[SOLVED] i9-12900K strange core utilization ?

[skulish]

Hi, bought i9-12900 about 2 months ago and recently noticed strange CPU utilization. 5th and 7th P-cores are seems to do all the work (and they are hotter than others up to ~10-15 C during gaming, in idle temps are ~28-30 C). I thought first that this is just how stuff was paralleled (because in benchmarks cores are 100% loaded and temps are pretty much equal on all cores ), but after a while decided to make some experiments.
Reference cpu utilization in TW: Warhammer 3 (Batttle benchmark)
[Sorry, due some reason cant insert iamge]
All cores enabled

First of all I disabled 5th and 7th P-core and launched TW: Warhammer 3 - and cpu utilization was near perfect. All P-cores seems to have pretty much the same load
5 and 7 P-core disabled

After that I enabled back P-cores and disabled E-cores and 5 and 7 core loaded as before
E-cores disabled

Is this behavior normal and I am just dumb and try to find problem when it does not exist?

 

[Darkbreeze]

The core behavior is strange, even for those of us who are PRETTY familiar with Intel CPU behaviors.

A few things I'd make sure of before looking elsewhere.

What are your full hardware specifications? Please include, if possible, exact model or part numbers for CPU, motherboard, memory kit, EXACT power supply model, case, fans, graphics card, etc.?

What motherboard BIOS version is currently installed?

Have you installed the MOST recent stable drivers for the chipset (.inf), network adapters and audio chipset, as available from the product support page for your motherboard model?

What Windows version and build version are you running?

 

[skulish]

The core behavior is strange, even for those of us who are PRETTY familiar with Intel CPU behaviors.

A few things I'd make sure of before looking elsewhere.

What are your full hardware specifications? Please include, if possible, exact model or part numbers for CPU, motherboard, memory kit, EXACT power supply model, case, fans, graphics card, etc.?

What motherboard BIOS version is currently installed?

Have you installed the MOST recent stable drivers for the chipset (.inf), network adapters and audio chipset, as available from the product support page for your motherboard model?

What Windows version and build version are you running?

Thanks for response
Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i9-12900k
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z690 Edge WIFI(MS7D31)
RAM: 32gb (16x2) DDR5 Kingston Fury KF556C40-16
GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3080 ti GAMING 12gb
Power supply: Thermaltake Toughpower iRGB PLUS 1050W (80+
Platinum, ATX 2.4, APFC, 140mm, 12xSATA, 8xPCIE) [PS-
TPI-1050F2FDPx-1]
OS: Windows 11 Pro - 22000.978
Case: MSI MPG VELOX 100P AIRFLOW Midtower Black
Case fans: Thermaltake Riing Trio14 LED RGB Premium
Edition 3xPack
AIO: ID-Cooling ZOOMFLOW 360XT
SSD: 2x Intel 660p

According to MSI support page (https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/MPG-Z690-EDGE-WIFI/support#driver) new BIOS version was released today. Tried it out but no affect
Just to be sure that chipset is also up to date reinstalled it alongside with bioos update

 

[skulish]

Temps/load after bios update

 

[Darkbreeze]

Try loading the optimal default BIOS configuration on the exit tab in your BIOS. Then, after loading the optimal default values, go back and reconfigure any custom settings that are necessary for fan curves, etc. Do not make any changes to the CPU or memory configuration at this time.

Save and exit BIOS and see if this behavior still occurs in Windows. If it does, go into the Windows advanced power options and set the power plan to balanced if it is set to Performance. Then go into the advanced options for that power plan and under the "Processor power management" setting make sure the minimum is set to somewhere between 5 and 8% and maximum is set to 100%.

Restart and see if you are still seeing the same behavior. If yes, go back into the BIOS and make sure that all of the CPU core behavior settings for per core and preferred core behaviors are set to Auto (Or enabled if that is the default for that setting) and that C-states are enabled. Also, make sure Intel Speed shift is enabled. Save settings and check in Windows again.

If there is still an issue, try running Prime95 with all of the AVX and AVX2/512 options disabled OR an appropriate AVX offset enabled in the BIOS if you are familiar with setting up an AVX offset, and then take a look at what the core behaviors are doing. I would recommend that you ditch Aida64 as a metric to determine anything. It does not adequately load cores nor does it provide a fully steady state load for determining if core behaviors are acting normally or not. Download and install HWinfo. Choose "Sensors only" and uncheck the "Summary" option. Run HWinfo and then run Prime95 so you can monitor core thermals and usage while Prime is running. Post screenshots here. Instructions on posting screenshots so they are visible on this page is outlined at the following link.

How to PROPERLY post images on the Tom's hardware forum​

 

[skulish]

Tried everything, no effect (changed minimum in "Processor power management" to 8)
Unfortunately cannot use imgur due some reason (cant login)

Bios default
cpu load during tww3 (C state, TB 3.0, Speed Shift enabled)
hwinfo after tww3 (C state, TB 3.0, Speed Shift enabled)
CPU load in prime95 (AVX disabled)

hwinfo after 20 min in prime95

Just to be sure also checked prime95 with AVX2
prime95 AVX enabled (+-20 minutes)

PS: I know that my AIO cant handle more than ~250W, so 100C expected (additional reviews were posted after I bought it)

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, at this point I think I'd be inclined to say there is either a problem with the motherboard or the CPU. Let me ask for a second opinion by somebody who knows more about Intel processors than almost anybody out there, including probably a bunch of people who work for Intel. It might even be normal behavior for that chip, although I don't believe that to be true unless those cores are SERIOUSLY better than the others since these CPUs I believe are designed to want to use the best performing cores the most, but your case seems a bit over the top.

Computronix hopefully will be able to speak to this better than I can if he is willing to.

 

[skulish]

I noticed one thing when I ran prime95 - 5 and 7 core clocked up to 5.2 when others were up to 5.1 (and disabling them normalizing distribuiton). There is a feature in windows + intel called favourite core https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...erformance-via-favored-cpu-core-optimization/

So I checked default multipiers and 5,7 core had 52 and other cores had 51. Setting multipier o the same value across all cores fixed this issue

Normal CPU load distribution

For anybody who will see such issue. Check core multipiers first, it might work as it should

PS: Darkbreeze thanks a lot for your help!

 

[Darkbreeze]

I already mentioned the preferred core thing. Your issue seemed to be outside or beyond that, but, ok.