CPU wont downclock (and overclocking help)

[Double Deez Nuts]

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 Aorus
CPU: i3 8350k

Core clocks are stuck at maximum and i cant find any way in the bios to change it. No luck with google. Occasionally drops to 800Mhz, but then spikes back up

not sure if this is normal or not. first time builder

[_I_]

check bios settings make sure c states are enabled
and windows power settings

but windows 10 rarely idles and the cpu may not underclock

else dont worry about it

[Arya]

All modern Intels do that to some degree. My 8700K never drops below 1K MHz, even at desktop. It's not something you need to worry about, they all do that.

The most important thing I can get across, is to trust your hardware and your assembly. PCs are really rugged, there's only one thing you can do while building to actually damage it. And that's drop the CPU into it's socket within enough force to break a pin. Since the PC boots you haven't done that. So relax - it's working.

Clock speeds are fine; you can't break a CPU with clock speeds. High clock speeds are a good thing, higher means faster. The only thing you need to watch is Voltage, and that's regulated carefully for you and won't ever put your system at risk.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Did you recently change your power plan in windows? If you selected "High Performance", part of that will make your cpu stay maxed at all times. You have to select "Balanced" before it will drop down again.

[Arya]

Originally posted by Impending Rentacle Tape:

Did you recently change your power plan in windows? If you selected "High Performance", part of that will make your cpu stay maxed at all times. You have to select "Balanced" before it will drop down again.

Although there's no need to do that. At worst you're drawing a few watts of extra power, but even then an i3 uses about as much electricity as a lightbulb.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by Wolfey:

Although there's no need to do that. At worst you're drawing a few watts of extra power, but even then an i3 uses about as much electricity as a lightbulb.

You're close though :D My second computer with an i3 pulls 35 watts and our LED light bulbs pull 5 watts. :D

[Double Deez Nuts]

Originally posted by _I_:

check bios settings make sure c states are enabled
and windows power settings

My c states are at Auto

Originally posted by Impending Rentacle Tape:

Did you recently change your power plan in windows?

Running the default balanced power plan.

Also, does anyone know why cinebench keeps crashing when i try to run a benchmark?

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Originally posted by 🌋↪ToƦcH↩🌋:

Originally posted by _I_:

check bios settings make sure c states are enabled
and windows power settings

My c states are at Auto

Originally posted by Impending Rentacle Tape:

Did you recently change your power plan in windows?

Running the default balanced power plan.

Also, does anyone know why cinebench keeps crashing when i try to run a benchmark?

Is your processor overclocked?

[Double Deez Nuts]

Originally posted by Impending Rentacle Tape:

Originally posted by 🌋↪ToƦcH↩🌋:

My c states are at Auto



Running the default balanced power plan.

Also, does anyone know why cinebench keeps crashing when i try to run a benchmark?

Is your processor overclocked?

yeah. currently at 4.7Ghz @ 1.350 volts. seems to be stable right now but this is thie highest i can get so far. any tips?

[Kaihekoa]

Originally posted by 🌋↪ToƦcH↩🌋:

Originally posted by Impending Rentacle Tape:

Is your processor overclocked?

yeah. currently at 4.7Ghz @ 1.350 volts. seems to be stable right now but this is thie highest i can get so far. any tips?

It's not stable. Run Realbench or Prime 95 to test stability. All the proper settings are enabled to allow the CPU to downclock, it will do that when there is no work for it to do.

[Double Deez Nuts]

Not sure if i should increase voltage to 1.4 or try turning off c states. I hear its an unsafe voltage but why?

[Arya]

Originally posted by 🌋↪ToƦcH↩🌋:

Not sure if i should increase voltage to 1.4 or try turning off c states. I hear its an unsafe but why?

Anything around 1.35 is totally safe. Once you go past 1.4 you're getting into less safe territory. I wouldn't go that far, a safer option would be winding the clocks back slightly for the same voltage.

[MancSoulja]

Originally posted by 🌋↪ToƦcH↩🌋:

Not sure if i should increase voltage to 1.4 or try turning off c states. I hear its an unsafe voltage but why?

Bump your CPU down to 4.5Ghz and forget it. Unless you are trying to beat someone's benchmark score that extra 200Mhz will offer you little in the way of real world perfomance. You're just putting your CPU through unnecessary voltage.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Overclocking...

> Disable ~ C States, SpeedStep, Turbo; these are power saving features you now dont need or can really use due to being OC'ed; pointless stuff anyways.

> Set Windows Power Profile to High Performance

Having the CPU at max frequency at all times has nothing to do with power draws. CPU Loads are what will draw actual power.