Sudden performance drop on my new gaming pc

[ullert]

I just recently built my own gaming desktop computer, and i have been amazed by the performance it delivers so far. Just recently, i got a weird problem that has caused almost any game to lag! Normally i have had a steady 60 fps in racing games (Those who are locked to 60) and an average 120-130fps in other games. But they all drop below 20 a lot now?!

I ran 3D Mark almost emediately after i had installed all drivers and program updates, and i have done the same benchmark now. i have lost about half of the performance i had earlier! Comparing the result details, everything is a match, except this interresting change under the cpu information:

"Before the performance drop":
Processor Intel Core i7-4820K
Reported stock core clock: 3 700 MHz
Maximum turbo core clock: 3 700 MHz <--

"After the performance drop":
Processor Intel Core i7-4820K
Reported stock core clock: 3 700 MHz
Maximum turbo core clock: 1 200 MHz <--

I have no idea what may have caused the problem, and i hope some of you have any idea on how i can fix this.
Any help appreciated!

My computer specs are:
Asus Rampage IV Black Edition
Intel Core i7 4820k
Corsair Dominator Platinum 16gb, 1866mhz (4x4)
Evga gtx 780 "SC"
Kingston HyperX 250Gb ssd

 

[Pcbuilder123]

Thanks for the tips! I am pretty shure i havent tuched any switch or messed with the oc panel (currently have it installed in the front for cpufan speed monitoring). I will check the switches and the oc panel to see if they might have been switched to slow mode 😉

You're welcome And yes I am pretty sure you somehow switched to slow mode since you are running at the EXACT speed slow mode sets your CPU to. What it actually does is sets your CPU multiplier to 12 and since typically your base clock is 100 Mhz that would equal exactly 1200 Mhz - the same value you have in the 3dmark results. (and from the first result set you can see that you had your multiplier at 37)

Cheers!
Edit: I've even found you some reference material http://www.anandtech.com/show/7612/asus-rivbe (search for 'slow mode' and read at the 3rd occurrence on the page - you can see where exactly is your switch)

That makes perfect sence! I boosted the baseclock to 125 while troubleshooting, and 125 x 12 is 1500, wich was the score i got on the 3D mark benchmark after the change 😀 Thanks for finding the picture aswell! I am turning of my computer to have a look at the switches, i will post the result as soon as possible 😛

Awesome! How come earlier you weren't increasing the multiplier? Make sure to choose a best answer if your problem is over.

all my slow_mode switches are set to Off, wich means that some program or app probably had set my computer in slow mode?
I will not be able to test the benchmark until tomorrow because of my internet speed limitation (60 kb/s) so i will download 3d mark over night and have a look at the results tomorrow. The problem may still be there... is it a good idea to increase the base clock to get back the performance lost by the "safe mode glitch" im experiencing? will it shorten the lifetime of the processor if i increase the baseclock up to the max? (250mhz)

60kbps... 🙁 I thought 300 was bad. Lol, but really, just backup and reinstall windows

 

[ullert]

Thanks for the tips! I am pretty shure i havent tuched any switch or messed with the oc panel (currently have it installed in the front for cpufan speed monitoring). I will check the switches and the oc panel to see if they might have been switched to slow mode 😉

You're welcome And yes I am pretty sure you somehow switched to slow mode since you are running at the EXACT speed slow mode sets your CPU to. What it actually does is sets your CPU multiplier to 12 and since typically your base clock is 100 Mhz that would equal exactly 1200 Mhz - the same value you have in the 3dmark results. (and from the first result set you can see that you had your multiplier at 37)

Cheers!
Edit: I've even found you some reference material http://www.anandtech.com/show/7612/asus-rivbe (search for 'slow mode' and read at the 3rd occurrence on the page - you can see where exactly is your switch)

That makes perfect sence! I boosted the baseclock to 125 while troubleshooting, and 125 x 12 is 1500, wich was the score i got on the 3D mark benchmark after the change 😀 Thanks for finding the picture aswell! I am turning of my computer to have a look at the switches, i will post the result as soon as possible 😛

Awesome! How come earlier you weren't increasing the multiplier? Make sure to choose a best answer if your problem is over.

all my slow_mode switches are set to Off, wich means that some program or app probably had set my computer in slow mode?
I will not be able to test the benchmark until tomorrow because of my internet speed limitation (60 kb/s) so i will download 3d mark over night and have a look at the results tomorrow. The problem may still be there... is it a good idea to increase the base clock to get back the performance lost by the "safe mode glitch" im experiencing? will it shorten the lifetime of the processor if i increase the baseclock up to the max? (250mhz)

60kbps... 🙁 I thought 300 was bad. Lol, but really, just backup and reinstall windows

I will maybe consider reinstalling windows, i could finaly do the benchmark, and the cpu turbo clock is back to normal now 😉 but a new problem has come up x_x This is the information on the gpu after the 3dmark test:
Memory 3 072 MB
Core clock 0 MHz <--
Memory bus clock 0 MHz <--

I should have got a test score on about 9300, but now i got 93... seems like the cpu did all the work in the test :l
(i have yet another problem with the watercooler, can i ask you guys about it in this post or do i make a new thread somewhere else on tomshardware forums about that?)

 

[zenx]

Hi,
Go to your bios, set your clock speed back to 100 Mhz and set your multiplier to 37 and you're done

Cheers
P.S. : Be careful with software such as AI Suite since it basically changes your clock speeds on the fly without asking you first based on system load ) I personally don't like it since I can set m]]y own speeds

Edit: Oh forgot to mention, you don't really need to run the benchmark every time.. just press windows + Pause key combination on your keyboard (system properties menu) and you can see your CPU speed there instantly the first value is the factory default and the second is the current speed - right now you should have something like your processor name and then 3.7 Ghz and the value 1.5 Ghz next to it.. your goal is to increase the second value to at least match the first one But yea anyway your solution should be as simple as disabling your windows overclocking software and simply setting your multiplier to 37 in the bios and your clock speed back to 100 (if you increase the base clock you need to change voltage settings as well otherwise your system becomes unstable.. so don't mess with those unless you know what you;re doing... but changing the multiplier is safe.. just set it to 37 and your clock speed back to 100 mhz... cheers!!!

 

[zenx]

and no, you don't need to reinstall windows as it won't do you any good 😛 also you can see your clock speeds in the bios while you're modifying your multiplier.. your goal is 100x37 = 3.7 Ghz