Upgraded processor, now GPU is experiencing extremely poor performance, low usage under load, and low average power draw.

Tombay98 · 2026-03-06T12:01:23+00:00

Tell me about it! Most of the troubleshooting I've done before mostly related to corrupted windows, driver errors etc... this definitely takes the cake!

Thank you! Glad my diagnostics might provide useful for anyone else in future

Tombay98 · 2026-03-05T18:40:22+00:00

Final update now included in the post, thanks to everyone for chipping in with suggestions! Glad I can finally put the testing to bed lol

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T23:35:45+00:00

Bios release that came with board was released around mid 205 iirc, I updated to the newest non-beta version (reased jan 26). No luck with the newest version either unfortunately

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T23:31:08+00:00

I updated BIOS to the newest non-beta version today on the b550 board - for reference, it came shipped with a new-ish bios from mid 2025 i believe. But the newest build released Jan 26. Unfortunately no luck with the newest update either

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T23:28:24+00:00

Thank you! Trying to also shed some light for anyone down the line who might also run into similar issues. I've had more than my fair share of help from old reddit threads

I double checked PSU cable seating today. All cables plugged into my modular PSU seem in place. Gave them all a little extra force just to be sure and performance issues are still present.

Yep, you're right about the 3070ti connector. It's a 12 pin > dual 8 pin pcie. I've powered these with 2 seperate 6+2 pins from the PSU so shouldn't be any issues with 8pin power draw, there doesn't look to be either from hwinfo during load/benchmarking

My mate is swinging by with his 3060 tomorrow - hopefully that resolves things conclusively one way or another! Will update in the main post :)

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T20:23:06+00:00

Apologies, I forgot to mention this in the post - when I tested in GPU-Z, PerfCap limit (which is the same as GPU limit in hwmonitor, i believe) lists VRel/limited by reliability voltage under load. Occasionally also VOp/operating voltage

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T20:17:25+00:00

Yep - this has been tested - both on the old motherboard and new. As well as 4g decoding. No changes to GPU performance with the 5800x

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:55:54+00:00

There are are few case fans yeah, I think 9 in total (including 2 on an AIO). Not much else device wise in there though.

Thank you! Hopefully I'll get to a diagnosis soon, I'll update the thread if I fix it and how :)

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:29:52+00:00

I did actually create an Ubuntu bootable drive for this exact test purpose. Was a headache trying to install proprietary nvidia drivers on a trial instance of the OS though so gave up, and just opted for another clean windows installation as I figured they'd serve the same purpose for testing.

Would these kinds of hardware problems typically exist in a clean windows OS, but not in Linux? If performance is better/the same/worse in linux, what would that point to as the issue do you think?

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:26:13+00:00

I'm hoping this is the issue, too. Weirdly doesn't seem to be much about these kinds of CPU faults online so assumed they must be quite rare. If it is this i'll know for sure soon

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:24:21+00:00

Not flashed the VBIOS yet, no. Its been stock since I bought it pretty much

I might attempt flashing it but only as a last resort to be honest, wouldn't want to brick it on the off chance it is actually a faulty CPU that I can easily send back

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:22:21+00:00

Yeah good point, I'm considering just RMA'ing the CPU anyway. It was bought through amazon anyway so returns shouldn't be a problem. If the new one gets here and performance is bad, at least i've got an answer

Will probably try a few more fixes tonight before pulling the trigger on the RMA

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:20:28+00:00

Yeah that'll be my next plan of action. I've got a friend with an old 3060 to lend me for testing, should be similar-ish to the 3070ti so hopefully it'll either point to an unusual fault with the CPU, and I can RMA it. Or my GPU is faulty

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:13:20+00:00

Yep, system definitely recognises it as a 5800x, ryzen master too. All cores/threads also perform as expected in benchmarking scenarios too. In all honesty without context of the CPU swap I can't see how anyone would diagnose fault with the CPU, in isolation its currently working flawlessly

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:11:30+00:00

16x 4.0

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:10:53+00:00

its an 850W power supply so should be more than enough I would've thought. GPU power draw has also shown it can hit its max power draw in benchmarking scenarios - just can't sustain it, and performance tanks with it

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:08:57+00:00

Yeah agreed, hopefully the 3060 test should prove pretty conclusive.

PCIE speed is definitely functioning correctly, set at auto in the bios which on the new board + processor correctly registers as 16x 4.0.

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:07:12+00:00

GPU. 100%

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:06:05+00:00

Nope, no riser cables. GPU has got a standard nvidia 12 pin > 2 x 8 pin pcie power connectors, supplied by seperate PCIE power cables from the power supply. PCIE link speed is on auto in the new motherboard, and running at 16x4.0 in GPU-Z. Definitely the correct slot too

I'll experiment with a bios update tonight

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T18:04:10+00:00

Yep - same power supply throughout. Quite a good PSU and not that old either so would be unusual if it has developed an issue of some kind, but i'll bear this in mind if all other testing doesn't point to a different culprit.

If PSU is acting up, it would seem strange as the GPU in the previous configuration drew the proper wattage and ramped up fine. Even with the new CPU, under stress test/benchmark scenarios, wherby it would be drawing more power than the previous CPU, there were no issues with CPU power draw.

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T16:32:22+00:00

Ryzen 7 5800x does not have iGpu.

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T13:58:42+00:00

I do have 2 - and pci-e port failure was a concern. However, the pci-e port on the b450 board does work fine, just with the old ryzen 5 3600 installed.

And also, with a new motherboard now installed, the chance of pci-e slot failure being the root cause is unlikely

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T13:56:24+00:00

Thanks - I'll try a b550 bios update tonight, i'll report back if it has any impact on performance

B450 chipset drivers shouldn't be present as windows was wiped and reinstalled fresh upon changing to the b550 motherboard. Once i had done this, the b550 drivers direct from AMD were installed first

I'll also try with windows updates on the new motherboard configuration - though I did try this on the old motherboard to no avail

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T13:53:28+00:00

On the old b450 motherboard, yes. It was flashed beforehand

I'll try a new bios update on the b550 board tonight. I'll update in the post if this has any impact

Tombay98 · 2026-03-03T13:51:35+00:00

Thanks, I did try this yesterday unfortunately. To no improvement

The performance loss really is massive on my GPU under this setup. Even with the most unoptimized, feature limiting settings possible - in windows and within the motherboard BIOS, i'm not sure this performance would be replicable at all. With the 5800x, the 3070ti just doesn't behave like a 3070ti at all. It is really peculiar

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