(Very) Low CPU Benchmark Results - CPU Bad/Dying?

[Marty9231]

Hello everyone,

For a while now, I've been noticing some pretty severe problems with my computer. Most importantly, while playing games, my games would freeze momentarily every few seconds (irregularly). Some of the freezes are short, some are longer. The longer freezes are also accompanied by sound that sounds broken/distorted. This freezing is not limited to just one game, although it is more prevalent in Battlefield 1 than any other.

Because Task Manager always showed my CPU usage to be 100% while playing games, I looked at that first. I benchmarked it using many different programs and what I found kind of shocked me. I will summarize results here for each program:

Results

CPU-Z: When I stress test my CPU using CPU-Z, it starts out as expected. It gets around 6000 points. After a short while though (typically a minute or two) the score starts to drop drastically and settles as low as 2000 points.

PassMark CPU: This is probably the worst of them all. When running a full CPU test, it comes up with a score that's slightly below average, overall. However when I look at the individual results, mine are always the lowest 1-5% in the graph, except one (which is top 99%, which could explain the not-so-bad overall score). Here is an example of Integer Math.

Prime95: It took a while to figure out how to interpret the results from this benchmark test, but I think I finally found something useful. Here is my result and here is a reference result off the internet. (note: these are links to .txt files)

Relevant Info

OS: Win 10 x64
CPU: i5 4670k (non-OC, aftermarket heatsink)
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1600 (2x4)
MoBo: MSI B85-G41 Pc Mate
GPU: GTX 1060 6GB
PSU: 650W 80+ Gold
Core temperature does not exceed 50 degrees Celsius.

It is worth noting that I updated my PSU in an attempt to fix it (and because it was due for an update anyway), but the issue was there before and after the change.

Any help and/or insight would be massively appreciated. My CPU is only a year and a half old, so if possible I'd still return it under warranty, but I am unsure if 'slowness' counts as a warranty-case. Thanks!

 

[herrwizo]

Monitor your CPU temperatures while in use. You might have overheating issues, which affects performance.

 

[Marty9231]

Monitor your CPU temperatures while in use. You might have overheating issues, which affects performance.

Yeah, I forgot to initially mention that I did measure temperatures. No core exceeds 50C even at full load for a long time.

 

[herrwizo]

That seems highly unlikely, regardless of cooling solution, unless you are using a top-notch liquid cooler. With very good air cooler (Cryorig H7) i get 65C on my 4460, which operates on lower frequency. With open case. Thermals just don't seem legit, it might be that software you are using reports them incorrectly. Can you try with a different software?

 

[Marty9231]

That seems highly unlikely, regardless of cooling solution, unless you are using a top-notch liquid cooler. With very good air cooler (Cryorig H7) i get 65C on my 4460, which operates on lower frequency. With open case. Thermals just don't seem legit, it might be that software you are using reports them incorrectly. Can you try with a different software?

Perhaps I just have a cool processor, but here you go. http://i.imgur.com/RwJSk0w.png

 

[lunyone]

Well a fairly simple check is to remove the CPU HSF and the CPU from the Mobo and check that all of the pins on the socket are uniform and none are broken. Then install the CPU (with new thermal paste and of coarse cleaning it prior to installation) and the CPU HSF (which we don't know which make/model it is). This simple check could rule out an installation issue with the CPU/CPU HSF and doesn't cost you anything, but some new thermal paste.

 

[Marty9231]

https://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/freezer-13.html This is the HSF I am using. I recently upgraded from the stock cooler because I wanted to try overclocking my CPU, but then I found out about the problems. The thermal paste is very new, and temperatures dropped from about 60C to about 50C under full load after installing the aftermarket cooler/HS.

I've checked the motherboard and the CPU, but no pins are bent irregularly and all the contacts are clean and flawless. There is no dust anywhere near the processor either. The heat sink also feels very cool to the touch when the processor is at full load, so it's not the sensors either.

One thing I noticed is that, over time, my processor doesn't seem to reach full load (100%) anymore when benchmarking. For example, I've been running the CPU-Z stress test since taking the screenshot for my previous post, and CPU loads are now usually 60-80% instead of a solid 100. This could explain why the benchmark score drops so drastically (it is now at 3000 instead of the 6000 it started at).

Would it be useful to try to fresh install windows at all, or would that not make a difference for a pure CPU benchmark?

 

[jasonkaler]

Check your bios or motherboard software and see if perhaps you've set the max temperature to 50C
In some bios it's called CPU Target Temperature.
It could be that you're hitting the thermal threshold and then the cpu is throttling down.

 

[Marty9231]

Check your bios or motherboard software and see if perhaps you've set the max temperature to 50C
In some bios it's called CPU Target Temperature.
It could be that you're hitting the thermal threshold and then the cpu is throttling down.

I looked around, but the only thing I could find was a "maximum temperature" setting in the CPU fan configuration. I've changed it from 70C to 80C, but nothing changed in the temperature (nor the benchmarks, for that matter).

Edit: It turns out that the CPU-Z benchmark does not utilize the full CPU power. Load is 100%, but power usage is far below the TDP (50 instead of 80). I've tried Intel BurnTest to really stress my processor now, which does put it at 65-70 degrees.

 

[Marty9231]

It turned out that the problem (somehow) seems to have been windows/driver/harddrive related. I reformatted my harddrive, reinstalled everything and it runs flawlessly. Benchmarks are better, but still a bit below average. I guess I just have a below average unit of my CPU.