CPU performance is very low when it shouldn't be

[zelekmark]

I'm really not sure why, but my CPU and a few other components of my PC are performing terribly. I'm at my wits end, so I've come here to find some possible solutions. Here are the results from my benchmark test.

http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/6241689

UserBenchmarks: Game 71%, Desk 37%, Work 28%
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K - 36.1%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti - 149.4%
HDD: WD Blue 1TB (2012) - 71.5%
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB - 56.3%
MBD: MSI B250M GAMING PRO (MS-7A65)

* Forgot to add: My monitor right now is very temporary and bad in general, in fact its awful. I'm thinking this might be causing some issues with framerate in game; however, the cpu benchmark test shouldn't be hindered by this, right? Is it possible that my monitor is bottlenecking my cpu?

UPDATE : Thermal throttling seems to be the issue, I'll confirm this once the new CPU cooler arrives. Also my CPU temp has dropped from 90-100*c (the temp last night) to about 65-70*c (the temp today). I haven't installed the new CPU cooler yet, so I'm not exactly sure what caused the
drop in temperature.

FINAL UPDATE : Thermal throttling was the issue. New cooler installed and the pc is running perfectly. Thanks for the help everyone!

 

[thehutti]

This PC setup should not run that slow. What about the CPU Temperature? Maybe the Cooler is not mounted correctly and the heat is reducing the CPU-Speed because of thermal-throtteling.

PS: No no chance that the Monitor bottlenecks anything. Except if it's a 30Hz monitor and you have vSync activated to reduce the refresh rate to that 30Hz

 

[zelekmark]

This PC setup should not run that slow. What about the CPU Temperature? Maybe the Cooler is not mounted correctly and the heat is reducing the CPU-Speed because of thermal-throtteling.

PS: No no chance that the Monitor bottlenecks anything. Except if it's a 30Hz monitor and you have vSync activated to reduce the refresh rate to that 30Hz

This is the CPU temp according to the program I'm using:
https://gyazo.com/955473f3ff240dc3e5972097c2fa6b22

 

[jpe1701]

Yeah if you look at the CPU results it is only running at 1.35ghz. As was already said, i would look at temps. I have also seen motherboards downclock cpus because of faulty thermal sensor's too but we can cross that bridge if we come to it. The RAM score I think is just because it is running at 2133 instead of the 3000mt/s it is rated for, which you should actually be able to bump up to 2400 on that b250 board.

 

[jpe1701]

Yeah you are thermal throttling. Check the cooler.

 

[thehutti]

OK all cores are around 94°C - 100°C and are totally overheating, take a look at the CPU Cooler if the Fan is spinning, if it's an AIO Water Cooler the Fans on the Radiator should spin and the Pump must be working, if the Fans Spin up then Remove the Cooler completely and reapply thermal paste and set it again on the CPU. Make sure that there is no plastik between the Cooler and the CPU sometimes the Cooler comes with a protection plastic piece that should be removed before the cooler is set on the CPU.

 

[jpe1701]

By the way, what cooler are you using?

 

[zelekmark]

By the way, what cooler are you using?

The only thing cooling my cpu down is the fan as far as I know.

 

[zelekmark]

OK all cores are around 94°C - 100°C and are totally overheating, take a look at the CPU Cooler if the Fan is spinning, if it's an AIO Water Cooler the Fans on the Radiator should spin and the Pump must be working, if the Fans Spin up then Remove the Cooler completely and reapply thermal paste and set it again on the CPU. Make sure that there is no plastik between the Cooler and the CPU sometimes the Cooler comes with a protection plastic piece that should be removed before the cooler is set on the CPU.

The fans spinning. When I first installed the CPU I didn't have thermal paste accessible, and I've only now remembered I never applied it. Do you think that alone would be causing the high temperature?

 

[thehutti]

That is possible, the CPU cooler normally does not have good contact to the CPU directly and to apply a cooler without it should cause thermal issues. But if you are using the normal Intel CPU Cooler that comes with the Boxed Version of the CPU then it already has Thermal Paste applied to it (If you bought the CPU 'used' then of course it's not there anymore). In General never apply a Cooler without thermal paste!

 

[zelekmark]

That is possible, the CPU cooler normally does not have good contact to the CPU directly and to apply a cooler without it should cause thermal issues. But if you are using the normal Intel CPU Cooler that comes with the Boxed Version of the CPU then it already has Thermal Paste applied to it (If you bought the CPU 'used' then of course it's not there anymore). In General never apply a Cooler without thermal paste!

I'm using the one that came with it so I'll just assume that the paste has already been applied. How exactly do I prevent thermal throttling? I've never heard this term before so it's new to me.

 

[thehutti]

Thermal Throtteling is a Protection meassure of the CPU: It means that your cpu is too hot and to prevent damage the cpu slows itself down to a fraction of it's normal speed. It is still working, but very slow.

The Intel i7 6700k will start to throttel if temps go over 90°C

To prevent it you should have a working CPU cooler, i would buy new thermal paste, remove the cooler from the CPU and clean the Heatsink and the CPU with alkohol. then reapply the new thermal paste and the cooler. After that the temps should go down and the speed should go up.

here is the intel Guide for Thermal Paste, of course you don't need the official paste from Intel, any paste should do.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005576/processors.html

 

[zelekmark]

Thermal Throtteling is a Protection meassure of the CPU: It means that your cpu is too hot and to prevent damage the cpu slows itself down to a fraction of it's normal speed. It is still working, but very slow.

The Intel i7 6700k will start to throttel if temps go over 90°C

To prevent it you should have a working CPU cooler, i would buy new thermal paste, remove the cooler from the CPU and clean the Heatsink and the CPU with alkohol. then reapply the new thermal paste and the cooler. After that the temps should go down and the speed should go up.

I'll give this a try, thanks a ton. If it doesn't work I'll post an update.

 

[Mark_1970]

That is possible, the CPU cooler normally does not have good contact to the CPU directly and to apply a cooler without it should cause thermal issues. But if you are using the normal Intel CPU Cooler that comes with the Boxed Version of the CPU then it already has Thermal Paste applied to it (If you bought the CPU 'used' then of course it's not there anymore). In General never apply a Cooler without thermal paste!

I'm using the one that came with it so I'll just assume that the paste has already been applied. How exactly do I prevent thermal throttling? I've never heard this term before so it's new to me.

By getting an effective cpu cooler and descent paste. also by adding in/out fans to case

 

[zelekmark]

So is the default cooler that comes with the CPU not good enough? Already spent a lot of money on parts recently, so I'd like to avoid unnecessary costs.

 

[thehutti]

So is the default cooler that comes with the CPU not good enough? Already spent a lot of money on parts recently, so I'd like to avoid unnecessary costs.

The default cooler is known to be not very good, but if you don't plan to overclock the system it should be enough to run the CPU on the default settings. Normally people swap these stock heatsinks for another cooler to let the cpu run cooler. Even low price cooler for about 20-30$ normally perform better than the intel coolers.

 

[zelekmark]

So is the default cooler that comes with the CPU not good enough? Already spent a lot of money on parts recently, so I'd like to avoid unnecessary costs.

The default cooler is known to be not very good, but if you don't plan to overclock the system it should be enough to run the CPU on the default settings. Normally people swap these stock heatsinks for another cooler to let the cpu run cooler. Even low price cooler for about 20-30$ normally perform better than the intel coolers.

Any suggestions?

 

[thehutti]

So is the default cooler that comes with the CPU not good enough? Already spent a lot of money on parts recently, so I'd like to avoid unnecessary costs.

The default cooler is known to be not very good, but if you don't plan to overclock the system it should be enough to run the CPU on the default settings. Normally people swap these stock heatsinks for another cooler to let the cpu run cooler. Even low price cooler for about 20-30$ normally perform better than the intel coolers.

Any suggestions?

If you want something in the lower price range then a Cooler Master 212 Evo (about 30$) or even a Cooler Master T4 (20$) should do. If you want an AIO Water cooler a H60 (about 50$) from Corsair or similar should do fine:

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Hydro-Quiet-Liquid-Cooler/dp/B00A0HZMGA?th=1

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Contact-Heatpipes-RR-T4-18PK-R1/dp/B00BSKY1M4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1513069781&sr=1-1&keywords=Cooler+Master+T4

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-RR-212E-20PK-R2-120mm/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1513069798&sr=1-2&keywords=cooler+master+212+evo

 

[zelekmark]

So is the default cooler that comes with the CPU not good enough? Already spent a lot of money on parts recently, so I'd like to avoid unnecessary costs.

The default cooler is known to be not very good, but if you don't plan to overclock the system it should be enough to run the CPU on the default settings. Normally people swap these stock heatsinks for another cooler to let the cpu run cooler. Even low price cooler for about 20-30$ normally perform better than the intel coolers.

Any suggestions?

If you want something in the lower price range then a Cooler Master 212 Evo (about 30$) or even a Cooler Master T4 (20$) should do. If you want an AIO Water cooler a H60 (about 50$) from Corsair or similar should do fine:

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Hydro-Quiet-Liquid-Cooler/dp/B00A0HZMGA?th=1

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Contact-Heatpipes-RR-T4-18PK-R1/dp/B00BSKY1M4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1513069781&sr=1-1&keywords=Cooler+Master+T4

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-RR-212E-20PK-R2-120mm/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1513069798&sr=1-2&keywords=cooler+master+212+evo

How big of a difference is it between the 30$ one and the 60$ one

 

[thehutti]

So is the default cooler that comes with the CPU not good enough? Already spent a lot of money on parts recently, so I'd like to avoid unnecessary costs.

The default cooler is known to be not very good, but if you don't plan to overclock the system it should be enough to run the CPU on the default settings. Normally people swap these stock heatsinks for another cooler to let the cpu run cooler. Even low price cooler for about 20-30$ normally perform better than the intel coolers.

Any suggestions?

If you want something in the lower price range then a Cooler Master 212 Evo (about 30$) or even a Cooler Master T4 (20$) should do. If you want an AIO Water cooler a H60 (about 50$) from Corsair or similar should do fine:

https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Hydro-Quiet-Liquid-Cooler/dp/B00A0HZMGA?th=1

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Contact-Heatpipes-RR-T4-18PK-R1/dp/B00BSKY1M4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1513069781&sr=1-1&keywords=Cooler+Master+T4

https://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-RR-212E-20PK-R2-120mm/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1513069798&sr=1-2&keywords=cooler+master+212+evo

How big of a difference is it between the 30$ one and the 60$ one

It's really not that much of a difference in temps, The 30$ CM Hyper 212 EVO one should be able to almost get the same results as the 50$ H60 AIO one, but the AIO has other positive aspects. Water coolers normally look cleaner in the Case and if the case has problems with Airflow then they will help because they generally get the heat better out of the case. Otherwise it's more a choise of personal flavor. Of course bigger AIOs like the H110i or better Air Coolers like the Noctua NH-D15 are able to perform much better, but they cost much more as well.

 

[zelekmark]

Think I'll just go with the cheaper one at this point. Again, thanks for the suggestions and the help. I'll post an update once the cooler and paste arrives.

 

[jpe1701]

The 6700k doesn't come with a cooler so you may have an aftermarket cooler already. Did you build the system? You should take a pic of the cooler and let us look at it. No CPU cooler is going to work without thermal paste though.

 

[zelekmark]

The 6700k doesn't come with a cooler so you may have an aftermarket cooler already. Did you build the system? You should take a pic of the cooler and let us look at it. No CPU cooler is going to work without thermal paste though.

Over the course of about 8 years I've made changes to pretty much every part of the PC, not all at once though. It's possible that I bought one when I upgraded my CPU and MOBO, but I'm pretty sure I just used the fan that was attached to my previous CPU. Regardless the new cooler is on its way, so we'll see if it makes a difference or not.