Z790 - New BIOS 2703 --- CPU throttling to 800MHz problem

[Wesley1]

Has anyone tested it yet?
Is it good?

Did Asus fix Windows Power profiles? I mean extreme CPU throttling issue in Windows 10 after C1E state are enforced.

More info:
https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/intel-700-600-series/raptorlake-resources/m-p/1047036/highlight/true#M...

[RogueSix]

Define "good" 😄 . What I can tell you is that I upgraded my ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-E from 2602 Beta to 2703 without any issues. It just works.

[Wesley1]

By "Good" I meant there are no obvious bugs, like:

- long boot time;
- broken power profiles, CPU throttling;
- unusual Vcore voltage and CPU power settings.

Could you confirm which Intel ME version you have after BIOS 2703 update?

It can be checked with HWInfo64.

Summary > PC > Motherboard > Intel ME

BIOS 2503 - Intel ME version

[RogueSix]

@Wesley1 

Everything is working fine on my end.

IME looks like this:

[Xenaris]

only difference for me is that Intel ME FITC version is build 2035

[Xenaris]

all ive noticed so far is that the CPU runs 15 degrees hotter on certain games
Edit: Idle temp also seems a bit higher

[Wesley1]

Thank you for checking this. So Asus did update Intel ME in BIOS 2703 like rumors said.
I'm not sure if one can properly downgrade BIOS then, after upgrading to 2703.

Sorry to bother you, but could you also check in Windows if CPU is being throttled after switching to High Performance power profile.

You can check it with SIV64X app: https://www.filecroco.com/download-system-information-viewer/

So basically if you set High Performance power profile the CPU clock speed should always stay at it's maximum speed for your CPU.
For my 13600K it is 5.1 GHz (x51 multiplier) on Pcores and 3.9 GHz (x39) on Ecores. Like picture below.

On Beta BIOS 2602 it was throttling to 0.8 GHz (x8) when CPU was IDLE.

BIOS 2503 - CPU clock steady at Windows' High Performance power profile

How to Configure Power Management options for high performance:

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v85131538

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-the-power-mode-for-your-windows-pc-c2aff038-22c9-...

[Xenaris]

just checked on High Performance it does indeed throttle it to 0.8 Ghz on idle, not all Ecores but around 60% of them, Pcores are unchanged, they run at the max
It does vary obviously, but it seems that it never goes past throttling 60% of the Ecores so the remaining 40% seem to run full power at all times

[RogueSix]

@Wesley1 

I just checked the clocks with CPU-Z as I do not have SIV64X app and don't want to install yet another app. I switched my power profile not just to 'High Performance' but to 'Ultimate Performance' 😄 in Win 11/2023-H2.

I can confirm that the clocks intermittently drop down to 0.8GHz. I'm using Intel Default Extreme settings in BIOS (PL1=PL2=253W). My CPU is the i9-13900K with 64GB of DDR5-6600.

EDIT: I'm adding a HWInfo64 screenshot since that one is more informative. I started a new sensor session after switching to the 'Ultimate Power' settings in Win 11 (I'm still on 2023/H2) so you can see the minimum and maximum clocks over the past ~15 minutes or so.

[RogueSix]

And here's another one some ~45 minutes after the previous one.

^  Interesting observation: All of the P-Cores have dropped down to 0.8GHz in the meantime but the E-Cores seem to be segmented into "packs" of four. Only every fourth E-Core after the first one has dropped all the way down to 0.8GHz. The six middle ones have dropped to 3.2GHz at the lowest and the final six have hung in there at 4.3GHz. It's an interesting pattern for sure 😃 .