Does Anyone Here Have A i9 13900k Post Microcode update Overclocked to 5.3-5.8 GHZ? Is It Stable?

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MagnusFarseer

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If anyone here has this, have you experienced any significant performance issues with 4k gaming? Like a high minor/major decline in FPS? (high minor being 4-7fps and major being 10fps or more).


I have a brand new i9 13900k that I purchased for 500$ CAD new from a guy on facebook marketplace but he won't respond now as in he hasn't read my messages, I needed a screenshot of his purchase just incase I RMA with intel, I know they require proof of purchase from the retailer you got it from but it doesn't look like I will get that now. At the time when I purchased it I had no idea about instability issues with many 13th and 14th gen intel CPU's. I will be upgrading my PC on Monday August 19 2024.
 
If you aren't having any issues with the chip, I would not worry about building a new rig. I would continue to pursue the RMA for piece of mind though.
 
MagnusFarseer said:
If anyone here has this, have you experienced any significant performance issues with 4k gaming? Like a high minor/major decline in FPS? (high minor being 4-7fps and major being 10fps or more).


I have a brand new i9 13900k that I purchased for 500$ CAD new from a guy on facebook marketplace but he won't respond now as in he hasn't read my messages, I needed a screenshot of his purchase just incase I RMA with intel, I know they require proof of purchase from the retailer you got it from but it doesn't look like I will get that now. At the time when I purchased it I had no idea about instability issues with many 13th and 14th gen intel CPU's. I will be upgrading my PC on Monday August 19 2024.
Click to expand...
Can you clarify what sort of overclock you are asking about? RE: 5.3 - 5.8

5.3 is an underclock. 13900k run at 5.5ghz all core (P Cores), stock.

5.8ghz is the stock boost, on 2 threads.
 
So as others have noted, 5.5GHz all core is normally what it'll do. You don't have to OC or change anything. It'll only go below that when the load on the cores is heavy and it starts to hit thermal or power limits. Under a heavy load like Y cruncher or Prime95 it can drop down to 5Ghz or possibly less depending on your cooling solution.

For gaming, no issues at all. You can actually limit down the chip quite a bit more and it still doesn't affect gaming. I actually have done just that. So if I want to get the max 253w with the Intel defaults in place, I have to set the extreme setting, and set the SVID behavior to Intel's failsafe, which is max voltage. Doing that, it'll use 253w of power and CPU performance is to within a couple percentage points of what it was before. However it also runs hot. So I turned the SVID behavior to auto, which lower the voltage. Now the CPU caps out at around 200w (varies a bit based on workload). That does have a significant performance penalty in heavy load all-core workloads like Y cruncher... but it makes zero difference in games. 3D Mark score are the same, Hitman 3 benchmarked the same, etc.

In fact, I can go even further, and still not see a gaming impact. If I knock it down to the "performance" setting and put SVID to auto it then is down to like 150-170w and yet still, games all run at the same speed. They are GPU limited at 4k (or refresh rate limited for ones with more simple graphics) not CPU limited.

But if you want to upgrade and stick in the intel guidelines, just enable extreme mode and it'll be about the same performance it was before. You can also update the microcode and tell your board to do its own optimizations, they didn't disable that feature, and it should run even harder and still be fine and the voltage fixes are still in place. I just personally limit mine down some because it runs much cooler, and lower fan speeds, and I notice zero gaming impact.

No real surprise, the 13900k is a much bigger CPU than games need.
 
Sycraft said:
So as others have noted, 5.5GHz all core is normally what it'll do. You don't have to OC or change anything. It'll only go below that when the load on the cores is heavy and it starts to hit thermal or power limits. Under a heavy load like Y cruncher or Prime95 it can drop down to 5Ghz or possibly less depending on your cooling solution.

For gaming, no issues at all. You can actually limit down the chip quite a bit more and it still doesn't affect gaming. I actually have done just that. So if I want to get the max 253w with the Intel defaults in place, I have to set the extreme setting, and set the SVID behavior to Intel's failsafe, which is max voltage. Doing that, it'll use 253w of power and CPU performance is to within a couple percentage points of what it was before. However it also runs hot. So I turned the SVID behavior to auto, which lower the voltage. Now the CPU caps out at around 200w (varies a bit based on workload). That does have a significant performance penalty in heavy load all-core workloads like Y cruncher... but it makes zero difference in games. 3D Mark score are the same, Hitman 3 benchmarked the same, etc.

In fact, I can go even further, and still not see a gaming impact. If I knock it down to the "performance" setting and put SVID to auto it then is down to like 150-170w and yet still, games all run at the same speed. They are GPU limited at 4k (or refresh rate limited for ones with more simple graphics) not CPU limited.

But if you want to upgrade and stick in the intel guidelines, just enable extreme mode and it'll be about the same performance it was before. You can also update the microcode and tell your board to do its own optimizations, they didn't disable that feature, and it should run even harder and still be fine and the voltage fixes are still in place. I just personally limit mine down some because it runs much cooler, and lower fan speeds, and I notice zero gaming impact.

No real surprise, the 13900k is a much bigger CPU than games need.
Click to expand...

Do you know why the i9 13900k uses significantly more power than a 7800X3D? Is it because it has more cores? And how do you enable extreme mode?

Yes I know for most games they become more GPU limited when it is at 4k or higher but there is still a high minor to major difference in many games. Comparing the i9 13900k against the CPU currently in my computer.



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0yVKuFwMeo


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWTWFrj8vpo


Judging from these videos Average FPS. 4k RTX 4090 & 32gb Kingston FURY Renegade
In my opinion

1-3 FPS difference=meaningless difference
4-5FPS difference=Minor
6-9FPS difference= High minor
10FPS or more=Major difference

Battlefield 5
i9 13900k 227
i7 12700k 220

Farcry 6
i9 13900k 141
i7 12700k 135

Cyberpunk 2077
i9 13900k 76
i7 12700k 75

Forza Horizon 5
i9 13900k 134
i7 12700k 127

Spiderman Remastered
i9 13900k 126
i7 12700k 113

So in every game except for Cyberpunk 2077 , there is a high minor difference except Spiderman Remastered which is a major difference.




View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFzWp8vVDOA


On here every game has 10-17 more FPS on the i9 13900k with a 3090ti.

With my White AsRock Taichi 7900XTX OC, the difference will most likely be more significant at 4k compared to having a 4090, since most games at 4k are GPU limited, the better the GPU you have, the less difference there will be for CPU performance against a lesser CPU.
 
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MagnusFarseer said:
Do you know why the i9 13900k uses significantly more power than a 7800X3D? Is it because it has more cores? And how do you enable extreme mode?
Click to expand...
It uses more power because it is a less efficient CPU and is also driven harder. The 13th and 14th gen are good CPUs, but they are not as efficient in terms of performance per watt as AMD's Zen 4, in part because of the bigger process node. Likewise Intel drives them a little harder to hit higher clock speeds.

It's a profile setting if you choose to use the Intel defaults. Your board will probably let you choose to use Intel default profiles, or ignore them and do what you want. If you do use an Intel profile you'll have the choice of Performance or Extreme (and maybe Basilne) with extreme being higher performance.

MagnusFarseer said:
Yes I know for most games they become more GPU limited when it is at 4k or higher but there is still a high minor to major difference in many games. Comparing the i9 13900k against the CPU currently in my computer.
Click to expand...
Well no idea if that guy's numbers are accurate (many people screw up CPU testing) and I don't have a 12th gen to benchmark against. All I can tell you is in the game tests I ran, none of which are the games you listed, I saw no performance difference when I put a lower limit on my CPU.
 
Sycraft said:
So as others have noted, 5.5GHz all core is normally what it'll do. You don't have to OC or change anything. It'll only go below that when the load on the cores is heavy and it starts to hit thermal or power limits. Under a heavy load like Y cruncher or Prime95 it can drop down to 5Ghz or possibly less depending on your cooling solution.

For gaming, no issues at all. You can actually limit down the chip quite a bit more and it still doesn't affect gaming. I actually have done just that. So if I want to get the max 253w with the Intel defaults in place, I have to set the extreme setting, and set the SVID behavior to Intel's failsafe, which is max voltage. Doing that, it'll use 253w of power and CPU performance is to within a couple percentage points of what it was before. However it also runs hot. So I turned the SVID behavior to auto, which lower the voltage. Now the CPU caps out at around 200w (varies a bit based on workload). That does have a significant performance penalty in heavy load all-core workloads like Y cruncher... but it makes zero difference in games. 3D Mark score are the same, Hitman 3 benchmarked the same, etc.

In fact, I can go even further, and still not see a gaming impact. If I knock it down to the "performance" setting and put SVID to auto it then is down to like 150-170w and yet still, games all run at the same speed. They are GPU limited at 4k (or refresh rate limited for ones with more simple graphics) not CPU limited.

But if you want to upgrade and stick in the intel guidelines, just enable extreme mode and it'll be about the same performance it was before. You can also update the microcode and tell your board to do its own optimizations, they didn't disable that feature, and it should run even harder and still be fine and the voltage fixes are still in place. I just personally limit mine down some because it runs much cooler, and lower fan speeds, and I notice zero gaming impact.

No real surprise, the 13900k is a much bigger CPU than games need.
Click to expand...
Is there a good guide on how to do the downvolt? I've seen people recommending random entries. My 13900k still pushes 1.5+ volt in OCCT with ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 after 0x129 update with sync all cores at 55 and nothing else.
 
MagnusFarseer said:
I would want it at 5.5ghz on all cores. How would you enable that?

It says the base clock is only 3.0 Ghz

https://technical.city/en/cpu/Core-i9-13900K#characteristics
Click to expand...
You can go to the BIOS and select "Sync all cores" on P-core option and set 55x and that would lock P-cores to 5.5ghz only.

chameleoneel said:
5.5ghz all cores is the normal spec. You don't have to do anything.
Click to expand...
I think you misunderstood him. He only wanted 5.5ghz on his P-Cores. No two cores boosting to 5.8ghz.
 
MysticMonitor said:
Is there a good guide on how to do the downvolt? I've seen people recommending random entries. My 13900k still pushes 1.5+ volt in OCCT with ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 after 0x129 update with sync all cores at 55 and nothing else.
Click to expand...
Anything from 1.35~1.43 should be stable on a chip in good condition. The stability at lower voltages is gonna be dependent on CPU health from what I understand
 
MysticMonitor said:
Is there a good guide on how to do the downvolt? I've seen people recommending random entries. My 13900k still pushes 1.5+ volt in OCCT with ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 after 0x129 update with sync all cores at 55 and nothing else.
Click to expand...
All I did was set SVID to "auto". That doesn't do any specific level downvolting, but it does generally reduce voltage.
 
Sycraft said:
All I did was set SVID to "auto". That doesn't do any specific level downvolting, but it does generally reduce voltage.
Click to expand...

I use Intel Default Extreme profile and set SVID behavior to Auto (Z690 Hero/13900K). This sets AC Load Line to 0.50 instead of the default 1.10. It's a good idea to disable IA CEP/SA CEP/Undervolt Protection if you don't want to lose performance.
 
Treeckcold57 said:
You can go to the BIOS and select "Sync all cores" on P-core option and set 55x and that would lock P-cores to 5.5ghz only.


I think you misunderstood him. He only wanted 5.5ghz on his P-Cores. No two cores boosting to 5.8ghz.
Click to expand...
Isn't this having it even higher than setting it all to 55x in the bios? Obviously doing it in Intel Extreme Tuning Utility is the same as changing it in the bios right?


0914231A9DD281D6E6A49EFBF6E440F9B830B911.png
 
MagnusFarseer said:
Isn't this having it even higher than setting it all to 55x in the bios? Obviously doing it in Intel Extreme Tuning Utility is the same as changing it in the bios right?
Click to expand...
Yes, I think so. But I haven't used XTU to adjust anything except BIOS.

EDITED: Fixed picture.
 

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I'm running my 13900K at stock speeds after the BIOS update and it nuked my TPM, hosed tons of my windows settings and my system is worse of the update than before.

I recently experienced a hard crash, where my system literally and instantly, shut off with no warning. My 13900K is now generating assloads of heat on my Arctic 480 with Push Pull. Never been hot on the exhaust before, now it's a space heater under load.

I am in talks with Intel and they have been somewhat retarded about the situation attempting to put the blame on me, trying to say I overclocked the processor and caused the damage and I am about a week and several emails deep with them. Hopefully, this latest exchange between them yields something because if I am going to rebuild my system and lose all the single install licenses I had with Microshaft, it better be on a system I know I'm going to keep not some POS CPU that will likely fail in short order.

Other than that, things are great. I'm not thrilled with Intel (at all) with how they've handled my RMA request thus far. It's disgusting that they are fighting average users on replacement of their broken ass shit.
 
Legendary Gamer said:
I'm running my 13900K at stock speeds after the BIOS update and it nuked my TPM, hosed tons of my windows settings and my system is worse of the update than before.

I recently experienced a hard crash, where my system literally and instantly, shut off with no warning. My 13900K is now generating assloads of heat on my Arctic 480 with Push Pull. Never been hot on the exhaust before, now it's a space heater under load.

I am in talks with Intel and they have been somewhat retarded about the situation attempting to put the blame on me, trying to say I overclocked the processor and caused the damage and I am about a week and several emails deep with them. Hopefully, this latest exchange between them yields something because if I am going to rebuild my system and lose all the single install licenses I had with Microshaft, it better be on a system I know I'm going to keep not some POS CPU that will likely fail in short order.

Other than that, things are great. I'm not thrilled with Intel (at all) with how they've handled my RMA request thus far. It's disgusting that they are fighting average users on replacement of their broken ass shit.
Click to expand...

I was about to install the microcode update but after reading your post I don't even want to since we have the same CPU. Which power supply do you have? I have the

Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB 850 Watts Gold Rated.​


My Specs
i9 13900k
Coolmaster Masterbox TD500 White
Western Digital Black SN850x 2TB M.2
SAMA 360 AIO With LCD Screen
AsRock Steel Legend Z790
64 GB Gskill Z5 Royal 6400 mhz (currently on 4800mhz mode)
AsRock Taichi 7900XTX OC White
 
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MagnusFarseer said:
I was about to install the microcode update but after reading your post I don't even want to since we have the same CPU. Which power supply do you have? I have the

Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB 850 Watts Gold Rated.​


My Specs
i9 13900k
Coolmaster Masterbox TD500 White
Western Digital Black SN850x 2TB M.2
SAMA 360 AIO With LCD Screen
AsRock Steel Legend Z790
64 GB Gskill Z5 Royal 6400 mhz (currently on 4800mhz mode)
AsRock Taichi 7900XTX OC White
Click to expand...
I'm running an ASUS ROG 1000 Watt unit. I forget the exact model, I think it's gold.

In order to resolve the Windows 11 nightmare after the BIOS update that nuked my TPM I had to do the following:

1. Uninstall One drive, nuke all registry references to it and delete all installers and make sure it wasn't still resident in any fashion...
2. Beat my head into the wall, MS kept popping login info for an old account I haven't used in 6 months...
3. Do an in place upgrade of windows 11. That solved all my nightmares... I didn't expect it to work. But it did.
 
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