Question System Slow Down ?

[c.meul1979]

Hello.

I have the following hardware issue.

Suddenly the system, either from a boot or from a sleep state, will only operate at approx. 10% of its capabilities.
I use my system primarily for gaming and the result is quite obvious in current day games. In Total War Warhammer 3 for example, gpu powerdraw will not go over 40 - 60 watts no matter the settings. This makes the game effectively unplayable. Also, when i try to bench the system with for example userbenchmark, the endscore is waay below average.

The first time i encountered this problem is probably about a month ago. I did not change anything and if i remember correct the problem was gone again after a restart. Of course, at this moment i did not really pay attention.

The second time was after i opened my case to measure if i had a place for a 2d aio (connected to a gpu). I vaguely remember doing something where i had this O O moment. Probably to pulled something with too much force though again, i'm not really sure. The result was after closing the case this major system slow down. By that time i already ordered the new gpu and it would deliver the next day so again i figured ah what?? this will fix its self when i install the new gpu. This turned out to be a false estimate. After installing the new gpu, a 3080 my system still ran very, very slow.

This led to a wild night where i first tried different things such as playing with windows settings and nvidia settings. After some time i tried to switch ram sticks since i had my old ddr 4 set still lying around. I then tried switching cpu's which also did not work. Some hours later i had the insight of removing all extra hardware such as a network card and a soundcard, replace the old gpu and use the other cpu, a 10600k and the old ram sticks to see if that would fix the problem. And this worked. I then tried placing the other equipment back. A 10900k, the 3080 and the 2 sticks of 32 gb and the problem remained fixed until yesterday evening.

I came back from dinner and wakened the pc from its slumber, only to find it superslow again. Last night i started with swapping the ram out and trying different configurations. place 1 and 3, place 2 and 4 which did help a bit. Suddenly power was instead of at 10% around 50%, the gpu drawing max 230Watts though not in a stable manner and i left at that. Today i came home, hoping to see a nice and speedy system but alas. the problem was still there. I even noticed the pc running quite hot at a given when i opened steam that immediately started downloading while at the same time opening warhammer 3 to see how the system would react. With nvidia's OSD enabled i noted the cpu running at 100% and a couple of seconds later noticed some hot air coming from the pc. I disabled the system, swapped out the cpu's, the 10900k for the 10600k and when i rebooted everything was back to normal.


I don't have any clue what really is happening or what the fault maybe, hence the post in this revered pc walhalla 😉 My gut feeling says something with the motherboard is amiss but i guess the cpu can also be a suspect.
Apologies in advance for the maybe blurred story. Recovery of the system seems to be magical in my eyes and i really have to little time atm to start a serious test.
Looking forward to some feedback.

Specs of the build.

CPU : Intel I9 10900k
Motherboard : Rog Strix B-460-H Gaming - bios ver 1401
Ram : G.Skill DDR4 Trident-Z 2x32GB 3200MHz RGB
SSD/HDD Main Drive Samsung Evo 970 1 TB
Secundary Drive Samsung Evo 970 plus 2 TB
Storage Drive Seagate 5400 rpm 4 TB
GPU: Aorus 3080 Waterforce 12 GB
PSU: Be Quiet Straight Power 11 850 Watts << Usage, about 2 weeks
Chassis: Be Quiet Silent Base 601
OS: Windows 11.
Cooling Artic Freezer 280 (cpu aio) orientation front push. gpu aio located top pull

Secondary parts
Cpu : intel i5 10600k
gpu: aorus 2060 super
ram: corsair vengeance 2 x 8 3000 mhz

 

[Lutfij]

With all things said and done, you forgot to mention the specs to your build. Please list them like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. What are you using to cool the processor and how is it oriented in your case? BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time?

Recovery of the system seems to be magical in my eyes and i really have to little time atm to start a serious test
I'm confused by your story + the creation of this thread. Are you trying to get to the bottom of the issue or are you trying to find a quick fix? The latter might not be possible but is definitely worth a try to resolve what might be bogging down an otherwise, high end system.

 

[c.meul1979]

With all things said and done, you forgot to mention the specs to your build. Please list them like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
include the age of the PSU apart from it's make and model. What are you using to cool the processor and how is it oriented in your case? BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time?

Recovery of the system seems to be magical in my eyes and i really have to little time atm to start a serious test
I'm confused by your story + the creation of this thread. Are you trying to get to the bottom of the issue or are you trying to find a quick fix? The latter might not be possible but is definitely worth a try to resolve what might be bogging down an otherwise, high end system.

Hey, that is a fair question. First, i will edit my post with the specs but to answer your question. I was hoping that someone would recognize the problems and or could help me with pinpointing the problem.

I would go nuts if i had to spend the money to replace either motherboard or the cpu, maybe even both to find out later on that this problem could be resolved with a driver update to name something nonsensical.
Especially the part where i noticed the gust of hot air blowing from my system while i did not even hear any fans speed up or something made me worry about the longevity of my hardware

 

[Lutfij]

You should've looked into a Z series top tier board, considering you've got an i9-10900K. You spent good money on a high end CPU, the least you should do is spend on a beefy quality motherboard. With that said, you have 4 BIOS updates pending on that motherboard. Your cooler isn't sufficient either, whereby people with that processor needed to pair it with a 360mm AIO or a custom watercooling loop. In short, (leaving the BIOS version aside)your build isn't balanced nor is it done right.

Cooling Artic Freezer 280 (cpu aio) orientation front push. gpu aio located top pull
You mean the front mounted AIO has the fans drawing air into the case and the GPU's AIO is exhausting air out the top of the case?

Your PSU might also be inadequate considering how the RTX3000 series has transient power spikes necessitating a higher wattage PSU.

You could try a clean install of your OS, after recreating the bootable USB installer for your OS and see if that alleviates the issue you've mentioned in your initial post. If the BIOS updates and the OS reinstall doesn't solve the issue, I'm leaning towards the VRM area of that motherboard struggling to feed necessary power to your i9.

 

[c.meul1979]

You should've looked into a Z series top tier board, considering you've got an i9-10900K. You spent good money on a high end CPU, the least you should do is spend on a beefy quality motherboard. With that said, you have 4 BIOS updates pending on that motherboard. Your cooler isn't sufficient either, whereby people with that processor needed to pair it with a 360mm AIO or a custom watercooling loop. In short, (leaving the BIOS version aside)your build isn't balanced nor is it done right.

Cooling Artic Freezer 280 (cpu aio) orientation front push. gpu aio located top pull
You mean the front mounted AIO has the fans drawing air into the case and the GPU's AIO is exhausting air out the top of the case?

Your PSU might also be inadequate considering how the RTX3000 series has transient power spikes necessitating



a higher wattage PSU.

You could try a clean install of your OS, after recreating the bootable USB installer for your OS and see if that alleviates the issue you've mentioned in your initial post. If the BIOS updates and the OS reinstall doesn't solve the issue, I'm leaning towards the VRM area of that motherboard struggling to feed necessary power to your i9.

I welcome your sincerity.

Notes are taken. Concerning the motherboard, Last night I found deal for a msi z590 ace gold board. Apparently it went for about the same price as the 10900k during release. I might follow up on that deal today.

A clean OS install is put on my todo list, probably tomorrow, of course with the bios updates as you suggested.

Yes the fan situation is as described. I initially bought the freezer for the 10600k. That cpu went to another giving me a chance to upgrade to the 10900k and see what that thing would be worth. Anyways I will check and see later next year foe another solution. Also to be clear. There is a 14 mill fan on the back and a 12 mm one at the base, down, of the front panel, pushing air up I presume.

Lot of thanks for taking the time to formulate an answer