Advice please: System performing WAY below expectations

thecush · Oct 2, 2017

Hello folks,

About 9 months ago I built my first gaming PC. I invested in some pretty good gear: i7-6700K, GTX1080 - see more in the link below.

I've been a bit underwhelmed by its performance since then, but only just used User Benchmark to test how it was performing...

... and the answer was, well, terrible: "Overall this PC is performing way below expectations (6th percentile)". The full results are here: http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/5201951

Obviously, something's gone terribly, horribly wrong here. I have frankly no idea where to start in working out what and how to resolve it. All drivers, bios etc are up to date.

Any advice? My next step is to go to a friendly local repair store and ask them. But thought you fine people may be able to give me a steer first.

Thanks!

Andrew

Dunlop0078 · Oct 2, 2017

Well lets start with the CPU, the test shows it was running at an average of 1.45ghz. Which is terrible it should be at 4.2ghz when under load. That is most likely being caused by overheating, the CPU will throttle it's clocks when it gets hot enough to avoid burning out. So I woulds check your cpu temps with something like HWmonitor.

Your GPU is performing well enough, it's score will likely come up if you fix whatever is causing your cpu to throttle.

Your RAM is running at 2133mhz, it's rated to run at 2666mhz so that explains the low score there. Enable XMP in the bios if you want your ram to run at it's advertised speeds.

thecush · Oct 2, 2017

Dunlop0078 :

Well lets start with the CPU, the test shows it was running at an average of 1.45ghz. Which is terrible it should be at 4.2ghz when under load. That is most likely being caused by overheating, the CPU will throttle it's clocks when it gets hot enough to avoid burning out. So I woulds check your cpu temps with something like HWmonitor.

Your GPU is performing well enough, it's score will likely come up if you fix whatever is causing your cpu to throttle.

Your RAM is running at 2133mhz, it's rated to run at 2666mhz so that explains the low score there. Enable XMP in the bios if you want your ram to run at it's advertised speeds.

thecush · Oct 2, 2017

Thanks for the response! I was wondering the same; I've got a 120mm Noctua fan on the CPU, though it's set up "in front" airflow wise to push cooler air onto the CPU. So would a simple fix potentially be having the fan "behind" to pull hot air off? I'll try HWmonitor.

Thanks again - I really appreciate the answer, advice and help.

Dunlop0078 · Oct 2, 2017

Do you have a tower cooler if so it should look like this, fan on the heatsink blowing air back towards the rear exhaust fan.

I would assume your cooler is not mounted properly or you didn't us any thermal paste, having the fan in any config assuming it is mounted on the heatsink should not result in throttling down to 1.45ghz.

jeffreydanielbyers · Oct 2, 2017

thecush :

I'm still reading, however the most common fan setup for a simple HSF cooler is to have it suck air in on the RIGHT, and blow THROUGH the heatsink fins to push the air towards the rear of the case (which should have a case fan to help suck the air out in a gaming rig).

This also helps create some air flow over the DDR3/4 memory sticks to the right (usually) of the CPU.

Never have a fan trying to PULL air through a heatsink unless you also have one to PUSH it as above (called push-pull).

thecush · Oct 2, 2017

Thanks again guys,

Ok; so I have the fan set up right then; on the right, blowing through the heatsink to the fan at the back of the case. That matches the airflow arrow on the Noctua too which is pointing toward the heat sink. And the fans are working too

I used thermal paste as well during the build. So... Two more questions:

1. I was quite careful with thermal paste, but is this the sort of issue I'd get if I used too much and it got into the socket?

2. I've run HWMonitor and everything seems cool as. CPU at 24 deg C max.

Again: thanks for the help.

Andrew

Dunlop0078 · Oct 2, 2017

thecush :

Too much wont cause the cpu to throttle, to little or none at all would be a problem but too much typically just makes a mess it wont affect thermals much assuming the cooler is mounted properly.

You should look at hwmonitor when thew cpu is under load, so either run userbenchmark again and watch hwmonitor as its running or get a cpu stress test like OCCT or AIDA64. It would be helpful if you posted a screenshot of hwmonitor while the cpu is under load.

jeffreydanielbyers · Oct 2, 2017

1. first off, my CPU results are correct but my GTX1080 results are WRONG for UserBenchmark. Way off, yet yours are much higher than mine? WTF? I know for a fact my GTX1080 works properly so I'm not sure if I trust this benchmark program.

2. *Test your CPU by running Prime95 while also running Task Manager to monitor the performance (show all EIGHT graphs). You should see the "CPU SPEED" hit whatever your maximum CPU frequency is under full load (roughly 4GHz if not overclocked).

Prime95 is not typical of normal usage so your CPU will likely go over 75degC if you've overclocked at all, but that's fine for a short time. Just ensure you can use close to 100% of the CPU's eight threads in P95 while again also hitting roughly 4GHz as well.

3. If the CPU numbers are way off, then I'd go back into the BIOS and:
a) restore factory defaults, and
b) put memory to "XMP", then save

4) If the CPU results are sorted (or not a problem if the test is wrong) then I'd continue on to test the graphics card. Here's my UNIGINE VALLEY results which should be close to yours (use the EXACT same settings)->

Unigine Valley (upper right values are incorrectly reported BTW)
-DX11, Ultra, x8AA, full screen, 2560x1440

- 68.4FPS avg
- 2863
- 32.7fps low
- 140.3fps high

thecush · Oct 2, 2017

Alright... so thanks guys, you're all awesome and I greatly appreciate your time.

Solution is embarrassing, I think - but then again, I'm new.

I ran OCCT as per Dunlop0078's suggestion and it showed that the CPU was overclocked at -80% for some reason - hence the abysmal CPU score. I've cleared that in the BIOS and now all looks far more normal.

For now, I've marked as solved due to OCCT. Thanks heaps guys.

Andrew

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