CPU Voltage & Clock Drops Under Load

TheAppleKid2011 · Jan 14, 2017

In this image http://imgur.com/a/OVNFC I'm running Prime95 and my CPU is dropping to ~1.4GHz every 10 seconds or so when [Temperature #2] on Open Hardware Monitor spikes to 100+ degrees. The CPU VCore also drops to 0.9 volts.

Is this a VRM issue and is there any way to fix it without getting a new motherboard?
I have reset my BIOS, have an aftermarket cooler etc.

I noticed this problem starting around the same time that my CPU stopped responding to changes in Power Options in Control Panel.

JordanMihailov · Jan 14, 2017

Change the power options and try again ?

TheAppleKid2011 · Jan 14, 2017

JordanMihailov :

I have. But when I do the CPU clocks don't change even if the CPU power limit is on 0%

amtseung · Jan 14, 2017

Holy BCLK! 200?! That's some serious strain on the motherboard there... The highest I got my MSI 990FX gaming and asus m5a99x to was 151 and 137, respectively.

The motherboard in question, at least as far as I can see, has no heat sink or cooling on any of the power delivery components, and only has a 4-pin CPU power plug. So potentially, your CPU is being under-powered, the PSU is overly taxed, and your motherboard VRM's throttling under load. Does your case have adequate airflow?

You can go on amazon and get choke and mosfet-sized copper heat sinks with thermal pads. They seem to work pretty well on graphics cards, so I don't see why they wouldn't work on a motherboard. Nothing beats a big ass heat pipe or set of heat pipes taking the heat away, but a little copper stick-on thing would certainly help.

But yeah, that 4-pin design clearly didn't have power-hungry FX chips at full load in mind.

TL;DR My gut reaction is that your motherboard VRM's are overheating and throttling.

TheAppleKid2011 · Jan 14, 2017

amtseung :

That's what I thought too.
I have good airflow and an 80+ gold PSU but when I look at the VRM there are dark spots on the MOSFETs
http://imgur.com/xCDidSG (and also some heat damage above that???)
Should I just get a new motherboard?
And when you say 200 are you referring to the bus speed? It's at 200 by default I think.

amtseung · Jan 14, 2017

If it's at 200 by default, oops, my bad. All of the 970 and 990fx chipset motherboard I had all had a default of 100. Maybe 960 is different? I've never dealt with one before.

They don't look like burn marks per se, but I'm seeing discoloration. That's not a good sign. I'd be wary of a blowout or a full on electrical fire if the mosfet casings do give out.

The fact that your motherboard has a 4+1 power phase design means it can probably handle nothing more than an FX4300. In my book, having lit a motherboard on fire trying to overclock an FX8320, minimum 6phase cpu power for anything more than 4 cores or two modules. 8phase is nice, 10 is required for overclocking an octacore idiotically like me, and required to run an FX9590. The more distributed the load is, the smoother it all runs. Having phat heatsinks and heat pipes helps too. The +1 or +2 part is the number of phases for memory. Here, more is still better, especially if you have higher clocked memory, although it isn't anywhere near as critical.

And you've got a lot of dust bunnies chillin in there.

TheAppleKid2011 · Jan 14, 2017

amtseung :

If it's at 200 by default, oops, my bad. All of the 970 and 990fx chipset motherboard I had all had a default of 100. Maybe 960 is different? I've never dealt with one before.

They don't look like burn marks per se, but I'm seeing discoloration. That's not a good sign. I'd be wary of a blowout or a full on electrical fire if the mosfet casings do give out.

The fact that your motherboard has a 4+1 power phase design means it can probably handle nothing more than an FX4300. In my book, having lit a motherboard on fire trying to overclock an FX8320, minimum 6phase cpu power for anything more than 4 cores or two modules. 8phase is nice, 10 is required for overclocking an octacore idiotically like me, and required to run an FX9590. The more distributed the load is, the smoother it all runs. Having phat heatsinks and heat pipes helps too. The +1 or +2 part is the number of phases for memory. Here, more is still better, especially if you have higher clocked memory, although it isn't anywhere near as critical.

And you've got a lot of dust bunnies chillin in there.

Aside from just disabling cores & cleaning it is there any way I can work around this to keep it from overheating or should I just get a new motherboard?

JordanMihailov · Jan 16, 2017

TheAppleKid2011 :

That is very strange. I didn't understand have you overclocked or made some modifications in BIOS ?

TheAppleKid2011 · Jan 16, 2017

JordanMihailov :

No overclocks, just BIOS defaults. I'm running on 4 cores now to consume less power, and the clock speeds are working normally somehow. Power Saver drops it to 1.3GHz and High Performance sits at around 3.5GHz. Weird.

amtseung · Jan 17, 2017

TheAppleKid2011 :

I believe I said earlier, the 4 phase CPU power is utterly inadequate for anything more than, really, an athlon 880k. Not even an FX 4300. Without overclocking. The fact that cutting yourself down to 4 cores gets your CPU to function properly is pretty glaring proof of this.

When a motherboard has power delivery so bad it can't properly power the CPU, let alone everything else, the symptoms look much like a horrible overclock, except that it's actually harmful to the system. And you can light your motherboard on fire. I've been there, done that, and wish never to do it again.

OP, I don't know if you actually need a mini ITX motherboard, but I don't think there is a single adequate power design motherboard in that form factor. I could be wrong though. I'd suggest you replace that motherboard soon.

TheAppleKid2011 · Jan 17, 2017

amtseung :

TheAppleKid2011 :

I believe I said earlier, the 4 phase CPU power is utterly inadequate for anything more than, really, an athlon 880k. Not even an FX 4300. Without overclocking. The fact that cutting yourself down to 4 cores gets your CPU to function properly is pretty glaring proof of this.

When a motherboard has power delivery so bad it can't properly power the CPU, let alone everything else, the symptoms look much like a horrible overclock, except that it's actually harmful to the system. And you can light your motherboard on fire. I've been there, done that, and wish never to do it again.

OP, I don't know if you actually need a mini ITX motherboard, but I don't think there is a single adequate power design motherboard in that form factor. I could be wrong though. I'd suggest you replace that motherboard soon.

Sorry for any confusion, this CPU has never been overclocked and I haven't OC'd any other CPU on this motherboard. This thread was just in the OC category by default.
The board's just on its way out then. Thanks for the help

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