[SOLVED] Intel 9700k Will NOT go above 3.4ghz under any circumstances

[djnomax]

I have had an Intel 9700k in my system for some time now. I never made any changes in BIOS or anything. And for a while, I did not notice any problems. However, When trying to play some bigger AAA titles I noticed a lot of stuttering that did not match the performance of other people's results on a 9700k. After looking into this I discovered that my CPU will NEVER go above 3.4Ghz either while gaming or while stress testing.
I have updated my motherboard BIOS to the latest version, no difference. Even loaded optimal settings in the BIOS despite me not making any changes and it still did not help. I downloaded Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and it says that there is no thermal throttling, no power limit throttling, and no current limit throttling while stress testing. I have no idea what the problem could be. Most of the time my temps never even get above 50c, but regardless whether its 40c or 80c the performance doesn't change.
My system specs are below with a screenshot of the Intel Tuning Tool that shows a lot of BIOS settings as well as a stress test results graphs at the bottom that show it is locked at 3.4GHz.

CPU: Intel i7-9700k
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 Ultra Durable
GPU: Gigabyte RTX 3070ti
Ram: 32 GB Corsair Vengance DDR4 2133mhz
PSU: EVGA SuperNova 750W
Cooler: CoolerMaster Dual 120mm AIO
Intel Extreme Tuning Tool Screenshot:

https://imgur.com/a/W7DMGDo

View: https://imgur.com/a/W7DMGDo

 

[lordmogul]

What are you using to check the clocks?
Usually the base clock should already be 3.6 GHz, so a simple "turbo boost is disabled" can't be the issue.
What is set in the Windows power profile? I remember there is a setting for the minimum and maximum allowed clock state. Usually useful to limit power usage (like in a laptop)

 

[djnomax]

What are you using to check the clocks?
Usually the base clock should already be 3.6 GHz, so a simple "turbo boost is disabled" can't be the issue.
What is set in the Windows power profile? I remember there is a setting for the minimum and maximum allowed clock state. Usually useful to limit power usage (like in a laptop)

I have used HWMonitor, CPU-Z and Task Manager to check the clocks they all show the same thing. (Including the same within the Intel Utility).
The windows power profile is set to high performance, and I just checked in advanced settings both the Minimum and Maximum processor state are set to 95%

 

[emitfudd]

I have used HWMonitor, CPU-Z and Task Manager to check the clocks they all show the same thing. (Including the same within the Intel Utility).
The windows power profile is set to high performance, and I just checked in advanced settings both the Minimum and Maximum processor state are set to 95%

No idea if this will solve your problem, set the minimum and maximum to 100%. No reason for it to be set at 95%.

 

[boju]

Yeah set both min max to 100%. By default, high performance plan already sets both to 100%, they being set to 95% means these values were changed manually by someone or some program once upon a time.

 

[lordmogul]

3.4 GHz is about 94.444% of 3.6 GHz, so that sounds about right. Windows only allows for whole percentages to be set, and the highest state within the "allowed" range will be used. For example my 3570K is oc'ed to 4.5 GHz, and the next step below that is 4.3, roughly 95.6% of that, so if I set mine to between 94 and 98% it goes to 4.3

Not sure how that impacts your turbo boost, but at least the 3.6 base clock should run now.