Question i5 12600KF Low Single Thread Score

[perikifullMC]

Hello,

2 weeks ago I bought an i5 12600KF processor with a Gigabyte B660M DSH3 DDR4. The issue has been that the performance on gaming has been really bad, even comparing to my old 9600k and a bit worse even. So I decided to check and do some benchmarks.

The temperatures are good, moving around 50-60 degrees on load, the processor is boosting to 4.5GHz almost and everything seems good, but then I checked CPU-Z to see the single threaded score with is one of the most important things for gaming and the results are extremely bad. The Score on CPU-Z is 607 points and should be around 770 points. This score is similar to a 7700K and thats why my games have been underperforming.

I've done a BIOS update, resetted all the settings to default, changed some with no results. Also formatted the PC and installed a fresh copy of Windows 11. No changes. I'm very lost on what to do, my 99% are really bad and the FPS are completely terrible.

My rig is the following:

CPU: i5 12600KF
Motherboard: Gigabyte B660M DS3H DDR4 rev 1.0 (BIOS UPDATE F6b)
RAM: Corsair 3200Mhz 32GB 4x8 CL16
GPU: RTX 3070 8GB
SSD: 1TB Gigabyte Aorus GP-AG70S
PSU: 750W Bronze

 

[Lutfij]

Also formatted the PC and installed a fresh copy of Windows 11
Where did you source the installer for your OS?

I've done a BIOS update
Please state the BIOS version at this moment of time. Might be a good idea to make sure your MEI drivers/firmwares are up to date, while also reinstalling your chipset drivers.

PSU: 750W Bronze
750W is the advertised wattage of the unit, while Bronze is the advertised 80+ efficiency rating. What is the make and model of the unit?

CPU: i5 12600KF
How are you cooling that processor?

 

[perikifullMC]

The Windows copy is original from the Microsoft installer. The key installed on the OS is from a reseller if that does matter.

I've ran Driver Booster to check if everything was up to date and it is. Also went to Gigabyte's website to download manually the drivers and installed them manually, nothing actually updated because everything was up to date.

My PSU is a Thermaltake 730W Smart SE. This PSU has been used on a previous system with the same GPU and a Ryzen 7 5800X with no issues at all.

The cooler for the cpu is: Thermalright Assassin X 120 SE bought on Amazon as you can see in the link.

 

[Corwin65]

Please do yourself a favor and stay away from Driver Booster and other programs similar to it.

 

[geofelt]

I can think of a couple of reasons for the single thread score discrepancy.

Many who submit scores will be from chips which have been overclocked.
That will do better with a Z690 based motherboard.
It will also do better with faster ram.

Those with good scores will submit them; those with dogs will be silent.


Intel specs say that a boost to 4.9 is possible.

A max boost needs two things:
A light load which I think your cpu-z test qualifies for.
And, a cpu temperature under 70c.

Still, I do think there is something amiss.
You may have to look into your bios settings to see if you are inhibiting your performance.

Apps such as driver booster need to make money.
They may do so by installing software or, worse, malware.
Good advice to stay away from such apps.

You may also have other competing apps going on such as discord and nvidia apps.

It might be worth while to run malware bytes to check.

Is performance bad on all games, or only one?
Are these games cpu limited, or graphics limited?

 

[perikifullMC]

So do you guys recommend to do another clean install of Windows and install everything manually instead of using Driver Booster?

Only one core boosts up to 4.9, the rest stays at 4.5Ghz, and it's not because of temps, if you look it up it is the way it's suppossed to work.

I play games which requieres high fps so the CPU is very important on that, games like Overwatch, Valorant or Warzone and i noticed the bad performance in all of them when I had to make the switch from my broken Ryzen 5800x to this CPU.

Is it actually worth it to get a new z690 mobo for this issue?

 

[uWebb429]

@perikifullMC
Check out your BIOS. Some 12th Gen B660 boards have some weird power saving features.
Set all power limits you find to the moon so they do not interfere with maximum performance.

Run Cinebench R23 and see how your scores compare to other 12600K scores. Make sure you are not comparing to overclocked 12600K scores.

 

[perikifullMC]

@perikifullMC
Check out your BIOS. Some 12th Gen B660 boards have some weird power saving features.
Set all power limits you find to the moon so they do not interfere with maximum performance.

Run Cinebench R23 and see how your scores compare to other 12600K scores. Make sure you are not comparing to overclocked 12600K scores.

This did not work at all. Do you think swapping my mobo for a z690 would fix the issue?

 

[Bob.B]

This did not work at all. Do you think swapping my mobo for a z690 would fix the issue?

Just to take a peek.

Download this.
UBM

Reboot.
Wait a few mins.
Run UBM with the browser closed.
Post a LINK to the results page.

 

[uWebb429]

would fix the issue?

I do not know what the issue is yet so it is impossible to say if a Z690 will fix the issue.

Does your BIOS have any settings similar to what I posted? There are some obscure settings on some B660 boards that can interfere with maximum performance.

Try running ThrottleStop 9.5

ThrottleStop 9.6 Download

ThrottleStop is a small application designed to monitor for and correct the three main types of CPU throttling that are being used on many lapto

www.techpowerup.com

Turn on the Log File option and then run Cinebench R23. Set Minimum Test Duration to Off so it only runs a single test at a time. What scores do you get? Are your scores consistent from one run to the next? Open the ThrottleStop Limit Reasons window while Cinebench is running. Do you see any boxes lighting up red which would indicate a throttling problem?

When you are finished testing, exit ThrottleStop so it can finalize the log file. Your log can be found in the ThrottleStop / Logs folder. Copy and paste the log file data to www.pastebin.com and post a link here so I can have a look. It might show some reason why you are not getting full performance.