Question 9900k clock jumping extremely on idle (800-4800 within second up and down)

[Molda_22]

Hi, i have new 9900k and its behaviour scared me. I searched on google and here and I know clocks are supposed to move around a bit in idle state but mine jumps super extremely - its jumping constantly from super low 800 to very high 4200 or 4800 and very fast. It changes from min to max within second up and down all the time. Is it normal? Thanks

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Yes, it's normal. Intel/AMD chips are deisgned to operate at different frequencies depedning on the load.
It's mostly related to Intel Speedstep, and is designed to save power and heat output. It's very effective. You can stop it doing that, by changing the windows power profile to High power, from balanced. This will mean you CPU will run at it's default base speeds 3.6ghz), and boost when an app needs the boost speeds, up to 5ghz on one core. Your CPU also has an all core boost of 4.8, so if you have a good cooler, and mobo, and the system allows it you could also see all the cores operating at 4.8ghz.

It's a great CPU!

 

[Molda_22]

Yes, it's normal...

thanks for reply. So it's normal and it could stay that way - but what would be the reason (advantage) behind switching to the high power windows profile instead of staying in balanced. Is the frequent clock changing on balanced taxing the cpu more and it can "die" sooner then if i change it to high power profile and it will hover around 3,6 ghz instead of jumping each second from min to max? thanks

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

It's mainly just for power saving. SO the CPU isn't running full pelt all the time. So when there's a light task, only one core might be needed for the CPU to complete the task as quickly as possible, versus a heavy task where all CPU cores are running at max speed. You wouldn't necessarily want all that CPU frunt just going to waste, producing needless heat and using power.

In actual fact, it's the opposite. For the most part, this fluctuation will help maintain the life span of the CPU. But with that said, a normal CPU (without bashing) is capable of running fro 10yrs+ maybe more. If for example you were running the system at a set clock, The CPU will likely last 10 yrs. If on the other hand you are OC'ing the CPU, then yes, you might reduce the lifespan, but by maybe a year or two at the max.

It's really not something to worry about.

 

[mdd1963]

Balanced mode works perfectly...

High clock speeds instantly when there is work/play to be done, and 800-1000 MHz when reading forums, etc...

Edit: I'd be looking for and actually expecting to see one or two core spikes to 5 GHz when just loafing on the desktop, opening/closing folders, starting Word/Notepad, etc., if all is well and functioning as designed... All cores should boost to 4.6 GHz under a heavy all core load.. (You can induce one with CPU-Z/bench/stress CPU; monitor HWMonitor to see the nearly instantaneous/real time clock speeds of all cores)

(what is your CPU cooling solution?)