# [SOLVED] CPU throttle



## Kissa (Apr 17, 2009)

Hi everyone,

So I overclocked my AMD FX-4100 yesterday from 3.6 to 4.0 and it has been running stable ever since. I didn't do the hour long stress testing (i know, i know, very bad of me), but I did do several shorter stress tests which went splendidly. After that I have been gaming and streaming for hours and the system was very stable making me feel quite good about my accomplishment since it was my first overclock ever.

I even tried an overclock of 4.4, but that even got to a point that I couldn't boot the computer anymore and there only came a clicking sound of my computer, so I didn't dare push it any further and put it to the settings that I knew would work, the 4.0 overclock.

So I got that to run very stable and am very happy with the overclock. There is an issue however and you could read that in the topic title.

When I put my CPU under full load (for example during a stress test), all four CPU cores WILL throttle back to a speed of 3.3 gHz and stay there. Sometimes a core will spike to 4.0 again for a second, but drop down to 3.3 right after.

I did find a way (aka I read it somewhere) to make sure that my CPU will stay at 4.0gHz and that is to boot up AMD Overdrive, enable Turbo Booster, Press OK, disable it again and press OK. When I do this the CPU speed will stay 4.0 up to the point where I shut down or restart the system, because then I'll have to do it all over again. So I'm kinda looking for a more permanent fix for this problem.

I expect you guys would like some specs at this point, so here they are:

Computer specs:


Mobo: AsRock 970 Extreme4
CPU: AMD Bulldozer FX 4100
RAM: 16GB DDR3
GPU: Ati Radeon HD 6850
CASE: NZXT Phantom
PSU: Corsair non-modular TX 650
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

OC specs:


CPU multiplier: x20
CPU voltage: 1.4125 V (this I actually didn't fiddle with for this overclock)
NB frequency: x11 2200 mHz

And I disabled:


cool 'n' quiet
C1E
C6
CPU thermal throttle
Turbo Core

I also remember me disabling an option related to power usage, but it wasn't the APM thingy AMD overclockers keep talking about. I've also been unable to find this when I'm in uefi. I do have to say that I've never updated the uefi as I do not feel comfortable flashing it.

That's also where I stopped fiddling with the settings. I did raise the CPU voltage to 1.5125V once to get the system to boot all the way up to Windows on the 4.4 OC, but the system would freeze during stress testing. Raising the NB frequency at that point would prevent the system from even booting to the point that I couldn't even access the uefi interface.

So any help would be appreciated, I really hope to get this fixed soon or I'll have to look forward to a lot of annoying boot-ups.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention that I'm not cooling my CPU with the stock cooler, instead I'm using a MUGEN Scythe cooler (heat sink and 2 fans)


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## oxymoron_02 (Oct 23, 2012)

*Re: CPU throttle*

On Overdrive, I just set the minimum and maximum CPU speeds to 100%. My CPU never underclocks, regardless of restart/shut down.


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## oxymoron_02 (Oct 23, 2012)

*Re: CPU throttle*

Allow me to be more helfpul. Right-click the desktop and open AMD Vision Control Centre. In the *Performance* tab you'll see CPU Power. It's in here you want to adjust the pair of sliders both to 100%.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

*Re: CPU throttle*

CPU throttling is there to protect your CPU and not advisable to disable that function. There is no reason to run the CPU at full throttle at all times. There's really no reason to OC a 3.6GHz CPU other than benchmarking or bragging.


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## Kissa (Apr 17, 2009)

*Re: CPU throttle*

@oxymoron_02: Thanks for your reply, however, that was one of the first things I checked and this was standard at 100%, so that's not the issue

@Tyree: CPU throttling is there to protect your CPU, agreed, but my system and cooling is good enough to protect my CPU. Even at full load, I don't even come near the max temperature for this CPU, which is 71°C
Also, I DO need this overclock as this CPU is kind of a failure in terms of performance, but it's a very good CPU to overclock. That doesn't explain why I need the overclock, but you'll get that explanation now: I do regular livestreams of games I play. Without the overclock, my CPU would be at full load the whole time putting lots of strain on my whole system, with the overclock I use about 60-70% of my CPU power. So this has nothing to do with bragging.


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## Kissa (Apr 17, 2009)

*Re: CPU throttle*

So here's an update for you all:

I just got a BSOD, I don't know which error code though, but since this is the first time my machine has ever produced a BSOD it's safe to say this one came from overclocking the CPU.

I guess my system isn't 100% stable after all, but that was to be expected without proper stress testing so the joke's on me. I added a bit to the CPU voltage because I left the voltage alone for the 4.0 OC, so it still had the same voltage as the stock 3.6 speed. It was at 1.4125V, I upped it 1 notch to 1.4250V, we'll see in time if my system runs a bit more stable.

Also, is there no one who can help me with the throttling? Because I'm fairly sure the CPU also does this on stock settings... When I buy a 3.6 gHz CPU, I expect it to run at 3.6 gHz and not 3.3


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## oxymoron_02 (Oct 23, 2012)

*Re: CPU throttle*

If you've configured Overdrive to run at 100% all the time then it's time to start looking at other settings which might be overriding Overdrive.

I feel a bit foolish for not thinking of the voltage.


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## Kissa (Apr 17, 2009)

*Re: CPU throttle*

I looked everywhere I can possibly think of, but realy haven't found the solution...

Seeing how my system doesn't run 100% stable yet, I'm kind of hoping my problem will "magically go away" once I find the sweet spot.

I also just moved and turned around some fans to improve airflow in my case since most of 'em, including the big ones, were apparently only exhausting air outside of the case. I also turned around one of the CPU fans so that one fan sucks air into the heatsink and one exhausts the air towards another fan that axhausts it outside of the case. Will do a full load in a couple of minutes to see whether that improved my cooling. If it did, I'll probably run a long stress test tonight.

Thanks again for your input oxymoron_02


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

*Re: CPU throttle*

I would just like to point out that you need to stress test for more than one hour. You do a stress test for an hour in between increases then when you get to an oc your happy with you stress it for 6 hours + and if you have a system where you keep it on 24/7 then you stress at 100% load for at least 12 hours.


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## Kissa (Apr 17, 2009)

*Re: CPU throttle*

Also, about the stress testing: I already did one of half an hour on IBT, I could probably run that one for a day and not get a single crash... but when I use Prime95, it crashes within 1 minute of a 1 minute custom test. Then again, I've read somewhere that Prime95 isn't exactly what it used to be because its methods are outdated.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

*Re: CPU throttle*

If any stress test fails then you are not stable.

IBT only puts full load on the cpu whereas prime95 and orthos stress the cpu and ram.

When you overclock you are not just overclocking the cpu anything that is linked to the fsb is being overclocked. So there you have ram, lane to the gpu and cpu.

Simple things that must be set in place are things such as the pci frequency must be set to 100 if you have the option. The ram must not go over its rated speed, plus you need to enter the rams timmings and voltage so they do not change. Then you can overclock.


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## Kissa (Apr 17, 2009)

*Re: CPU throttle*



greenbrucelee said:


> If any stress test fails then you are not stable.
> 
> IBT only puts full load on the cpu whereas prime95 and orthos stress the cpu and ram.
> 
> ...


CPU wise my system was probably stable, but I found out today that my RAM is only running at 400 mhz instead of the 667 mhz that it should be... that's probably why it also runs amazingly fine when testing with IBT, but fails completely in Prime...

By now I've put everything back to stock settings with, apparently, a standard 5% all-in-one OC (which puts it at about 3.8 ghz). It's been on that ever since I built my system and I've never had any problems with it...

I set up everything just the way it was because I came to realise that I'll not only need to fiddle with the CPU if I want to overclock it to 4.0 ghz or even more, but also fiddle with hardware like RAM.

I'm not really willing to risk frying my 1200 euro system just because I want to stream a livestream that has only one viewer at most. (+ my husband would kill me if I fried my system)

I'm a noob at this and should just keep my hands of off all the settings.

I'm still looking for help with the CPU throttle though, as it even still does that at stock settings. If I could prevent that I probably could just do the livestream without stressing my CPU to 100% and without a manual overclock.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

*Re: CPU throttle*

If your cpu is throttling then it is getting too hot. So you need cooling or need to reapply thermal paste.

even though my guides on overclocking are for intel cpus reading them and reading the guide called if you are new to overclocking read here should give you a good insight of what overclocking does and how ti affects other components.


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## oxymoron_02 (Oct 23, 2012)

*Re: CPU throttle*

Just to throw in a small nugget from my experience, I find stress testing, while useful, to not always be indicative of a stable system. I recall rather vividly a 4.2GHz overclock on my current 955 running perfectly fine in Prime95, CPU Stress Test and Stability Test.


Only to then crash randomly during various games. Dialled back the clock; purred like a kitten with no faults. To this day I use normal operation as my personal stress test.


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## Kissa (Apr 17, 2009)

*Re: CPU throttle*

Yeah I understand your reasoning behind it, nothing is always 100% accurate.

Anyways, I mustered up my courage and overclocked again to 4.0 ghz, I also did it because setting CPU voltage etc manually was the only way of fixing my ram speed. I had someone helping me so I didn't end up frying my system.

Also, greenbrucelee, it is not due to heat that my cpu throttles, I've ruled that out a long time ago.

I've just stress tested this system for 8 straight hours with Prime95 and my core temps don't even reach 40°C, the CPU temp reached 50°C... The Mugen Scythe 3 is doing its job.

The throttling will happen within 1 minute of putting the system under full load , when temps aren't even 30°C yet.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

*Re: CPU throttle*

switch throttling off and see what happens when you run a stress test with a temp monitoring program on.


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## Kissa (Apr 17, 2009)

*Re: CPU throttle*



greenbrucelee said:


> switch throttling off and see what happens when you run a stress test with a temp monitoring program on.


I did everything that you stated already, thanks for your input though.

But as it turns out, I don't need any help anymore as my issues have all been fixed.

I didn't have an APM option in my bios, so all that I needed to do really was get a BIOS update as my cpu wasn't supported by my mobo until bios version P1.40. However, after flashing that one to my chip, I still had no APM option. To get that, I needed to flash a beta update to my bios (L1.46).

Now I've got an overclocked CPU @4.0 gHz, my keyboard issues have been fixed (after applying the stable 4.0 OC, my PC would freeze during POST with my G19 plugged in) and my CPU doesn't throttle back anymore.

I'd say thread closed and thanks all who have tried to help me with my problem.


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