I5 6600 achieved a Cinebench R20 of 1148, indicating solid performance.
I5 6600 achieved a Cinebench R20 of 1148, indicating solid performance.
Hello everyone! I hope everyone is staying safe during this quarantine. Recently, I've been spending more time gaming and have noticed a significant drop in performance on my nearly 5-year-old i5 6600. It runs with a GTX 1070 and 16 GB of 2133 MHz DDR4 RAM on an MSI B150 Gaming M3 board, playing at 1080p on a 144 Hz monitor. Essentially, the CPU is limiting the GPU's speed, causing games like Fortnite or R6S to run at full CPU usage while the GPU only operates around 70-80%. Even Discord is affected, stuttering and audio issues. Temperatures are normal, with the GPU reaching 80°C under load and my CPU hitting about 75°C during these sessions. I ran Cinebench R20 and was disappointed, as it should have scored around 1400. This issue began after February 2020 when my PC wouldn't boot up—initially fans spinning, then nothing. A friend with a PSU connected everything up and it worked, but switching back didn’t help. My PSU is an Inter-Tech Energon 650W, which I’ve heard mixed reviews about. I also faced past motherboard problems that would underclock my CPU to 0.8 GHz and lock it down. To resolve this, I disabled Intel Adaptive Thermal Monitor in BIOS. With so many background concerns, I’m unsure what’s causing the performance drop. Anyone else had a similar experience or suggestions? Thanks for taking the time to read this, or just for checking out the thread! Stay safe and healthy.
Many modern games now require 4 to 6 cores, and adding Discord plus other background programs makes extra threads useful. This is why 6C/12T chips remain popular. 4C/8T still works fine, so if you can find a 6700/7700/6700K/7700K chip under $150, it could be worthwhile. Otherwise, opt for a Ryzen 5 and B450 motherboard (choose R5 based on your budget). The 1600AF, 2600/2600X, and 3600 all offer solid value at various price points. Unless you prefer Intel, securing one of these is recommended.
If I were you and things weren’t this bad, I’d replace the CMOS first to get a clean BIOS setup. If that doesn’t help, I’d reinstall Windows just in case there’s some stubborn malware. Also, I should note the CPU seems older—it’s not much faster than an i5 3470, so it might be because you’re running games that need more cores for smooth performance (like R6S, which can be tough on CPUs).
I previously owned a GTX 960 until early 2020. With that graphics card, running Discord in the background while playing games didn’t cause issues. Now it’s starting to behave strangely. I’m planning to switch to Ryzen soon and won’t continue with Intel. Instead, I’ll pass on this motherboard and CPU to a friend who still has an i3 4140 and wants it to function well. I’ve already tested both options, but nothing resolved the problem. The BIOS is current, the latest MSI release from 2018 was used.
Over the past couple of years, several fixes were implemented for Intel chips dealing with security flaws. Alongside this, the CPU performance has been modest, suggesting it might simply be outdated by now.
You're using Windows 10 Pro, version 1909, and you just installed it from scratch about a month ago using Microsoft's tool.