Fluctuating clock frequency causing lag in games.

[A Rahim]

I recently (yesterday) upgraded my old trusty I3 3220 to I5 3470 (Used). Now the problem is although it worked without any issue on idle or low load, I was having huge lag/spikes/stutters in games, even in games that worked flawlessly on my supposedly inferior I3.

I looked into various possibilities,
1) Temperature, but it doesn't exceed 72C (acceptable)
2) Power supply, that is thermal take 550 W with 38 ampere on 12 V (more than enough as I only got GTX 1050 without any 6 pin connector and no other component to use that much power (1hdd, 1dvd-rw, 1 case fan)
3) I even explored the possibility of my I5 chip being bad, but it passed Intel processor diagnostic tool test.

While monitoring my CPU temperature via HW Monitor, I realized that my CPU frequency was fluctuating a lot, minimum was mere 81 MHZ while max was 5000+MHZ, so I turned off Intel speed step and Intel turbo boost thinking that it may stabilize the fps, which it did to some extent as now instead of dropping to 1 fps on (81mhz) it was only dropping to 800mhz-1600mhz, but still I had fps drops to 20 fps every few seconds. Then upon searching some more, I found the real culprit (hopefully), Intel adaptive thermal monitor. I turned it off, and it solved the clock speed dips which now does not drop below 3,199 mhz. and fps was also good 40-60 while gaming for half an hour, but I noticed that though the clock speed does not decrease anymore, it still increases automatically although intel turbo boost is disabled. I still see some FPS drops to 40 or 30 FPS sometimes.

I have screenshot of one of frequency spikes prior to disabling Intel adaptive thermal monitor.

Did not take screenshot of that 81MHZ thing, but take my words for it.
Please guide what to do?

 

[A Rahim]

Update, after restarting I noticed that when the lags/stutter start, first it overclock the underclock and things don't improve on either until it gets back to the default frequency of 3200mhz.

 

[ali tayyab]

This is Intel Speed Step at work. It lowers clock speed when the load on CPU is low. If you think this is the cause of your issues either disable EIST & C-States in the bios/UEFI or set windows power profile to high performance.
If that does not work start a benchmark like OCCT (google) and see if the CPU clock ramps and stays at its peak frequency as long as the benchmark runs. If it does so things are likely to be software issues. If it does not ramp up or quickly ramps down you are either hitting a thermal or power limit.

 

[A Rahim]

Thanks for the reply, really appreciate it.
Already disabled speed step, C-States (C1E, C3 and C6) and Intel adaptive thermal monitor along with turbo boost.
I ran the test as you suggested (5-6 mins), there was no crash/BSOD and clock frequency did not drop once. Then why does it drop while gaming and idling even though I disabled speed step, C-States, Turbo boost and Intel adaptive thermal monitor from bios? I also noted upon restarting, first the frequency increases above the threshold level of turbo boost that is (3.6 and disabled in bios) then it drops to less than 1600 mhz, but lags and stutter keep on continue until the frequency stabilizes at 3200 mhz.

Below is another screenshot after playing Witcher 3 for one hour. Have a look at clocks (Max and value).

Spoiler: show

 

[ali tayyab]

You should not disable turbo boost
7GHz max speed?? You should download HWinfo and run ONLY that as monitoring software. Then set windows to "high performance" mode in power profile (additional power settings)

Secondly ensure that your board's BIOS/UEFI supports the processor. I am sure it does, but double check to ensure (check manufacturers website).
Does it do the same in 3Dmark?

 

[A Rahim]

I had turbo boost enabled, but the temps were crossing 72C even in gaming, so I disabled it until I solve this underclocking issue. I tried using HWInfo but it is giving error "Cannot install HWiNFO driver because operating system doesn't support SHA256 signing. Install Microsoft KB3033929 to fix it".

I also verified if my motherboard supports the CPU or not, it does, since version 0312 and my motherboard bios version is 1303.

Update on the issue, I was playing Witcher 3 then noticed the FPS dropped from 60 to 20 when I went to any static screen (Journal, map, inventory) and return to game world, but going back to same journal/inventory fixed that issue.

3D mark test results were,
Fire strike score 5,408; graphics score 6,409; physics 5,914 and combined 2,352.
Sky Diver score 12,664; graphics score 15,353; physics 6,486 and combined 14,318
Cloud gate score 12,048; Graphics 26,656 and physics 4,129
Ice storm score 127,408; graphics 242,024 and physics 47,943

Other results in 3DMark run score was 5,408...

 

[ali tayyab]

I suggest you update windows. If you dont want to, install core temp or speedfan
Does this issue occur in The Witcher 3 only or all games. If it is the witcher 3, ensure that the game is running in full screen (or exclusive full screen) not borderless window.
And did you change the window's power profile.

Other things to try:
1. Install afterburner and see how your GPU frequency behaves.
2. Running Witcher 3 (ensuring it is in exclusive full screen) and enable logging in afterburner so that it logs your GPU clocks and temps and CPU clocks and temps (if it can pick them up.); enable logging in core temp/ speed fan (if it allows and afterburner can't pick your cpu clocks/ temps

 

[A Rahim]

I am shifting to windows 10, the issue occur in every game and even when I'm on desktop (not idle). I will do that afterburner thing and report.

 

[A Rahim]

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: show

Info of HWInfo after installing Windows 10, Sims 4 had similar hiccup of lag/instability that cured after I pause or go to static game screen (Inventory) after that I took screenshot of HWInfo.

 

[ali tayyab]

Well your CPU speed seems to be okay by hwinfo , what's puzzling is the memory clock
What are your memory settings in the bios and what memory and how much of it do you have installed?

 

[ali tayyab]

Okay, I have it figured out. Your board is raising the bus req from 100 to 131 MHz rather than turbo which I assume is still disabled in the bios. This explains weird memory clock as well

Go to bios change bus freq from auto to 100, enable turbo and see what happens.

 

[A Rahim]

Please have a look at bus speed of CPU in the first spoiler, 131 mhz doesn't seem stable. My ram is Kingston DDR3 1333 MHZ. I did not touch ram settings, all of them are on auto and latency is 9-9-9-24.

 

[ali tayyab]

Please have a look at bus speed of CPU in the first spoiler, 131 mhz doesn't seem stable. My ram is Kingston DDR3 1333 MHZ. I did not touch ram settings, all of them are on auto and latency is 9-9-9-24.

Spoiler 1 shows max bus speed rising to 131 which is basically where the issue stems from. if you look at HWinfo your CPU multiplier never changes implying that the bus speed is changing which is changing your CPUs clock speed. Which is probably why your RAM speed is so erratic. It is Double data rate so 667*2 = 1333Mhz, but it jumps to 800+ as the bus speed is raised beyond 100. At full turbo your CPU is supposed to have a freq of 3600 (multi of 36); but it boosts to 4200 which (32*131ish).

This is easy to check simply ensure that the bus stays at 100 in the BIOS/UEFI

 

[A Rahim]

This is what I was trying to say since first post. That CPU is exceeding prescribed max speed. There is no option in bios to fix/change the bus speed, it is old H61M-E of Asus. No overclocking feature. Please guide me what to do next. and whether this problem can be cured or not.

 

[A Rahim]

Please tell me if there is any way of ensuring that bus does not exceed 100 MHZ. My mobo is Asus H61M-E.

 

[ali tayyab]

In advanced mode select air tweaker and select100:100 as CPU:dram freq

Next under advanced then CPU configuration select CPU ratio. This should be 100 on most boards. If you are not certain set it to auto if at any other value. Or press plus or minus to see possible values and report back