The i9-9900K no longer supports speeds up to 5GHz.
The i9-9900K no longer supports speeds up to 5GHz.
Hello everyone. In brief, I own a 9900k processor built into a Z390 Aorus Ultra with the newest BIOS, cooled by a Dark Rock 4 Pro unit, housed in an FD Meshify C. It's been running smoothly for a month now. All BIOS configurations are set to defaults, and I'm using a Corsair 3000MHz XMP profile. Recently, I opened HWinfo to monitor temperatures, especially as summer approaches. I noticed that during the day the CPU never exceeded 4.7GHz on any core, whereas earlier it would boost some cores up to 5GHz. When I adjusted power settings in Windows and switched between High Performance and Balanced modes, the behavior changed: in High Performance all cores stayed around 4.7GHz, while Balanced reduced clock speeds to 800MHz and boosted to 4.7GHz. I'm curious why it no longer reaches 5GHz on any core. I've attached a snapshot from HWinfo showing about 20 minutes of GTA5 playtime plus browsing.
It might be that the VRMs on your motherboard are overheating, which prevents it from handling maximum power. Consider directing a fan toward the VRM to check if that’s the issue.
It remains consistent even after a full restart. I looked into the BIOS multipliers and noted some cores were supposed to increase to 50x. However, the HWinfo reports they only reach 47x max. I don’t understand what might be happening. The cooling system is fine, and as you mentioned earlier, if all cores can stay at 4 or 7 continuously, it should handle 2–3 cores up to 5.
Multicore enhancement status is currently off. A manual multiplier was never applied. Adjusting one option typically locks all cores to that value unless another setting changes it. Disabling certain features like MCE, EIST, Speedstep, and Ring Down Bin causes cores to cap at the selected multiplier. Changing power settings can restrict core boost beyond that limit. Setting fixed multipliers and cache ratios ensures stable performance without downclocking. When using specific core and cache values, the CPU maintains that setting at 300 MHz without lowering. Be aware that forcing all cores to a higher frequency demands increased voltage and may need Vcore Loadline Calibration adjusted for turbo mode. The VR VOUT section in your hardware info displays accurate voltages and monitoring data, including iGPU metrics; some sections hide if readings are minimal (e.g., 0.004v).
Multicore improvement is activated by default. The BIOS runs with standard configurations, and I haven’t adjusted any custom multiplier settings. Would you recommend replacing the CPU with a model that supports 4.7+ GHz?
The previous versions might have had auto oc which increased the clock speed, making the 9900k run at 4.7 GHz. If you changed the BIOS, it could explain what's happening because you mentioned the latest one. With a newer BIOS, there might be a micro-code update, especially given the recent negative news around HT.
This suggestion is helpful, though the earlier versions included the board already. I changed it just now, but it remained unchanged. I wouldn’t want to be surprised if Intel released a chip that initially claims 5GHz and later drops to 4.7 after an update.
Only after the clocks changed it might be a simple issue with Auto OC not functioning properly. It can happen even if the CPU is fine, as it's related to the motherboard rather than the processor itself. If you're unsure, you could always switch to manual OC for better control. The difference between 4.7 and 5.0 performance is usually minor unless you're using specific workloads.