Question CPU underperforming in single thread tests CPU-Z test - Low single core score

[nendytree21]

Hey guys. Thanks in advance for any help

First of all my cpu is at 52c during CPU-Z benchmark. (during aida up to 63c)
According to HWinfo my mobo and vrm are around 50c
Windows power management profile is set to Ultimate Performance

I was noticing a linear drop of fps in UE5 thought it was just UE being UE, but last night it was starting to really bother me. I tried to do a single core bench-

---During the CPU-Z Benchmark my cpu boosts to 4.32GHz--
In CPU-Z I get ~414 score
6 months ago when I bought it I was getting ~512 (Im pretty sure it boosted to 4.3 with that score too)
Last night I did some tinkering in bios, and tighten the ram latency a bit-
Now I get ~434
(Ofc no background processes etc)

LatencyMon ~80µs while CPU-Z benchmark and browser open
Windows 11

Specs:
CPU:------Intel core i5-10500 base 3.1GHz - Turbo 4.5GHz
Mobo:----H410M S2H V2 Gigabyte
RAM:-----Kllisre 2x16Gb 3200mhz (yes its at 2666mhz cuz of mobo, yea I know aliexpress ram, never got a bsod since using it)
Storage: -NVMe Kingston KC2500 1TB SSD (it has dram)
GPU :-----Eagle RTX 3060ti
PSU:------EVGA 750W GQ
Not sure exact case, but its really airflowed and I hope temps are not the cause here?


Im really confused, and Im here open to learn something new and hopefully we could fix this together. Thanks for reading 😀

 

[RodroX]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Would you be soo kind to run userbenchmark (https://www.userbenchmark.com/) and paste the link to the complete results here?

Be sure to have no other app running please.

PD: You didn'tmention what kind of cpu cooler you have?, nor if you tried to run the UE5 game with the PC case side panel off?

 

[geofelt]

I think you have an issue here.
Here a I5-10500 should do 515 in the CPU-Z bench test.
https://valid.x86.fr/bench/7t2mc3
It will vary a bit because others may have better ram, but not by all that much.
I can't explain it except that possibly you have a fake i5-10500. Possibly a i5-10100.

I might add that many consider userbenchmark to be useless.

 

[nendytree21]

Before all thanks for the replies now I don't feel like Im insane here
Sorry for further loss of brain cells, as Ive lost all of mine so im kindly asking for someone to spare me some

The cooler I didn't list because Im not sure exact model and its performing great, and I've mentioned that the temps are great. Its a cooler master with 4 pipes and mx-4 thermal paste. Yes I've tried with no glass panel and its 1 degree lower at best, as Ive said the case is really airflowed. Im pretty sure its a real i5 10500, cpu z detects it and I've said that I had score of 512 when I first got it. Here is the userbenchmark even though I don't know how is this info useful:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/70262190

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Download and run Throttlestop. Open it up, then open the 'Limits' tab, and then finally run the inbuilt TSBench. The limits box will tell you why your CPU is throttling. Note down anything that flashes Red in colour. TS Bench is useful, as it puts a bit more load on the CPU than CPU-z Bench, which doesn't really test a CPU in any meaningful way. It is useful as a guide point though.

 

[Eximo]

H410M S2H V2 Gigabyte. Very limited VRMs and no cooling. If your board is reporting any temperatures, check them. Those designs rely on downdraft coolers for some airflow, if you have replaced it with a tower cooler you may not be getting sufficient cooling for the motherboard.

Quick experiment would be to point a fan at the CPU socket and see if it does any better.

 

[Bob.B]

Before all thanks for the replies now I don't feel like Im insane here
Sorry for further loss of brain cells, as Ive lost all of mine so im kindly asking for someone to spare me some

The cooler I didn't list because Im not sure exact model and its performing great, and I've mentioned that the temps are great. Its a cooler master with 4 pipes and mx-4 thermal paste. Yes I've tried with no glass panel and its 1 degree lower at best, as Ive said the case is really airflowed. Im pretty sure its a real i5 10500, cpu z detects it and I've said that I had score of 512 when I first got it. Here is the userbenchmark even though I don't know how is this info useful:
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/70262190

Ubm is showing your getting a little tight on disk space perhaps free up another 50-75GB of space.

If you can get the gigabyte site to talk to you check your bios level.

 

[geofelt]

What might have changed since 6 months ago when all was well?

 

[nendytree21]

Hey there,

Download and run Throttlestop. Open it up, then open the 'Limits' tab, and then finally run the inbuilt TSBench. The limits box will tell you why your CPU is throttling. Note down anything that flashes Red in colour. TS Bench is useful, as it puts a bit more load on the CPU than CPU-z Bench, which doesn't really test a CPU in any meaningful way. It is useful as a guide point though.

Sorry in advance everyone, if this was just a stupid oversight so please have patience with me, thank you everyone for your time i hope i wont waste it

Hey, heres the TS Bench
Oh yeah I actually do have a tower cooler, but its the same since i got the cpu
I'll take some time now to free up some space run the bench again, and ill try to stick some random heatsinks i have to the vrm
Honestly im not sure what couldve changed, i havent downloaded any programs since then, or replaced any components. Ill run a malwarebytes scan too?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Your Cpu can boost to 4.5ghz on one or two cores. 4.3ghz is the all core boost max.

 

[nendytree21]

Your Cpu can boost to 4.5ghz on one or two cores. 4.3ghz is the all core boost max.

Yeah I know. This is single thread though, on all threads its up to 4.18GHz. Still I don't get why would my score go down by this much. here on screenshot in the single thread it hovers around 4.15-4.21GHz (This is with my browser open, with no browser score is ~430

The VRMs are like skin temp on touch during bench, they seem to get a lot of air in with my airflow setup, and in HWinfo they report at 50c during bench.
Yeah the dust I know :/
3 intake front
1 exhaust back
Cpu tower intake through top mesh

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

When you ran to bench, did any markers light up? Like 'PL1' or 'PL2' or 'EDPother'? These will explain the reason for downclocking

 

[RodroX]

mmmmm...

Why on earth did you installed the CPU cooler that way ?

I mean I don't think this will have a huge impact on the cooling, considering we are talking about a Core i5 10500, but... Why like that?

 

[nendytree21]

When you ran to bench, did any markers light up? Like 'PL1' or 'PL2' or 'EDPother'? These will explain the reason for downclocking

Nope, I also put PL1 and 2 in bios to 125W

mmmmm...

Why on earth did you installed the CPU cooler that way ?

I mean I don't think this will have a huge impact on the cooling, considering we are talking about a Core i5 10500, but... Why like that?

Well, it lines up with the front-to-back airflow. Front fans push cool air straight through the heatsink and out the back, no turbulence. With the mesh top and rear exhaust, heat escapes naturally anyway. The temps are great so why fix something thats not broken, though I know it doesn't look so sweet

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Nope, I also put PL1 and 2 in bios to 125W

Well, it lines up with the front-to-back airflow. Front fans push cool air straight through the heatsink and out the back, no turbulence. With the mesh top and rear exhaust, heat escapes naturally anyway. The temps are great so why fix something thats not broken, though I know it doesn't look so sweet

Have you tried resetting the bios? Maybe a setting has changed. Then test again. You cpuld also clear CMOS if you've recently updated the bios.

 

[uWebb429]

@nendytree21

When your computer is idle at the desktop, what does ThrottleStop report for C0%? That is an accurate measure of how much crap is running in the background on your computer. The lower the C0% number, the higher your CPU performance in benchmarks will be. For your CPU, somewhere around 0.5% is fairly normal. I am OCD about background crap so my 10 core / 20 thread CPU can spend less than 0.1% in the C0 state processing background tasks.

If nothing was lighting up in Limit Reasons when running the TS Bench test then your loss of performance is likely because you have more tasks running in the background now compared to when you originally ran the CPU-Z test. Most people do not keep a close eye on how many background tasks are running when they are testing.

FYI - The CPU-Z test is not a true single core test. CPU-Z creates two threads which will load and activate two cores of your CPU, not one. Throw in lots of background tasks and now you will have three or four cores active. This will drop the maximum turbo multiplier and performance will decrease.

Look in the Task Manager Details tab if you have high C0%. Find out what is running on your computer that really does not need to be running.