Question Asus Prime z390-A + 9900K = 5GHz OOTB

[karenjoly]

I have this frequency across all cores even at idle but can't see why exactly. It resembles a fixed core ratio but none is obviously fixed, not by me. There must be some switch I cannot find in the bios . Can anyone suggest where it is. Literally I have everything at auto except the memory freq which I set manually. Cpu-z shows the multiplier as 50 but In fact that does vary slightly to 49.Not that I mind as the heat at idle is a mere 30c .
https://i.postimg.cc/mgW4vNRF/Untitled9900k.jpg

 

[RememberThe5th]

Have you disabled the C-states and SpeedStep?

Also if the BCLK is not set firmly to 100.00Mhz it can vary to 99/101. (You need to set in bios High BCLK, in CPUZ that is Bus Speed)

 

[karenjoly]

All on auto as set by the board except for dram freq I set to 3200. Overclock tuner is at auto but setting it to manual shows BCLK is set to 100.00 as also shown in a side panel.

 

[Calvin7]

I suggest downloading and installing:

-Intel(R) Extreme Tuning Utility V6.4.1.205 for Windows 10 64-bit
Version 6.4.1.205
2018/11/30
31.18 MBytes
-IXTU

You can use this strictly as a Monitor in real time. You'll find it in the Utilites downloads for the motherboard.

Asus may offer tuning software that automatically overclocks the system. You may have inadvertently activated it.

 

[karenjoly]

The core freqs act normally otherwise. The larger the # of cores engaged, the lower the frequency. I just tested the cpu with Aida64extreme and with full load on all 8 cores the cpu freqs went to 4.1-4.2 GHz from 5-5.1 GHz. Temp went from 30 to 65c.

 

[karenjoly]

To sum up , the basic intel i9 9900K specs say that the base clock is 3.6 GHz, the "turbo boost 3" clock is 5 GHz and the "all core" clock speed should be 4.6 GHz.
Idle freq. should run @ 3.6 GHz, turbo speed is initiated (at some load level) for 1-2 cores, then will decrease from 5 GHz when a greater number of cores become engaged, and at 100% "all core" load, the speed should be 4.6 GHz.

Here, all cores run at turbo freq.5.1GHz at idle. At 100% load for "all cores", the freq drops uniformly on each core to 4.1-4.3 GHz.

I never see 3.6 and I never see a steady 4.6.

Package wattage goes from 32.96w to 170w at 100% .

I have changed nothing in bios except dram freq.

 

[karenjoly]

Ok, culprit found.

I'm sure someone mentioned this but I did not follow up until today. I have Windows Power Plan management set at High Performance. The advanced settings of the Plan puts the minimum and maximum cpu power states @ 100 %. That's it.

The Power Savings setting OTOH puts idle performance noticeably lower and variable as expected.I/m leaving it at high performance. A nice boost setting.

One mystery of the universe solved. Now to figure out why there us something rather than nothing. Another forum, I know.