Z370 gaming plus + 9900k horrid performance compared to my i5 8400

[js01]

So I just upgraded my 8400 to a 9900k thinking I would get better performance out of my 3060ti. However that's not the case and FPS has taken a serious toll in all of my games. My specs are below any advice? Has anyone else had a similar experience? Maybe the 9900k just isn't good for gaming but benchmarks show otherwise so idk what to do.

Z370 gaming plus - Latest BIOS
i9 9900k @ 4.7GHZ
3060 TI FE
Cooler Master Masterwatt 650
16gb Corsair ddr4 3000mhz
A few SSD drives
Dark rock 4 for cooling
Windows 10 all the updates.

I've checked on the Intel XTU and am not being throttled. Have the latest bios installed. For example in Cyberpunk before I upgraded I took a snapshot of a scene that was running at 74 FPS 1440p with DLSS, after the upgrade it's at 50fps and in Forza Horizon 4 I can't even get over 60 FPS now in 4K when I got over 100 with my 8400. At this point I'm about ready to put my 8400 back in as it seems this CPU doesn't work well with this board. About the only thing I haven't tried is reinstalling Windows as I didn't think that was necessary for a CPU upgrade. The processor seems to run fine in other benchmarks it's just terrible in games. Very frustrating as I spent over 700 CAD on this upgrade when you include the PSU and the Dark Rock 4.

Thanks,

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Hi. Sorry to say it but your board isnt great for that CPU.

its right at the bottom of the chart. and that CPU eats up a tonne of power and the VRMs on the board is junk. You cant pair top tier CPUs with budget motherboards like that and expect everything to be fine.

You can keep running your setup as it is now but sooner or later your board will blow up

 

[js01]

Hi. Sorry to say it but your board isnt great for that CPU.

its right at the bottom of the chart. and that CPU eats up a tonne of power and the VRMs on the board is junk. You cant pair top tier CPUs with budget motherboards like that and expect everything to be fine.

You can keep running your setup as it is now but sooner or later your board will blow up

Okay thanks, what would be a decent board for this CPU without breaking the bank I pay in CAD so under 200 would be nice.

I'm looking at these two, I'm sorry I've been out of the PC building space for a while. Would any of these suffice?

https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_1842_1846&item_id=128498

https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_1842_1846&item_id=130101

Thanks,

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Heres a list for the Z-390

To get the best out of that 9900k is best to go with a board from the 200-250w section or as close to the 200w as you can just for peice of mind. Alternatively if a board of that calibre costs too much, sell or return the 9900k and get a 8700k or 9700k -- anything that eats less juice because the 9900k is well known to run very hot and hungry.

Having a board with good vrms should also mean better board longevity because they are not constantly being pushed to 120% on and off.

There is no easy way around it for the 9900k sadly unless youre happy picking up pre-owned boards for less money. a secondhand Z-370 board from the previous list will run a 9900k just fine providing its from the upper tiers.

If you want to have a look at TPUs review....

you can see that it eats a lot of power when it boosts but if youre happy to disable hyper threading or turbo boost then it might save you a few watts but your performance is going to suffer obviously and if you do that then theres no reason to have the 9900k if youre going to clip its wings anyway

 

[80-watt Hamster]

I'm not going to disagree with FreedomEclipse about your board not being an ideal pairing with a 9900K, but keep in mind the title of that chart: 336 hour AVX uptime target. That's a pretty serious workload. So yes, if you're planning to overclock at all (edit: which I now see you are), or heavily stress the CPU for long periods, a new board may be in order. However, the issues you're having are weird, and shouldn't exist. I'd recommend tinkering a bit more first. Something to try is dropping to stock clocks or turning your 9900K into a 9700(K) by disabling HT, or a 9600(K) by also turning off two cores. If that still doesn't work, drop the 8400 back in and see what happens.

 

[Fourstaff]

Can you check if your CPU is getting throttled? Both performance and temps.

 

[RandallFlagg]

The processor seems to run fine in other benchmarks it's just terrible in games.

This implies something going on with the GPU.

I think that board has two full size PCIe slots. Someone else might be able to chime in but, I think the correct one to use for a single GPU is the one closest to the CPU on the motherboard. If you use the other one, I believe it goes into x8 mode (vs x16).

Edit: Also, I'd suggest setting the motherboard BIOS to default after a CPU upgrade if that hasn't already been done. Then get a baseline benchmark and tweak it from there.

 

[js01]

Heres a list for the Z-390

To get the best out of that 9900k is best to go with a board from the 200-250w section or as close to the 200w as you can just for peice of mind. Alternatively if a board of that calibre costs too much, sell or return the 9900k and get a 8700k or 9700k -- anything that eats less juice because the 9900k is well known to run very hot and hungry.

Having a board with good vrms should also mean better board longevity because they are not constantly being pushed to 120% on and off.

There is no easy way around it for the 9900k sadly unless youre happy picking up pre-owned boards for less money. a secondhand Z-370 board from the previous list will run a 9900k just fine providing its from the upper tiers.

If you want to have a look at TPUs review....

you can see that it eats a lot of power when it boosts but if youre happy to disable hyper threading or turbo boost then it might save you a few watts but your performance is going to suffer obviously and if you do that then theres no reason to have the 9900k if youre going to clip its wings anyway

Thanks for your help, hopefully once I get a better board this will fix my FPS issues.

Can you check if your CPU is getting throttled? Both performance and temps.

Nothing is being throttled as per what I'm seeing in the XTU utility from Intel, and the GPU isn't being throttled either.

This implies something going on with the GPU.

I think that board has two full size PCIe slots. Someone else might be able to chime in but, I think the correct one to use for a single GPU is the one closest to the CPU on the motherboard. If you use the other one, I believe it goes into x8 mode (vs x16).

Edit: Also, I'd suggest setting the motherboard BIOS to default after a CPU upgrade if that hasn't already been done. Then get a baseline benchmark and tweak it from there.

It's in the correct slot, and have reset CMOS and stuck to the default values.

I'm not going to disagree with FreedomEclipse about your board not being an ideal pairing with a 9900K, but keep in mind the title of that chart: 336 hour AVX uptime target. That's a pretty serious workload. So yes, if you're planning to overclock at all (edit: which I now see you are), or heavily stress the CPU for long periods, a new board may be in order. However, the issues you're having are weird, and shouldn't exist. I'd recommend tinkering a bit more first. Something to try is dropping to stock clocks or turning your 9900K into a 9700(K) by disabling HT, or a 9600(K) by also turning off two cores. If that still doesn't work, drop the 8400 back in and see what happens.

I will try this after work.

I'm not going to disagree with FreedomEclipse about your board not being an ideal pairing with a 9900K, but keep in mind the title of that chart: 336 hour AVX uptime target. That's a pretty serious workload. So yes, if you're planning to overclock at all (edit: which I now see you are), or heavily stress the CPU for long periods, a new board may be in order. However, the issues you're having are weird, and shouldn't exist. I'd recommend tinkering a bit more first. Something to try is dropping to stock clocks or turning your 9900K into a 9700(K) by disabling HT, or a 9600(K) by also turning off two cores. If that still doesn't work, drop the 8400 back in and see what happens.

So disabling HT, or disabling two cores did absolutely nothing. I won't have a chance to put the 8400 in for a few hours. Ready to pull my hair out.

 

[js01]

So I never even thought to check this but GPU-z is showing my card only running at PCI-e x2. Not sure what's causing this.

 

[RandallFlagg]

So I never even thought to check this but GPU-z is showing my card only running at PCI-e x2. Not sure what's causing this.

Hazards of buying a new GPU i guess. Google search for similar issues may help, could be card firmware needs updating, or possibly some setting in the M/B BIOS. I would bet the fix will be simple, once you find it. When you said normal benchmarks were fine, but games were running low FPS, that was the clue that it had to do with GPU / bus.

 

[sneekypeet]

If you have it, toss in a spare HDD and throw an OS on it.

Sorry if its been tried, didnt recall seeing it mentioned.

I feel like maybe you borked the drivers somehow, Chipset, GPU, whatever.

 

[js01]

So whatever happened when I installed that 9900k on my z370 board somehow did something to my PCIE slot. I literally just swapped the CPU and that's when the performance tanking began. So I went out and got a new board today and everything is back to normal. Surprisingly Windows 10 didn't require a reinstall, but that's something I might do. So after all of that frustration it was the damn motherboard.