Question What's going on with my CPU?

Dec 2, 2019
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I'm not the most educated person when it comes to PC building, but last night I tinkered with my CPU trying to install a newer one and when I realized I had to update my bios before I could use that one, I undid it and replaced my ryzen 5 1600 back in and when I turned it on, I immediately saw underperformance on what was previously a fully working chip. When I open the task manager, my CPU which has a base clock speed of 3.2 is running at 1.4 bottom and spiking up and down rapidly. What is going on and how should I go about solving this problem? Ps I don't know if this means anything but I rubbed some of the thermal paste off onto the new chip but there was still a layer left on the old chip. Please let me know what you guys think.
 
Dec 2, 2019
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And 50 degrees while playing subnautica on max settings with 60-70 fps running at a constant 3.4. Is it normal for the cpu to downclock during idle periods?
 
Dec 2, 2019
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stick with 1 thread
Took the cpu out to test another and after reinstalling the 1600, I experienced lower performance. Is this the result of tampering with the CPU? I mightve smudged some of the paste off onto the other chip, but temps were still in the 35 range while idle and 75 range while under max work load. Any and all discussions welcome and open to any ideas on how to solve this, thank yall and have a good day.
 

dstln

Distinguished
Jun 8, 2007
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Every time you remove a heatsink, you need to completely remove all thermal paste from the heatsink and processor (use 90+% rubbing alcohol and q-tips, if nothing else). Then properly apply new thermal paste before putting on a new chip.

That's absolutely why you're throttling badly, you completely broke the heat transfer.