would be the best thing to do for now.

Oh one last thing... coffeejunkee, seems like you were right all along, thanks. To everyone else who also tried to help, you also have my thanks!

 

[coffeejunkee]

I prefer HWinfo64 nowadays, it shows multipier per core and does so correctly in my experience. It also shows pretty much everything else you might want to know.

About the XMP profile, yes normally this is just a way of setting ram timings automatically but it seems in the case of the ROG boards it does some cpu overclocking as well, or maybe it disables eist/c1e and it would just be a matter of manually re-enabling them. It doesn't work like this on normal Asus boards though, but might have something to do with the ROG being 'performance' boards.

If there is a difference between XMP or manually setting timings it will be very marginal. There's loads of advanced timings which I just leave on auto but the XMP profile might change some of those as well. Not worth the hassle though, only if you want to set superpi world record.

 

[Ferzerp]

Oh asus's current bios, as another has mentioned, all the C1E, etc power savings settings get disabled if they're on "auto" and you mess with *anything* else in regards to clocks.

You have to set them all to enabled instead of auto.

 

[FalseChristian]

Set 'By all cores' to 45. It should do 50 (5GHz) but it's too much voltage needed. 4.5GHz is teh sweet spot.