Why does my PC hate me? Please help.
Why does my PC hate me? Please help.
I understand this message is quite lengthy, but I’m here to assist you. If you’re willing, please help me—I might owe you (seriously).
To give you a clearer picture, here’s what I’ve been working through:
My build started in fall 2018, and I was really eager to dive into this game. My main focus is playing Overwatch, though it can be quite demanding. A friend assisted me in assembling the PC, boosting the CPU and GPU speeds, and has supported me throughout this challenging process.
At first, we managed a stable CPU at 5.2 GHz with XMP enabled, maintaining voltages below 1.35, and handled stress tests like Prime95 and Furmark well, keeping temperatures low and the GPU overclocked via MSI Afterburner—especially after using MSI Kombustion for optimal thermal performance.
Eventually, I faced problems while streaming at low settings, such as mouse issues, frame drops (180–200 FPS), input lag, and crashes when navigating. We reduced the CPU overclock to 5.1 GHz, which stabilized things. Then I added a second monitor (4K) and continued experiencing similar issues—mainly mouse doubling and text distortion. We eventually replaced the GPU after an RMA, but it still had problems after a few weeks.
After further troubleshooting, we tried different CPU settings and even ran stress tests with high RAM speeds, but the performance remained inconsistent. I’m hoping someone can help me resolve this before it becomes a bigger issue. Thank you in advance for your support.
I believe using a tool like IntelBurnTest would reveal its instability. Linpack is likely what Intel employs to categorize their processors, serving as an effective stress test for thermal management. Tom evaluated 200 9900k chips with water cooling and discovered precisely seven that need less voltage during overclocking than your setup. Generally, most results settle around 4.7 because high voltages cause thermal issues at that point. The GDDR6 features extensive error correction, preventing artifacts when pushed too high; it merely slows down performance until the correction system fails. You should gradually increase the overclock until performance halts...
I believe using tools like IntelBurnTest would reveal its instability. Linpack is the tool Intel claims to use for processor testing, making it a genuine worst-case scenario for thermal performance. Tom evaluated 200 9900k chips with water cooling and discovered exactly seven that need less voltage when overclocked than what you're currently using. Most users settle around 4.7 GHz since high voltages cause thermal issues at that point. The GDDR6 features extensive error correction, so even at very high overclocks there are no visible artifacts—just slower benchmarks until the system is overwhelmed. You’ll need to gradually increase the overclock until performance stops improving. The GPU core will automatically adjust its speed based on cooling, and in many cases, stock boost clocks are now throttled, rendering overclocking with regular cooling impractical. Given your setup is already quite powerful for Overwatch, running it at stock settings would be more reliable and cooler. I’d prefer 5.0GHz turbo over 4.7GHz all-core for gaming.