Question CPU frequency drops while gaming

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Renalvesp

Sep 9, 2019
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Hi guys,

I'm sorta getting crazy with this issue...
About a week ago my PC suddenly started to get nasty FPS drops while gaming, and fiddling through some programs ive seen here, I detected that the frequency throughout the 8 cores is capping at around 1400 mhz, even when not on idle, for about 20 seconds or so, than getting back to the 4.1mhz for a minute or so only to go back to the 1400 mhz... I checked the temperature, as it seemed to be the most common cause, but it doesn't even passes the 50°C mark... Every game that I used to constantly play with no problems is suffering from this.
Do you guys have any ideas on what might help? The voltage seems to drop a little during these drops, or so the "Core Temp" that I'm using is saying (from 1.3750v to 0.8625v)

It's a FX 8350 on a M578L Asus motherboard, and i have a Corsair 600w power supply.
(Sorry if I made any mistakes, English is not my first language).

Thanks for the help!
 
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It sounds like power is your problem. I'm guessing either your power supply or your motherboard. Now, if you can figure out which voltages are dropping then you'll be able to narrow it down as the PSU produces 12V, -12V, 5V, and 3.3V, with the remainder of the voltages are derived from the motherboard. I would suggest checking out HWMonitor from CPUID. That will give you a readout of the different voltages as measured by the motherboard. Hit your system with a benchmark or something stressful and watch your voltages to see what changes.
 
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justin.m.beauvais said:
It sounds like power is your problem. I'm guessing either your power supply or your motherboard. Now, if you can figure out which voltages are dropping then you'll be able to narrow it down as the PSU produces 12V, -12V, 5V, and 3.3V, with the remainder of the voltages are derived from the motherboard. I would suggest checking out HWMonitor from CPUID. That will give you a readout of the different voltages as measured by the motherboard. Hit your system with a benchmark or something stressful and watch your voltages to see what changes.
Click to expand...
So, what exactly am I looking at here? I downloaded HWMonitor and it shows somethign like this:
https://imgur.com/mULZZzi
View: https://imgur.com/mULZZzi


(TY for the quick reply!)
 
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Ok, so the 3 columns are current readings, lowest reading during session, and highest reading during session.

As for programs not being accurate, that is more of a Ryzen quirk than an AMD as a whole thing. HWMonitor is a pretty good diagnostic tool on FX based chips.

As for power throttling, it is possible... but at stock settings with the monitoring software showing a disturbingly low package wattage of 45W, I'm unconvinced.
 
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Ok, after a bit of research the 0.880V is the low power idle voltage of the CPU. So, it could be power throttling or power starved. You can try resetting your BIOS to defaults and see if that fixes your issue, but the worrying part is that it just all of a sudden started doing it. Most people run into this issue after making some kind of change on their system/
 
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Nope. I've seen threads on here with users posting temps from HWMonitor... with a number of them displaying below ambient temps - minumums of 14C and -10C.
Heck, even saw Core Temp do it once - they posted an image of the program showing an idle temp of -4 on an 8370.

Overdrive is the best and most reliable way of reading those FX chips.
 
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justin.m.beauvais said:
Ok, after a bit of research the 0.880V is the low power idle voltage of the CPU. So, it could be power throttling or power starved. You can try resetting your BIOS to defaults and see if that fixes your issue, but the worrying part is that it just all of a sudden started doing it. Most people run into this issue after making some kind of change on their system/
Click to expand...
Yeah, I didn't change anything that i recall... Could it've been a software change? I most certainly didn't change something in the BIOS
 
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Phaaze88 said:
Nope. I've seen threads on here with users posting temps from HWMonitor... with a number of them displaying below ambient temps - minumums of 14C and -10C.
Heck, even saw Core Temp do it once - they posted an image of the program showing an idle temp of -4 on an 8370.

Overdrive is the best and most reliable way of reading those FX chips.
Click to expand...
I've played around with the Overdrive, and it shows something similar to the other tests, i'll post them here:
https://imgur.com/a/Vi42vId
View: https://imgur.com/a/Vi42vId
 
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Also, the only one that seems to drop is the CPU VID, or something like that... The other ones (NB, DRAM, HT, GPU) seem to stay regular.

EDIT: I also tryed to register a log in the Status thingy but it doesn't register the voltage for some reason...
 
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That doesn't really show anything. You need to monitor Cpu Status - keep it open in the background while playing games.

It's normal for the cpu to clock down when it's not doing anything, this also applies to the cpu voltage or VID.
Windows power plan is currently on balanced?
 
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Phaaze88 said:
That doesn't really show anything. You need to monitor Cpu Status - keep it open in the background while playing games.

It's normal for the cpu to clock down when it's not doing anything, this also applies to the cpu voltage or VID.
Windows power plan is currently on balanced?
Click to expand...
Is set to Best Performance

I'm not able to register the voltage in Overdrive for some reason, it only shows the temperature.
 
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Could it be something related to my electricity supply? Now that i'm thinking back, this began around the time i got a big 144Hz monitor... They are both plugged in the same outlet.
 
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Phaaze88 said:
Whoa now, one thing at a time. First we need to see how the cpu's behaving while you're playing games.
Keep it on Status da Cpu, and play one of the 'problem games' for like 10mins.
Afterwards, go back to Overdrive and take a pic of it.
Click to expand...
So, i did that for a while and it sorta changed between these two:
https://imgur.com/a/4RqRV3g
View: https://imgur.com/a/4RqRV3g


It stays on the "worse" one for around 30 seconds, than goes back to the "normal" one (even as the game is played).
 
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Hmmm... drawing 1.375V seems like a little more than it should, but it should also still be within the capability of the chip and the motherboard. So, the voltages are right-ish.

Do you have the old monitor still around or another socket not on the same circuit that you can plug either the computer or monitor into?... because I'm still going with power on this one.
 
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justin.m.beauvais said:
Hmmm... drawing 1.375V seems like a little more than it should, but it should also still be within the capability of the chip and the motherboard. So, the voltages are right-ish.

Do you have the old monitor still around or another socket not on the same circuit that you can plug either the computer or monitor into?... because I'm still going with power on this one.
Click to expand...
Trying that right now
 
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Phaaze88 said:
Yes. Since not all power saving features were disabled, it's normal for frequency, temperature, and voltage to rise and fall depending on load.
Here's someone with an 8350 overclocked to 4.4ghz with their power saving features disabled:
Click to expand...
But how can i disable all power saving features? Would that be dangerous for the chip?
 
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justin.m.beauvais said:
Hmmm... drawing 1.375V seems like a little more than it should, but it should also still be within the capability of the chip and the motherboard. So, the voltages are right-ish.

Do you have the old monitor still around or another socket not on the same circuit that you can plug either the computer or monitor into?... because I'm still going with power on this one.
Click to expand...
So, at first i thought it improved a little, but it just made the same drop as i tested around for a bit (different circuit)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Renalvesp said:
Hi guys,

I'm sorta getting crazy with this issue...
About a week ago my PC suddenly started to get nasty FPS drops while gaming, and fiddling through some programs ive seen here, I detected that the frequency throughout the 8 cores is capping at around 1400 mhz, even when not on idle, for about 20 seconds or so, than getting back to the 4.1mhz for a minute or so only to go back to the 1400 mhz... I checked the temperature, as it seemed to be the most common cause, but it doesn't even passes the 50°C mark... Every game that I used to constantly play with no problems is suffering from this.
Do you guys have any ideas on what might help? The voltage seems to drop a little during these drops, or so the "Core Temp" that I'm using is saying (from 1.3750v to 0.8625v)

It's a FX 8350 on a M578L Asus motherboard, and i have a Corsair 600w power supply.
(Sorry if I made any mistakes, English is not my first language).

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...
It sounds to me like your VRM is over-heating and throttling your CPU. This is exactly how it happened to me with my M5A88M motherboard, very similar to an M5A78M/L

Your processor, FX 8350, is a super hot-running 8 core Bulldozer which is frankly too much for the low power VRM on that board. You might be able to help by putting a fan to blow on the VRM section, and maybe a little more if you could glue some heatsinks onto the FET's in the VRM. But ultimately you just need a beefier motherboard to match up to that beefy CPU.
 
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