AMD FX-8350 dropping core speed from 4090.97 MHz to 1396.67 when reaching 47?.

[babushaha]

Hello community,

I have a question about the following issue I experience when playing games (mostly open-world games).

When I'm playing for example Dying Light I get excellent performance until I hit a certain temperature (47?) on the CPU and the game will lag for about 5-10 seconds and after that the temperature will be around 42? and this cycle will continue and it is really frustrating.

My specs are:
AMD FX-8350 Vishera
ASRock 970 Extreme4 (latest BIOS P2.80 update)
RAM DDR3 8 GB
MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G

I also changed the stock cooler on the CPU with a Artic Freezer A30.

I have read about all kind of stuff but I do not know which step I should take to fix this issue.

Some people say the FX-8350 wont fit the ASRock 970 Extreme4 well, because the board has 4+1 power phase and your really need 8+2 power phase.

Others say that the thermal paste needs to be reapplied, because it's thermal throttling.

I dont know which step I should take and would love any kind of help to solve this issue.

I really appreciate any help you can provide.

*I used Core Temp to gather info about temperatures and CPU-Z about the core speed

 

[getochkn]

Try openhardwaremonitor and see what the temps are. not all temp programs work with all boards and temps properly.

 

[babushaha]

Try openhardwaremonitor and see what the temps are. not all temp programs work with all boards and temps properly.

Thanks for the reply

So I downloaded the openhardwaremonitor and tested it on Dying Light, seems to be around 46,5C when it starts to drop core speed to 1396 MHz.

I just dont get it why it starts to drop core speed, because I thought this temperature is decent, right?

 

[getochkn]

Temp's are fine. Something else is causing the throttling, possibly voltage. You don't mention your PSU, but that could be the cause.

If you're comfortable in the BIOS you can always downclock the CPU a bit to see if that helps, less speed, less voltage needed, better it may run.

 

[babushaha]

Temp's are fine. Something else is causing the throttling, possibly voltage. You don't mention your PSU, but that could be the cause.

If you're comfortable in the BIOS you can always downclock the CPU a bit to see if that helps, less speed, less voltage needed, better it may run.

My PSU is a Cooler Master Real Power M620, I guess its around 5-6 years old.
I do know how to get into the BIOS, but I dont know what to change in there, kinda newbie about this stuff.

 

[getochkn]

I wouldn't mess with the bios then. Lol. I would say its a power issue. I don't think that was a good psu back then and now it has 6 years of use on it which can cause even the best psus to not work so well.

Do you have a buddy with a good psu you could try or something.

Hate to say buy a new one without knowing for sure and you not being good in the bios could mess something up.

 

[babushaha]

I wouldn't mess with the bios then. Lol. I would say its a power issue. I don't think that was a good psu back then and now it has 6 years of use on it which can cause even the best psus to not work so well.

Do you have a buddy with a good psu you could try or something.

Hate to say buy a new one without knowing for sure and you not being good in the bios could mess something up.

Unfortunately I dont know anybody with a good PSU, the only other one I have around is old and around 500W :/ (dont know type).

If I buy a new PSU which do you recommend that can run well for the upcoming years and suits my setup?

*Found the documents about the other PSU, it is a ocz stealthxstream 600w

 

[getochkn]

The ocz is probably a lot better than the cooler master

 

[GhislainG]

Use AMD Overdrive to check the thermal margins at full load; if they are at least 10°C, then the CPU doesn't overheat. You are using an aftermarket cooler, but what did you do to cool the poor 4+1 phase VRM? Did you ignore ASRock's note that says "* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design." or did you add a fan to cool it? If it overheats, then it throttles the CPU (it drops down to 1.4 GHz).

 

[babushaha]

The ocz is probably a lot better than the cooler master

Alright gonna swap it and will test it, really appreciate your help

 

[babushaha]

Use AMD Overdrive to check the thermal margins at full load; if they are at least 10°C, then the CPU doesn't overheat. You are using an aftermarket cooler, but what did you do to cool the poor 4+1 phase VRM? Did you ignore ASRock's note that says "* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design." or did you add a fan to cool it? If it overheats, then it throttles the CPU (it drops down to 1.4 GHz).

Thermal margins at full load is around 25°C.
I am kinda newbie into this stuff, so I didnt realize that the aftermarkt cooler suposed to be top-down blowing design.
Nothing is cooling the 4+1 phase VRM right now, what should I add to cool this part?

I cant swap my PSU because the other one is missing and I have no clue where it is 🙁

*Thanks to you I now know what the problem is, the aftermarket cooler is blowing all the heat from the CPU into the 4+1 phase VRM. When I put a fan above the VRM spot the CPU will not throttle down to 1.4 GHz when it reaches a stable 50°C at full load.
Tomorrow I'm gonna try and swap the posistion of the aftermarket fan towards to otherside so all the cool air will pass the VRM instead of all the heat. Gonna post the result tomorrow!

 

[LookItsRain]

Use AMD Overdrive to check the thermal margins at full load; if they are at least 10°C, then the CPU doesn't overheat. You are using an aftermarket cooler, but what did you do to cool the poor 4+1 phase VRM? Did you ignore ASRock's note that says "* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design." or did you add a fan to cool it? If it overheats, then it throttles the CPU (it drops down to 1.4 GHz).

This is your issue, you have to actively cool the vrms.

 

[babushaha]

Problem disappeared when I cooled the VRM and now the game runs smooth, thanks for the solution!

I wanna thank everybody for their help, i really appreciated it!

 

[GhislainG]

Use AMD Overdrive to check the thermal margins at full load; if they are at least 10°C, then the CPU doesn't overheat. You are using an aftermarket cooler, but what did you do to cool the poor 4+1 phase VRM? Did you ignore ASRock's note that says "* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design." or did you add a fan to cool it? If it overheats, then it throttles the CPU (it drops down to 1.4 GHz).

Thermal margins at full load is around 25°C.
I am kinda newbie into this stuff, so I didnt realize that the aftermarkt cooler suposed to be top-down blowing design.
Nothing is cooling the 4+1 phase VRM right now, what should I add to cool this part?

I cant swap my PSU because the other one is missing and I have no clue where it is 🙁

*Thanks to you I now know what the problem is, the aftermarket cooler is blowing all the heat from the CPU into the 4+1 phase VRM. When I put a fan above the VRM spot the CPU will not throttle down to 1.4 GHz when it reaches a stable 50°C at full load.
Tomorrow I'm gonna try and swap the posistion of the aftermarket fan towards to otherside so all the cool air will pass the VRM instead of all the heat. Gonna post the result tomorrow!

Don't do that because you'll end up with more heat in the case. Ideally you'd buy a motherboard that fully supports that CPU without throttling; but using a fan to cool the VRM is acceptable. You could also use an aftermarket top-down CPU cooler like the Noctua NH-C14 to keep the VRM cool enough.

 

[babushaha]

Use AMD Overdrive to check the thermal margins at full load; if they are at least 10°C, then the CPU doesn't overheat. You are using an aftermarket cooler, but what did you do to cool the poor 4+1 phase VRM? Did you ignore ASRock's note that says "* For cooling the CPU and its surrounding components, please install a CPU cooler with a top-down blowing design." or did you add a fan to cool it? If it overheats, then it throttles the CPU (it drops down to 1.4 GHz).

Thermal margins at full load is around 25°C.
I am kinda newbie into this stuff, so I didnt realize that the aftermarkt cooler suposed to be top-down blowing design.
Nothing is cooling the 4+1 phase VRM right now, what should I add to cool this part?

I cant swap my PSU because the other one is missing and I have no clue where it is 🙁

*Thanks to you I now know what the problem is, the aftermarket cooler is blowing all the heat from the CPU into the 4+1 phase VRM. When I put a fan above the VRM spot the CPU will not throttle down to 1.4 GHz when it reaches a stable 50°C at full load.
Tomorrow I'm gonna try and swap the posistion of the aftermarket fan towards to otherside so all the cool air will pass the VRM instead of all the heat. Gonna post the result tomorrow!

Don't do that because you'll end up with more heat in the case. Ideally you'd buy a motherboard that fully supports that CPU without throttling; but using a fan to cool the VRM is acceptable. You could also use an aftermarket top-down CPU cooler like the Noctua NH-C14 to keep the VRM cool enough.

Is it really bad? Because the other side of my case is also open (only some cables) and the air can get out of there.
I could also put a little fan above the VRM, but will that work enough to cool it?

 

[GhislainG]

On a vertical CPU cooler, the fan should push air through the cooler towards an exhaust fan at the back or the top of the case. A fan to cool the VRM will certainly help, but an AMD FX 8 core build should normally include a case with good airflow, a motherboard with quality 6+2 or 8+2 phase VRM and a good CPU cooler if one can't stand the noise of the stock cooler.

 

[getochkn]

I ran into kind of the same problem. Got a decent board, 6+2 phase, All in one 240mm water cooler, but couldn't hit past 4.5ghz on my 8320 because even though my CPU was cool, was socket temps and VRM's were getting hot.

Adding the AIO water cooler does wonders for CPU temps, but then you can no big chunk of metal to absorb heat and fans to blow it all around and exhaust it. I ended up putting a fan in my drive bay so it blows across the motherboard and a rear fan exhausting and I can hit 4.86ghz.

 

[babushaha]

My plan now was to put both fans around so that at the back of my case the cold air will suck in and go past the VRM into the CPU cooler fan, and the heat will come out at the drive bay side (nothing is there only some cables) and I would mount another fan around that area to improve the airflow and the heat will come out infront of the case (it has several openings). Only problem I can encounter is that the heat will now go against the DDR3 that is next to the CPU, is it bad for the DDR3 or can it handle heat much better than VRM?

Thanks again for everbody that are helping me out, really appreciate it

 

[madmatt30]

^ back to front airflow is a bad idea mate.
Your best bet is just a 80 or 120mm fan strapped with plastic ties blowing directly down on the vrm sink as close as possible.
Leave your current fans as they care just add another one.

As rock boards are p**s poor on MOSFET quality.

 

[babushaha]

^ back to front airflow is a bad idea mate.
Your best bet is just a 80 or 120mm fan strapped with plastic ties blowing directly down on the vrm sink as close as possible.
Leave your current fans as they care just add another one.

As rock boards are p**s poor on MOSFET quality.

If I put a fan directly down on the VRM won't it suck the heat from the CPU cooler into the VRM?
Anyways I still gonna try that, thanks for the info.

I didn't know about all of this, if i knew would've invested a bit more money on a decent board :/

 

[madmatt30]

^ back to front airflow is a bad idea mate.
Your best bet is just a 80 or 120mm fan strapped with plastic ties blowing directly down on the vrm sink as close as possible.
Leave your current fans as they care just add another one.

As rock boards are p**s poor on MOSFET quality.

If I put a fan directly down on the VRM won't it suck the heat from the CPU cooler into the VRM?
Anyways I still gonna try that, thanks for the info.

I didn't know about all of this, if i knew would've invested a bit more money on a decent board :/

the airflow will be warmer than normal mate,but airflow is airflow & its 100% better than the vrm heatsink stifling itself with none at all.

a search on asrock vrm throttling would have given you 1000's of results regarding these boards

 

[GhislainG]

At least ASRock are honest about the VRM cooling requirements, unlike other manufacturers who just claim support for 8 core FX CPUs without mentioning their 4+1 phase VRM will cause throttling.

The Antec Spot Cool 80 is a popular fan to cool the VRM.

 

[madmatt30]

At least ASRock are honest about the VRM cooling requirements, unlike other manufacturers who just claim support for 8 core FX CPUs without mentioning their 4+1 phase VRM will cause throttling.

The Antec Spot Cool 80 is a popular fan to cool the VRM.

hardly honest mate - that disclaimer was added to most of their board support pages AFTER people complained of throttling on any chip with a 100w+tdp.
gigabyte & asus use better quality mosfets on most of their cheap 4+1 phase boards which mean you can get away with an 8 core on most of them ( obviously still not ideal) - asrocks vrm's are good upto about 50c & then the sh!t hits the fan.

 

[GhislainG]

But at least they added it. Asus and other manufacturers have the same issue, but no warning about the top-down CPU cooler requirement or an alternate cooling solution. Even though ASRock added that note, too many people ignore it until they run into issues. Throttling is not good, but it's better than having components burst into flames.

 

[babushaha]

^ back to front airflow is a bad idea mate.
Your best bet is just a 80 or 120mm fan strapped with plastic ties blowing directly down on the vrm sink as close as possible.
Leave your current fans as they care just add another one.

As rock boards are p**s poor on MOSFET quality.

If I put a fan directly down on the VRM won't it suck the heat from the CPU cooler into the VRM?
Anyways I still gonna try that, thanks for the info.

I didn't know about all of this, if i knew would've invested a bit more money on a decent board :/

the airflow will be warmer than normal mate,but airflow is airflow & its 100% better than the vrm heatsink stifling itself with none at all.

a search on asrock vrm throttling would have given you 1000's of results regarding these boards

Yeah... I'm kinda new into all of this so i have never heard of vrm throttling, but i did what you say and ive put a small fan directly above the VRM and it works perfectly, no more drops.

I also did some maintenance and cleaned everything with a air compressor, my god so much dust came out of the processor cooler and the PSU, now when I play at full load the CPU will reach around 40-42℃.