[SOLVED] Intel i7 7700k clock issues

[OhBoiOhBoi]

Hey guys,

the last few days i have searched in multiple forums for an issue that occurs with my CPU.
Sadly I could not find a solution which I am happy with.


I am currently running:

Motherboard: MSI Z270 Carbon Gaming Pro
CPU: i7 7700k 4.2GHz (OC @4.8 GHz, 1.22V)
CPU Cooler: MasterCooler ML240R
GPU: Zotac GTX1080 AMP Extreme
RAM: 4x G.Skill 8GB 2400 DDR4
PSU: Be Quiet! 750W 80+ Bronze


So the following problems keep me awake at night:

1. If I start a game for example CSGO/MHW (noticed in Full Screen games) my cpu clock speed drops to 4.3GHz (in lobby).
2. Then if I enter a game from the lobby my clock speed drops to 800MHz and stays there until I close the game resulting in very low fps.
3. Though even if the game is then closed the cpu´s clock speed will not go any higher then 4.2GHz (base cpu clock).

What I changed when before I realised this problem:

• Updated Windows 10 to version 2004
• physically cleaned my computer
• did some cablemanagement
• changed my cpu air cooler to a liquid cooler
• installed some more fans and a rgb fan controller
• updated bios to the newest version available

(Honestly I do not now when exactly the problem occured, could be even before)


What I already did:

• I checked the cables
• since the CPU was overclocked I tried with "standard" bios settings
• reset bios to an older version
• tried ThrottleStop it said "POWER" (got rid of the 2. problem)
• manually changed the long time/short time wattage limit in bios: it helped with the 2. problem aswell (for me it is better than constantly running throttlestop)

What I noticed:

• max. temperatures are around 80°C
• my cpu does not have the idle clock anymore (800MHz if nothing is processing)
• I can stress test/benchmark how much I want, the clock speed does not drop (stays at the boost/oc clock)
• When I start a fullscreen game the contrast/colour/brightness from both monitors changes and the clock speed drop happens.
• Fullscreen games with a lobby/menu (e.g. CSGO, MHW) first drop to 4.3GHz and while joining the world to 800MHz
• Windowed/Borderless games seem to be untouched
• if the clock speed already dropped due to games starting, it won't go back to the boost/oc clock it stays at 4.2GHz until I restart my computer

At the moment i do not want to exchange the MB/CPU
Hopefully someone can help me with this, i would appreciate it.

Regards


Here are some screenshots of HWMonitor:

Spoiler: Idle after computer start

Spoiler: During Cinebench 20 after computer start

Spoiler: Ingame(lobby) after game start

Spoiler: Idle after closing the game

Spoiler: During Cinebench 20 after closing the game

 

[uWebb429]

Dropping to 800 MHz, only in some games, has become a huge problem recently, but only on MSI motherboards. If you have any MSI control software running on your computer, uninstall it.

What did you set the turbo power limits to in the BIOS? Set the long and short power limits to 1023. Some MSI motherboards are showing a max value of 4096. The CPU register that holds this information can hold a maximum value of 4095.875. If you try to write 4096 to this register, the value wraps around and you end up writing 0 to the power limit register. That would be a big problem and would cause power limit throttling. Not sure if this is a BIOS problem or some control software running on your computer that is not interpreting or rounding off the BIOS number correctly.

Run ThrottleStop and check the Log File option. Go play a game for at least 15 minutes. Make sure you have some of these drops to 800 MHz episodes while you are logging data. When finished testing, exit your game and exit ThrottleStop. Open the ThrottleStop / Logs folder and you will see your log file. Attach this file to your next post or copy and paste the data to www.pastebin.com and post a link here.

Post some screenshots of ThrottleStop so I can see how the BIOS is setting up your CPU.

 

[OhBoiOhBoi]

Hey, thanks for replying.

I think I found the culprit which let my clock speed drop.

Dropping to 800 MHz, only in some games, has become a huge problem recently, but only on MSI motherboards. If you have any MSI control software running on your computer, uninstall it.

I read something like this before but did not pay any attention to it.
Then it came in mind that I have the MSI Dragon Center app installed, which I also have installed recently.
I removed the app and now I do not have any issues so far.
Cannot believe that I and probably other people aswell had such problems because of something like this

Since my problem got solved I did not try anything with ThrottleStop after that, and I have reset all changes in BIOS.

Thanks for this advice

 

[uWebb429]

This problem has been showing up in a lot of different forums recently. It is always happening on MSI motherboards. It makes sense that it is their MSI Dragon Center software that is causing this problem. Thanks for taking the time to report how you solved this.