Question i7-9700K 100% CPU Usage ONLY in Fortnite

[LeGaCyGiAnT124]

Hey guys, so I am at a loss here. I just recently upgraded my PC to an Asus Prime Z390-A motherboard and an Intel i7-9700K 3.6GhZ processor ( on Saturday 1/9). The only games I play are Fortnite, and up until last night everything was perfect. Then out of the blue I started another game up and then the game felt off. I was getting a weird stuttering issue so I opened MSI Afterburner to see what my usages were. My CPU was pretty much maxed out at 100% and I was only getting 100-130 FPS, when in reality I was getting over 240 when I was uncapped, and when I am capped at 165FPS (which is the refresh rate of my monitor) I would stay almost at 165 all of the time. I uninstalled the game twice last night and even reformatted the hard drive this morning with no luck. I messed with every setting in the game that I can think of and it still doesn't make a difference. It's like the game isn't recognizing my hardware or something. Can anyone please help?

Things I have tried:

-Reformatting my SSD and re-installing Windows
-Uninstalling/Reinstalling the game
-Updating the BIOS
-Updating the Graphic Card Drivers
-Changing the ingame settings to uncapped, 240FPS, etc, etc.
-I installed Apex Legends to see if the issue persists in another game and it DOES NOT. I get over 300FPS when I am in the pre-game lobby in that game.
-Ran a PC benchmark to see if something would show wrong with my CPU. It does not.

Something to mention too, it's showing 85-100% usage just sitting in the pre-game lobby, but when I open the task manager, it's only showing 20% overall.

Someone please help. I am mind boggled here.

 

[LeGaCyGiAnT124]

So after messing with my PC on and off all day today, I have more of an idea of the problem, but not exactly sure WHY. What's happening is I am getting Power Limit Throttling. I tried overclocking my i7, and it doesn't make a difference. As soon as I boot up Fortnite, intel extreme tuning utility tells me that I am getting Power Limit Throttling, and my Max Core Frequency drops from 4.9Ghz (what I have it overclocked to) down to 3.6Ghz. Then when the game really falls on its face is when I start up an actual game, which it then drops down to 0.8GHz, which is the minimum speed that the CPU can run on. I don't understand why it's doing this. Is it a CPU issue or a MOBO/BIOS issue? I followed this video almost to a T, and am still having issues even after overclocking.

The real question here is:

Why does Fortnite make the usage drop?

 

[mdd1963]

All cores at 4.9 GHz will exceed 130-150 watt TDP, depending on the application...

If you are sure your mainboard's VRM can handle it. and your cooling is adequate, there is an option within to overrule the assorted TDP power and time of duration limits ... (if your mainboard is hard-coded in firmware to only allow 125 watts, or similar, you might be better to set a slightly lower all core turbo to avoid the 'throttling to 800 Mhz' syndrome altogether....)

Much better to be at stock 4600 MHz all core turbo than to sink to 800 MHz during a game...

 

[LeGaCyGiAnT124]

So I took your suggestion and lowered the overclock to 4.6GHz for all cores and thought the issue was fixed until it happened during a game. It just comes out of nowhere, and my core frequency went from 4.6GHz right down to 0.8GHz and my game fell on its face. While I had the intel app opened, I happened to change the Turbo Boost Power Max from Unlimited to the default 95W, clicked apply, and it fixed the problem almost instantly... no more power throttle limiting, and my core frequency went back up to the normal 4.6GHz and the CPU usage went down in game.

The real questions I have though are:

-Is something wrong with either my Mobo or CPU to cause this?
- Why didn't this happen right out of the box? Like I said, I finished my build Saturday evening and it didn't do it until Monday night.

 

[LeGaCyGiAnT124]

It did it three times today, the only way to fix it is by changing that value in the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, which is Turbo Boost Power Max. Do I have a faulty CPU here? I kind of want to try restoring my BIOS to factory, and start there and see if it does it again.