Bought a prebuilt from ABS w/ a i7 14700F and MSI PRO B760-VC WIFI motherboard
Here's a benchmark I ran when I first received it:
View: https://i.imgur.com/5O5sLyQ.png
Yesterday I decided to update the firmware BIOS, and also update some drivers that were available from MSI Center (which shipped w/ the system). Some of these drivers were critical ones like chipset etc.
I now know it's best not to update BIOS unless you're experiencing issues. I did have a few random BSOD's and other quirks which I why I decided to in the first place. There were 5 new BIOS versions since the one that shipped with my system and the notes sounded like there were improvements made. This was my initial reasoning.
After updating the BIOS I noticed XMP was disabled by default so I had to manually enable it. This got my RAM running from stock 4800 to 6000. Other than that I made no other changes after updating BIOS.
I then ran the same benchmark and this was the result:
View: https://i.imgur.com/8u6kCi9.png
Scores on max, 16 and 8 threads are significantly lower. Look at the first screenshot I posted, the CPU frequency maintains itself throughout the entire bench, but in this one it drops significantly like it's falling off a cliff (I used red arrows to highlight this).
I noticed this in games too, the performance cores no longer settle on 5300mhz while I'm gaming, they jump around, from 4.7 to 4.9 to 5.1 to 5.3 back down etc etc. I also noticed that the wattage stays around the 65w TDP whereas before it was hitting 100-125w more regularly. It's like the CPU is scared to stretch it's legs now.
I reverted the BIOS to the one that shipped with the system and I'm getting the same benchmark and gaming result. It's like I'm missing a setting somewhere in the BIOS or windows that's making the CPU be more conservative. I can't figure it out. In the BIOS all the settings I would think that need to be turned on are.
The CPU even seems to be running cooler in Windows when it's basically idle and I'm not doing much. So again it feels like some kind of power management thing. BTW, it's definitely not throttling because of heat.
Here's another before and after test,
Before BIOS and driver updates:
View: https://i.imgur.com/bd7Waki.png
After:
View: https://i.imgur.com/AijXwbQ.png
The CPU score went down 5,000 pts, or 25%. Checkout the red arrow! What is happening there??
Here's a benchmark I ran when I first received it:
View: https://i.imgur.com/5O5sLyQ.png
Yesterday I decided to update the firmware BIOS, and also update some drivers that were available from MSI Center (which shipped w/ the system). Some of these drivers were critical ones like chipset etc.
I now know it's best not to update BIOS unless you're experiencing issues. I did have a few random BSOD's and other quirks which I why I decided to in the first place. There were 5 new BIOS versions since the one that shipped with my system and the notes sounded like there were improvements made. This was my initial reasoning.
After updating the BIOS I noticed XMP was disabled by default so I had to manually enable it. This got my RAM running from stock 4800 to 6000. Other than that I made no other changes after updating BIOS.
I then ran the same benchmark and this was the result:
View: https://i.imgur.com/8u6kCi9.png
Scores on max, 16 and 8 threads are significantly lower. Look at the first screenshot I posted, the CPU frequency maintains itself throughout the entire bench, but in this one it drops significantly like it's falling off a cliff (I used red arrows to highlight this).
I noticed this in games too, the performance cores no longer settle on 5300mhz while I'm gaming, they jump around, from 4.7 to 4.9 to 5.1 to 5.3 back down etc etc. I also noticed that the wattage stays around the 65w TDP whereas before it was hitting 100-125w more regularly. It's like the CPU is scared to stretch it's legs now.
I reverted the BIOS to the one that shipped with the system and I'm getting the same benchmark and gaming result. It's like I'm missing a setting somewhere in the BIOS or windows that's making the CPU be more conservative. I can't figure it out. In the BIOS all the settings I would think that need to be turned on are.
The CPU even seems to be running cooler in Windows when it's basically idle and I'm not doing much. So again it feels like some kind of power management thing. BTW, it's definitely not throttling because of heat.
Here's another before and after test,
Before BIOS and driver updates:
View: https://i.imgur.com/bd7Waki.png
After:
View: https://i.imgur.com/AijXwbQ.png
The CPU score went down 5,000 pts, or 25%. Checkout the red arrow! What is happening there??