How to set BIOS for "fastest performance" mode?

[JerGoertz]

I have an Intel i9 13900k system, and I recently flashed the motherboard to the latest BIOS version (0x12F) from 0x12B (I believe).

Going into the BIOS, my CPU and maybe my memory speeds have slowed down now. Is there a way to restore the "Xtreme" settings I had before flashing?

My motherboard is a MAG Z690 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4.

[planetearth]

Most new motherboards have several overclock/performance profiles built in as "presets" so that you don't have to adjust all the settings manually. Are you sure there's nothing like that in yours?

A Google search for "MAG Z690 Tomahawk fastest settings" (or something similar) should get you a lot of information.

Keep in mind that for some 13-generation i9 systems, Intel had to actually slow them down a bit because they were failing due to the heat they generated at the highest settings. I don't know if your system and processor were affected by this, but I believe there's still a website available to let you know if your mobo and processor were affected. This was big news last year (in the computer and DAW worlds, anyway).

If your system was affected, you could still overclock it or run it at its "extreme"—it's just that "extreme" won't mean quite the same as it did before the BIOS update. And obviously, that's for the best, since you don't want to fry the system.

Steve

[Pictus]

Try

[JerGoertz]

Most new motherboards have several overclock/performance profiles built in as "presets" so that you don't have to adjust all the settings manually. Are you sure there's nothing like that in yours?

There used to be, and I had one of these active in my BIOS, but they seem to be missing in the latest BIOS update (12F), and my settings were lowered to the slow speeds now.

Keep in mind that for some 13-generation i9 systems, Intel had to actually slow them down a bit because they were failing due to the heat they generated at the highest settings.

Yep, it did affect my system, which is why I updated my BIOS so regularly.

I'll try the vid Pictus suggested and see how it goes.

[JerGoertz]

Try

Thanks, I'll give this a try. Hopefully it will still work even though my mobo isn't the exact model he's using.

[planetearth]

Most new motherboards have several overclock/performance profiles built in as "presets" so that you don't have to adjust all the settings manually. Are you sure there's nothing like that in yours?

There used to be, and I had one of these active in my BIOS, but they seem to be missing in the latest BIOS update (12F), and my settings were lowered to the slow speeds now.

Keep in mind that for some 13-generation i9 systems, Intel had to actually slow them down a bit because they were failing due to the heat they generated at the highest settings.

Yep, it did affect my system, which is why I updated my BIOS so regularly.

I'll try the vid Pictus suggested and see how it goes.

I guess they removed the option to keep your system from destroying itself. From what I read about it last year, they weren’t doing that; they were just not letting the overclockers go as far with the settings.

Hope you can recover some of the speed. But even if you can’t, you might find it doesn’t affect your projects that much. Most projects don’t push already overclocked systems to 100% CPU utilization on all cores at their highest speeds. I know that’s not much consolation, but I really do hope it doesn’t affect you much.

Steve

[JerGoertz]

Okay, I just rebooted my machine today after seeing this stuff last night, and now the old "Extreme Profile" settings are restored! I don't know why they weren't (apparently?) active last night. So now it's showing my CPU as 5.6GHz and my memory as 3600.

But I have a related question since I've got you guys here; I check my CPU speed once I boot Windows in the Task Manager. And it shows CPU base speed as 3.00GHz (even tho BIOS says 5.6GHz), and actual CPU speed is constantly fluctuating. Is there a reason it's not maxed out at 5.6 like I wanted? Why is it throttling like "normal"? (Apparently?)

[planetearth]

Okay, I just rebooted my machine today after seeing this stuff last night, and now the old "Extreme Profile" settings are restored! I don't know why they weren't (apparently?) active last night. So now it's showing my CPU as 5.6GHz and my memory as 3600.

But I have a related question since I've got you guys here; I check my CPU speed once I boot Windows in the Task Manager. And it shows CPU base speed as 3.00GHz (even tho BIOS says 5.6GHz), and actual CPU speed is constantly fluctuating. Is there a reason it's not maxed out at 5.6 like I wanted? Why is it throttling like "normal"? (Apparently?)

Your processor's base speed for the performance cores is 3.0 GHz; 2.20 GHz for the efficiency cores. The performance core's "max turbo frequency" is 5.8 GHz; 4.30 GHz for the efficiency cores. There are also "max" speeds for throttling the processor or other situations.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... tions.html

If that wasn't confusing enough, Microsoft has admitted Windows doesn't necessarily read the processor's speed correctly, and they've been working on a fix. But with two different speeds for two "different" processors, it will still be difficult to get an accurate reading in Windows' Performance meter. You're better off using something like CPU-Z for that.

Steve

[JerGoertz]

Good info

Thanks Steve! I'll give CPU Z a try. (I was getting this behavior before re-flashing my BIOS, so it's apparently not from that. Probably not worth worrying about in any case; as I understand it, Windows does a pretty good job of throttling the CPU to get good performance.)

[planetearth]

Windows can do a decent job of adjusting the CPU speed, but not if it’s set to the “Best Performance” or “High Performance” power plan, or if the power settings have the CPU minimum and maximum use at 100%.

If you have sufficient cooling for the CPU, you won’t have to worry much about effectively overriding Windows’s and Intel’s somewhat “safer” CPU settings, if you decide to use the “Best Performance” power plan. And Windows will shut down the computer if anything gets too hot.

All that said, unless you’re sure you need every last bit of speed your system can produce, why not play it a bit safer and “throttle” the speed yourself? The Intel i9-13700 is an extremely powerful processor, and if you have enough RAM and an NVMe storage device, you could easily run rings around what most of us have while still mixing an 80-track project in your DAW! And you could probably do this without overclocking or pushing the system to its limits. Then, in a year or so, when plug-ins and DAWs require more from a system, you’ll still have room to start pushing the system with overclocking.

This is just a suggestion, of course. And if I had an i9-13700K, I’m sure I’d like to see what it could do when pushed to the limit. (We’re guys; it’s what we do.) But keeping the CPU below its thermal maximum will help it last longer while still giving you a bit more headroom when you really need it. Again, just a suggestion.

Steve

[JerGoertz]

So, what's the best power plan in Win 11 for audio performance? And how would I go about throttling my 13900K myself? I do have excellent cooling (ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420).

[Pictus]

So, what's the best power plan in Win 11 for audio performance? And how would I go about throttling my 13900K myself? I do have excellent cooling (ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420).

Process Laso https://bitsum.com/ and Park Control https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/

Also viewtopic.php?t=621326

[JerGoertz]

So, what's the best power plan in Win 11 for audio performance? And how would I go about throttling my 13900K myself? I do have excellent cooling (ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420).

Process Laso https://bitsum.com/ and Park Control https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/

Also viewtopic.php?t=621326

Thanks! I was looking at the thread you linked, I *really* don't want to reinstall Windows, can I achieve the same de-bloating by uninstalling programs and deactivating services?

[planetearth]

So, what's the best power plan in Win 11 for audio performance? And how would I go about throttling my 13900K myself? I do have excellent cooling (ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420).

Process Laso https://bitsum.com/ and Park Control https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/

Also viewtopic.php?t=621326

Thanks! I was looking at the thread you linked, I *really* don't want to reinstall Windows, can I achieve the same de-bloating by uninstalling programs and deactivating services?

You can achieve much of it, yes. Deactivating services (or at least, keeping them from starting automatically) and removing any software you don't need (including anything Windows has set to automatically start) can be a big help.

Steve

[planetearth]

So, what's the best power plan in Win 11 for audio performance? And how would I go about throttling my 13900K myself? I do have excellent cooling (ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 420).

If you choose the "Best Performance"/"High Performance" power plan, just make sure it doesn't have your processor set to 100% usage all the time. That will give it a chance to cool down a bit when you're not actually doing anything on the DAW.

Most of the other tips @Pictus provides are very good, though you might not be able to implement them all on your system, for various reasons. Just do what you can, and make sure you make System Restore points along the way, in case something goes wrong. (In the almost-20 years I've been optimizing PCs for audio, I've never needed System Restore. But Windows 11 and some of the tweaks you can make now make it a good idea to back up your OS settings when you can.)

The free version of Revo Uninstaller is more thorough in uninstalling apps, whether they're full-blown programs, or the Windows "Metro"/Universal apps that are installed via the Microsoft Store. Revo also has a handy option to disable many auto-start apps and services.

Steve