CPU clock speed experiences irregular decreases from 4.5 to 1.4Ghz with AMD FX-8350
CPU clock speed experiences irregular decreases from 4.5 to 1.4Ghz with AMD FX-8350
Whenever I push my CPU beyond 4.5Ghz, the clock speed suddenly drops to around 1.4Ghz during gameplay.
I've been checking if it's due to thermal or power-saving measures, so I turned off features like AMD Turbo Core Technology, Cool ‘n’ Quiet and Core C6 State in the BIOS. I couldn't locate C1E or Enhanced Halt State anywhere in the system settings.
It seems my PC doesn’t overheat much. I use an AIO water cooler, and the CPU stays well below 60°C.
I've already adjusted:
■Disabled AMD Turbo Core Technology, Cool ‘n’ Quiet, and Core C6 State in BIOS.
■Activated AMD Turbo Core Technology in AMD Overdrive (after hearing about a possible BIOS bug).
■Set minimum processor state to 100% at power options.
■Mostly turned off everything except Advanced Clock Calibration in CPU Configuration.
My PC details:
■AMD FX-8350 Black Edition
■Asus M5A78L-M Motherboard
■MSI Geforce GTX 960 4G
■16 GB RAM Dual channel
■Corsair Hydro Series h80i
Well, the only sure way to confirm it's thermal throttling is to use tools like CPU-Z or any program that lets you monitor the CPU multiplier live (I believe AIDA 64 does this too), and see if it drops. In my experience, it happened when the temperature exceeded 68°C, though it might differ. According to AMD, the safe upper limit is 61°C, which suggests it would slow down before reaching that point. I’m not sure how to push past it without throttling now.
There's nothing you can do about that, it's thermal throttling built into the CPU itself. The problem is that your temperatures are getting too high but your overclock is stable. I had this same issue and is what's actually stops me from reaching 5GHz with my own 8350. Once it gets over 68°C it's hard to keep it from underclocking itself until the temperature drops. It's not a configuration issue, it's a built in protection. The best you can do is getting a better cooling solution, but don't expect much improvement. I have a Corsair H110i GT (280mm) and I can't get it over 4.8GHz.
CircuitDaemon explains the situation clearly. The issue stems from thermal throttling that is inherent to the CPU, not from configuration problems. Even though overclocking remains stable, temperatures rise too high, causing the CPU to automatically slow down once they exceed certain thresholds. This protection mechanism prevents damage but limits performance. The main solution is improving cooling, though gains will likely be limited.
CircuitDaemon :
The answer depends on what you're measuring. I use AIDA64, which provides data from all cores and the CPU as a whole, but I've seen big differences between programs.
I tried AIDA64, Corsair link, and Speedfan. They all performed similarly during load and idle. My best reading is 57 degrees at 4.7 GHz.
Well, the best way to confirm it's thermal throttling is to use tools like CPU-Z or any program that displays the CPU multiplier live (I believe AIDA 64 does this too), and see if the temperature drops. In my experience, it would happen when it exceeded 68°C, though the exact threshold might differ. According to AMD, the maximum safe temperature is 61°C, which suggests it would throttle before reaching that point. I’m not sure how to push it past that without throttling now.
don't know if you had already found the solution, but, from what i've found through dozens of topics (my situation is similar), the problem is the motherboard.
i'm using FX8370E, weaker than the 8350, with a M5A78l-M V2 and the clocks always go down when the temp of the mobo (hwmonitor) go up.
I'm not even using the defaut cooler of the cpu. Our mobos are no heatsinked and can't keep up with the cpu's higher clocks.
in my example, the "turbo core" of mine 8370E just go up to 3.6 and only with my RAM (1600) running at 1333. otherwise it keeps freezing and dropping fps in games and dropping clock.
I've bought a new mobo and i'm waiting for the deliver to test it.