AMD 860k locked at 1.66 GHz and will not change.

[Nerdgoggles]

I have shut off Cool-n-quiet in the Bios, same with the turbo, I also changed the power profile to performance just to make sure windows 10 isn't choking my CPU either.

Then I turn on the OC switch on my MSI A88X-G45 motherboard, which raised the max speed reported in task manager to 4.49 GHz (up from 3.80 GHz with the OC switch off) but the actual running speed stays pegged at 1.66 GHz and the utilization never goes above 45% (or 37% with the OC switch on, but that is just because the new reported speed screws with the scale).

I have tried throwing several games at it while watching Task Manager on the TV I have hooked up as a second desplay, but Titanfall was the most telling because the utilization will hit that cap and just flatline while Titanfall is still chomping at the bit to load faster.

WTF is going on?

Why will that active CPU speed not go above 1.66 GHz no matter how over clocked I push it?

.... stock CPU cooler, 8g of ram (with another stick in the mail), and two R7-265's in crossfire & a 650w Power supply.

 

[hang-the-9]

Reset the BIOS to default (since you turned of turbo), set the system to stock speed, test it again.

 

[RobCrezz]

download and install the latest bios, which includes the newest CPU/APU compatibility.
http://uk.msi.com/support/mb/A88X-G45-GAMING.html#support_download

 

[Nerdgoggles]

Wouldn't clearing the CMOS and turing the OC switch off automatically reset both turbo and Cool-N-Quiet? (at work so I can't check just this moment)

Already updated the bios to 1.6 through MSI's live updater. I actually did that last week but I couldn't tell you if that was the start of it since I only started paying attention to the CPU load two days ago, but I was having performance issues before that.

A little background that may not actually have anything to do with anything: I built this upgrade in june as a birthday present to myself.

New GFX cards and extra DDR3 1600 RAM in march and a new MB, CPU, and a free stick of 1866 RAM in June.

The first upgrade had my PC tearing apart games that didn't demand more than a dual core, but the second one dropped it back down because the new MB + CPU wouldn't boot with the DDR3 1600 RAM installed (so I was imping along on the single DDR3 1866 stick I got as a promo).

Then I upgraded to Windows 10 and it has slowed down even more because it has even more bullshit running in the background than Windows 7 ... So now I have been digging into my setting trying to find clutter to turn off when I noticed that the CPU seems locked into a 17x multiplier no matter how I reclock it and even when I try to poke it with AMD overclock or MSI's clock controler program, the max speed result will change but the actual speed wont budge.

 

[kartmen007]

That motherboard has a switch that you may have accidentally bumped. Per the manual...

Page # 1-30.
SLOW_1: Slow Mode Booting Switch
This switch is used for LN2 cooling solution, that provides the extreme overclocking conditions, to boot at a stable processor frequency and to prevent the system from crashing.

 

[Nerdgoggles]

That motherboard has a switch that you may have accidentally bumped. Per the manual...

Page # 1-30.
SLOW_1: Slow Mode Booting Switch
This switch is used for LN2 cooling solution, that provides the extreme overclocking conditions, to boot at a stable processor frequency and to prevent the system from crashing.

YOU GLORIOUS SON OF A BITCH!

 

[kartmen007]

Glad to be of assistance. You lucked out, my friend. I randomly came across that information yesterday as I was poring through the forums looking for information on something completely different, and when I saw your question a light bulb appeared over my head.