Question Help me get the max out of Z97 with i7-4790...

[alexb75]

I have built a quiet and cool rig, with Z97, Core i7-4790, and I'd like to OC it, and get the max out of the system. I don't do too much gaming, BUT the system is sluggish compared to new devices I test, and I don't know what's the weak spot in my system, as most components are more than enough, despite being a bit older to give me sluggish performance.

By sluggish I mean, opening/closing apps are not instant, videos load and play slow, applications don't open/close as quick as I want them to, games are not at same FPS as I see from similar builds, and generally it's slower than it should be.

System:
- Asus Z97-Pro-AC
- Core i7-4790
- 24GB, Corsair Dominator 2133 dual channel (8-4-8-4)
- MSI Geforce 1070 GPU
- Windows 10 Pro
- Intel 730 240GB SSD (boot)
- Samsung 960 256GB SSD (Games)
- WD 4TB (Data)
- Hitachi 3TB (Backup)
- Seasonic 750 Gold silent PSU
- Bitdefender installed (could slow things down possibly)

One major issue I faced was that the Asus EZ Update and AI Suite apps stopped working after a Windows update, and all of the Asus software updates didn't resolve it. So, I can't go into Asus software to change fan, CPU, etc... settings like I used to. I am not sure what alternative is available. I now use Intel Extreme Tuning tool but not sure if that's the best idea.

I suspect the sluggishness has more to do with SW than hardware, and might have to do a fresh Windows install... but wondering if any OCing of the CPU, Motherboard/chipset, Memory timing, etc... should help or not? What general average OC on this mobo/CPU is possible with good stability? My temps are incredibly low, I don't get above 67 celcius on load, so do have room there. I have Noctua fans.

PS. The XMP timing on my 4GB and 8GB slots are different. So, I used the slower speed of the two and higher voltage of 1.65v for the entire 24GB.

Here are some CPU-Z details

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Lutfij

 

[Lutfij]

First and foremost the sluggishness you speak of, can be aimed towards the OS since you mentioned most of the functionality broke down after the update. I'd ask you to recreate you bootable installer using Windows Media Creation Tools and reinstalling your OS. The second thing I'd look at is the way you've populated the board with the rams. I'm an advocate of not mixing and matching rams. In fact both ram kits are binned differently and have different latency's. If you do a ram upgrade like you would with buying a pair of shoes from the store, get a kit to equally loadout the slots.

 

[alexb75]

Thanks, I think a windows re-fresh is necessary. But now, I found another issue. Ran GeekBench and it's WAY TOO SLOW! I got 1347 Single Core, 7397 Multi-core, that's less than HALF of what I see on their benchmark chart... something is not correct. My Core speed on CPU-Z during the benchmark only ONCE hit 4,000, it was almost always around 800 MHz or so... what the heck?

Will look into memory later. I had an 8GB to start with, then bought a 16GB. The 8GB had better timing and only 1.5V, Corsair never made the same timing in 16GB kit, so I simply picked the timing of the "slower" 16GB kit with its XMP voltage of 1.65V and applied to all. It's been as stable as it comes... BUT I am not sure if it may cause performance issues. I remember at the 8GB timing with 1.5V I had instability issues, so had to basically revert to these settings.

 

[alexb75]

I just found an old Mar. 2017 Geekbench of my system, and it was 5187/16858!!! I am less than half... WTF!

I just checked BIOS and settings are all the same as I think they've ever been. Could it be the AI III crap has messed some shit up? or could it be the update they did to BIOS/Windows after that bug was found in Intel chips?!

 

[shknawe]

Pull your 4gb memory sticks, they are screwing up the works. Stay with 16gb it is best setting. Your multiplier is waaay low mine is at 46 yours is at 8! Go in to bios and go to exit and choose reset to starting values. Or if you know how to reset in settings page in bios do that.

 

[alexb75]

What multiplier at 8? You mean core multiplier? I’m at 44X now. If you see there’s a range in there, as I guess I’m on adaptive core multiplier. Can make it fix at 44 I guess but I never did in the past and benchmarked much higher.

I just pulled the 16s out and ran benchmarks again and it was the same. I also used XMP timing. Will pull the 8gb out and try again to see what I see.

 

[shknawe]

Sorry I didn't realize you were in adaptive mode. I did notice your 8gb ram sticks run at 1.65v and your 4gb ram sticks run at 1.50 that is why I think if you pull the two 4gb ram sticks you should have better results. However I do not use the intel tuning utility, your bios should cover all of that. Maybe you are over riding or duplicating power settings that bios is trying to use? You can control fan speed, cpu etc in the bios.

 

[shknawe]

wait you are using a 16gb ram stick and a 8gb ram stick together?

 

[shknawe]

That board does not support a 16gb single stick ram. You need two 8gb sticks, preferably bought from same package. There is your problem. https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1150/Z97-PRO/Z97_PRO_DIMM_QVL.pdf?_ga=2.221907867.242532147.1546714283-1785252386.1535802667

 

[alexb75]

No. I have 24GB in dual mode. 2x8gb sticks, 2x4gb sticks.

It works like 8-4-8-4 as I said in my first post. I changed them up to only two sticks and results are the same!

To the other comment. Yes the 4gb sticks are speced at 1.5V for their tight timing, while 8gb sticks need 1.65, so what I did was picking the voltage that works for both (I assume you can add voltage for 4gb) ensuring stability but something isn’t right.

 

[alexb75]

Just an update. I’ve been running mutiple tests all day. Everything seems to be fine hardware wise. I think the stupid Geekbench is broken! Giving me very low scores somehow compared to a year ago. Most other benchmarks are in the ballpark. For instance, I’m getting between 777-840 in Cinebench R15 depending on what DIMMs are used and what OCing. Will post details later.

 

[shknawe]

ok so I have 4790k cpu, with 16gb ram. I ran geekbench4 and got 5490 for single core, and 18464 for multicore. I think you should disable the intel tuning program and turn on high performance on your windows power setting. Then run geekbench. I see on the Intel utility the turbo burst is limited to 8 seconds. That may be throttling back your cpu , not sure though. Try that set up and see what happens. Also what bios are you running on the motherboard?

 

[alexb75]

ok so I have 4790k cpu, with 16gb ram. I ran geekbench4 and got 5490 for single core, and 18464 for multicore. I think you should disable the intel tuning program and turn on high performance on your windows power setting. Then run geekbench. I see on the Intel utility the turbo burst is limited to 8 seconds. That may be throttling back your cpu , not sure though. Try that set up and see what happens. Also what bios are you running on the motherboard?

Thanks, something is up with my Geekbench, I re-downloaded it, and ran tests, it all remains almost the same. Here's what I've done yesterday... and results in Geekbench and Cinebench R15. What do you get for Cinebench? I am running the latest Asus BIOS (beta) available from May 2018.

Essentially, my memory slots play a small role, fastest is one module, but mixing the 4 and 8 GB modules don't make much of a difference. The WEIRD one was 2x8gb+1x4gb mix which doesn't make sense. I also have a suspicion Cinebench isn't very consistent. If I run Cinebench 3 times in a row, they're all different! I need a solid good benchmark, what do u guys recommend?

Geekbench, is another story. Something is OFF, what I notice on CPU-Z, is that it doesn't keep the CPU in its peak performance, it varies between 800-4000 MHz speed, and core ratio is varied too. Cinebench starts low speed, but quickly ramp up to Turbo and keeps all cores at max speed. My Geekbench score of last year was more than twice as high... so can't figure that one out!

Now, my OC results were pretty good. I managed 4700 MHz, with 1.3V, but as it's a silent build, I dropped it down a bit, made it 47X for one core (single thread), and 46X for core 2-4, and dropped voltage to 1.275V. I then ran a stress test for 6hrs, CPU max temp was 71 and it was fine (core temps got a bit higher though, 84 or so, does that matter?). I will keep it this way. It's silent for most tasks, browsing, etc... fans run 500RPM, and only comes on when pushed in heavy tasks like gaming or rendering.


Cinebench
777 (1x8GB module) Auto
772 (2x8GB module) Auto
841 (2x8GB modules, 1x4GB module) Auto
824 (2x8GB modules, 2x4GB modules) Auto
794 (FIXED 44x RATIO)
780 (ratio 44,44,43,42)
807 (fixed ratio 45)
835 (fixed ratio 46, 1.25V)
834 (fixed ratio 47, 1.3V)
918 (47, 46,46,46, 1.275V)

GeekBench (same tests as above - something's broken, so doesn't really matter)
Core Score Multi-Core Score
1515 7598
1444 7515
1535 7578
2040 7418
1476 7595
1434 7642 [fixed 45X]