[SOLVED] i9 9900k Multipler locking at 46 after overclock to 5.0 GHz

[Rayaarito]

To get the basic spec stuff out the way:
Computer Specs

• RTX2070 Super
• i9 9900k
• 16GB Ram
• 650W Power Supply
• ASUS TUF Z390-PRO WIFI MOBO
• EDIT: Watercooler: NZXT Kraken X62

This is the tutorial I followed:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM5XO96b4G0

These are my MOBOs settings:

https://imgur.com/a/5DbLnjt

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/5DbLnjt


The issue:
After overclocking my CPU, CPU-Z is saying my multiplier is x 46.0 and my Core Speed is 4600 even though I set my multiplier to 50. I researched and researched, I've made sure my power limits are set properly, I'm pretty sure 650W power supply should be good enough, but I'm at my ends witz.

The funniest part is, if I set my bios to Optimized Defaults my speed will jump between 4600 and 4900 MHz depending on its load. So I know 4900 MHz is possible (so I'm guessing 5.0 GHz is possible).

Any ideas on getting a constant 5000?

 

[alceryes]

Maybe try disabling 'Turbo Mode' as well? SpeedStep and Turbo Mode may mess with static settings.

Also note, there is a MAJOR difference between your CPU boosting to 4.9GHz and being able to run at 4.9GHz (or 5GHz) all the time. What CPU cooler are you running with?

 

[Rayaarito]

Maybe try disabling 'Turbo Mode' as well? SpeedStep and Turbo Mode may mess with static settings.

Also note, there is a MAJOR difference between your CPU boosting to 4.9GHz and being able to run at 4.9GHz (or 5GHz) all the time. What CPU cooler are you running with?

Thank you, I'll give that a shot when I get home. I'm running a NZXT Kraken 62.


Edit : just tried. Disabling turbo drops the speed to 3. 6 GHz.

 

[Rayaarito]

I've just tried resetting the CMOS because I saw that worked for others. It did not work in this case.

Edit:

View: https://imgur.com/i0z0VWl


Here you can see that the multipler is reading 47 but it's set to 50 (8 - 50) So something fishy is going on...

 

[RayVM]

Strangely, I've just got round to overlocking the same cpu on a Z390-F and it's doing exactly the same. With the amount of messing I've been doing to OC my ram I just thought it was normal based on my cooling.

 

[Rayaarito]

Strangely, I've just got round to overlocking the same cpu on a Z390-F and it's doing exactly the same. With the amount of messing I've been doing to OC my ram I just thought it was normal based on my cooling.

What cooling do you have?

I so many people with the same issue, post "I figured it out", then not post their solution. WHY?! If you figure it out, please post the solution. I'll do the same.

For those reading in the future, if you see this post without a solution, that means I never solved it.

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

This is my cpu speed and i can get to 5ghz could it be the core speed?

 

[Rayaarito]

This is my cpu speed and i can get to 5ghz could it be the core speed?

Do you have similar specs? Or similar mother board? I wonder if i have software somewhere thats limiting me...

If you have the same mobo as me, can you please take a picture of your settings?

 

[XxDarkMario20xX]

Do you have similar specs? Or similar mother board? I wonder if i have software somewhere thats limiting me...

If you have the same mobo as me, can you please take a picture of your settings?

Nope do not have same motherboard afriad!

 

[RayVM]

What cooling do you have?

I so many people with the same issue, post "I figured it out", then not post their solution. WHY?! If you figure it out, please post the solution. I'll do the same.

For those reading in the future, if you see this post without a solution, that means I never solved it.

I've a Be Quiet Pure Rock - air cooled but it scores high enough in the bios to allow 5ghz. The first time I overclocked I got 5ghz then every time after has been lower. If I can't get further with my ram I'm thinking my board is the problem, shouldn't be such a struggle to overclock it.

 

[Rayaarito]

I've a Be Quiet Pure Rock - air cooled but it scores high enough in the bios to allow 5ghz. The first time I overclocked I got 5ghz then every time after has been lower. If I can't get further with my ram I'm thinking my board is the problem, shouldn't be such a struggle to overclock it.

I'm starting to think it's my board too. But my BIOs literally has an option to OC to 5 GHz and that doesn't even work. So it can't be....

 

[RayVM]

I'm starting to think it's my board too. But my BIOs literally has an option to OC to 5 GHz and that doesn't even work. So it can't be....

I'm getting absolutely nowhere with OC my ram. It's running at 2133 and can't get it anywhere near the 3200 it's spec'd for. Another reason for thinking my board is scrap.

 

[Rayaarito]

I'm getting absolutely nowhere with OC my ram. It's running at 2133 and can't get it anywhere near the 3200 it's spec'd for. Another reason for thinking my board is scrap.

I found somebody on reddit who posted a year ago saying they got the 9900k to 5.0GHz on all cores with our motherboard but he didn't say how and he doesn't post anymore. RIP. I'm still going to message him to see if he's still around. Maybe he can give us his specs. If i get an answer, I'll post it here

 

[mdd1963]

I'd first search your BIOS for any options possibly limiting your TDP, and, disable them, as certainly all-core operations above 4.6 GHz will exceed 95W TDP....

You might also find it easier to FAR dial in what you'd like with Intel's XTU, as this program will let you incrementally specify max turbos for when various numbers of cores are active, tweak core voltage (if needed), specify AVX offsets, etc....

Additionally, you can stay in Balanced power mode, and only hit the high clock speeds when needed.

 

[Rayaarito]

So...I can overclock this via XTU but not through the BIOs. When I do it through the BIOs, it limits everything to 4.6-4.7 GHz.

This tells me that I CAN overclock the CPU but the BIOs is preventing me. I'm getting closer..

 

[RayVM]

So, started using Asus AI Suite, now currently running at 5 on first 3 cores and 4.7 on the others. Seems to be fairly stable, shame I can't OC my ram, it just refuses to.

 

[alceryes]

Remember that the majority of i9-9900k CPUs are NOT stable at a static 5GHz, on all cores.
It's probably not the board and probably not the RAM.

 

[Rayaarito]

Remember that the majority of i9-9900k CPUs are NOT stable at a static 5GHz, on all cores.
It's probably not the board and probably not the RAM.

I want to add to this because I did not know this. My google game is WEAK boys. Not only is this true, MY CPU is not stable at 5 GHz.

Posting this for those you run into this issue in the future, Cliffs at bottom:

I could not, for the life of me, get my CPU to run at 5 GHz even though I set my BIOs to do this. I followed every youtube tutorial I could find and nothing. I read articles, nothing. None, that I stumbled upon, mentioned what Alceryes said. I should have done more research but whatever.

Browsing this forum, I saw someone mention Intels XTU software. I downloaded it, set all my cores to 5 GHz, and voltage to 1.32 V. AND BOY IT WORKED. All my cores were at 5 GHz. I double checked with CPU-Z and it was 5 GHz. I went to stress test with OCCTS. Immediately blue screened. Restarted computer, went back to XTU and reset everything to 5 GHz (as it reset back to whatever it was) and this time 1.33V. Did the same thing and immediate blue screen. But this time, either my water pump or CPU was making weird straining sounds. After those sounds, I decided I'm not going to even bother with 5 GHz anymore. This is an expensive chip and I ain't messing with it like that.

I used XTU to set everything back to its stock settings and uninstalled XTU so I could try OCing with the BIOs.

I set the BIOs to 4.9 GHz and it some how worked? Before messing with XTU, the highest I could get through BIOS (even though I set the multipler to 50 as seen in post 1) was 4.7 GHz. So either way, I'm at 4.9 GHz and 1.29V. It crashes 15 minutes into a stress test.

At this point, I'm thinking I don't want to mess with this. How about we just go for 4.8 GHz and get a really cool computer. I tried to get as low as i good with 4.8 GHz and the lowest I could is 1.27. Stressed test for 8 hours with OCCTS and 4 hours with RealBench. I chill at 55C playing VR Racing Games at max settings.

I'm guessing my bios stopped me from going over 4.7 for a reason. I probably should have listened. Hopefully this helps someone in the future.

Cliffs:
BIOs didn't let me hit 5 GHz
XTU let me hit 5 GHz
My CPU doesn't like 5 GHz
I'm chilling at 4.8 GHz all cores now
I'm guessing my BIOs stopped me from going above 4.7 for a reason

 

[Notorious^]

Never seen someone have so many issues overclocking a 9900K to 5GHz. I'm going to say its your board giving you the problems.

When overclocking i use the BIOS and the BIOS only.

Settings i use for 5GHz all cores is,

CPU Ratio - 50 All Cores
Ring Ratio - 47
CPU Core Voltage - 1.21V (Lowest i can get stable for my setup) i would start at 1.32V and work it down from there
CPU Ratio Mode - Dynamic
CPU Core Voltage Mode - Override Mode
Intel C State - Disabled

5.0GHz

5.1GHz

5.2GHz

 

[Memphisto]

Load line Calibration Level 7 is extremely high.... Are you really shure it needs to be this high?

My guess is that your VRM's on the Motherboard are getting too hot and therefore its clocking the CPU Down
You did stresstest the CPU.. right?
The Max frequenzy is only there when you need it..

For Testing:
Try putting a fan blowing directly at the VRM's and set it to max rpm.... and test again.
would love to see if that makes a difference

 

[alceryes]

Never seen someone have so many issues overclocking a 9900K to 5GHz. I'm going to say its your board giving you the problems.

5GHz is in the 'minority' for an i9-9900k chip. It's only about 30% of them according to Silicon Lottery - https://siliconlottery.com/pages/statistics

I can happily post, boot into windows, run Cinebench R20, etc., with my chip at 5GHz. However, as the famous C-3PO line goes, it's "not entirely stable," so I choose to run it at a slightly slower frequency and much lower voltage.

 

[Notorious^]

Aside from a AVX stress test for a stupid amount of time, there is nothing i can't run at 5, 5.1 or 5.2GHz. CoD, BFV, AAPG, CSGO, Cinebench, 3D Mark & Video software etc. There is nothing i do, use or run that puts such a stress on the CPU for such a long period of time like a AVX stress test. Its not a real world scenario for me for what i do.

I can run all my games i play and my productivity software i run with flying colors. I do understand what you're saying but for most people, not all but most will never do anything as intense as AVX stres load xx hours on end.

My whole point was is that the OP can't get 5GHz at all, doing anything. From what he has said so far, it looks like he couldn't even run 5GHz on cinebench like you and me can. Something is not right and IMO it's not his CPU.

I'm a public school boy, so i could be wrong.