Is my CPU Throttling down? if so How can I fix it?

TwinDenis

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Hi, so I have been posting for a long time about a problem with my pc while playing games i notice significant performance decreases, suspecting its some kind of cpu throttle.
so anyway here is the thread about the issue:
https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/540311-why-is-my-pc-bottlenecking-in-games/?page=2#comment-7160192

I wanted to ask in this thread if it is throttling, if so, how can I fix it?
here is a screenshot of me playing blade and soul.
BnStestbenchmark2.png.3a26427792a084514e9c4b4b8b880b34.png


and another one with guild wars 2:
e4k5e45kmj356j45.png.ce0dcea966972ef12b4b4c8b39579988.png


,Thanks
 

TwinDenis

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I linked you to a thread-library I created but oh well... if you instist:
System
CPUIntel Xeon E5 1620 @ 3.60GHz Sandy Bridge-EP/EX 32nm Technology
MotherboardDell Inc. 08HPGT (Chipset Model: Sandy Bridge-E) (Southbridge Model: X79)
RAM4x2GB ECC EDIMM, 1333MHz, 8GB (DDR3) (9-9-9-24)
GPUGeForce GTX 980 4gb Windforce OC
Casedell precision t3600
Storage465GB ATA Samsung SSD 850 SCSI + 1863GB ATA ST2000DM001-1CH1 SCSI
PSUdell precision t3600/635w (Dell Dual PSU Design)
Display(s)DELL U2412M
CoolingDell precision T3600 Default Fans
SoundRealtek High Definition Audio
Operating SystemWindows 10 Pro 64Bit
http://www.driverscloud.com/en/configuration/74bcee8f021c42439eabcfac4299ebb6-32/pci-cards


What I did:
Here are some things I have done so far:
Clean install of Windows (7 and 10) and drivers, latest drivers on all devices.
No processes that could interrupt my game or the system in a negative way, even without antivirus.
Played a lot with nvidia control panel and in game settings as suggested, as well as power options of windows and bios configurations as well (eg: disabled speedstep, hyperthread, c-states etc.)
Contacted ISP for assistance, no issues with my connection, it is pretty fast actually and with big bandwidth.
Changed PcieGen2 to PcieGen3 using a patch for my MotherBoard/ChipSet.
Contacted companies related to components and games.
Repaired Corrupted files of windows
Checked temps of all components and even played at high fan speed for extreme cool temps.
Checked if PSU is able to feed the GPU card.
Checked for cpu/gpu usage to see if it is normal while in game.
Clean Installed Nvidia Device Drivers as recommended by nvidia.
All device drivers are Up to Date. No missing drivers.
Did Dell Diagnostics test, and memtest86+, scanned storage devices as well.
Played while on High Fan-Speed mode which was configured in bios to check if it runs better with better temps.
Got the OS into an SSD Samsung 850 evo.
Used DDU to clean and install nvidia display driver.
I tried vsync off and vsync on as well as adaptive vsync with either in game vsync on or off.
I am planning on replacing my ram.
Remember, it happened from the moment I got the machine.
I swapped GPU Cards and models.
I swapped Monitors (and Used HDMI).
I swapped Motherboard (Dell Warranty).
Technician Swapped my CPU with the motherboard (Warranty).
I disabled and re-enabled the page file, I also tried to extend it and tried to make it system-managed as well.
It happened with 2 different ISPs.
I set power Options to performance.
Updated all game components like Directx/Visual C++ (they get downloaded automatically anyway).
I tried testing my ram modules and got one of them broke so I will get a new kit of 2x8gb ones with recommended specs by OEM product sheet. The replacement will be a G.Skill Trident, the 1600mhz one.
Moving on, I monitored the temps and they are all in acceptable levels when stressed.
In bios There is not much I can change in my machine, it is OEM board so it is hard to change for example Memory timings.
It is hard to see it as software related or OS related issue. As well as of broken parts.
You can check my specs out to see if you can find any solution or think of anything fresh.
I may did try more than that, its been a while.
 

TwinDenis

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Also may I know the ideal temp range of a cpu like my own?
For example mine is at 58-61 or something.
I am not sure.
When should I get worried? we all know 100 is boil point for water, but thats irrelevant for a cpu, it could be lower or higher.
But the ideal temps are unknown to me.

Here is an image with my temps while semi-idle (browset, game client only with no game running, etc.)
yn4wy545n6q437uq4n7a357nq4n3n737n3.png
 

TwinDenis

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I was told by the store I bought the card that it was enough. I also asked nvidia support and they said it should be enough. So I bought the card and thats that.
You can see my PSU here:
IMG_20160122_212442.jpg

Removed throttle on power options but it still has problems with the games. Weird.
Also it doesnt seem to be polygon-related issue but probably effects and assets like that. It was happening when lets say minions spawn or are in view when playing in heroes of the storm, which is a released game.
But in gw2 it would happen on foggy areas usually, because its not that demanding and I can play it better than heroes of the storm for example. But on foggy-smokes areas it happens too.
So my guess was cpu-related or throttle. When using windows the speed throttlestop shows is 2ghz-3ghz around that. Depends.
It goes up-down but my normal speed according to other programs is 3.6ghz without turbo and 3.8 with turboboost.
I do not use it though.
 

TwinDenis

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The gpu itself is not underperforming according to heaven test also. It is more than 70-60 fps.
Vsync on-30min 60max.
So you get the idea.

Example of problem-
heroes of the storm after minions spawn.
Gw2- smokey areas only or filled with vfx that are based off particles, eg. smoke.
Blade and soul - happens constantly.
League of legends- not anymore, its not happening (they had a similar problem but it was bug)
Witcher3 on ultra it happens only and it is probably graphical intensity rather than cpu, although it uses some processing sometimes, and it could cause issues but not able to benchmark the cpu on a gpu based game since the gpu is fine as it seems so far. Swapped gpus for the purpose of testing so nothing there causes problems and the new 900 series provides less power consumption. Which gives window for my psu to feed more efficiently my gpu.
According to nvidia support this could not be the case. So they insist that it is not that the problem.
 

TwinDenis

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yes I have.
everything that needed update, I done so.
No idea for uefi thing but my bios is the newest firmware vesion.
 

TwinDenis

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Ok so by disabling throttling on power options of windows I managed to settle down the bad performance spikes but did not really completely fix it yet, its just lighter.

UPDATE:
Latencymon shows this result, which is still moving my interest:
Code:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   3591 MHz
Measured CPU speed:                                   1 MHz (approx.)
Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.
WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature
I mean, I have speedstep, throttling and everything disabled but still have this message, the measured CPU Speed is not the same with the reported one.
Which means there is a good chance inside games I get lower speeds than I should get when something needs processing, especially in battles it could cause issues, and I have issues inside battles in most games especially when something loads up, some assets or something similar to particles, smoke, depending on the game engine.
From what I recall this PC was famous to be very quiet but even at the full fan speed which is very very loud i still got this.
So it is like throttling effects but yet, it is not throttling.
 

TwinDenis

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Its 500ms constant when in game or in chrome watching videos.
sometimes spikes to 1000ms max.
I spent days trying to fix it and make it as best as possible with drivers and such.
So it is low green when idle, mid green when something is running and sometimes it can go yellow for a bit.
 

TwinDenis

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Update:
Code:
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates. 
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  2:13:35  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        DENIS-PC
OS version:                                           Windows 8 , 6.2, build: 9200 (x64)
Hardware:                                             Precision T3600, Dell Inc., 08HPGT
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 0 @ 3.60GHz
Logical processors:                                   4
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  16341 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   3591 MHz
Measured CPU speed:                                   1 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature. 



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   22106.060619
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   1.642707

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       463.049690
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       0.575985


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              115.093289
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       USBPORT.SYS - USB 1.1 & 2.0 Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0.088946
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0.107406

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   3467829
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              236.409914
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       ndis.sys - Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS), Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0.036704
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         rspLLL64.sys - Resplendence Latency Monitoring and Auxiliary Kernel Library, Resplendence Software Projects Sp.

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0.233212

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   36313905
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 lolclient.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       1796
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          750
Highest hard pagefault resolution time (µs):          903092.776942
Total time spent in hard pagefaults (%):              0.011921
Number of processes hit:                              12


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       152.780048
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                115.093289
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   34.365251
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      3456767
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                236.409914
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   68.255894
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      34531392
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       21.051606
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                57.572821
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.071311
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      10722
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                223.850738
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   3.122227
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      849822
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       19.211509
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                5.775550
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.001262
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      336
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                97.994987
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0.999707
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      371079
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       20.515525
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                4.265107
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0.000016
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      4
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                97.944862
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   2.397820
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      561612
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is the latencymon report.
No high resolution times.
I mean none of the interupts was beyond 0.5
So no driver caused this.
Neither any extreme hardpagefaults.
 

TwinDenis

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What kind of voltage? gpu?cpu?ram?psu?
Some gpu samples:
benchmarking_gpuz_denis_sensors_fixedmaybe.gif

gpudetails.gif

Here are some cpuz samples:
cpuramramr3242453452134134131.png

http://s28.postimg.org/igvmwye2l/3453wq5h3hq3h534.png
My guess is that it is CPU related because I get it mostly on specific particles, meaning some particles trigger the problem more than just spell particles in games.
Meaning environmental particles are heavier regardless of in game settings than spell effects.
In guildwars2 I get it mostly on foggy areas or in the main city in the spot that has confetti floating in the air. Turning off physx will not help.
 

TwinDenis

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Throttling at 40C makes no sense.
Okay my CPU is not throttling, I disabled all C-States and made my CPU constant utilization of 100% but I still had issues so it is not throttle but something else.
Thread Closed.
 

Erik DeSart

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I don't see a clear sign of throttling there. GPU usage dropping could mean a lot of things. Could you be more specific re the problems you are experiencing. What when and what game for instance?