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horrific performance, GTX 780 ghz, please help...

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  • Gtx
  • Performance
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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December 8, 2013 10:50:06 AM

Hey guys, I just finished my first ever PC build. It should be able to chew up and spit out any game I throw at it no problem, but I'm getting abysmal FPS.

My 3dmark benchmark score is 3.9k whereas the GTX 780 should score around 13k.

Something is very wrong, but I'm not tech savvy enough to figure it out. I need your help.

These are my specs:

CPU: Intel i5 4670k @3.5ghz
CPU fan: CoolerMaster Hyber 212 Evo
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 780 ghz edition
RAM: 16gb 1600mhz Crucial
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-OC
PSU: NZXT 850 watts
SSD: 224gb Intel solid state
Chassis: NZXT phantom 410

I've tried a few things to remedy the problem.
Reinstalled NVidia drivers (twice)
monitored GPU clocks with EVGA software was peaking at 1185mhz

I'm stumped and totally bummed out. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

More about : horrific performance gtx 780 ghz

December 8, 2013 11:09:05 AM

Woah. That's pretty bad. Alright, my first question would be, what do your CPU and GPU temps look like while idle and in games, and while playing a game what does your average GPU usage look like? To best test this for your GPU, use MSI Afterburner, turn on the built-in OSD and checkmark GPU usage, temps, frame rate, etc. For your CPU, just leave Hardware Monitor running in the background and check out the maximum temps after you have a game session.
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December 8, 2013 12:12:02 PM

Thanks for the super quick response.

My CPU and GPU temperatures when idle are around 30 degrees Celsius
In game my average GPU usage was 50-60% on metro 2033 max settings
My maximum temperatures for CPU and GPU are 31 degrees and 52 degrees respectively.
My max clock was 1187 MHz
my max GPU usage was 97 percent
I was getting aprox 20-low 40 fps in metro 2033 with dips.
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December 8, 2013 12:56:45 PM

Hm, well your temperatures are excellent. What resolution are you playing at and what level and type of Anti-aliasing (MSAA/SSAA/FXAA, x2/x4/x8, etc) were you using?

Also, personally Metro 2033 also seems to be a problematic game as I also have issues with it including major frame stuttering and crashes, even though my rig is also more than capable of handling it. Perhaps you could try testing with a different game?
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December 8, 2013 12:57:20 PM

Here's some more info if it helps find the solution.

In tomb raider 2013 just walking around a medium sized area my CPU maxes out at 100% and averages at 80%.

Could my CPU be the problem? Could it be under clocking itself because it isn't detecting the third party fan?
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December 8, 2013 1:07:20 PM

Even metro 2033's poor optimization accounted for, my 3dmarks are terrible. For comparison, here is my performance with some other games

Team Fortress 2 max settings - 20-35 fps
Tomb Raider 2013 - 15-40 fps
Planetside 2 medium -25 fps tops
Hawken max, no PhysX - 24-35 fps
borderlands 2, max settings, with ANY PhysX - 1-10fps
All at 1080p through my Sony Bravia.

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December 8, 2013 1:14:58 PM

Martin MP said:
Here's some more info if it helps find the solution.

In tomb raider 2013 just walking around a medium sized area my CPU maxes out at 100% and averages at 80%.

Could my CPU be the problem? Could it be under clocking itself because it isn't detecting the third party fan?


It does seem to be related to your CPU in some way, but I don't think it has to do with the fan or temperatures. CPUs can throttle in performance if they get too hot, but they can't physically detect a fan. A motherboard can detect a temperatures, and that's it. If your temperature passes a certain threshold known as the tjmax (Thermal Junction Maximum) your motherboard will begin to throttle your CPU so that it isn't damaged. However, 31 degrees is well below that so whether or not your components have the means to detect your cooling solution, it wouldn't matter.

I guess the next best thing to is to troubleshoot and see if you might have a defective CPU? First off, I notice that you said you have a 3.5 GHz i5-4670k when the stock clock is actually 3.4 GHz. I'm guessing this is a typo, but have you overclocked? An unstable overclock can cause performance issues (though nowhere near as much as you're experiencing). If you have overclocked, or if you just messed around with your BIOS settings at some point in general, go into your BIOS and reset the settings. Even if you haven't messed around with your BIOS previously, you may want to go into your BIOS and just reset the settings to be safe.

After that, if you're still getting performance issues then I recommend stress testing. Download Prime95 and run a small FFT test. This will put your CPU under 100% load, and you should try to run this test for about an hour though you can go as long as you feel necessary. Still, if your CPU is as defective as we think it is, within the first hour at least one of the "workers" (cores) listed in Prime95 should stop working, and you may or may not get a BSOD. If any of your workers do fail and/or you get a BSOD, then yes, it's a defective CPU. If it's not, then I'm going to guess that it'll be a defective GTX 780, unfortunately.
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December 8, 2013 2:08:41 PM

The only thing I've done to my bios is update it (which was harrowing and full of near failures) because my mobo wouldn't even detect the GTX 780 prior to the bios update. I went into the BIOS and reset to optimized defaults anyway.

I've been running the three tests for the past hour. Going to leave the first one for a few hours. So far no BSODs, no failed worker threads or whatever. To be honest I have no idea what I'm looking at with these tests, but no errors or notifications.

Is it possible that a defective GTX 780 could cause my CPU to run at max on all of these games? My friend is running windows 8.1 on his iMac and his CPU rarely goes over 50% when running games. Navigating the menus in Tomb Raider 2013 maxes my CPU out according to ROCCAT powergrid.

Thank you so much for your advice and help, you'll definitely be getting the "solution"!

Is there something stupidly simple that I could be missing? Should I disconnect and reconnect my CPU and GPU? I really don't want to regret building a PC instead of just buying a PS4 haha.
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December 8, 2013 3:12:01 PM

Martin MP said:
The only thing I've done to my bios is update it (which was harrowing and full of near failures) because my mobo wouldn't even detect the GTX 780 prior to the bios update. I went into the BIOS and reset to optimized defaults anyway.

I've been running the three tests for the past hour. Going to leave the first one for a few hours. So far no BSODs, no failed worker threads or whatever. To be honest I have no idea what I'm looking at with these tests, but no errors or notifications.

Is it possible that a defective GTX 780 could cause my CPU to run at max on all of these games? My friend is running windows 8.1 on his iMac and his CPU rarely goes over 50% when running games. Navigating the menus in Tomb Raider 2013 maxes my CPU out according to ROCCAT powergrid.

Thank you so much for your advice and help, you'll definitely be getting the "solution"!

Is there something stupidly simple that I could be missing? Should I disconnect and reconnect my CPU and GPU? I really don't want to regret building a PC instead of just buying a PS4 haha.


Yea, I don't want you to feel such a sense of regret either. I love PCs with a passion, but I understand that it can be a really nerve racking experience when you discover that things aren't working as they should (then again, all pieces of technology are susceptible to such things, i.e. PS4's Blue Light of Death and XBO's dysfunctional optical drive).

When you're stress testing, all of the top open tabs/windows should ideally say "Worker #x - Self-Test". What you want to be on the lookout for is one that stops working, and this will be shown by one of these tabs/windows saying "Worker #x - Not running". It's been over an hour now and I assume none have said this, so your CPU isn't defective.

But your updating your BIOS seems really strange... there's no reason why your BIOS should not have detected your GTX 780 from the start...

OH WAIT. Quick idea, though this is really, really off. Is there any chance that your PC is using your on-board graphics that are a part of the i5-4670k instead of the GTX 780? I mean, it probably is using your GTX 780, but just to confirm, unplug your GTX 780 and take it out, and then see if your performance stays the same when you try to play games just on the i5-4670k with the integrated HD 4600.
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December 8, 2013 3:48:25 PM

Deus Gladiorum said:
Martin MP said:
The only thing I've done to my bios is update it (which was harrowing and full of near failures) because my mobo wouldn't even detect the GTX 780 prior to the bios update. I went into the BIOS and reset to optimized defaults anyway.

I've been running the three tests for the past hour. Going to leave the first one for a few hours. So far no BSODs, no failed worker threads or whatever. To be honest I have no idea what I'm looking at with these tests, but no errors or notifications.

Is it possible that a defective GTX 780 could cause my CPU to run at max on all of these games? My friend is running windows 8.1 on his iMac and his CPU rarely goes over 50% when running games. Navigating the menus in Tomb Raider 2013 maxes my CPU out according to ROCCAT powergrid.

Thank you so much for your advice and help, you'll definitely be getting the "solution"!

Is there something stupidly simple that I could be missing? Should I disconnect and reconnect my CPU and GPU? I really don't want to regret building a PC instead of just buying a PS4 haha.


Yea, I don't want you to feel such a sense of regret either. I love PCs with a passion, but I understand that it can be a really nerve racking experience when you discover that things aren't working as they should (then again, all pieces of technology are susceptible to such things, i.e. PS4's Blue Light of Death and XBO's dysfunctional optical drive).

When you're stress testing, all of the top open tabs/windows should ideally say "Worker #x - Self-Test". What you want to be on the lookout for is one that stops working, and this will be shown by one of these tabs/windows saying "Worker #x - Not running". It's been over an hour now and I assume none have said this, so your CPU isn't defective.

But your updating your BIOS seems really strange... there's no reason why your BIOS should not have detected your GTX 780 from the start...

OH WAIT. Quick idea, though this is really, really off. Is there any chance that your PC is using your on-board graphics that are a part of the i5-4670k instead of the GTX 780? I mean, it probably is using your GTX 780, but just to confirm, unplug your GTX 780 and take it out, and then see if your performance stays the same when you try to play games just on the i5-4670k with the integrated HD 4600.


I really appreciate your input. The test is still running and all the workers are working - so I assume that it isn't my CPU. I'll take my GTX 780 and see how my performance is without it. I hope that is the solution. I'll get back to you.
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December 8, 2013 4:39:25 PM

Regarding the prime95 testing, according to task manager my CPU is only being utilized 22%. I thought the program was supposed to max it out? Additionally, my CPU temperature is 27 degrees Celsius! Shouldn't prime95 raised it even a bit?
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December 8, 2013 4:48:00 PM

If his GPU is under load, I doubt it's using the on board graphics of the i5. Second of all, you'll never regret building a PC over buying a PS4. When it's all said and done your PC will make the PS4 look like the PS1 in terms of graphics AND raw horsepower. :) 

Certainly some strange symptoms you're having, but given that it's a Gigabyte card, I wouldn't rule out the chance of it being defective. I believe, unless you've installed the drivers for the i5's HD graphics, it will only use your processor graphics when there's absolutely nothing else available. This would indicate an error with your card being detected or more so just in performance. However, if you do have the drivers for Intel HD graphics installed, try uninstalling it and force your computer to use the GPU.

Push comes to shove, if you've exhausted all options, I'd try swapping cards first before even thinking about swapping processors. The i5 4670K is an absolute monster, and quite frankly, shouldn't be the root of your problems.
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December 8, 2013 4:52:45 PM

Martin MP said:
Regarding the prime95 testing, according to task manager my CPU is only being utilized 22%. I thought the program was supposed to max it out? Additionally, my CPU temperature is 27 degrees Celsius! Shouldn't prime95 raised it even a bit?


It's not? O.o

That's really perplexing...if you're doing a small FFT test, you should for certain be getting 100% CPU usage or at the very least close to it, and the temps should be superbly high. Alright, I'll have to look up if that's something other people have experienced in the past but for now just end the test, shut down your PC, take out your GTX 780 and test performance in games using the onboard graphics and let me know what that's like while I look up if people have experienced a similar phenomenon as you and what that might mean.
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December 8, 2013 5:00:09 PM

Powerbolt said:
If his GPU is under load, I doubt it's using the on board graphics of the i5. Second of all, you'll never regret building a PC over buying a PS4. When it's all said and done your PC will make the PS4 look like the PS1 in terms of graphics AND raw horsepower. :) 

Certainly some strange symptoms you're having, but given that it's a Gigabyte card, I wouldn't rule out the chance of it being defective. I believe, unless you've installed the drivers for the i5's HD graphics, it will only use your processor graphics when there's absolutely nothing else available. This would indicate an error with your card being detected or more so just in performance. However, if you do have the drivers for Intel HD graphics installed, try uninstalling it and force your computer to use the GPU.

Push comes to shove, if you've exhausted all options, I'd try swapping cards first before even thinking about swapping processors. The i5 4670K is an absolute monster, and quite frankly, shouldn't be the root of your problems.


Thanks for the advice. I assume that if the onboard graphics are being utilized than I wouldn't be seeing 1185mhz clocks on my GPU like I do when gaming? I'll begin the RMA process on the card. I think I've exhausted all other possibilities and options. Thanks all for helping me rule out the CPU as the culprit. Any last suggestions before I pack up and ship that sucker back from whence it came?

I'm navigating Gigabyte's customer service now. I trust you guys in that in the end my rig will be muy fabuloso and crush the PS4.

.....Now getting there.

I'll post back with Gigabyte's response and the RMA process. Much thanks.
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December 8, 2013 5:14:58 PM

Try CPU-Z. What does it show the CPU clocks at?
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December 8, 2013 5:33:36 PM

I removed my graphics card to run onboard graphics as a comparison (to see if I was using onboard all along, somehow) but I am not.
Tomb Raider 2013 runs at 2 fps in the menu with onboard graphics. I was certainly using the GTX previously.

As for what my CPU is running at according to CPU-Z; in the box labeled core #0 it says
core speed: 798.10 MHz
Multiplier: x 8.0 (8 - 38)
Bus Speed: 99.76 MHz

also,

Core Voltage: .715 V
Stepping: 3
max TDP: 84 W
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December 8, 2013 5:42:52 PM

CPU-Z won't tell you much unless you use it in-game. Otherwise, to conserve power by default all CPUs will throttle when not being used. At full potential (assuming you're not overclocking) CPU-Z should tell you that it's Corespeed is at 3400 MHz and have a Multiplier of x 34.0, but you won't see that unless you're gaming or doing something else fairly CPU intensive.
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December 8, 2013 5:46:44 PM

I have a theory (if I haven't mentioned it, I am a computer novice):
According to speccy, hyperthreading on my CPU is supported and DISABLED.
According to my task manager my CPU usage by prime95 is 22%
22% is about 1/4th of 100....
Is it possible that my CPU is only using one of its 4 cores?

Though that doesn't make a lot of sense since ROCCAT powergrid said all 4 of my CPU cores were maxed out when running any of my games.

Maybe that gives one of you guys some ideas.
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December 8, 2013 5:50:17 PM

Hmm.

I'm currently running prime 95 and CPU-Z has the exact same values. The core speed nor the multiplier have changed since I started running the prime95 test that sounded the most intensive (max power, heat, or something like that)
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December 8, 2013 5:55:36 PM

Something is definitely crazy wrong.

I decided to run prime95 AND Tomb Raider with onboard graphics.

CPU usage for prime95 stayed 22% while CPU usage for Tomb Raider was only 3%

The core speed values through CPU-Z did not change whatsoever.
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December 8, 2013 5:58:30 PM

In Prime95, how many workers do you have?
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December 8, 2013 5:59:54 PM

Can you go into the BIOS and force the multiplier to 38?
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December 8, 2013 6:03:18 PM

Deus Gladiorum said:
In Prime95, how many workers do you have?


Says optimizing for CPU architecture: unknown intel, L2 cache size: 256 KB, L3 cache size: 6MB
....
starting workers

Workers #1 - #4
all chugging away...

pass1=256, pass2=48

over and over and over again without failures.
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December 8, 2013 6:06:02 PM

According to ROCCAT powergrid all 4 of my cores are at 100% load with 85 procs, however their speed has not changed one bit according to CPU-Z, the temperature is still a frosty 27 degrees Celsius, and Task Manager says 22% of my CPU is being used.
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December 8, 2013 6:08:29 PM

monitor temperatures, check that nothing is overheating and throttling. Use driversweeper in safe mode to remove all traces of drivers, use ccleaner to remove and bad reg entries, then re-install latest whql nvidia driver.
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December 8, 2013 6:11:31 PM

Hm, well believe it or not, I hear you should actually close all other programs when running Prime95. I doubt it'll matter, but apparently having other programs open while running Prime95 will cause your CPU usage... to be less. I have no idea why, it's just what I've been looking up, and at this point I bet you're willing to try just about anything to get this to work.
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December 8, 2013 6:13:15 PM

Sounds like CPU or motherboard. You should see what happens if you force a normal multiplier.
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December 8, 2013 6:26:17 PM

Stuff just got crazy. I went into my bios and manually set all of the CPU values. Multiplier at 34, base clock at 80.00 MHz. Saved and exited.... My MOBO has been cycling through error LED messages ever since. Ends on error 15, memory error, then reboots.

I took out the CMOS battery, waited, pressed the clear CMOS switch, put the battery back in, booted her up. Cycles through error messages, powers off.

Needless to say, I am now on the forum on my macbook.
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December 8, 2013 6:32:13 PM

iam2thecrowe said:
monitor temperatures, check that nothing is overheating and throttling. Use driversweeper in safe mode to remove all traces of drivers, use ccleaner to remove and bad reg entries, then re-install latest whql nvidia driver.


I'm not sure how to monitor throttling, but throughout all of my tests CPU temperature did not exceed 33 degrees Celsius, nor did the clock speed exceed what was aforementioned. I would do those driver cleans but ever since manually setting CPU speed through the BIOS my PC has been unbootable.
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December 8, 2013 6:47:52 PM

Jesus, talk about trouble. When you say you set the values for your CPU... did you touch anything to do with voltage, e.g. vcore or something?
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December 8, 2013 6:54:55 PM

Deus Gladiorum said:
Jesus, talk about trouble. When you say you set the values for your CPU... did you touch anything to do with voltage, e.g. vcore or something?


I enabled all auto settings but changed the multiplier to 34 and the base clock to 80.00 MHz.
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December 8, 2013 7:00:24 PM

I thought the base clock is suppose to be 100. I could be wrong though.
You will need to make sure your VCORE is up to 1-1.1v for full clock speed.
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December 8, 2013 7:02:19 PM

Damn, so what the hell went wrong? And you can't get into your BIOS at all? It sounds like your motherboard just fried, but there should be another option... you wouldn't happen to have a friend with an LGA 1150 motherboard or a spare LGA 1150 motherboard yourself, woul you?
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December 8, 2013 7:04:05 PM

smeezekitty said:
I thought the base clock is suppose to be 100. I could be wrong though.
You will need to make sure your VCORE is up to 1-1.1v for full clock speed.


The options were 80.00 MHz with a few .1 increments. Nothing near 100.

Pretty sure my only options are to send the MOBO in for replacement or refund at this point. No BIOS reset method is working. Sucker be dead.
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December 8, 2013 7:07:58 PM

Deus Gladiorum said:
Damn, so what the hell went wrong? And you can't get into your BIOS at all? It sounds like your motherboard just fried, but there should be another option... you wouldn't happen to have a friend with an LGA 1150 motherboard or a spare LGA 1150 motherboard yourself, woul you?


Unfortunately no. If I was a wealthier man I'd pick up a cheap MOBO to test with while I frak around with Gigabyte getting a replacement or refund.
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December 8, 2013 7:10:18 PM

You are taking this a hell of a lot better than most people it would seem, especially someone doing their first build. But my question is, how is it possible that such a thing occurred? Voltages remained the same, and all you did was manually set the CPU to a frequency that was under its stock clock. That can't wreck your MOBO unless you change the voltage causing you to fry a circuit or something...

Alright, well hopefully if you send it in for a replacement you'll receive a working one, and perhaps it was the fault of the MOBO this whole time that your games were underperforming, and perhaps manually setting the frequency was the straw that broke the camel's back? I honestly don't know. I suppose just try to replace the MOBO and then post back if everything works. I'm curious to know how this all works out for you.
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December 8, 2013 7:11:52 PM

It sounds like your motherboard was basically DOA
Sucks but it happens sometimes
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December 8, 2013 8:38:23 PM

It doesn't make much sense, I agree. The only thing I did regarding the the voltages was turn auto "on". Don't worry, my friend and I did our fair share of cursing and screaming upon the final death of the MOBO, haha.

I have to say, this whole experience has been enlightening (technically) and really encouraging. This forum has an amazing community and I'm extremely proud to join the ranks of PC gamers!

Huge thanks to Deus, smeeze, and crowe for helping me out.

I'll post back when I get a new MOBO or a new set of related problems. You'll hear from me soon!
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December 9, 2013 1:44:13 AM

base clock should be 100, if you cant select that, then i would suspect a fooked motherboard. Try downloading the latest bios for your motherboard and flashing it first. Also check the cpu socket for any bent/damaged pins.
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December 9, 2013 12:37:33 PM

To be properly thorough, could you please provide up-close pictures of you rig's internals after you've assembled it. We can rule out cable mismanagement and other errors. Also, did you by chance install the GTX 780 to the PCH PCI.E slot? Did you try changing slots to rule out a defective PCI.E?
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December 9, 2013 1:32:24 PM

It was already confirmed that their CPU would not run at full speed.
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December 9, 2013 1:42:48 PM

Martin MP said:
It doesn't make much sense, I agree. The only thing I did regarding the the voltages was turn auto "on". Don't worry, my friend and I did our fair share of cursing and screaming upon the final death of the MOBO, haha.

I have to say, this whole experience has been enlightening (technically) and really encouraging. This forum has an amazing community and I'm extremely proud to join the ranks of PC gamers!

Huge thanks to Deus, smeeze, and crowe for helping me out.

I'll post back when I get a new MOBO or a new set of related problems. You'll hear from me soon!


Just out of curiosity, did you apply any pressure when installing the CPU? Your experience sounds like what people with bent pins report.
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December 9, 2013 2:33:28 PM

iam2thecrowe said:
base clock should be 100, if you cant select that, then i would suspect a fooked motherboard. Try downloading the latest bios for your motherboard and flashing it first. Also check the cpu socket for any bent/damaged pins.


BIOS is inaccessible. I'll check the pins when I pull it all apart to send it back to Newegg.
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December 9, 2013 2:40:01 PM

Martin MP said:
iam2thecrowe said:
base clock should be 100, if you cant select that, then i would suspect a fooked motherboard. Try downloading the latest bios for your motherboard and flashing it first. Also check the cpu socket for any bent/damaged pins.


BIOS is inaccessible. I'll check the pins when I pull it all apart to send it back to Newegg.


If you have no bent pins, be sure to take pictures of it. Newegg is notoriously known for bending pins on returned MOBOs and claiming you bent them. They had many complaints on BBB and other websites about this.
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December 10, 2013 6:14:52 PM

Thanks for the advice. I took pictures. Should I send a copy of the photos with my RMA?
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December 10, 2013 6:27:03 PM

Martin MP said:
Thanks for the advice. I took pictures. Should I send a copy of the photos with my RMA?


No. Just keep copies on hand so you have proof the pins weren't bent. If they try to pull a fast one on you just send them (or possibly someone higher up at Newegg) the pictures.
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December 11, 2013 7:55:43 PM

Ok guys, I snapped and bought an Asus MOBO, the z87-A. It detected my GPU instantly, I was up and running in seconds and... Everything works perfectly.

My previous 3dmark total score was 3.9k, a tich above a gaming laptop. My new 3dmark total score is 8.9k - with no overclocking. I still don't know exactly what was wrong with the previous MOBO, but everything is working out now. I'll be sending it back for a replacement from Newegg and am going to sell the new one, if any of you guys are interested in a GA-Z87X-OC, let me know.

Huge thanks for all of your input and helping me narrow down the MOBO as the problem.

Problem: RESOLVED!!
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!